Since the age of Google domination began over a decade ago, businesses have devoted lots of time, energy, and money to making sure their businesses ranked as highly as possible on the most popular search engine in the world. Search engines are more important to some businesses than others, and law firms are one of the businesses for which it is most important.
Having a consistent presence at the top of Google and other search engines is only possible by having a clear and consistent SEO strategy; no website makes it to the top of Google without it. That’s why legal conferences and events like the ones Brain Trust Legal holds are ideal for law firms who want to improve their SEO rankings and position themselves as the highest possible attorney recommendation from Google and other search engines. Below are just a few of the many insights and improvements you can take away from one of BTL’s events.
To understand the power and purpose of backlinking, you need to understand Google’s view of websites and “authority.” Authority is what Google calls a website’s level of trustworthiness and reliability; in essence, it’s the way Google decides if you’re worth recommending to users. They decide the level of authority based on content quality and accuracy, website popularity, and other factors
Some websites have an enormous amount of authority for Google and are considered trusted sites. Because of that, if there is a backlink from that trusted site to your site, Google considers that a good sign that your site is also authoritative. Basically, your site is “borrowing” the authority of another site that is in good standing with Google.
If you have many good backlinks to your site from other authoritative websites that Google trusts and recommends, it will lead to a rise in your website’s ranking as well. The backlinks can sometimes be purchased, but often they are acquired by partnerships and relationships, and they can make a huge impact on your Google ranking.
The short answer here is: they can. The longer answer is: Google is constantly making updates to their search algorithms for a number of reasons: to improve the results, to stop websites from climbing the rankings because of what they call “black hat” tactics (doing things that are either illegal or against Google’s stated rules), and when they make new guidelines about content quality. If your website has low-quality content or your SEO team is using questionable tactics, your website can absolutely take a big hit in the rankings after a change.
If your website, however, is well designed, the content is helpful and accurate, and you’re not doing anything shady, the chances are low that you will drop in the rankings. It’s not impossible, since there are occasionally updates that have surprising and unintended side effects which are usually fixed, but those occurrences are rare. It’s also important to keep in mind that if a big algorithm change does happen, it’s key to have a competent SEO team working for you who can evaluate the changes and damage and create a plan to fix it.
There are a few reasons why your law firm’s rankings might be taking a while to get better, some of which can be fixed and some of which are simply part of the SEO process. The first reason is because it’s possible that your ranking push is simply not as strong or effective as other attorneys in your same geographic area and practice area. If others have more robust SEO than you do, it will be hard to see your page rising in the ranks above them.
Another reason it can take some time is because rankings are constantly shifting. Not just every day, but literally every hour and minute of the day. Because Google is constantly making evaluations and changes based on new and updated content from literally millions of pages, it can take time for all of those observations and changes to make their way through Google’s evaluation process before any changes happen.
The final reason is that Google sometimes moves slowly on purpose as a safety measure. Think about this: if a clever programmer or hacker figures out a way to game the SEO rankings to put a website in the top spot on Google, they could shatter all the genuine hard work that other websites have to put into their rankings and potentially even cause problems by distributing misinformation. Because of this possibility at all times, Google recognizes the value of making sure changes in rankings go through a thorough vetting and evaluation process.
The simple answer is: there are three factors that Google uses in deciding where your website ranks. Performing better in as many of those factors as possible will make you rank higher. Those factors are:
Each of these factors can be influenced to some degree on your website and your Google Business Page. First is the proximity, which is about how convenient your location is in relation to the potential client. If you’re further away than another attorney, they may be more likely to be recommended than you. One way for you to deal with that is to open up additional offices to give your firm more coverage in your geographic area. This can be accomplished by getting a small office space in a shared building, and the expense for a new office can be worth the increased number of leads and clients you can secure online.
The second is relevance, which is how likely that your business can help with the query that a Google user has made. For instance, a steak restaurant shouldn’t show up when someone types in “pizza near me,” but your firm should show up when someone searches for a specific type of lawyer. The way to make sure your relevance is high is to have content created on your website with accurate and very detailed keywords and phrases that will show up in searches. A competent legal SEO company should have a strong understanding of what those keywords and phrases should be.
The final category is authority, which we discussed earlier. Authority is shown with accurate and high quality content, as well as a powerful backlinking strategy. By working hard to perform as highly as possible for each of these three factors, you can position your law firm to rise the ranks and top your competitors.
Expanding competition and continuously evolving search engine algorithms and updates can mean a difficult, costly, and long road to SEO success for law firms. Preparing yourself for success should include attending legal conferences and events like Brain Trust Legal hosts.
Keeping up-to-date with the latest SEO innovations and strategies requires input from industry experts, like the ones who speak at BTL events. It requires interaction and ideas from fellow attorneys trying other strategies in other parts of the country, which you can do with other attendees to BTL conferences. And finally, it requires teamwork with skilled companies who can deliver great SEO results for your firm, which can be found in the exhibitor area at BTL Summits and events. You can learn more about the Brain Trust Legal conference and events here, or by calling (855) 743-1636 from anywhere across the country to learn more by speaking with a BTL team member.
