SEO Tips & Tricks for Immigration Attorneys
In the modern world, the internet is the best way to reach clients, manage your brand’s reputation, and bring in leads. Its reach is both vast and diverse – you can access clients from across the world in seconds. Yet many law firms under utilize their online presence and miss critical opportunities to grow their community and clientele. In order to be successful, your business should utilize the internet to maximize your law firm’s performance, profits, and customer base. But getting started can be tricky, especially for immigration lawyers who are both business owners and managing attorneys.
In today’s article, we discuss some basics about one marketing necessity: SEO. We will answer the following questions:
- What is SEO?
- Why is SEO important?
- How can SEO help me win new clients?
- How can I get started?
If you hope to improve your firm’s online presence, Haywood Consulting can help. Our industry experts know how to maximize utilization of online tools to improve brand presence and reputation management, attract new and repeat business, and manage community outreach. Contact us today for a free consultation! We can review your online strategy and marketing and outline areas for improvement.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to a variety of strategies that “optimize” a web page to ensure a high ranking on search engines. Top search engines include Google and Yahoo, though many types exist throughout the internet. Internet users (and potential clients) across the world utilize search engines every second of every day, resulting in billions of searches. Thus, search engines are the internet’s gatekeepers, capable of providing a near-infinite supply of qualified leads.
Consider Google – you probably utilize Google every day to help find local restaurants, search for immigration law news, learn about new ideas and concepts, and identify ideal business partners. Your customers – immigrants and their families, visa holders, corporations, and small businesses – will utilize Google to find immigration attorneys who can assist them. You want to rank high enough to grab their attention and win their business.
Understanding SEO Strategies
The term “SEO” refers to a variety of operations and strategies that, as a whole, contribute to a positive search engine ranking. There are actions that are absolutely essential – including an engine-accessible website and interesting, high-quality content. Content should be well-written, relevant for your audience, and utilize industry keywords to capture your client’s attention. These actions serve as the solid foundation for additional SEO strategies. Without these, additional features like attractive and user-friendly website design will not be as successful.
Why Does It Matter?
Without proper SEO strategies and management, consumers are much less likely to discover your website. With thorough and targeted SEO operations, your firm’s website will rank highly on major search engines. For your immigration law firm, this means increased qualified leads, new business, and profit turnover. Without SEO, you risk disappearing amongst the many immigration law firms in your area and throughout the nation.
When a webpage utilizes SEO techniques masterfully and ranks highly on search engines, it will appear organically within the first few pages of search results. And users – your potential clients – are not likely to scroll through many pages before making a decision. In fact, Google’s top-ranked organic search position received 33% of the traffic in 2013. This means that users are not even very likely to pass the first page of results. That’s an impressive reason to work to improve your search engine rankings!
SEO Tips for Immigration Attorneys
Below, we’ve included some key tips and tricks for any immigration attorney interested in improving organic SEO performance.
Invest in Your Website
It’s difficult for other SEO strategies to succeed if your website doesn’t perform. Start any organic SEO campaign with base improvements and updates to your web platform and accessibility. This ensures that search engines can easily access and index your site. If your site cannot be properly searched and catalogued, any attempt to optimize keyword usage and content will be weakened.
Manage a Blog
As discussed above, a well-managed and updated blog will unlock major SEO benefits for your firm. When you post content that is both interesting and relevant for your immigration law clients, you’ll boost your organic SEO. Post regularly, roughly 1-2 times per week, and ensure your posts are at least 500 words. Further, vary the type and length of your content for optimal results.
Focus on Quality Content
Blog and website content should concentrate on industry-specific keywords and pertinent topics. For example, successful blogs often include a combination of interesting news, “how-to” guides, informative articles, and business updates. This way, your law firm’s blog won’t appear redundant and will prove highly useful to your client base. Clients want to read content that will help them understand their legal situation and guide their actions. This builds trust with individuals while also bolstering SEO rankings.
Be Patient & Diversify
In order to build a high SEO ranking organically, it will take at least 3-6 months. Don’t lose hope if it takes a significant amount of time to see results. At Haywood Consulting, we suggest a two-tiered approach that utilizes pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to bolster organic SEO strategies. PPC offers near-instant results and rankings on search engines, allowing your firm to build its natural SEO practices while still attracting qualified leads. (As a note: PPC strategy is useful but not efficient by itself – only about 2.8% of searchers will click on paid advertisements.)
Stay Updated
In order to provide the highest quality results, search engines change their algorithms quite often. In short, this allows search engines to sift through marketing “gimmicks” (known as “black hat” SEO) that take advantage of current algorithms. Ensure that your firm remains up-to-date on the latest requirements – otherwise, you may suddenly find that you no longer rank highly!
Consult a Professional
SEO is complicated and time consuming, but cannot be ignored. Often, though, law firms cannot dedicate the necessary time, energy, and staff to properly address online issues and SEO maintenance. In order to ensure you are compliant, updated, and at maximum capacity, your firm may benefit from outside help. Consultants and marketing firms specialize in digital marketing, allowing you to relax while they improve your online presence and profits.
Need Assistance?
While SEO is an essential aspect of a successful online business, many law firms underutilize this tool due to lack of expertise or time. This can lead to a stagnant client base, which pauses profits and growth. Hopefully, this article will help you begin to explore SEO and how it can improve your firm’s business operations. We also suggest you learn more about SEO, including how to choose the right marketing and SEO company.
Haywood Consulting specializes in the business of immigration law. We offer a diverse suite of exclusive services to help immigration attorneys achieve their business, professional, and personal goals. Our marketing and content experts are ready to help you improve your firm’s online presence and outreach. Contact us today for a free online marketing consultation!
Learn more about Haywood Consulting.