For legal firms around the world, competition has become far fiercer with the rise of digital marketing. Increased competition on a scale never before seen has forced law firms to adopt new marketing strategies that are different than in the past. Gone are the days of traditional marketing, as digital marketing strategies have outpaced the success of standard styles.

Above all other strategies, search engine optimization has been a widely used method of increasing business that comes from the Internet. To that end, learning everything there is to know about search engine optimization (SEO) can help any law firm astronomically bolster its business.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is simply the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a website by ensuring that the content on that website is relevant and valuable to those visitors. Essentially, the more relevant content that is posted to the site and tailored with SEO strategies, the more organic traffic will be guided to that site. SEO is not one simple item, though, and there are actually a number of different SEO practices that end up building out an entire SEO strategy.

How Does SEO Factor into Digital Marketing?

When considering switching away from local service ads for lawyers to something else such as SEO is an excellent place to start as it is a first step into digital marketing. As a whole, digital marketing is the entire summation of marketing strategies that a company uses that occur through the Internet as a medium. However, those marketing strategies will fail to be successful if the company does not already have some form of notoriety on the Internet.

The way search engine optimization fits into a digital marketing strategy is by setting up the foundational reputation for a company on the Internet. By naturally increasing the amount of traffic that visits a website, a company can set itself up for success when they start using additional digital marketing strategies.

7 Key Benefits of Utilizing Search Engine Optimization

Determining whether or not SEO is worth implementing for your digital presence relies upon understanding the benefits that SEO can offer. The following seven key benefits are the most prominent related to search engine optimization:

• 1. More visitors to your legal firm’s website

As mentioned, search engine optimization revolves around increasing the number of visitors to a website, primarily by tailoring content on a website to be relevant and easy to digest. When a legal firm places an emphasis on this, it will start to see more visitors heading to their website. This is a benefit because the larger the number of people visiting your site, the higher the likelihood that those prospective customers will reach out to your firm for advice or general counsel.

• 2. Increased brand awareness of your firm

Building off of the prior point, more traffic to your website will naturally result in more brand awareness of your law firm. Whether it is through word-of-mouth between customers or simply a general brand awareness that comes from having a recognized name in the legal space, SEO can help bolster your brand awareness.

• 3. The ability to build trust with website visitors

One of the biggest benefits SEO can offer to a legal firm is the ability to build trust with potential clients who may visit the site. By reading content on your website, including prior reviews from satisfied clients or even topics related to the legal field your firm specializes in, website visitors will begin to trust your brand which can result in more business.

• 4. Blog pages can establish a legal firm as a subject matter expert

A major part of developing an SEO strategy is implementing a blog that outlines topics in your field of law. While you may theoretically be losing some business by posting legal advice online through your firm’s website, your firm will be set up as a subject matter expert in the field. In the future, if a person has a quick question related to the law in regard to their situation, they will be more likely to check your blog for advice as compared to a competitor.

• 5. Legal firms using SEO can get ahead of the competition

As alluded to above, utilizing SEO allows a company to get ahead of the competition faster than ever before. By becoming a trusted subject matter expert in the field and drawing more traffic to your website, the competition will receive less attention in the field. This will result in your business booming while the competition’s falters.

• 6. Organic traffic will be driven to your website

As mentioned earlier, more traffic will be driven to your website by using SEO strategies, but the best part about the benefit is that it will be organic traffic. The difference between organic traffic and inorganic traffic is that the former are real people who are likely to take action on a website, rather than computer-generated visitors who cannot take action because they aren’t real. This simply increases the likelihood of website visitor-to-client conversion, which will result in more business.

• 7. 24/7 exposure to your legal firm

Finally, setting up a digital presence means that anyone in the world can have exposure to your brand and expertise at any time of the day, regardless of where they are. Rather than only being able to assist potential clients during normal business hours, your digital presence and assistance via the web will ensure you are providing value to clients at all times of the day.

Grow your legal business today

While growing a legal firm will never be easy, taking advantage of digital marketing is a great way to start. Specifically, while SEO is not a simple concept to understand, it is one of the easiest ways to break into digital marketing. Building up the SEO associated with a brand will help create the foundations that the company needs in order to establish its digital presence for the purpose of making other digital marketing techniques more successful.