Are you running a legal blog? Excellent! But are you getting the organic traffic that your content deserves? Assuming you’re producing high-quality, non-plagiarized, and unique content that’s to the point, there’s still a lot to optimize before you can start getting unique visitors that grow your business.
In this guide, we’re going to talk about some time-tested best practices used by nearly all websites with a successful blog section, SEO-wise.
Wondering how to get divorce clients or how to get clients for criminal law firm? Well, this guide will help you get clients as well! A well-optimized blog brings in the traffic which, in turn, leads to more conversions (assuming your website can convert visitors properly).
1) Conduct Keyword Research
Effective keyword research is the foundation of a successful SEO strategy for your legal blog.
- Start by identifying the keywords and phrases that are relevant to your legal niche and have a significant search volume.
- Use keyword research tools, such as Semrush or Ahrefs, to discover popular keywords and analyze their competitiveness.
- Look for long-tail keywords that are specific to your area of expertise and have less competition.
Once you have a list of target keywords, strategically incorporate them into your blog posts. However, remember to prioritize the quality and readability of your content. Use keywords naturally and avoid overstuffing, as search engines value high-quality content that provides value to readers.
2) Write High-Quality and Relevant Content
When it comes to optimizing your legal blog for search engines, content is king. Focus on producing high-quality and relevant content that meets the needs of your target audience.
It’s not as easy as it might sound!
You’ll need to conduct thorough research on legal topics, explore current trends and developments, and provide valuable insights and practical advice. The idea is to identify pain points or common queries and provide to-the-point solutions to them.
Work on both, short FAQ-like posts and long guides depending on the subject matter. To begin, you can:
- Address common legal questions.
- Explain complex concepts in simple terms.
- Offer guidance.
Valuable, informative, and engaging content establishes you as a trusted authority in your legal niche, and search engines recognize and reward authoritative websites with higher rankings.
3) Optimize Meta Tags & Alt Tags
Meta tags, specifically the meta title and meta description, play a crucial role in optimizing your blog posts for search engines. The meta title should be concise, compelling, and accurately reflect the content of your blog post.
Incorporate relevant keywords into the meta title to improve search engine visibility. The meta description serves as a summary of your blog post and appears in search engine results.
- 150 characters (including spaces) are enough for meta descriptions.
- 30-60 characters are ideal for the heading (H1) or page titles. Never go above 70 characters.
- Make sure all images have a descriptive alt tag.
Try to put keywords sooner in titles, like Personal Injury Compensation: How to Get the Best Result is more SEO-friendly than the academic-sounding Getting the Best Result in a Personal Injury Case. The keyword is “personal injury” and the long-tail is “personal injury compensation,” so it’s ideal they come sooner.
If you’re using WordPress, install a plugin like Yoast SEO or All-In-One SEO for these customizations.
4) Use Descriptive URLs
The URL structure of your blog posts is an important factor in optimizing them for search engines. Craft descriptive and user-friendly URLs that clearly indicate the topic of your blog post.
Again, you should attempt to include relevant keywords in the URL to provide search engines with additional information about the content.
A well-structured URL not only helps search engines understand the context of your blog post but also enhances user experience and makes it easier for readers to identify the topic of the page.
Blog posts that have URLs with dates, numbers, or random strings are worse than those with simple words. Also, it’s best to keep URLs as clean as possible. The article Personal Injury Compensation: How to Get the Best Result should have a URL like www.website.com/personal-injury-compensation and that’s all.
Some blogs might need to incorporate a tag or category in the URL, which is fine.
5) Structure Content with Headings
Properly structuring your blog posts using headings helps search engines understand the organization and hierarchy of your content. Use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content logically.
The H1 tag should be reserved for the blog post title, and subsequent headings should be used to break down your content into sections. Incorporate relevant keywords within your headings naturally to further optimize your blog post for search engines. Clear and well-organized headings not only improve SEO but also enhance readability for your readers.
Wrapping Up
All of these are best practices with a proven track record. We’ve refrained from mentioning anything that’s even remotely undependable. Remember to be patient, motivated, and think about the long term. Optimizing a blog or website’s SEO can often take time, especially in a niche as competitive as law or legal advice.
Sometimes, you’ll need the help of professional digital marketing services from reputable agencies, especially if you’re running a fairly large website. Technical SEO, on-page SEO, and content marketing work aren’t a one-man job, after all. If you do, we recommend you learn all about the key performance indicators and fundamental concepts of SEO first. It will help you get a significantly better service.
