Are you happy with your law firm’s website? Are you satisfied with how it’s fitting into your marketing strategy? Far too many firms underperform in the digital sphere. The quickest way to improve and market your law firm more effectively is to focus on local search.
Local SEO is an entirely different animal than regular search marketing strategies, which are usually driven by the production of content. For local, you’ll need to claim your listing on local directories like Google My Business, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo and many others.
Note that we used the word “claim” for your listing rather than “create.” That’s because most of these directories have already taken your public information and put up a listing. But it’s just a bare-bones profile—there won’t be pictures, a description, your office hours or anything other than acknowledgment of your basic existence.
Without being appropriately dressed up and optimized, your listing might as well be worthless. The information in the directories is what drives Google’s Local 3-Pack, those top three results you see whenever you enter a search query for “personal injury lawyer near me”. You’ve probably already seen them when you look for a gas station or a restaurant. How often do you venture beyond the 3-Pack?
When you go to work at updating your directory listings, be aware that it can be a tedious and aggravating process. The best local directories often require a verification phone call before turning over ownership of the listing and allowing you to update it. The data entry required—from the secure passwords to the keywords to the e-mail confirmations—can be mind-numbing.
But it’s worth your while or at least hiring a digital marketing consultant for a one-off job of updating your directory listings. You won’t get into the Local 3-Pack listing unless search engines see fresh information, office hours and understand what your firm does through the use of keywords and optimized descriptions.