SEO for car accident lawyers can help firms be found on Google by prospective clients who are actively seeking legal representation following an auto accident in which they are potentially liable or the victim seeking to recoup damages.

Regardless of what side – plaintiff or defendant – after a car accident it’s standard practice to seek out legal advice and legal representation depending on the situation. With the majority of searches for auto accident lawyers starting on Google, your firm must be found by those looking for legal assistance.

The nature of auto accidents makes it important that both sides secure legal representation immediately, as they typically have a lot of questions and don’t want to speak with insurance companies without proper guidance.

Being found at the top of Google and having a positive image in terms of reviews and top-of-the-page brand domination can drive a large percentage of those seeking help to click-through to your website or immediately call your firm to inquire about retaining your firm’s service.

Let’s look at several local search engine optimization tips for car accident lawyers that can help achieve more website impressions in the search results and generate more leads and client retainers.

Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

The Google Maps section in the local search results is the most coveted position for law firms looking to attract new clients. When a consumer is involved in a car accident and needs to hire a lawyer they turn to Google.

If they simply search “car accident lawyer near me” they will be shown the local results that Google feels are the best match for their needs. First, the firm needs to be located within proximity to the user’s device location, whether it’s a static IP address from a home computer or the location of the mobile device they are using.

The local search results algorithm uses data in the Google My Business database to display these results. This is why it’s important that your firm claims its listing, as well as optimizes it fully. This includes filling out all of the contact details for your auto accident law firm, but also optimizing the description for your location.

Reviews also help push your listing up in the results as well as attract website visitors and contact requests. When someone is looking for the best legal representation he reviews from previous clients can play a role in who they view as trustworthy and successful.

Target Low Competition Keywords Through Blogging

While a large percentage of local SEO is focused on dominating the Maps listings, the standard search results are another opportunity to attract highly targeted prospects to your firm’s website. Blogging is an opportunity to publish optimized posts, each targeting low competition keywords and search terms related to hiring an auto accident lawyer.

While on the surface it might seem silly to try to rank for terms that receive less than 100 searches per month, when you look at it at scale, you realize that your traffic volume will grow each month exponentially if you stick to this strategy and commit fully to content marketing.

If you publish one new post per day, and even if each term has a monthly search volume of only 100, that is still a potential 3,000 visits monthly added to your traffic totals. By targeting the low competition terms most don’t optimize for and target, you can rank for them with solid content and perfect on-page optimization.

Local SEO for car accident lawyers is highly competitive, so any time you can rank for terms with very little to no off-page optimization, do it. Your firm’s blog is a marketing asset that becomes more valuable over time as long as you continue to publish new content.

Perfect Your On-Page and Speed Optimization

We touched on the importance of on-page optimization above to rank your blog content that targets the lower competition keywords. Let’s go over the factors that you want to optimize, and remember, each post should be optimized for one keyword to achieve the best possible optimization.

Page Title: Your main keyword should be included in the title and as close to the beginning as possible without appearing to be spammy.

Post URL: Set your URL permalink structure to be the post title, and edit manually to make the end storing your keyword.

Content: Your keyword should appear naturally in the content throughout the post. It should be included in the first sentence if possible. Use variations of the term throughout as well. This helps Google understand what the post should rank for.

Headings: Using H2 and H3 heading tag is a great way to help break up and organize your content, making it easier to read. Including your keyword in the heading tag is also a good idea as Google considers headings when determining what a page’s content is about.

Alt-Image Tag: Google’s algorithm cannot read images, so it considers the alt-image tag. It’s a good idea to use your main keyword as one tag and then more descriptive variations for other images.

Internal Linking: Linking to other posts on your blog is great to keep users on your website longer, reducing your bounce rate and increasing your average visit duration. It also helps to pass authority internally and is a strong SEO signal that many ignore and fail to optimize.

These are the basics and if you be sure to address these for each post you will naturally reach the highest possible organic rankings for each. If they fall short you will need to inject a little off-page optimization like link building to help push the posts up in the SERPs.

List Your Law Firm on High-Quality Free and Paid Directories

There are several online directories that you will want to list your car accident law firm on, both to gain the SEO advantage and also be found by those looking for a local attorney. There are general directories, like Yelp, Manta, YellowPages, WhitePages, Local Search, Foursquare, and the Better Business Bureau, as well as directories specific to law firms such as Lawyers.com.

Most of the standard ones are free to list and you benefit from being found on them as Google takes these listings or citations as many refer to them as, into consideration. If a business is found on all the top directories it is a good indication that they are trustworthy and legitimate.

Some of the law firm-specific directories will allow you to list, but to include a link to your website on your firm’s profile page requires an upgraded listing. Some are one-time fees and others are due annually to keep the link active.

Links from all listings are helpful, and paying for the law firm directories is a wise investment as they tend to be do-follow links, which give you the most authority boost, with the bonus of them being from a relevant niche website.

Be sure to keep the format and spelling of your entire NAP (name, address, and phone number) consistent across all of the directories you add your auto accident law firm to.

Final Thoughts

Local SEO for auto accident law firms is extremely competitive and it can be time-consuming to rank for the best performing keywords and search terms. It’s a huge advantage to have the experience and skills of an SEO agency working on your campaign.

From keyword research and the on-page and off-page optimization required to rank at the top of Google Maps and the traditional results, you will benefit greatly from partnering with an agency with extensive experience with local SEO for auto accident law firms.

If you would like to learn more about our car accident law firm SEO services or to get clarification on any of the local SEO tips outlined above, please contact us and speak to one of our team members today.

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