Just type “best SEO services for attorneys” on the Internet, and you will find hundreds of companies that claim to be the best. However, very few lawyers have time to investigate every offer from different SEO agencies to determine which one is reliable and which is just a good seller. This article explains all you need to know about choosing an SEO company for your law firm.
Why Attorney SEO Is Different From Regular SEO
Legal SEO is not a game similar to the SEO of an e-commerce business. Law falls under the category of Your Money or Your Life (YMYL), a set of standards by which Google expects more expertise, accuracy, and authority from law-related content. A legal SEO firm without an understanding of this fact would create generic content for you, which would never rank despite having the right keywords.
In addition to this, most legal queries are location-specific, such as “divorce lawyer in [city]” or “accident lawyer near me,” meaning that you need a lot of local SEO in your SEO plan.
Organic SEO Service vs. Paid Ads: Why Organic Matters Long-Term
Many companies get attracted to pay-per-click campaigns simply because of the rapid results they can provide. The main advantage of organic SEO services is their capability to create compounding value over a period of time that will last much longer than what PPC offers.
There are many components involved in creating a proper organic SEO strategy that would be helpful for a law firm. It usually involves technical optimization of the website, creation of relevant content, acquiring backlinks from legal directories and publications, and on-page optimization of the website. It takes a longer time to achieve the desired results – from 4 to 6 months – but at least the results keep compounding.
What a Local SEO Service Provider Should Actually Be Doing
If all of your clients are based out of one particular city or region, then your SEO company must be able to actually be a local SEO service provider, and not just someone who “creates a Google Business Profile.” These are some of the things your local SEO company should be doing for you:
- Optimization of Google Business Profile, maintained, not just created
- NAP consistency throughout directories
- City-specific landing pages for each practice area
- Local citation creation on legal directories (Avvo, FindLaw, Justia)
- A review generation and management plan, because reviews affect local ranking.
The “Best Cheap SEO Service” Trap
Everybody desires value, and the search for the “best cheap SEO service” is very natural and understandable. However, in the case of legal SEO, the lowest prices usually indicate one of the following three situations: pre-written copy without any research, spammy link building, or an overloaded account manager who just does not have time for you.
It does not mean that the most expensive SEO firm is the best, either. Instead of asking “what’s the cheapest?”, we should ask “what’s the actual deliverable list and does it correspond to my needs right now?” Because there’s a huge difference between a newly founded firm’s needs and those of the firm that already dominates in three specializations in five cities.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign
- Do you have case studies specific to legal clients and not general business clients?
- What is your content writing process, and who writes the content?
- How do you address E-E-A-T in attorney profiles and practice pages?
- How do you build backlinks, and can you provide examples of sites you got backlinks from?
- How do you measure and report on your results?
A firm that is sure of its process will be able to do so explicitly. Vagueness or overly optimistic deadlines (“guaranteed #1 ranking in 30 days”) are reliable red flags throughout the industry.
What Realistic Results Look Like
Organic SEO services for law firms are an investment that takes time. Law firms will start to see some results between the 3rd and 4th month. More results will come after 6 to 12 months. If an agency promises you quick page one results, it is either exaggerating or plans to use methods that will get penalized by Google.
The Bottom Line
Choosing the right SEO partner for your company doesn’t depend on how cheap or expensive the service is — it all comes down to whether they understand the special needs of legal SEO, have an understandable process for local SEO, and can develop organic growth for years to come.
FAQs
Q. How much will lawyer SEO services cost you?
A. Costs are highly variable, but authentic SEO services for lawyers can be priced from several thousand dollars to more than ten thousand dollars per month.
Q. How long will it take for SEO to start working for my law firm?
A. Initial effects begin showing up after about 3-4 months, with better performance achieved in 6-12 months.
Q. How much will lawyer SEO services cost you?
A. Costs are highly variable, but authentic SEO services for lawyers can be priced from several thousand dollars to more than ten thousand dollars per month.
Q. How long will it take for SEO to start working for my law firm?
A. Initial effects begin showing up after about 3-4 months, with better performance achieved in 6-12 months.
Radhika Lohmod
I'm Radhika Lohmod, Senior Content Specialist at Xelogic Solutions, and I specialize in creating high-quality content across various domains to help businesses connect with their audience.
