One of the best ways to create unique and engaging website content is to focus on local marketing to target your ideal client online. Local pages are law firm website pages that provide relevant local information to your potential clients. These pages aren’t designed to cast a wide net on search engines, but rather attract a highly-targeted pool of web visitors.
Read on to learn how local content helps your firm to be successful online, steps to developing a framework for your local marketing strategy, and tips for attracting more local clients with your firm’s Google Business Profile.
What is a local content marketing strategy?
Local pages are designed to engage your local potential client pool by providing relevant information that they’re searching for. For example, if you practice Personal Injury, you could create written content that addresses local topics such as intersections that are often sites of accidents, local hospitals, or places where people frequently get injured.
You don’t need every internet user to come to your website for it to be successful, just the ones that would like to hire you for your services. If your web visitor is looking for exactly what you’re offering, this is a targeted web visitor and they have a higher likelihood of converting. Not only is this approach to online marketing more efficient for your business, it can be cheaper in two ways:
- You don’t have to cast a wide net. You’re only focusing your time and money on creating content that is specific to your practice areas and your location.
- Local content marketing is based on the written content on your firm’s website. Meaning, you just need to have the necessary words on your pages, rather than bells and whistles, expensive paid advertisement, and other costly paid marketing tactics.
How can local content marketing help me succeed online?
An effective local content strategy can help you increase your law firm’s website’s visibility in search engine results and improve your ability to connect with and engage local clients. Once your website begins to consistently attract targeted traffic, you will begin to see results from your marketing efforts. By connecting with and engaging more local clients with your website content, you will help to drive more business to your firm.
How do I write local content for my website?
Local content is relevant to your potential clients’ problems and interests while also specific to their geographic location. First, let’s take a step back and think about what Google does for us on a daily basis. Google is helping your potential clients to be matched with the best and most useful content based on their search query and their location. The closer your website content can get to matching the searches of your ideal client, the more often it will appear as a search result for those relevant and local queries. The more often your website is appearing in the search results of your ideal client, the more your website traffic will consist of high-converting leads and thus you have reached your goal and your website is successful.
Step 1: Understanding the search behavior of your potential clients
The first step toward creating local content for your website is to understand what your potential clients are searching for on search engines. Potential clients tend to think and search in ways that aren’t accurate representations of legal terminology and structure. However, despite their lack of knowledge on the law, they are making searches anyway – and Google’s goal is to return the best possible answers for their queries.
It’s a good idea to use the language that potential clients use, even when it’s not an accurate reflection of the law. Once a potential client is on your site, you’ll have an opportunity to explain the nuance and details of the law then. But, to attract them from free search engine traffic, you first need to let them know that you understand the way that they think. That’s why it’s effective to create local content that reflects their searches and the words that they use.
Step 2: Thinking in a local content framework
Practice area pages can provide useful information to local potential clients while highlighting your local knowledge and skills. The content of these pages should provide thorough, valuable answers to the questions of your potential clients while also applying a localized lens.
Even if the law is the same throughout your state, there could be local nuances to certain rules or procedures that affect local potential clients. For example, there may be a slight difference in how local courts handle routine proceedings. You can also highlight your local experience using practice area pages by advertising your firm’s experience in handling certain case types in the area.
Step 3: Creating localized law firm web pages
There are several ways you can go about integrating local marketing into your law firm web pages. The following are a few ways in which you can begin targeting more local traffic using your website content:
Localized headings and subtitles
It’s important to consider how your web pages are appearing on search results when creating localized practice area pages. By creating “local” headings and subheadings for your web pages, you can right away show potential clients your website has what they’re looking for.
Local information such as your city, county, street names, and other significant local areas and landmarks can help Google better understand what your content is about. And, in turn, makes it easier for search engines to match your website with more local and relevant queries.
Incorporating local questions
Your potential clients most likely don’t have extensive knowledge of the law or legal proceedings. Yet, they’re trying to conduct research online to find out more about their case and what to do next. Not only is it important to remember this intent of your potential clients, but it’s helpful to remember that their search queries will likely be in both plain language and question format.
For example, it’s not likely they’ll be searching word for word: “Personal Injury attorney Austin, Texas” in Google. Instead, they’re a real person who just got in a scary accident with an 18-wheeler on the interstate and they have no experience with this kind of thing. So, they search: “What do I do after I get hit by a truck?”
Google is going to take the search query of your potential client and produce results that are not only relevant to that question, but to their location as well. Using that example as a jumping off point, you can apply this “prediction technique” for your law firm by thinking about what questions your clients are often coming to you with. Chances are, you get a lot of the same questions.
Using local landmarks
Beyond questions about their legal matter and next steps, a potential client is also likely to conduct research about important landmarks that may be related to their case. It could be very useful for your website content to include information about this for your potential clients as a result. Not only will your web visitors receive helpful information that shows you understand their problem, you will also be able to show your care for getting them the help they need.
Hospitals, police stations, courthouses, common sites of accidents, and information about local immigration resources are all ways to connect with potential clients using local landmarks. Overall, the more information you provide to your web visitors, the more opportunities you have to build their trust and convert them into clients for your firm.
How can Google Business Profile help me with local marketing?
Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free business listing on Google that can help your firm become searchable on Google Maps and helps you connect with more local and relevant searches. Taking the time to optimize your GBP listing is very useful to your firm and can make a difference to a potential client looking for an attorney in their area.
To get the most out of your listing, you will need to customize all available elements and make sure that you are clearly listing the areas you serve and your practice areas throughout. Accuracy in this stage is of the utmost importance, and one thing you’ll want to double check is the pin location for your business address. This can be done by searching your firm’s address in Google Maps. If you find that Google Maps isn’t showing an accurate location for your firm, you could be missing opportunities to connect with local potential clients and should remedy this immediately.
One important element to nurture is your reviews section. It’s very likely your potential clients are checking your firm’s reviews on Google before they reach out. This helps to give themselves necessary validation that you’re a professional and trusted resource. In addition, potential clients can compare your firm’s rating to your competitors side-by-side using Google Maps, which could impact their decision. If you don’t currently have a system in place to collect and respond to reviews on your GBP, it can be extremely helpful to do so.
To access a complete checklist and helpful tips for optimizing your Google Business Profile listing, download our Guide to Google Business Profile.
How can LawLytics help me localize my website fast?
The LawLytics content generation tool is changing the way attorneys approach law firm website content with proven, optimized content templates available for a wide range of practice areas. In just minutes you can publish new pages to your website by choosing from over 250 practice area topics and completing the customization prompts. To see the technology in action, view our quick content tool demo.
Our team can design, build, and launch your new law firm website in as little as two weeks. Whether you’re improving an existing website or need something completely new, your website can be live and starting to show up in search results quickly. Our proven approach has delivered website success stories to over 1500 law firms across the country. Getting a modern, optimized website fast has never been easier.
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