If you are looking for ways to improve your law firm’s online presence in 2024, you are not alone. From accident victims and spouses to corporate executives and government officials, all types of prospective clients are increasingly using search engines and social media to find lawyers.
So, how can you make sure that they find your law firm? There are several strategies that law firms can use to improve their online presence in 2024 (and beyond). By deploying these strategies efficiently and effectively, law firms in all practice areas can enhance their online visibility, move up Google’s search results, and ultimately drive more relevant traffic to their websites.
How Can Law Firms Get More Clients Online in 2024?
Here are 10 strategies that law firms can use to get more clients online in 2024:
1. Maximize the Value of Your Firm’s Existing Website Content
One of the most effective ways that law firms can improve their online presence is by maximizing the value of their existing website content. When we provide legal content writing services to law firms, we often devote a substantial amount of time each month to updating and enhancing the content that they have on their sites already. While writing new pages and articles is important too (as we discuss below), making sure your firm’s existing content is doing its job should be priority number one in most cases.
2. Get On a Regular Blog Article Publication Schedule
Writing new blog articles is important for several reasons. Not only does it show that your firm is active, but it also provides opportunities to both: (i) target new keywords and key phrases; and, (ii) enhance your firm’s efforts to target its existing keywords and key phrases. Regularly publishing blog articles provides sharing and other engagement opportunities as well. Any law firm that uses organic search engine optimization (SEO) or social media (or both) in its digital marketing strategy should be publishing professionally written blog articles on a regular basis.
3. Fill Out Your Law Firm’s Site Architecture
Along with publishing new blog articles, law firms seeking to improve their online presence in 2024 should also assess what additional static pages they need to fill out their site architecture. Could your firm’s website do with more practice area subpages (i.e., distracted driving or rideshare accident subpages for a personal injury law firm)? Has your firm expanded, and do you have new practice areas that you need to promote on your law firm’s website? If so, these should generally be high on your firm’s priority list as well.
4. Add Attorney Bios, FAQs, and Other Key Pages
Did you know that attorney bios and FAQs are among the most-visited pages on many law firms’ websites? When searching for a lawyer, prospective clients want two main things: (i) they want to know who they will be working with; and, (ii) they want to know what they can expect if they move forward. Attorney bios and FAQs meet these needs. Depending on your firm’s size, geographic location, and practice areas, you may benefit from adding other key pages to your firm’s website as well.
5. Publish Comprehensive Guides on Relevant (and Competitive) Topics
Comprehensive guides are long-form pieces of online content that also serve multiple purposes. First and foremost, they provide prospective clients with an in-depth look at one (or more) of their key areas of concern. Second, they can provide a significant boost to your firm’s organic SEO efforts. While it can be difficult to rank for highly competitive keywords and key phrases, the effort and investment will often be worth it—and, in most cases, ranking is a matter of producing longer, better-written, and more informative content.
6. Leverage Relevant Social Media Platforms
While law firms in most practice areas can benefit from using social media, choosing the right platform (or platforms) is essential for seeing a positive return on investment (ROI). For example, while YouTube and TikTok can be effective platforms for targeting personal injury and family law clients, they aren’t likely to be effective for law firms that work with commercial or institutional clients. However, LinkedIn could be an extremely useful platform—and publishing quality and informative content on LinkedIn could serve to build a network of potential referral sources while also serving as a point of connection with potential clients.
7. Leverage Other Third-Party Publication Platforms
Along with social media platforms, law firms can leverage various other third-party publication platforms as well. JDSupra, National Law Review, and HG.org are three of the most popular examples (though there are many more). Whether we are providing legal content writing for personal injury law firms, family law firms, or law firms targeting organizational clients in the U.S. or abroad, we routinely incorporate publishing articles on these platforms into our clients’ strategies.
8. Focus on Your Intended Audience
Focusing on your intended audience is key to ensuring that your law firm’s online content (both onsite and offsite) serves its intended purpose. This is true in all aspects of online content publishing—from the third-party platforms on which you publish articles to the topics your articles cover and the tone and voice you use. If you aren’t reaching your intended audience, covering topics of interest to your intended audience, or writing in a voice that speaks to your desired readers, you aren’t going to see results.
9. Choose Where to Focus Your Efforts and Resources
This brings us to the next key to improving your law firm’s online presence in 2024: choosing where to focus your efforts and resources. Here, too, there are several related considerations. For example:
- Which practice area (or practice areas) do you want to focus on promoting?
- How should you balance your efforts between onsite and offsite content?
- When it comes to your firm’s onsite content, how much should you invest in writing new content as opposed to updating existing content?
Again, these are just examples. There are several considerations involved in deciding how best to leverage your law firm’s content marketing budget—and making informed decisions is a key first step toward executing an effective online marketing strategy in 2024.
10. Choose Wisely Between Organic SEO and PPC SEO
Finally, when paying for search engine optimization, law firms must choose wisely between organic SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) SEO. While PPC provides immediate results, individual clicks can be incredibly expensive in competitive practice areas; and, once you pay for a click, the money is gone—there is no investment in your website’s future. Conversely, while building an organic search engine presence takes time, it is an investment in the future; and, as a result, organic SEO is the best strategy for many law firms.
Speak with a Law Firm Content Marketing Consultant at Smart Content
Do you need to know more about what your law firm can do to improve its online presence in 2024? If so, we invite you to get in touch. Please contact us online to get started today.