There were 14,573 bankruptcy lawyers and attorneys in the US as of 2020, and the sector employed 23,586 people. That much opposition from other bankruptcy lawyers is intense. Modern bankruptcy law companies require a strong marketing plan, including search engine optimisation, to stand out (SEO). SEO determines how effectively your website ranks on search engines like Google. You must recognise Google because everyone uses it for everything these days. A 2017 Legal Trends Report found that 37% of customers searched for lawyers online. Therefore, you must treat SEO seriously. So, here are our top 10 SEO techniques for bankruptcy attorneys that you can do right away:
Make your Google My Business page
The first step in SEO for bankruptcy law is registering for a Google My Business (GMB) account. Like a massive, free internet business directory, GMB. Follow the straightforward account creation instructions. You must include fundamental details about your company, such as its name, address, and contact information. Additionally, you’ll need to validate the validity of your company by entering a verification code that Google contacts you with through phone calls, postcards, or emails. After that, whenever someone performs an internet search for a bankruptcy attorney nearby, your company will appear as a verified business on Google Maps.
Remember that GMB is site-specific. Thus, it will aid in attracting local prospects to your company. Additionally, signing up with GMB is a no-brainer because it is free. All you need to do to maintain a steady flow of leads is to keep the information updated.
Research target bankruptcy-related keywords
Do some keyword research next. Make a list of the search terms that your potential customers enter first. For instance, individuals frequently type the service they want. But you should also take into account “long-tail” keywords. Long-tail keywords often have lower search traffic, but there is less competition to rank for them. To find more useful keywords, use an SEO tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush. These tools can help you understand search intent and indicate keyword difficulty (how difficult it is to rank for a phrase).
You can utilise Google’s auto-suggest feature to locate keywords connected to the ones you come up with on your own. The secret is to create a list of pertinent keywords to target for your website.
Create powerful website pages for various bankruptcy niches
Your selection of target keywords will help you make effective landing pages. Landing pages assist your website in ranking on search engines and welcome and inform site visitors about your offering. You may construct landing pages on means testing, bankruptcy eligibility, Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and more. Fill your landing pages with informative content on the keywords you choose.
But feel free to produce landing pages concerning more specific subjects additionally. Credit counselling, lien removal, joint bankruptcy, and state-specific laws might be some. Such landing pages may be the SEO equivalent of low-hanging fruit. Additionally, frequently asked questions (FAQ) sites are effective for SEO. Additionally, they offer the ideal chance to respond to frequent queries from potential customers.
Start a blog
Not only landing pages but other types of content may also rank. Likewise, blog postings. They provide you with a consistent flow of material that accumulates over time. Create keyword-focused blog entries, discuss current events, handle reader inquiries, and keep your audience informed about your company. The better, the more content you have. Everything helps your SEO. But make sure the blog entries you write are good. Google released the E-A-T principle in 2018 as a guideline for evaluating the quality of content. It represents knowledge, power, and reliability. To achieve these three objectives, your blog entries must be well-written, authentic, and free of plagiarism. To write better, use programmes like Grammarly and Yoast.
Optimise for user experience (UX)
User experience is yet another essential SEO component (UX). Even if your website has the best bankruptcy material in the world, visitors will still leave if they have a negative experience. This high bounce rate informs Google that your site doesn’t meet search intent. So they will downgrade it. In reality, Google unveiled their UX standards in 2020 under the name Core Web Vitals. They are founded on the three pillars of responsiveness, visual stability, and site speed. So pay attention to the following items to enhance the user experience on your website:
Mobile responsiveness
Phones account for more than 50% of all online traffic worldwide. Therefore, you must ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. You would be losing out on many leads if you didn’t.
The loading speed of your bankruptcy site
People are getting annoyed with each other. Most users leave websites that take longer than two seconds to load. Compressing images, minimising redirection, and activating browser caching are a few ways to increase loading speed.
High-quality images
These days, a website must include high-quality photographs. Users can recognise free stock photos at a distance. So be sure to invest in high-quality photographs to appear professional.
Readable text
Don’t overwrite your webpage with text. Use only a few complementing typefaces and colours, keep it simple, and leave lots of white space. Your website will be simpler to read as a result.
Easy navigation
Your website should be organised logically. To make it easy for people to explore your website, provide a clear navigation bar at the top.
Your bankruptcy website will rank considerably higher in search results if you optimise for all the abovementioned factors.
Create an XML sitemap and build internal links
Make an XML sitemap next. This file aids Google in comprehending the organisational structure of your website and the key pages. Your pages will be found more quickly with a solid XML sitemap, which will eventually result in more traffic. Include internal connections from current web pages to new ones to further improve your SEO. Users are enticed to explore further pages, and your site’s domain authority is distributed over the whole thing.
Highlight bankruptcy client testimonials
Have any happy clients? Request a testimonial from them to post on your website. This will increase future client trust in your company (aka social proof). Additionally, search engines favour social proof. Google is more inclined to raise your site’s rating in search results if they notice that customers are praising your company.
Optimise online listings and profiles
Get your company included in internet directories like Yelp, Facebook, Avvo, and YellowPages, in addition to collecting testimonials. Google will appreciate your website higher as it has a larger internet presence and more reviews.
Build backlinks from quality, relevant sources.
Link building is another important SEO strategy. To convince Google that your website is worthwhile, you must get other websites to connect to yours. Each link, also known as a backlink, acts as a vote for your website. Naturally, you don’t want any old backlinks. They ought to come from reputable backlink resources in your sector. Consider Justia and FindLaw. Avoid paying for spammy links and disavow all of them. Quality is more important than quantity.
Here are some ways you can go about getting high-quality backlinks:
Help Out a Reporter (HARO)
This group can put you in touch with journalists seeking knowledgeable sources. Register to receive notifications each time someone requests a bankruptcy law quotation. They will then link back to your website if they use your quotation.
Broken link building
Links on many legal websites need to be fixed or out of the current. Identify them, let the webmaster know, and offer to replace the connection with one to your website. Broken link building provides a lot of potential for obtaining high-quality backlinks if done correctly.
Hire a white hat link-building agency
You may always enlist the assistance of a company like SEO.co if you need more time or expertise to worry about link development. Just make sure the firm you select employs ethical link-building techniques. Building out your backlink profile will offer your website greater online authority over time, boosting its search engine ranking.
Stay on top of trends and adapt
Lastly, stay current with fashion. Google modifies its algorithms often. Regular weight shifts or changes are made to Google ranking variables. Therefore, you should change your SEO approach over time and refresh your website. Additionally, keep an eye on your website statistics to discover what’s working and isn’t. It could be time to take a different approach if your SEO efforts yield no results.