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Writer's pictureJC Serrano

Common Keyword Research Mistakes In Lawyer SEO

Updated: May 7, 2022

What are the 3 Most Common Mistakes For Beginner Lawyer SEO Practitioners

Choosing which keywords you want to compete for determines what your pages, legal blogs, and content of your law firm website will look like. It also determines who your competitors and target market are going to be. We've already discussed how to do your keyword research in previous posts, but what about what you shouldn't do?


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Part of Lawyer SEO is researching and selecting keywords you're going to optimize your pages for. After all, keywords are the terms you want users to find you in search results, so you should select the most relevant terms that appeal to the right people.


Here are a few common mistakes that beginner SEO practitioners make while doing keyword research.

1. Only Choosing High Competition Keywords

Choosing the right keywords seems pretty straightforward: you look up a list of relevant terms and choose the one most people to use, right?


However, short-tail keywords are coveted spots for a reason. More people use them to look things up, so naturally, more websites compete for them. Unfortunately, this means that you'll be competing with established sites that already have the search traffic and authority that makes them almost an automatic forerunner in the race to the first search results page.


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Sometimes, high-competition keywords are just out of reach for many small and new firms. You should consider the site's age, present authority, and any future optimization for your keyword selection process.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't use high-volume keywords. However, it would be best if you considered targeting other long-tail keywords as well. Lengthening, specifying, and localizing your keywords are also excellent ways to attract site traffic.


Remember: There is less traffic, but there is also less competition for long-tail keywords.


Although keywords may not appear to be as thrilling to target, if your website can swiftly rank high in long-tail keywords, you will receive significantly more traffic than if you fail to effectively target a much more competitive keyword.

2. Coining Your Own "Keywords"

Every successful firm must differentiate itself and provide something unique, so some businesses tend to rename products and services as a way to establish a brand or catchphrase.

Self-coined terms likely have (if there are any at all) very low search volumes. While you're advised not to ignore slightly less competitive long-tail keywords, self-coined terms tend to have almost non-existent traffic.


Remember: Lawyer SEO works because it targets users who are already looking for law-related information. This means you have to satisfy that need by showing up where they are. Insisting on self-coined terms only makes it more difficult to find you.


With machine learning and indexing advancements, we will undoubtedly reach a stage when every keyword variation will be appropriately associated with each other. However, that's not happening at the moment.

3. Ignoring User Intent


User intent is why reflects what the user is looking for when they're using search engines. You can gauge the user intent by looking at the types of keywords they're using.


Google has worked hard over the years to guarantee that its algorithm can detect search intent. After all, Google only wants to show the most relevant pages to the user's search. With this in mind, if you're going to rank high, you need to know what consumers are looking for and, more importantly, why they are looking for it.

Remember: Searchers value content and pages that satisfy what they need. For example, if a user is looking for information about specific state laws, they don't want to be given a landing page where they can set up an appointment with an attorney. Similarly, people looking for your law firm's contact information don't want to be given an extensive guide on something they already researched for.

Informational, navigational, and transactional search intents all have different keywords associated with them, and each group will have varying high-volume keywords.


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For Example:

For each category, people will use different keywords, like so:

  • Informational - Users want to know something

    • "What does a personal injury lawyer do"

    • "What happens in a DUI"

    • "What is paternity"

  • Navigational - Users want to get to your site

    • "1000Attorneys About Us"

    • "LawyerLeadMachine Blog"

    • "Twitter Log In"

  • Transactional - Users are looking to hire or buy

    • "Hire labor lawyer"

    • "Divorce attorney appointment"

    • "Consult a Lawyer"

While conducting keyword research, keep an eye out for these terms and phrases. This increases the possibility of creating those all-important conversions by ensuring that the material you're optimizing meets the immediate need of your target users.

Hire the Best Law Firm SEO Agency Today!

Our Lawyer SEO Services guarantee that your law firm website's online exposure is visible on search engines. We help increase high-quality traffic to your website by creating optimized legal content that focuses on relevant keywords representing your law firm. With the support of our law firm's digital marketing professionals, your law firm website will be able to reach the appropriate customers and enjoy profitable growth.


If you're an SEO beginner, a busy firm, or simply need automation to free up your schedule, you can review options to work with us here. We offer our Lawyer SEO services across New York, California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and five other states in USA.

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