Off-Page SEO for Law Firm: 5 Strategies To Implement
Updated: Jun 24, 2022
Learn The Benefits Of Off-Page SEO And Why Your Law Firm Needs It
Search engines like Google have specific criteria for what they deem most relevant. Your goal is to optimize for what the criteria require, necessitating SEO tactics within and outside your domain. This means you also need to optimize outside your website.
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO refers to all of the SEO-related tactics you implement outside your website. Even when it's not directly on your page, they can still influence your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
On-page optimization deals with your content, user experience, and on-site pages. They entail the strategic use of keywords you want to be found for and the use of design layout, accessibility, and formatting that encourages users to stick around.
Meanwhile, off-page SEO involves the promotion of your website. This could be done in many ways, but the collective goal is to point people to your domain. Off-page SEO not only drives traffic, but it builds associations between your site and third-party platforms and domains—all of which still contribute to your overall search engine ranking.
The Benefits Of Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO builds authority. In a previous post about backlinks, we discussed how links from a reputable third-party site could improve your domain authority. Search engines tend to consider the number (total number of links) and quality (links for high-authority sites) of links when determining your authority.
While optimizing your pages and content to their fullest extent boosts your Lawyer SEO, they still might not be enough to push your pages to the first page of the search results. In fact, content from higher-authority websites tends to rank higher than those from lower-authority sites.
Your presence on social media can also boost engagement, reviews, and site traffic. Like links from authoritative domains, your social media also points traffic to your main site.
Ultimately, your off-page SEO is the best way to promote and boost your on-page efforts. Therefore, neither one should be dismissed or ignored.
The Most Basic Types Of Off-Page SEO
Depending on the type of off-page SEO tactic, they'll have different overall benefits to your Lawyer SEO. However, implementing off-page SEO to different facets is a good idea, so you shouldn't stick to just one.
1. Google My Business
Having a Google My Business (GMB) account setup is good for many reasons. It's good for Local SEO, Voice Search, and of course, general off-page SEO.
If a searcher types in "Lawyers Near Me", it can deduce that the user is looking for legal assistance in their area, and will return to them with GMB listings of all nearby law firms. These listings also include important business-related info, like your address, contact number, email, and operating hours.
Google My Business is also connected with several services, including Google Maps and Google Reviews. Again, making your information available instead of relying on the searcher digging for pages of search results can help with your visibility.
2. Social Media
While social shares don't necessarily affect your domain authority, engagement and exposure can help you point people to your website. With the right tactics, you can implement social media marketing that improves your brand awareness.
Remember: catching users' attention and establishing brand awareness is the first step to an effective content marketing strategy.
So use social media as a way to catch attention, then drive traffic from an audience who otherwise would not have found you in the search results. Remember that there are different ways to maximize your off-page SEO for each social media platform, so plan your strategies accordingly.
3. Online Law Firm And Lawyer Directories
There are many law-related online directories, paid and unpaid. As mentioned earlier, expanding your online presence anywhere you can bring traffic to your site. In addition, audiences who may not have found you directly from the search results can find you in lawyer directories.
Just make sure these directories are high-authority, not spammy, and are well-suited domains to list your law firm.
4. Guest Posting
You can share your legal knowledge with other sites via guest posting and then benefit from links in the author's credits. Submitting a guest post requires you to make original and high-quality content that matches the tone, style, and them on a website you want to write for.
Depending on the website or blog's guidelines, you might have to pitch a completed manuscript that will have to be screened by the publication's editorial team. Some blogs will allow external links within the body of the text, so you can link content from your own domain to maximize visibility.
However, do make sure that everything you link is relevant and non-promotional. Most publications remove or reject too many hyperlinks pointing to promotional content and pages.
5. Off-Page Content
Content marketing isn't always about your on-page content. Yes, your legal blog can be used for content marketing, but that isn't the only way to implement the strategy.
Your content marketing strategy can include publishing physical books, guides, eBooks, infographics, and online lectures. You can also fund and conduct research.
Ultimately, content marketing is providing high-quality material that's valuable and useful to users. They build your brand awareness and audience trust. Just remember to put links or law firm information in the content your law firm produces.
Hire Law Firm Marketing Experts for Your Off-Page SEO Campaign
Lawyer SEO requires multiple steps of optimization that will cumulatively boost traffic and conversions. Consistently producing content and improving both on-page and off-page SEO can bring cumulative benefits to your law firm's marketing efforts.
To learn more about how Off-Page SEO can help your law firm increase its visibility and get found by the best potential clients online, get in touch with us today!
