The legal industry is fiercely competitive in many ways, including advertising. Let’s say you want to target the keyword ‘best accident attorneys near me’ with a location target of ‘New York, New York.’ According to the Google Ads’ Keyword Planning Tool, you could pay upwards of $489 for just one click¹.

When you are in such a competitive landscape, you need every advantage you can get. Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are two methods utilized to attract potential clients to your Law Firm’s website. Both advertising methods are incredibly challenging and require an advanced level of knowledge to properly execute a strategy that will accomplish your firm’s desired goals.

Think of it like baking a cake. If you are given all of the ingredients but don’t follow the recipe to put the ingredients together correctly and bake at the proper temperature, you don’t end up with a great result. In fact, you may end up with a disgusting mess. The same is true of managing a successful SEO or SEM campaign. Many things go into an award-winning recipe – you must source quality ingredients, determine the perfect amount of each ingredient to develop amazing flavors, know when to add each ingredient, how to properly blend the ingredients to achieve the desired flavor, and use proper cooking techniques to prepare the dish. Proper plating and a nice garnish will further add to the final result. One critical ingredient for successful SEO and SEM is highly relevant, quality landing pages.

A landing page is literally where a prospect “lands” after clicking on a link. When someone speaks about landing pages, typically, they are referring to a standalone page, distinct from the rest of your website. It’s important that any page that someone may land on is relevant to the search and provides a positive user experience. Let’s assume your firm shows up for the search “best accident attorneys near me.” If someone clicks on a link and is directed to your homepage, that’s likely not the most relevant page to show the end-user. A better option would be to design a landing page that is highly relevant to the search, dedicated to how your firm is arguably the best option for someone seeking the best accident attorney in their area.

A smart way to go about building landing pages is to work backward. Don’t start by building landing pages. Start by mapping out the keywords you want to show up for, break those keywords up into groups and then determine what you need to build to provide relevant landing pages for each keyword group. The more specific a keyword group, the more specific the landing page should be. Some keyword groups that are for generic keywords such as “law firms near me” or “attorneys” could be optimized to use the about or services page of your website. Why? Because they are generic searches and therefore it’s likely a potential client who is very early on in their research process. When a less generic term is used such as “personal injury attorneys” you will want to have a landing page that is specific to only the personal injury practice that your firm provides. If the search is even more specific, like “slip and fall lawyers, ” you’ll want to have a page dedicated to your firm’s qualifications representing slip and fall cases.

• Keep it focused: The purpose is not to encapsulate your website into one page, but to focus on getting the prospect to believe you are a good option to solve their legal problem. For example, if your target search term is related to slip and fall accidents, your landing page should be about why you are the slip and fall lawyer they should hire. Including reviews specific to the search term is a great way to help build credibility and trust with potential clients.
• Have a call to action(CTA): Keep your call to action simple and focused. Whether your goal is for them to contact your firm or signup to receive updates on new laws and regulations, know your goal and have a clear CTA. If you want to collect information, include a form-fill or signup field. If you want a phone call, ensure the phone number is prominent, and don’t forget to set up click-to-call links on your mobile layouts. Make your call to action large enough and strategically placed where it can be easily seen. Use colors that will draw attention to your CTA.
• Make sure your landing page is mobile responsive. In a recent survey, almost 50% of people said they search for an attorney on mobile vs. laptop. Ensure your landing page loads quickly and provides a good user experience on all devices and screen sizes.
• Repeat your promises: Any claims or promises you make in your ad should be repeated on your landing page. For example, if you indicated “free consultation” in your ad, repeat it on the landing page. It is not redundant. Prospects will wonder why promises made in one place were not mentioned in another and, unwittingly, you can be sowing the seeds of distrust.

By building and using landing pages effectively, your firm will experience an increase in your conversion ratio and will receive a boost to your SEO efforts. You may even pay a lower cost-per-click on Google Ads because your landing pages will be highly relevant to the search terms you direct to them. Users searching for your services will also have a better user experience that is highly relevant to them. While landing pages are one ingredient in the complex landscape of SEM and SEO, they could be considered the “secret sauce” that helps take your results from good to great.

These tips are offered to help your law firm compete at a higher level in an industry that is already extremely competitive. Another tool that has proven to help clients choose one firm over another is the ease of paying for services rendered. By accepting various payment options, including debit and credit cards, your firm increases its opportunities to win new clients and cases. In the legal industry, few options provide reliable credit card processing services in compliance with the ABA and other industry regulations. One such example is LexActum, designed explicitly to meet the demands of the legal industry with features including the ability to deposit into an operating and trust account. They provide secure, reliable payment processing with transparent rates and fees. With LexActum, set up is quick and easy. Applications are processed immediately, and your law practice is ready to process credit card sales within 24 to 48 hours. For a free statement audit, or to get started, Call LexActum at 321-972-9838.

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¹ Google Ads Keyword Planner