I admit to a certain level of compulsive rank checking on Google. Am I ranking first for “Raleigh divorce lawyer,” or is the other guy? I swap positions with him every month or two. I’m a lot happier when I’m in first and he’s in second. He’s ahead right now, and it’s eating at me.
If you’re going to check (and you probably shouldn’t if you value your health), be sure you’re using an anonymous browser tab that’s logged out of Google. If you’re using a tab that’s logged into Google, then you’re getting results that have been customized for you. Those aren’t the same search results that most others see.
There are steps you can take to improve your chances of appearing at the top of the search results. These actions won’t improve your rankings overnight, but they’ll put you on track to move up. These are the kinds of actions that will improve your rankings over the long haul and will keep you out of the Google penalty box.
Do these five things, and you’ll be on your way to climbing up in the search results rankings:
- Create helpful content. Put stuff on your site that helps your visitors. Think about them rather than yourself. What do they need to know? Give them answers to their legal questions. Give them sample forms, create videos, and build calculators and tools. Help them instead of telling them how great you and your law firm are for them.
- Write it their words. Make sure you’re using the same kinds of words they use. Explain which “city” matters instead of which “jurisdiction.” Talk about the judge making a custody “decision” instead of an “adjudication.” They will likely use their own words to search for lawyers like you, so you want their language—not yours—to be indexable on your pages.
- Freshness matters. Don’t let the website content get old and stale. Keep it fresh. Revise content and add new content on your site. The search engines appreciate fresh content. That’s why blogs do so well in the rankings. Thankfully, laws change, and courts issue new decisions constantly. You’ll never lack for new material.
- Pay attention to the basics. Make sure to feature your phone number and address prominently and confirm that they are up-to-date. Check that Google and others have the correct contact info in their databases. Be sure all of your info is consistent from one directory to the next. The indexes verify the information by comparing themselves to others. When a change takes place, you need to update everywhere.
- Monitor your site. I know a lawyer who didn’t realize that his site had been down for three weeks. Google knew, and it responded by removing him from the index. Use an uptime monitoring service and get the site fixed if something goes wrong. Take it to the next level and check your site speed on Google Analytics. Google appreciates a quick site and will move you up in the rankings if all systems are go.
Improving your ranking increases your visibility. Being more visible increases the likelihood that you’ll get calls and that some of those folks will become clients. Spend a few minutes and take action on your site today.
