As with all law firm marketing strategies, part of the secret is measuring performance and adjusting campaigns to make them more successful in the future.
The problem is that SEO for law firms takes time to work.
After the changes are made, patience is required, and performance needs to be measured and monitored over months rather than days or weeks.
In this chapter, you’ll learn:
Let’s begin.
Tracking your on-page SEO results is so pivotal.
To adequately measure the effectiveness of an on-page SEO strategy, you need to track metrics like:
Tracking these results allows you to pinpoint areas for improvement on your website, whether that means optimizing certain pages, enhancing content readability, or speeding up page load times.
The key knowing how to identify which tactics are working well and which aren’t, so you can make informed decisions that can significantly influence your site’s search engine visibility.
Understanding how users interact with your site — identifying the pages they visit, the duration of their stay, and their actions — can help you identify issues with your content. For example, if users are landing on your blog post and leaving instantly, that signals an issue with the content or the website itself.
Ultimately, it’s about understanding how all of the small changes you make to your website affect your long-term goals.
We recommend using Semrush’s Site Audit to easily track your law firm website’s performance on metrics like backlinks, on-page SEO, rankings, and more.
“My website continues to dominate all the top website searches in my industry and my business has grown 10-fold as a result.”
Oykhman Criminal Defence
Before we dive in, you should understand that SEO isn’t immediate.
Typically, you should allow a period of 4 to 6 months for an SEO strategy to start yielding visible results.
SEO is an ongoing process of improvement and optimization. Achieving a high position in search results is only half the battle; maintaining that position requires effort and adaptation to evolving search engine algorithms and competitive landscapes.
Here’s what Google’s Maile Ohye has to say about SEO timelines.
A LinkedIn survey by Ahrefs, which garnered responses from nearly 4,000 participants, added more weight to the ongoing effort required for solid SEO.
The reality is that every case is different. The time it takes to start seeing results depends on your practice area and location. Some practice areas have more competitive keywords, and different geographical areas (more populated areas, specifically) are much more competitive.
If you’re working with a professional, expect to see some results in the first 3-6 months. Things should really pick up at the one-year mark.
All good marketing involves tracking how each campaign is performing through metrics and KPIs.
Let’s dig a little deeper.
Arguably the most important metric for most SEO campaigns, you should definitely be monitoring the rankings for your targeted keywords on a weekly basis.
There are many tools out there that you can use, some free, some paid. Our tool of choice is Semrush.
The most straightforward way to check how one of your pages is ranking is to use the Organic Research tab.
It’ll display a lot of information, including what keywords you’re ranking for and for what URL.
You can also utilize their Position Tracking tool to track the keywords you’re targeting more systematically
Semrush is a paid tool, so it may not be for everyone.
For free alternatives, there’s nothing better than Google Search Console.
Using this tool, you can see what queries are bringing users to your website, how you rank for these queries and historical data.
To find this data, simply log into your GSC and:
This is just one (free) way to see what keywords a website is ranking for.
Measuring your organic web traffic is also worthwhile and can help you optimize your SEO if you’re able to dig deep.
Aside from raw traffic numbers, tools like Google Analytics show you what keywords drive that organic traffic and what those users do on your website once they land there.
Google Analytics is a truly powerful tool and can tell you things like:
These answers can be used to further shape your SEO efforts, and they’re available for free through Google Analytics.
Google has several video, blog, and course resources available for you to learn how to use Analytics. Check out the video below to get started.
It’s all well and good to know what keywords are ranking well and how much traffic you’re getting, but what you really want to know is…
At what rate are users converting?
For law firms, this looks like visitors signing up for a free consultation, signing up for a newsletter, or calling your office.
The great thing is you can use Google Analytics to track your conversions too.
We use Google Tag Manager for clients to create tags and triggers to track form submissions and click-to-calls
From there, we can track it in a GA4 account.
By doing so, we can identify which pages are pulling in the most conversions and optimize conversion rates based on the data.
You can also identify which traffic sources are performing the best and create a conversion rate optimization strategy around that data.
This is all a bit high level and requires some deep knowledge of SEO. We typically recommend working with an SEO specialist, but if you want to do a deep dive, we recommend you watch the video below to learn how to set this all up.
Not only do you want to track your organic traffic, but you also want to keep an eye on your referral traffic.
It’s a good metric for measuring the effectiveness of your link building (thing guest posts) and off-site SEO tactics like social media.
Tracking referral traffic can tell you what off-site SEO and link-building tactics are bringing in traffic and if they’re actually converting that traffic into clients.
You can measure the effectiveness of things like:
And once again, Google Analytics is the best way to track referral traffic.
To see your referral traffic, log in to your GA account and click on Traffic Acquisition.
Scroll down to the table and type Referral into the search bar.
We use CallRail for all of our clients to track local SEO campaigns.
It’s a great tool to track your calls and:
You can use a specific tracking number for your Google Business Profile to measure the performance of your local SEO as it relates to your GBP.
We also use the built-in performance tracker on GMB to measure how many calls a GMB receives each month.
After tracking and analyzing all of that information, you’re left with… well, a lot of data. But what comes next?
Understanding your SEO metrics is only the first step. The real magic lies in using this information to refine and enhance your SEO strategy.
Here’s how to pivot from measurement to action to fix any flaws in your SEO strategy and make sure you meet your goals.
Begin by identifying patterns in your data.
Have certain pages shown significant improvement in rankings or organic traffic? Are there any unexpected drops?
By pinpointing these trends, you can figure out what’s working and what might need a rethink. For example, a drop in traffic on a specific page could indicate issues with content relevance, keyword targeting, or technical SEO. Or poor rankings could mean your blog doesn’t match search intent or isn’t as comprehensive and helpful as it should be.
With your data in hand, figure out which areas hold the most potential for impact.
This might mean doubling down on high-performing content, optimizing pages that are nearly ranking on the first SERP, or addressing technical SEO issues that could be hindering your site’s performance.
Based on your analysis, set clear and achievable goals for your SEO strategy.
These could range from increasing organic traffic by a certain percentage, improving the ranking of specific key pages, or enhancing your site’s mobile usability.
Make sure these goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Armed with your goals, begin making targeted improvements to your website.
This could involve:
SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it task.
After implementing changes, continue to monitor your metrics. This ongoing observation will let you see the real-time impact of your adjustments and make further improvements as needed. This cycle of measurement, analysis, action, and re-measurement will propel your SEO strategy forward.
You’re now at the end of our SEO for Lawyers guide. You should have enough know-how to begin working toward a successful SEO campaign for your firm.
To recap, we’ve covered:
If you’ve made it to the end and decided you don’t have the time to invest in learning and implementing SEO on your own, we can help.
JurisPage is a marketing agency that works solely with law firms. We know the ins and outs of legal marketing and are here to help. Schedule a free consultation with us today.
As with all law firm marketing strategies, part of the secret is measuring performance and adjusting campaigns to make them more successful in the future.
The problem is that SEO for law firms takes time to work.
After the changes are made, patience is required, and performance needs to be measured and monitored over months rather than days or weeks.
In this chapter, you’ll learn:
Let’s begin.
Tracking your on-page SEO results is so pivotal.
To adequately measure the effectiveness of an on-page SEO strategy, you need to track metrics like:
Tracking these results allows you to pinpoint areas for improvement on your website, whether that means optimizing certain pages, enhancing content readability, or speeding up page load times.
The key knowing how to identify which tactics are working well and which aren’t, so you can make informed decisions that can significantly influence your site’s search engine visibility.
Understanding how users interact with your site — identifying the pages they visit, the duration of their stay, and their actions — can help you identify issues with your content. For example, if users are landing on your blog post and leaving instantly, that signals an issue with the content or the website itself.
Ultimately, it’s about understanding how all of the small changes you make to your website affect your long-term goals.
We recommend using Semrush’s Site Audit to easily track your law firm website’s performance on metrics like backlinks, on-page SEO, rankings, and more.
“My website continues to dominate all the top website searches in my industry and my business has grown 10-fold as a result.”
Oykhman Criminal Defence
Before we dive in, you should understand that SEO isn’t immediate.
Typically, you should allow a period of 4 to 6 months for an SEO strategy to start yielding visible results.
SEO is an ongoing process of improvement and optimization. Achieving a high position in search results is only half the battle; maintaining that position requires effort and adaptation to evolving search engine algorithms and competitive landscapes.
Here’s what Google’s Maile Ohye has to say about SEO timelines.
A LinkedIn survey by Ahrefs, which garnered responses from nearly 4,000 participants, added more weight to the ongoing effort required for solid SEO.
The reality is that every case is different. The time it takes to start seeing results depends on your practice area and location. Some practice areas have more competitive keywords, and different geographical areas (more populated areas, specifically) are much more competitive.
If you’re working with a professional, expect to see some results in the first 3-6 months. Things should really pick up at the one-year mark.
All good marketing involves tracking how each campaign is performing through metrics and KPIs.
Let’s dig a little deeper.
Arguably the most important metric for most SEO campaigns, you should definitely be monitoring the rankings for your targeted keywords on a weekly basis.
There are many tools out there that you can use, some free, some paid. Our tool of choice is Semrush.
The most straightforward way to check how one of your pages is ranking is to use the Organic Research tab.
It’ll display a lot of information, including what keywords you’re ranking for and for what URL.
You can also utilize their Position Tracking tool to track the keywords you’re targeting more systematically
Semrush is a paid tool, so it may not be for everyone.
For free alternatives, there’s nothing better than Google Search Console.
Using this tool, you can see what queries are bringing users to your website, how you rank for these queries and historical data.
To find this data, simply log into your GSC and:
This is just one (free) way to see what keywords a website is ranking for.
Measuring your organic web traffic is also worthwhile and can help you optimize your SEO if you’re able to dig deep.
Aside from raw traffic numbers, tools like Google Analytics show you what keywords drive that organic traffic and what those users do on your website once they land there.
Google Analytics is a truly powerful tool and can tell you things like:
These answers can be used to further shape your SEO efforts, and they’re available for free through Google Analytics.
Google has several video, blog, and course resources available for you to learn how to use Analytics. Check out the video below to get started.
It’s all well and good to know what keywords are ranking well and how much traffic you’re getting, but what you really want to know is…
At what rate are users converting?
For law firms, this looks like visitors signing up for a free consultation, signing up for a newsletter, or calling your office.
The great thing is you can use Google Analytics to track your conversions too.
We use Google Tag Manager for clients to create tags and triggers to track form submissions and click-to-calls
From there, we can track it in a GA4 account.
By doing so, we can identify which pages are pulling in the most conversions and optimize conversion rates based on the data.
You can also identify which traffic sources are performing the best and create a conversion rate optimization strategy around that data.
This is all a bit high level and requires some deep knowledge of SEO. We typically recommend working with an SEO specialist, but if you want to do a deep dive, we recommend you watch the video below to learn how to set this all up.
Not only do you want to track your organic traffic, but you also want to keep an eye on your referral traffic.
It’s a good metric for measuring the effectiveness of your link building (thing guest posts) and off-site SEO tactics like social media.
Tracking referral traffic can tell you what off-site SEO and link-building tactics are bringing in traffic and if they’re actually converting that traffic into clients.
You can measure the effectiveness of things like:
And once again, Google Analytics is the best way to track referral traffic.
To see your referral traffic, log in to your GA account and click on Traffic Acquisition.
Scroll down to the table and type Referral into the search bar.
We use CallRail for all of our clients to track local SEO campaigns.
It’s a great tool to track your calls and:
You can use a specific tracking number for your Google Business Profile to measure the performance of your local SEO as it relates to your GBP.
We also use the built-in performance tracker on GMB to measure how many calls a GMB receives each month.
After tracking and analyzing all of that information, you’re left with… well, a lot of data. But what comes next?
Understanding your SEO metrics is only the first step. The real magic lies in using this information to refine and enhance your SEO strategy.
Here’s how to pivot from measurement to action to fix any flaws in your SEO strategy and make sure you meet your goals.
Begin by identifying patterns in your data.
Have certain pages shown significant improvement in rankings or organic traffic? Are there any unexpected drops?
By pinpointing these trends, you can figure out what’s working and what might need a rethink. For example, a drop in traffic on a specific page could indicate issues with content relevance, keyword targeting, or technical SEO. Or poor rankings could mean your blog doesn’t match search intent or isn’t as comprehensive and helpful as it should be.
With your data in hand, figure out which areas hold the most potential for impact.
This might mean doubling down on high-performing content, optimizing pages that are nearly ranking on the first SERP, or addressing technical SEO issues that could be hindering your site’s performance.
Based on your analysis, set clear and achievable goals for your SEO strategy.
These could range from increasing organic traffic by a certain percentage, improving the ranking of specific key pages, or enhancing your site’s mobile usability.
Make sure these goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Armed with your goals, begin making targeted improvements to your website.
This could involve:
SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it task.
After implementing changes, continue to monitor your metrics. This ongoing observation will let you see the real-time impact of your adjustments and make further improvements as needed. This cycle of measurement, analysis, action, and re-measurement will propel your SEO strategy forward.
You’re now at the end of our SEO for Lawyers guide. You should have enough know-how to begin working toward a successful SEO campaign for your firm.
To recap, we’ve covered:
If you’ve made it to the end and decided you don’t have the time to invest in learning and implementing SEO on your own, we can help.
JurisPage is a marketing agency that works solely with law firms. We know the ins and outs of legal marketing and are here to help. Schedule a free consultation with us today.
Ready to maximize your marketing budget? Fill out the contact form or call us today for a complimentary consultation. We will listen to your story, work to define your business objectives, and recommend an approach to deliver maximum ROI for your firm.
7500 Flying Cloud Drive
Suite 625
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
10900 Stonelake Boulevard
Building 2, Suite 100
Austin, TX 78759
2005 Sheppard Ave E
Suite 402
Toronto, ON M2J 5B4
By using this website, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Cookies help us enhance your browsing experience and provide personalized content. If you do not agree to our use of cookies, please adjust your browser settings accordingly.