Every day the MLT team drive organic and paid traffic to our clients’ websites with the end goal of generating business leads. However, in order us to help generate quality leads, we must have a solid knowledge about the type of law firm we are working with, for example:
- what is their USP?
- who is their target audience?
You can read more in Chris’ blog on differentiating your law firm.
How can a law firm’s branding help with Google rankings?
A website’s ranking factor is determined by Google's famous algorithm and in recent times it has become more and more apparent that google favours brands.
At the end of 2015, Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines stated: “A very positive reputation can be the reason for returning the High rating for an otherwise Medium page."
Taking the time to sculpt your brand and foster its exposure, if done properly, can lead to a recognisable brand which in turn encourages more click-throughs. As it stands, Google will reward high click-through rate sites with a more prominent position in search. If you define your brand properly to offer specific legal services based on your knowledge and expertise, your site is likely to rank for the right terms. Generating a higher volume of the right type of click throughs leads to Google better understanding the relationship between your firm and the services it provides, which is exactly the desired outcome.
Furthermore, whilst this wasn’t the case five years ago, Google nowadays very much prioritises a quality user experience. It is getting better at assessing the behavioural patterns of internet users based on:
- what they search for
- what they really want to find
- whether they’re satisfied
Google favours websites with a high volume of traffic, not just from search, but from various avenues. These avenues may be links from social media, email newsletters or direct visits. Companies of any kind with a strong brand usually earn traffic from various different sources. Therefore, if you spend time perfecting your brand, it’s possible that you needn’t rely solely on search engines to generate visitors to your site, which is good as the greater the variety of traffic you generate the better.
Sometimes we encounter firms who want to do it all; be known nationwide, appeal to the masses and portray that they can assist with any legal enquiry. While the ambition and drive is admired, this attitude can be detrimental to reputation and the true value of leads which the law firm will generate. Fully understanding what sets you apart from your competition is a stepping stone to fulfilling the needs of your target audience. It allows for digital marketing efforts to be more intentional, focused and worthwhile.
How can I ensure my strong brand values influence my Google rankings?
When you are evaluating how your brand can affect rankings, think about the full customer journey. Map out the key steps they would take, from the first time they notice your brand, through deliberation and enquiry, and into retention. What are they likely to search for and what are their concerns at each stage? Carrying out some quality niche keyword research is a necessity for understanding what your target audience is searching for. Once you have long-tail, niche keywords, developing a brand-aligned content strategy is essential. The idea is to curate sections of content which will attract people when they first begin searching for knowledge, and make your content irresistible with in-depth and appropriate legal guides which either answer their question, or make them certain that they must get in touch with you.
Great quality SEO work is difficult to implement if your site is outdated, cluttered and in need of an overhaul. For guaranteed SEO success, you are best to start afresh with a new site in order to build a clean, cleverly structured framework. Once a site has been expertly built behind the scenes, that’s when you can focus on adapting the visual side of your site for a real rankings boost. It may be that your firm is in need of a brand re-fresh, or the core brand values need revisited or readdressed. Spend time on this area as it is essential knowledge to have from the get-go before any other digital marketing efforts are enforced.
In short, we strive to produce something for a client that's going to be one of the best answers/solutions on the web for customers, something which answers a question better than competitors. The SEO situation 10 years ago meant there were short cuts whereas in current times in order to get the rankings from Google you have to delve deeper into the company's identity and do more quality work outside of search.
Contact our Digital Marketing Experts
We advise our clients from the initial stages of assessing a firm’s brand to launching a fully purpose site ready to generate quality business leads, and carry on doing so into the future. If you want to find out more, please call 0845 620 5664.
