It’s been said that the people will come if you build something.
But that’s never been true when it comes to the Internet.
You need to find your target demographic, sell them your unique value proposition, get them to your online storefront, and convince them to buy your immigration legal services.
According to Forbes, there are around 1.09 billion websites worldwide. That number is growing steadily with 252,000 new websites going live daily. So, it’s an understatement to say that the average website is, proverbially speaking, a needle in a haystack.
IBISWorld reports there were 17,588 immigration attorneys and lawyers in the U.S. last year, up 7.9% from the year prior.
Assuming that most of these legal professionals have websites, you must consider how best to reach your target demographic and sell them your services.
Again, just because you have a website doesn’t mean would-be legal clients will ever find you online.
When people search online for help with visa applications, green cards, or citizenship, they want immigration lawyers with the right skills to achieve the desired objectives.
But here’s the thing — people generally favor the lawyers at the top of the first page of search engine results.
They believe the lawyers at the top of the page are more trustworthy.
After all — they reason — why would Google list certain lawyers at the top of page one if these experts weren’t the crème de la crème?
While that’s the rationale of many, it’s a partially true perspective.
The reality is that the immigration lawyers listed high on the first page of search engine results aren’t just there because of their skills — as vital as skills are.
They’re also there because of their successful search engine optimization strategies that align well with Google’s algorithms.
So, your immigration law firm SEO strategy is essential to grow your practice. You must optimize your law firm’s website for keywords related to immigration law.
While it’s not rocket science, there is a science to doing it well, finding leads, and converting them to clients.
Here are some things to consider about effective SEO strategies for immigration law attorneys.
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Research Keywords Relevant to Immigration Law Firms
Since you want potential clients to find your website, you must know what keywords they’ll type into online search engines.
The chances are you can come up with some off the top of your head. People looking for immigration attorneys will want help with asylum, visa applications, deportation defense, green cards, and citizenship. So, focus on those keywords.
But don’t stop there. You can find tons of keyword research tools online. Examples include — but aren’t limited to — Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, Ahrefs, and Semrush. Use these tools to find popular keywords your target demographic uses in online search engines.
These specialized tools do more than find keywords applicable to people seeking immigration attorneys.
You can use them to understand search intent, uncover new trends, learn about your target demographic, and more.
An effective SEO strategy starts with keyword research.
Often keyword research will lead to your finding ancillary and tangential terms (e.g. employment law) that could relate to what your ideal clients are searching for on the web.
Website Optimization for Immigration Law Firms
Your next step is to optimize your immigration law firm website for SEO. Doing so effectively will ensure your law firm performs better on search engine results pages. You can do the following to accomplish this:
- Designing an Effective Website: Eight in 10 consumers are open to spending more for a superior user experience. You can create a better website by, among other things, making it easy to navigate with well-thought-out menus, effective call-to-action buttons, and better sales funnels that guide people from the “leads” stage to the “clients” stage.
- Optimize Content Strategy: A website optimization strategy must include a content marketing and SEO plan. You need SEO-friendly content that your target demographic finds interesting, useful, and relevant. It makes sense to publish content covering topics your target demographic searches for online. Print and video content make sense. And consider publishing content in other languages based on the ethnic populations in your area.
- Enhance On-Page SEO: On-page SEO is also essential. You can do this by optimizing images and URLs, adding internal links, improving page speed, optimizing headings, using meta descriptions, and using keywords strategically.
- Speed Up Website Loading Time: Many would-be clients will abandon their searches if your website takes too long to load. It shouldn’t take more than two seconds to load — in a perfect world. While three seconds is considered okay, anything more than that won’t be tolerated by many people. They’ll go elsewhere. You can find free tools online to test loading speeds.
- Provide Mobile-Friendly Site: Mobile devices account for around 50.48% of online traffic, while desktop devices make up 46.51%. Many people looking for immigration attorneys do so from small screens like smartphones or tablets rather than desktop computers. So, your strategy must ensure people using mobile devices can properly see, navigate, and interact with your website. Otherwise, that’s a lost opportunity.
- On-Page SEO: On-page SEO includes pursuing link-building. That’s an SEO strategy where the goal is to get websites to link to your immigration law website. Linking with other reputable sites will improve your website’s performance on search engine results pages.
- Local SEO. Optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP) with proper reviews and local link citations.
Focus on Local SEO
Local SEO is about leveraging SEO to increase search visibility, boost brand awareness, and increase traffic for local companies, including your immigration lawyer site.
This will factor into your keyword research. If you’re based in, say, New York, you’ll want to reach out to people who go to a search engine and type in search terms like “immigration lawyer in New York.”
As part of your local SEO strategy, it makes sense to create a Google My Business profile.
It’s a way for businesses to manage their online presence. You can make it easier for would-be clients to find you by entering contact information.
SEO for Immigration Attorneys is Essential
According to Forbes, seven in 10 businesses had a website last year. You not only don’t want to be one of those three in 10 companies without a website. You also must ensure your website is professional and optimized for SEO to bring in leads you can convert to clients.
Enter SEO.co. Since 2010, we’ve served Fortune 500 companies, small- and medium-sized law businesses, and SEO agencies with technical SEO.
Our SEO services for immigration lawyers include link building, white label SEO, SEO audits, on-page SEO, content writing services, pay-per-click management, brand mentions, public relations, and web design.
We’ve helped companies like Godaddy, Shopify, Carmax, Expedia, Box, Wiley, Qualtrics, Bissell, and thousands of SMBs scale organic traffic. Get in touch today to learn how we can up your immigration lawyer SEO game.
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