Local SEO For Law Firms: How to Dominate the SERPs

In the legal world, most prospective clients are looking for a lawyer nearby. They need a local expert familiar with local laws and community-specific nuances.

These searches almost always begin online through Google.

Law firms that appear in a Google local 3-pack get 70% of clicks from local users. So if you’re not showing up in these top three local results, you’re losing leads to nearby competitors.

That’s why local SEO needs to be a top priority for every lawyer.

Local SEO strategies focus on improving your law firm’s online visibility in local search results, with the goal of ranking higher on Google for “near me” searches and increasing your chances of getting more targeted traffic from people seeking legal advice in your area.

This doesn’t happen by accident. And as a legal marketing expert with 30 years of experience under my belt, I’ll show you exactly how to win here.

Start by Optimizing Your Google Business Profile

The very first thing you need to do is set a strong foundation with your Google Business Profile (GBP). If you don’t have this set up yet, you need to create an account ASAP.

Without an optimized business profile, your law firm will never appear in the coveted local map pack for local attorney searches.

Having a profile isn’t enough on its own. To optimize it, you’ll also need to:

Make sure your firm’s name, address, and phone number are accurate and consistent everywhere else you appear online.
Select “Law Firm” as your primary category.
Add your specialized practice areas as secondary categories (personal injury law, family law, SSDI law, etc.).
Create a compelling business description with relevant keywords while clearly explaining your firm’s expertise and value proposition.
Upload high-quality visual content of your office, attorneys, and team.

I recommend looking at the profiles of your top local competitors. See what they’re doing well, and try to make your profile better in every possible way.

These are the firms that will be displayed side-by-side next to yours in the SERPs. So if one of you has a really low-quality smartphone photo of a lobby with dirty carpets while the other has a professional-quality image of an office that looks like it belongs in a magazine, users will obviously be more attracted to the latter.

Get More Google Reviews

Your firm’s Google reviews are directly tied to your position in the search results, specifically for local searches and Google’s local map pack.

Having recent reviews sends trust signals, which is something that Google favors.

If your current approach to getting reviews is just sitting back and hoping for the best, then you’re doing it wrong. You need to proactively take steps to get reviews for your law firm.

Asking your clients for reviews is the most logical approach. But this doesn’t work for every practice, particularly for personal injury lawyers, where clients might be sick, hurt, or dead. Asking a family member of a deceased client to leave a review probably doesn’t align with your morals. So you may need to think outside the box here to increase your chances of getting more reviews.

I recommend expanding beyond your client list and digging deeper into your network. Anyone who has had a positive interaction with you or your firm can leave a review.

This includes colleagues who have referred your firm, people who have heard you speak at conferences, and even someone who’s had a free consultation with your firm.

Make it easy for people to leave you a Google review. In addition to manual outreach and directly asking for reviews, you can add a simple “leave us a review” button in your email signature that directly sends people to the right page. Eliminating extra steps and friction is a huge help.

Optimize Your Website For “Near Me” Searches

To increase your chances of appearing in local searches, you need to optimize your site for location-specific keywords.

Here’s what I mean:

Instead of just targeting “personal injury lawyer” on your site, you can target “Boston personal injury lawyer.”
Get case-specific and neighborhood-specific for long-tail keywords like “car accident lawyer South Boston” or “slip and fall accident lawyer Allston.”
Create dedicated landing pages on your site for all of these potential “near me” search terms.
Optimize your practice pages to include long-tail keywords with local search terms.
Include your target location in on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and even the URL structure (e.g., /boston-personal-injury-lawyer/).

Add local keywords throughout the content of your pages and blog as well.

For example, you might talk about something like falling down the stairs at Fenway Park or how common car accidents are near Faneuil Hall.

Not only does this increase your chances of appearing in people searching for lawyers in those areas, but it also sends local signals to Google, which is crucial for your local SEO strategy.

Submit Your Law Firm to Other Online Directories

Build citations to legal directories, like FindLaw, Nolo, Lawyers.com, etc.

From there, claim all of your local business listings on platforms like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Apple Maps, and so on.

Not only will this step help you attract new leads from people searching for lawyers on places other than Google, but it will also directly impact how you rank in the SERPs for Google searches.

This is another signal to Google related to trust and credibility. If other websites are linking to your site with the same information, address, phone number, and hours, it tells Google that you’re legitimate and worthy of appearing in local searches.

While Google’s algorithm is far from perfect, their goal is to serve users with the best possible results for whatever they’re searching for. If Google can’t verify the legitimacy of your firm, then it’s not going to rank you high. But your information appearing in dozens of other locations on the web will boost Google’s confidence in effectively recommending you to searchers.

Traditional SEO Principles Still Apply Locally

There are absolutely some additional steps and angles to prioritize when you’re focusing on local SEO for your law firm. However, that doesn’t mean you can just forget about basic SEO strategies.

If your site isn’t optimized properly for organic searches holistically, then it’s not going to do well in local searches either.

Build Backlinks

Link building remains a crucial component of SEO and local SEO success by extension.

Here’s what you can do to get more backlinks for your law firm:

Submit guest articles to legal publications and local business journals.
Participate in speaking engagements at bar associations and community events.
Offer expert commentary to local media on relevant legal issues.
Sponsor local events, charities, or youth teams.
Participate in Chamber of Commerce events.
Volunteer for community organizations.

All of these typically come with a link to your website from a third-party source.

Getting links from high-quality and authoritative websites (particularly local ones) sends signals to Google that boost your legitimacy. Your domain rating will increase, and you’ll have a greater chance of edging out competitors with a lower rating.

Produce High Quality Content That Aligns With E-E-A-T Guidelines

Google’s E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is perfect for lawyers who can demonstrate practical experience in their practice specialty.

There is no one single way to achieve this. So you’ll need to send signals from all angles showing that you really are the best local authority expert on whatever particular legal subject you’re targeting in the search results.

Strategies include:

Starting a podcast that explains complex legal scenarios.
Publishing case studies and successful outcomes.
Blogging about frequently asked legal questions.
Explanations of state-specific laws and procedures.
Local articles on updates to law changes or court rulings.
Accepting invitations to speaking events and getting booked as a podcast guest.

Google is smart enough to recognize your name and firm’s name in other sources on the web. So while you want to publish as much of this stuff as possible on your own site, it’s ok if the podcast interview is posted on someone else’s social media site.

This is a long-term play that can’t be accomplished overnight. But you’re trying to establish yourself as the go-to source for information and expertise on a subject. Once this happens, you’ll climb the SERP rankings for all searches (including local ones).

On-Page and Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures that Google can effectively crawl, index, and understand your law firm’s website. Basically, if your site has issues, then Google won’t trust it enough to rank you high in local searches.

Here’s what you need to do:

Make sure your site speed is lightning fast.
All of your pages need to be optimized for mobile searches.
Use a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
Implement structured data markups to help Google understand your content better.
Create a logical internal linking structure to help users and search engines navigate your pages.

If this sounds like too much for you to handle internally, reach out to a legal marketing expert for help. Here at Rainstar Digital, we can do this on your behalf to ensure your site is SEO-friendly and primed for local search dominance.

Final Thoughts

The benefits of local SEO for lawyers can’t be overstated enough. You’ll end up with higher qualified lead generation, improved credibility, and establish a clear competitive advantage over other firms in your area.

It’s also a highly cost-effective marketing strategy that will support your practice for the long run.

Unlike PPC ads that are outrageously expensive and stop delivering results the second you stop spending money, your SEO efforts give you long-term visibility indefinitely.

Use the strategies I’ve outlined in this guide to define your local SEO strategy. Whether you’re starting from scratch or need help getting to that next level, all of these tactics will work. Just remember to give it time, as results won’t happen overnight.

And if you need help with anything or just have some questions, reach out to our team here at Rainstar for assistance.