6 SEO Mistakes to Avoid on Your Practice Area Pages
Is the traffic to your website’s practice area pages lower than you’d like it to be? If so, then you may be guilty of some common search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes.
Now don’t worry - you likely won’t need to do a complete overhaul of your content strategy. But correcting a few minor SEO mistakes on your practice area pages can make a significant difference in the traffic flow to your law firm’s website.
In this blog post, we will discuss what you should and shouldn’t do to attract more potential clients and increase your online visibility.
1. Neglecting Keyword Research
One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research. If this is the first time you’re hearing about it, keywords are the terms that potential clients use when searching for legal services online. By not including these keywords in your practice area pages, you may be missing out on valuable opportunities to reach your target audience.
What to Do Instead: Make sure to identify relevant keywords for each of your practice areas and incorporate them strategically throughout your practice area pages.
2. Ignoring Meta Tags and Descriptions
Meta tags and descriptions are essential elements of on-page SEO that can significantly impact your search engine rankings. These tags are snippets of text that describe a page's content. But they don't appear on the page itself - they show up in the page's code. They help search engines understand what a web page is about, which can influence search rankings and visibility.
What to Do Instead: Take the time to write unique and compelling meta tags and descriptions for each of your practice area pages. This can help improve click-through rates and attract more visitors to your website.
3. Failing to Optimize for Local Search
If you operate like many other law firms, then you tend to do most of your work in specific geographic areas. This makes local SEO crucial for attracting clients in your target market. When you don’t optimize your practice area pages for local search, you may miss out on opportunities to connect with potential clients in your area.
What to Do Instead: Include location-specific keywords, create Google My Business listings, and ensure that your contact information is consistent across all online platforms to improve your local search rankings.
4. Overlooking Mobile Optimization
With more and more people using smartphones and tablets to browse the internet, mobile optimization is no longer optional - it's essential. This refers to making sure your website loads properly on mobile devices, and not just desktops. If you overlook mobile optimization on your practice area pages, it can result in a poor user experience and lower rankings in mobile search results.
What to Do Instead: Make sure that your website is responsive, loads quickly on mobile devices, and provides a seamless browsing experience for users on the go.
5. Neglecting Internal Linking
While external linking often gets a lot of attention, internal linking can also have a significant impact on how search engines crawl and index your website. In fact, neglecting internal linking on your practice area pages can result in poor navigation, orphaned content, and missed opportunities to pass link equity throughout your site, so it’s not something to miss.
What to Do Instead: Incorporate relevant internal links within your content strategically to help users navigate between related topics and improve the overall structure of your website.
6. Forgetting the User Experience
Finally, while optimizing for search engines is important, it's equally essential to prioritize the user experience on your practice area pages. If you’re cramming keywords into content, using intrusive pop-ups, or neglecting page speed, you may end up with high bounce rates, low engagement, and decreased rankings in search results.
What to Do Instead: Focus on creating valuable, informative content that addresses the needs of potential clients while providing a seamless browsing experience across all devices.
The Bottom Line
By avoiding these six common SEO mistakes on your practice area pages, you can improve your online visibility, attract more potential clients, and ultimately grow your legal practice.
Just remember that change isn’t going to happen overnight. SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring and adjustments based on industry trends and algorithm updates. So, do your best to stay informed and continue refining your strategy over time. You never know when a little change will make a big difference!
Need a hand optimizing your practice area pages? If so, we’d be happy to help! Click here to get in touch with Legal Verb, and ask about our legal content services today.
