Need proof? Check out these stats…

• 96% of people use a search engine to seek legal advice.
• 38% of people use the internet to find an attorney.
• 62% of legal searches are non-branded (for example, Miami car accident attorney).

Additionally, your law firm website is a great spot to generate new leads for your firm. 74% of consumers who visit a law firm’s website end up taking action, such as contacting the firm by phone.

Also, the lawyer SEO competition doesn’t necessarily reflect the legal market you’re in. Only 35% of law firm websites have been updated in the last 3 years, and 40% of law firms don’t even have a law firm website.

In short, by applying an effective law firm SEO strategy, you’ll leap ahead of most of your competitors.

To help you put together your own SEO campaign, I’ll show you how to rank your law firm #1 in Google – step-by-step.

ARTICLE CONTENTS

TECHNICAL SEO
Step 1. Determine Website Structure
Step 2. Setup Your GMB Listing
Step 3. Improve Your Site Speed
Step 4. Mobile Optimization
Step 5. Implement SSL
KEYWORD RESEARCH
Step 6. Understand Search Intent
Step 7. Find the right keywords
PAGES & CONTENT
Step 8. Identify User Content Goals
Step 9. Format Your Pages Properly
Step 10. Optimize Your Home Page
Step 11. Create Practice Pages
Step 12. Rank Better with Blog Posts
Step 13. Fix Zombie Pages
DOMINATE LOCAL SEARCH
Step 14. Tailor Pages to Markets
Step 15. Legal Directory Citations
Step 16. Claim & Manage Reviews
LINKS
Step 17. Outbound Links
Step 18. Inbound Links
MEASURE RESULTS
Step 19. Tools to Use
Step 20. KPIs

TECHNICAL SEO FOR ATTORNEYS

Step 1. Determine Your Website Structure

Structure your own website so your users (and Google) can find everything. Your website needs to have a defined structure. Without one, it’s difficult for users to navigate and difficult for search engines to crawl and discover your web pages.

Structuring your site for your users

Users need to be able to easily find what they’re looking for. This means that you need to understand what information people seek out when visiting your law firm’s website and put that important information  on the homepage or make it easy to access from the navigation bar.

For example, if a prospective client is looking for a personal injury attorney in Miami, they may search your firm’s website for practice areas, office location, reviews, and the about section.

Look at how this law firm’s website quickly addresses those needs with their navigation bar.

EXAMPLE 1

• Practice areas, either directly on your navigation menu or as a dropdown if you have multiple services. This gets your law firm’s services based keywords on every page of your site, sending strong relevancy signals to Google crawlers.
• Location information, either directly on your navigation menu or as a dropdown if you have multiple locations. This gets your location-based keywords on every page of your site, sending strong relevancy signals to search engine algorithms about the geographic area you serve.
• A link to your attorneys or about page, which should give an overview of the years of experience of your whole legal team.
• A link to your reviews or testimonials page – to build trust.
• A link to your “Contact Us” clearly labeled with a unique color where visitors can contact you via phone number, email, or an embedded contact form. This is a call to action.
• Your phone number. This is another call to action. Even if you already have a “contact us” button that links to a contact page, 74% of people who land on a law firm’s website are likely to contact you via phone, so making this form of contact as simple as 1 click is to your advantage.

If you’re unsure about what users are likely to look for on your website, search Google for your practice areas and look at the top ranking competitors sites to get ideas for your navigation and site layout.

Finally, it’s important to make sure your navigation menu is usable both on desktop and mobile.

In fact, 31% of all law firm related website traffic comes from mobile, so a large amount of your leads are likely to come from a mobile device.
Take a look at how this law firm’s website made their navigation menu easy to access and use on mobile phones.

This is referred to as the “tap area” of a button and is a key component of converting on mobile devices. Make sure this is sized appropriately for phones and fingers of all sizes. Users can become easily frustrated if they have a difficult time tapping the correct button on a mobile device and may leave your site.

Structuring your site for Successful SEO

Google also uses your law firm’s website structure to determine what website content is important and relevant information. Here are a few ways to help Google crawl your law firm website in a more effective way.

Use proper page and URL Structure

Ideally, your website as a whole should be structured like a pyramid, with your home page at the top, your category pages (the ones in your navigation menu) beneath that, and your individual pages beneath your category pages.

Not only does this make it very easy for users to find relevant content on your site, but also makes it easier for search engines to index each page of your website.

This means that they should only have one slash after the .com, .net, etc (aka. the “top-level-domain”).

So, your about page should look like https://yourdomain.com/about

Any individual pages that are a subset of your category pages, like blog articles, should only have two slashes after the top-level-domain.

For example, blog articles would look like this: https://yourdomain.com/blog/how-to-hire-a-personal-injury-lawyer

Clear URL structure makes it easy for search engine crawlers to find pages on your law firm website.

Clear linking and navigation titles

The placement of navigation items is an important factor for users and search engines alike. While users are more likely to pay attention to navigation titles, search engines use the anchor text of these navigation items to determine the topical relevance of a page.

What is anchor text?
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink.
Here’s what it looks like in your site’s code

If we inspect the code on Harell & Harell’s site, we can see this in action. Here’s the navigation menu item’s anchor text for the user.

These same link signals can be leveraged in the footer of your law firm website as well. Adding links to pages such as to your blog, privacy policy, or sitemap in the footer can help boost the link signals to these pages without taking up space in the main navigation menu.

Proper use of H tags – How to use H tags for SEO

Header tags (commonly called H tags) outline the structure of your page. Often times, an H tag is used as the title displayed on the page, while the page title is what’s displayed in the organic search results.

Common H tag page formatting looks like this:

Notice the difference between these 2 articles. One is using H tags properly, while the other is writing their headlines in plain text.

Header Tags Used Properly

When writing your H tags, keep a few things in mind:

• Only use 1 H1 tag on your page.
• Use H2, H3, and other H tags to segment out the content of your page.
• Use related keywords in your HTML tags.

Step 2. Create and optimize your law firm’s Google My Business listing

85% of people use online maps, such as Google Maps, to find legal services.

Google Maps is a huge part of local SEO. If your firm largely targets local clients, then getting listed on Google Maps is a must.

How to add your law firm to Google Maps

So, how do you get listed on Google Maps?
By creating a Google My Business listing.

Here’s how.

Google My Business best practices

Google uses information from Google My Business to display information for searches that have local area intent.

Clearly, it’s important that this information is up-to-date, accurate, and fully optimized.

How to optimize your law firm’s Google My Business listing

Here’s how to optimize your firm’s Google My Business account:

• Enter your business information correctly on the map so users can easily find you.
• List the official website of your law firm.
• Include your opening hours.
• Make sure your business name, address, and phone number is EXACTLY the same as listed on your website. Google aggregates this information from across the web.
• Choose the most appropriate and specific category for your firm so that you show up in the right search terms.
• Add photos of your office, staff or anything else you’d like that’s relevant and professional.
• Describe your law firm. Include links and relevant keywords in the introduction.

If you’re interested in seeing how users behave with your listing, check out Google My Business insights.

Step 3. Make your law firm website as fast as possible

Google is now mobile-first, which means they assume users are accessing your site with a 5G connection.

They want to provide users with a great page experience. Presenting users with slow websites doesn’t accomplish this, so if you want higher rankings, your website needs to be fast.

Due to its impact on user experience, website speed is one of the most important SEO ranking factors.

If a website takes a long time to load, the user will click back to Google to find a better choice. Google will simply think the user didn’t find what they were looking for and your website rank will drop.

Amazon found clear correlations between page speed and bounce rate. Just a few seconds too long, and your users are 32% more likely to leave.

To make your site as fast as possible, use Google’s PageSpeed Tool to see how your site loads on desktop and on a 5G connection. This tool is a simple way to discover any issues that you can address to make your site faster.

Step 4. Make sure your site is mobile friendly

Consider this – you’re a personal injury attorney, and a potential client just got into a car accident.

They try to access your site to call you, but they have a poor mobile connection.

Or worse, they’re nervous – their adrenaline is pumping – and they’re having trouble tapping their screen with accuracy.

Your website takes too long to load, and when it finally does, the user pushes the wrong button on accident, so they move on to the next listing in Google.

This is why mobile optimization is important for attorney websites.

At a minimum, you should make sure that:

• Your website loads quickly on mobile.
• Your buttons are sized well enough that people with small screens or big fingers can tap them without accidentally tapping a different button.
• Keep important information above the fold – i.e. keep your call to action visible without requiring users to scroll down.
• Have a click to call button for mobile.

Check out Lawrence Law Group’s site as an example of doing this correctly.

This, and Google prioritizes mobile experiences when ranking websites.

Step 5. Secure your law firm’s website with SSL (Secure Socket Layer)

Ever come across a website and see something like this?

As an attorney, you know that trust between you and your target audience is important, so why would this be any different online?

This is what happens when a website isn’t secured with an SSL certificate.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and is essentially a form of validation for your website that confirm there aren’t any intermediaries between a page and the web host that could potentially steal a users information.

Basically, an SSL certificate proves that a website is who they say they are. This is shown by a site having https instead of http at the beginning of their domain.

Google has also confirmed that it is, in fact, taken into consideration for rankings.

Often times, you can get an SSL certificate through your web hosting provider. They’re usually available for an annual fee, and will fix all of the issues associated with “website not secure” popups or messages.

If you prefer to go the route of free, or would rather have your SSL certificate not tied to your web hosting provider, you can use a service like Let’s Encrypt instead.

Once you get your certificate set up, plug your homepage https URL into Why No Padlock? to have their tool crawl your site and make sure it’s implemented correctly.

A few things to note about getting your site SSL certified:

• Google will treat this as if you’re moving your site to a new domain name, which means you may temporarily lose search rankings and organic traffic until Google crawls your site again and reindexes your new https pages.
• You could end up with a lot of broken links, so it’s important to make sure you properly 301 redirect your http links to your new https links when migrating to https.

KEYWORD RESEARCH

Step 6. Understand searcher intent and keyword types

Before you start optimizing your law firm’s website, you need to know what kind of keywords you’re going to go after.

In attorney SEO, as in all SEO, a keyword is really just a search term that Google’s users type to find what they’re looking for.

What they’re looking for is described as searcher intent – and can be broken down into three categories:

• Awareness
• Evaluation
• Purchase

Searcher intent addresses the question “what are the searchers really looking for?”
Let’s assume a musician is trying to copyright their music. Here are some search terms they might use in each stage.

• Awareness – This is where the musician is looking for answers, resources, educational material, and insights. Example search terms (or keywords) may include:

• • • How can I protect my music?
    • Do I copyright or trademark a song?
    • How to copyright a song

• Evaluation – This is the middle stage where the musician knows what needs to be done and is researching options. Example search terms (or, again, keywords) in this stage may include:

• • • Music lawyers near me
    • Who are the best copyright lawyers in Nashville
    • Copyright lawyer reviews

• Purchase – This is the final stage where the musician is figuring out what it would take to become a customer. Keywords used in this stage are likely to be very specific:
  • Law firm name contact info
  • Lawyer name contact info

In this example, the musician wanted to protect their music, learned more about what’s involved, then narrowed down the options until they found the best one for them, then took steps to contact the appropriate firm.

The closer a user gets to a purchase, the longer the keywords usually are. This is where the phrase long-tail keywords comes from.

Step 7. Find the right keywords

Now that you understand searcher intent and know about how people use Google to make purchases, let’s dive into some keyword research.

To find new keyword phrase ideas, just head over to Google’s Keyword Planner, log in, and click “Discover new keywords.”

Next, enter your website or a keyword of your choice to get started. For this example, I’m going to enter a keyword.

You’ll notice that you have columns that show you the monthly search volume and the cost-per-click bid range if you were to run ads.

If a keyword has a high bid, that means advertisers are bidding high amounts for that search query in PPC advertising campaigns –likely because it drives sales.

That means these keywords are likely to have high purchase intent. These are the keywords that you’ll likely want to target with pages that have lots of call-to-actions.

If you want more keyword ideas, you can leverage Google. Just take one of your chosen keywords, plug it into Google’s search box, and look at the “People also ask” section.

If you click one of the questions, Google automatically generates more of them.

When you find your keywords, remember to use your primary keyword within the H1 and title tags of your page. This gives the search engines a clear indication as to what the page is about. For more information on keywords and keyword research check out Keywords 101: A Beginner’s Guide.

PAGES & CONTENT

Step 8. Understand Google’s content preferences

Google prioritizes pages based on how it views search intent for different terms. You won’t be able to effectively rank a product page for an informational search.

Google often prioritizes long-form content, but content that meets a user’s need always wins out.

It’s the difference between “how to find a good accident lawyer” and “accident lawyer near me” searches. One will land on a blog post/long form content, the other on a directory or services page.

Think about it like this – someone with a broken faucet is looking for contact info for an available plumber, not a long-form article on plumbing.

Step 9. Format your pages properly

When formatting your page, there are a few things that need consideration.

• Formatting your titles
• Using H tags
• Writing meta descriptions
• Formatting your content

Let’s go over each of these.

How to write your page titles for SEO

The page title is the clickable headline of your page that appears on search engine results pages (commonly referred to as SERPs).

When writing your title tags, keep a few things in mind.

• Keep your titles about 55-60 characters long. Too short and they aren’t detailed enough, but too long and they’ll be cut off at the end in search engines, meaning people won’t be able to read them.
• Use your target keyword in the title as close to the beginning as possible.
• Describe your page content in the best way possible.
• Keep your titles unique to the specific page. Otherwise, multiple pages may compete for the same keyword.
• Use your brand name wisely. In most cases, your brand name should be left to the end of the title.

Here are some examples of well formatted page titles, and one that’s not as well formatted:

• Their title is too long, which made it cut off at the end.
• They didn’t use a searchable keyword in the beginning of the title. Instead, they used their brand name.

How to write your page descriptions for SEO

Page descriptions are the short paragraph of text placed in the HTML that describe the contents of a page. These are known as “meta descriptions” and will show under your page in the organic search results.

Google has specifically stated that they do not use the meta description as a ranking signal. However, the number of people who click on your website vs. others is a ranking signal, and the meta description influences a user’s decision to click on your website.

Because of this, the meta description indirectly influences your rankings.

So, when writing your meta descriptions, do so with the goal of convincing users to click on your listing rather than stuffing keywords in there.

Here are a few things that can accomplish this:

• Keep your description between 135-160 characters so that it doesn’t cut off at the end.
• Don’t duplicate your meta descriptions. Write unique ones for every webpage.
• Use your keyword in the description. This is important not because search engines use this as a ranking signal, but because the keyword is often highlighted in bold, which can draw attention to your organic listing.
• Treat the meta as an advertisement for your page. Make it compelling and relevant. It should match the contents of your page while being as appealing as possible.

Step 10. Create a winning home page

Your homepage is the most valuable page on your site. Here are some ways to make it have a better chance of securing top rankings.

Optimize for the most competitive terms

As far as search engines are concerned, your home page carries the most weight in terms of value. Because of this, it’s best to optimize the page for your most competitive keyword.

Boyd Law does this very well.

Your page may not rank right away, but as you build your domain authority and visibility, it will climb closer to the top of the search results.

Feature reviews to build trust

You need to establish credibility and trust as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is featuring reviews or testimonials on your homepage.

Take a look at how Morgan & Morgan features powerful video testimonials on their homepage.

Use images or videos to boost engagement

Google uses dwell time as a ranking factor, so it’s in your best interest to keep users engaged on your homepage as long as possible. Using videos or other visual graphics accomplish this.

Look at how The Law Offices of Peter C. Bronstein does this.

Craft a compelling call-to-action (CTA)

A clear, consistent call-to-action is what generates leads.

When writing your CTA, you want to keep 3 things in mind.

1. Use action words and be specific – Phrases that encourage users to do something are much more powerful than generic phrases. A CTA like “Call Now for a Free Consultation” is much more compelling than “Click Here to Call.”
2. Create a sense of urgency – By simply telling users to do something now or that time is running out, suddenly your CTA seems more urgent. You can accomplish this without hard-selling by using the word “Now” or pointing out that users can “reap the benefits today.”
3. Use contrast in your design – If your CTA is the same color as the rest of your website, it isn’t going to stand out. Use a contrasting color so users are quickly drawn to it.

Let’s look at an example of a good CTA vs. one that could use some work.

Step 11. Create practice area pages

After your homepage, your practice area pages are going to be the next most valuable in your SEO efforts.

It’s important to make individual pages for each practice area because it gives you more opportunity to go after keywords related to those practice areas by addressing the specific needs of that audience.

If we look at Morgan & Morgan’s website, we’ll see that they have a dropdown listing all of their practice areas.

• The purchase intent keyword related to this practice area as identified in your keyword research (discussed above in steps 6 and 7).
• Page titles and meta descriptions with the keyword’s searcher intent in mind (discussed above in step 9).
• Answers to common questions about this practice area. You can identify common questions by typing your target keyword into Google and looking at the “People also ask” suggestions. Each question you address on this page should use an H tag so that search engines understand the structure of your page.
• Testimonials from clients that you’ve helped in this specific area of practice.
• A call-to-action that’s specific to this area of practice.

Step 12. Become an authority with epic blog content

You already have lots of legal info in your head from your experience. Creating high-quality content on your site that communicates this effectively to potential clients positions you as an authority in your legal space.

Consider your practice areas and think about how you can create great content and super-detailed blog articles that help potential clients.

Things like step-by-step guides, simplifying otherwise complex topics, or even simple blog posts on key pain points your audience may face are great examples of this.

Look at how Peterson Watts Law Group does this with their music copyright article.

You can come up with content marketing ideas by:

• Looking into your clients most commonly asked questions.
• Reviewing Google’s “People also ask” questions for related search terms.
• Reviewing questions on Quora in your space.
• Using tools like Google Trends to find topics that are trending online.

When you create your content, keep in mind that you’re writing for the internet – which means you should make your content easy to skim. Here’s how:

• Write short, concise sentences using simple language. Try and keep your writing at a 10th grade reading level or less. Tools like Hemmingway can help you determine the readability of your content.
• Use lots of white space by keeping your paragraphs 1-3 sentences long.
• Use the right font size. A 22 point font provides the best reading experience online.
• Use bullet points whenever possible.

When writing your content, while it is important to intersperse your keywords throughout, Google algorithms are getting better at understanding language and will understand synonyms related to the topi. It’s more important that the topic is covered in full, and keyword stuffing won’t work. The primary objective should be that your content fully addresses the needs of its audience.

Step 13. Fix zombie pages

What are zombie pages, and why are they bad for SEO?

Zombie pages are those that exist on your website but provide no value whatsoever – meaning they don’t bring you any traffic.

They usually take on one of the following forms:

• Duplicate content (ex. News stories copy and pasted from other sites – don’t do this. It can actually make your site appear more spammy and can cause your rankings to drop.)
• Outdated blog posts
• Aging press releases
• Pages that shouldn’t be indexed
• Archive pages
• Category and tag pages (often found on WordPress blogs)
• Search result pages
• Old press releases
• Thin content (<50 words)
• Boilerplate content

These pages are often indexed by Google, but rank poorly because they provide no value to users.

Because search engines use metrics like pages viewed per session and dwell time on a page, thin pages and zombie pages can give Google the impression your site is low-quality.

Should you delete zombie pages?

If you can’t bring a zombie page to life by improving the content and making these pages useful to users, then redirecting the page to more useful content may be the best alternative.

Redirects are especially important if a page your are deleting has any links pointing towards it from other websites.

Links pointing to your site from others are referred to as backlinks. We’ll touch more on these later, but in short, Google counts links as votes of confidence to your site and uses them to help determine rankings for a page or pages of a domain. Any high ranking web page likely has lots of links pointing to it.

You can check backlinks to a page with tools like Ahrefs, SemRush, or Majestic.

In most cases, since zombie pages provide little to no value to your users, it’s unlikely you’ll find any backlinks pointing to them.

However, if you do, you should redirect these pages to another relevant page on your site to retain whatever search equity the page had acquired.

How to redirect pages

The best way to redirect pages on your site is using 301 redirects.

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. They essentially send visitors and search engines to a different URL than what they clicked on from a search engine page or typed into their browser.

Let’s put this into practice.

If you click on either of these URLs, you’ll be directed to www.google.com:

• https://www.google.com
• https://google.com

That’s because google.com 301 redirects to www.google.com, since Google wanted that to be their primary domain.

Here’s a step-by-step video showing you how to set up 301 redirects in WordPress.

How to properly delete pages

If you don’t have any pages on your site that you can redirect your pages towards, and the page in question has no backlinks, then deleting those pages may be your best option.

When you delete a page, make sure you set the HTTP header to “410 content deleted.”

This tells users – and search engines – that you intentionally deleted the content, and will result in Google removing it from their index sooner.

You can use this plugin to do this on WordPress.

Use Lawyer SEO to dominate local search

Step 14. Create pages for specific markets

71% of people looking for an attorney believe it’s important to have a local one.

This means that they’re likely looking for lawyers within their specific geographic area using the name of a town or county that may otherwise be underserved.

If other law firms aren’t targeting these smaller towns or counties, this could be a great opportunity for you.

Just look at how Morgan & Morgan creates specific pages for the small town of Tavares just outside of Orlando, Florida.

You won’t receive as much traffic for these pages as you will on your homepage, but if you target enough areas, it adds up.

Just look for nearby cities, counties, or towns and create pages tailored specifically to each of them with a customized page title, meta description, and page copy.

Do this with 5 surrounding areas for 10 practice areas and that’s 50 new pages that can attract a very targeted audience!

Finally, make sure other pages on your site link to these pages to help improve their link signals. For example, if you write a blog post about car accidents in Los Angeles, California, link to your “Los Angeles Car Accident Attorney” page.

Step 15. Get citations in popular legal directories

If you serve local clients, quality citations – mentions of your business name, address, and/or phone number – are important.

Google considers citations from relevant, reliable websites when as an important ranking factor in local search results.

Not only that, but lots of people still find lawyers through online directories.

In fact, legal directories often rank for competitive search terms in the legal industry.

Getting citations from targeted directories add credibility, context, and authenticity to your law firm, and allow you to be found by search engine users who click the directory listings in the search results.

How to find citation sources

The best places to get cited in are prominent legal directories and data aggregators.

Legal directories

A good way to think about directory placements is to go after ones that you think you can actually get clients from.

The best way to find these directories is to type all of your target keywords into Google and simply look at the directory listings on the first page. Anything here is worth getting listed in because you can potentially grab second-hand search traffic – i.e. people will click the directory listing in Google, then find your firm

Some of the most popular legal directories worth getting listed in are:

• Avvo
• FindLaw
• Lawyers.com (paid)
• Justia
• Hg.org
• Nolo

For a full list of directories, check out this page from Moz that organizes citation sources by city. Remember to look at nearby cities as well

Data aggregators

You also want to make sure your information is correct with all key data aggregators because search engines pull data from these sources.

Most search engines get their data from:

• Acxiom
• Factual
• Infogroup
• Localeze

…who pull their data from:

• Twitter
• Foursquare
• Yellowpages
• Facebook
• Bing Places for Busines

So it’s important to make sure your information is always up-to-date in these sources. Otherwise, your rankings can drop if any out-of-date information is passed along.

Step 16. Get reviews on Google, Yelp, and law directories

Reviews are important for Google rankings, click through rates, and creating a perception of trust.

This is true for your Google listings and your law directory listings.

According to Bright Local’s Customer Review Survey:

• 85% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
• 73% of people trust a business more because of a review.
• Yelp and Google are some of the review sources people trust most

Needless to say, reviews are an essential part of your law firm’s SEO strategy

Here are some ways you can get reviews on Google, Yelp, and law directories of your choice.

Ask your clients

If you’ve given excellent service to a client, a great way to earn reviews is to simply ask!

Amazon does this through email, so why not do this with your clients as well?

Just send them an email explaining how you want to hear more about their experience with a link to your preferred review source. If you’ve given them great service and have developed a strong relationship with the client, they’ll see your request as a good thing and be more than happy to do this.

Keep in mind that you want to make sure you ask happy clients for reviews since they’re more likely to leave good ones.

Add review links to your site

In some areas of legal practice, clients are likely to revisit your website frequently

In these cases, leaving links to your preferred review sources can encourage repeat clients to share their experiences.

Take a look at how Johanson Law Group does this.

Just link the “write a review” button on your site to Google, Yelp, Avvo, or whatever your preferred directory is.

Use review generation tools

There are tools that can help automate the customer feedback process to make it easier.

• GatherUp
• BirdEye
• Podium

These tools handle client follow-ups on your behalf via text or email which frees you up to handle more important things.

While these are great, if your firm is relatively new, I’d recommend calling or emailing each client individually until you have a consistent inflow of clients to ask for reviews.

LINKS

Step 17. Link to authority sources from your site

Linking out is a great way to show Google that you’re interested in providing value to your users.

When Google analyzes links, they look at them like neighborhoods. If you’re linking out to lots of high quality, high domain authority sites in your industry, and lots of high quality sites are linking to you, Google considers your site as part of a good “link neighborhood.”

The opposite can also be true. If you link out to low quality sites and lots of low quality sites are linking to you, this is a bad “link neighborhood.”

Linking to non-competing legal sites can help enhance a reader’s understanding of a topic you may be writing about on your own site.

This will improve user experience on your site – which will lead to better SERP rankings.

For example, Yavitch & Palmer’s site links out to a number of legal resources related to their areas of practice.

The rel=“nofollow” tag

The rel=”nofollow” tag is a value that can be added to a URL that tells search engines not to follow the URL.

In the code for a URL, it looks like this:

This was introduced in 2005 by Google to stop people from blog comment spamming in an effort to get links to their site that would influence their rankings.

This tag should only be used if a link is paid for or can be easily added by the public (such as in comments or reviews).

Otherwise, you don’t really need to worry about it.

Increase dwell time with outbound and internal links

If people can find what they’re looking for on your site, they’re more likely to stick around.

This includes when you give them what they’re looking for by linking to it.

So if you’re writing a blog article and mention a resource that readers may want to learn more about, link to it!

Peterson Watts Law Group does this regularly in their blog articles.

When you do link out, make sure the pages you link to open in a new browser tab when clicked so users can easily come back to your site. Here’s how to do this in WordPress

Follow these same guidelines with internal links – links from one page on your site to another – to help search engines better understand the structure of your site and rank it on an ongoing basis.

Step 18. Increase your rankings with backlinks

One of the best ways to increase your Google search results is to get other sites to link to yours.

Google counts links as votes of confidence. If other reputable sites are linking to you, Google trusts your site more and pushes you up in the search results pages.

These are known as backlinks (i.e. another site is “linking back” to you), and the process of trying to get these backlinks is known as “link building.”

A lot of sites pay for backlinks, but this is against Google webmaster guidelines and is known as “black hat” SEO.

“White hat” link building is done leveraging methods that follow google’s guidelines. Often, these methods require a lot of time and hard work, like creating new content like guest blogs or long-form articles that includes links back to your website, and then pitching that content to other webmasters to publish on their site. This is the safest way to build links, and even more so when working with a reputable SEO agency.

Two of the best ways to get high-quality backlinks for your site are guest posting and HARO.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is the easiest way to get other sites to link to you. It basically works like this.

1. You find other sites that accept guest articles.
2. You pitch them an idea.
3. You write it and send it to them with a link to your site in the body of the content.

Simple, right?

Let’s break down the steps.

Find other sites that accept guest posts

To find sites that accept guest posts, we’ll use Google.

Simply enter search terms like these:

• Your keyword + “write for us”
• Your keyword + “guest post by”
• Your Keyword + “contribution by”

Make sure you maintain the “”. This tells Google to only find pages that contain this exact phrase.

When you find a site that looks like a good fit, you’re ready to craft your pitch.

Pitch 3 article ideas

For each of the sites you find, look around at the types of articles they write and come up with 3 similar ones that they haven’t covered yet.

Once you have your article ideas, send them an email that looks something like this:

My name is [Your Name] and I’m [Your Company and Role]

I’m contacting you because I’d love to contribute a guest post on [Website].

Here are some ideas I’ve come up with that I think your readers would get a ton of value from:

[Idea #1]

[Idea #2]

[Idea #3]

I’ll make sure the piece overflows with information that can’t be found anywhere else.

To give you an idea of the quality I’ll bring to your site, here’s a link to a guest post that I recently published on [Other Website].

Cheers,

[Your First Name]

Once you hear back from a site, the next step is to write and send your article to them!

When you write your article, make sure it provides real value to their readers and isn’t just an article written in an attempt to get a link. Any good site will see right through this and will reject your article once they get it.

Make sure you link to your site within the body of the content – ideally to a blog post you have. Most sites will link to your site in your bio, but Google usually doesn’t count these.

If you do a good job, they may ask you to contribute content about your main practice area or a specific topic on a monthly basis. This means lots of long term SEO success for your law firm website and elevating you and your team of lawyers as industry experts.

HARO

HARO (or Help A Reporter Out) is a great source of links and press mentions.

Basically, they send you 3 emails each day with a list of topics reporters are writing about for news sites and need some help with – like this:

All you need to do is scroll through the list of topics, pick one out where you can offer value, and write your reply.

Here’s an example of one that’s fit for attorneys.

Just click on the query to be taken down to the section of the email where you can read it in full.

Finally, just click the email address listed with the query and draft your response!

Remember, with HARO, the more helpful information you can provide, the better. Often times, reporters will take only part of what you say, so giving them more to work with gives you more of a chance at landing a placement. In some cases, they may include a website link with your comments.

MEASURING RESULTS

Step 19. Make sure you have the right tools.

In order to measure your SEO results, you need to install the correct analytics tools.

Google Analytics is important because that lets you see how much organic traffic you’re getting and gives you insight into how your users are using your website. You can leverage this data to make improvements to your user experience.

Here’s a video that walks you through how to set up Google Analytics for your website.

These tools let you analyze ranking data and give you a look at your position for different keywords as well as how many impressions and clicks you’re getting from search.

Here’s a video that walks you through how to set it up for your website.

Step 20. Understand how to measure SEO performance

Once you have your tools installed, it’s important to start measuring your SEO performance over time.

Specifically, you want to look at the following key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Rankings – How many keywords and keyword phrases are you ranking for? How have your rankings changed for those keywords over the last few months?
• Traffic – How many visitors are you getting from organic search?
• Conversions – How many new leads are you getting from organic search traffic?

Here’s how to look at each of these.

Use Google Search Console to monitor keyword rankings

The best way to look at your keyword rankings is with Google Search Console.

If you log in to Google Search Console, click “Search Results” on the left. This will show you a report of all the keywords you rank for and your position over time for those keywords.

Don’t look at rankings over weeks – look over a period of months. Legal SEO work takes a while to kick in.

Use Google Analytics to monitor traffic and conversions

Traffic can be measured in Google Analytics.

If you open your Google Analytics account and go to Audience -> Overview, then scroll down and select the “Organic Search” option, you’ll be able to see all of the traffic that comes from search engines.

Again, make sure you measure this over a period of months – not days. The nature of good SEO is that it takes time for search engines to react to your efforts, especially in a competitive landscape or given keyword phrase like car accident lawyer, divorce lawyer, or dui lawyer.

As well as simply looking at the traffic, you’ll also want to look into a variety of factors:

• What website pages visitors are landing on.
• Visitor demographics.
• What they’re doing on your site.
• How frequently they’re revisiting.
• Monitor site speed.
• Check for any differences in behavior between mobile and desktop users.

CONCLUSION

There you have it – a 20 step action plan to dominate the search results! Whether you’re a car accident lawyer, divorce attorney, criminal defense lawyer, family law, or other type of attorney, lawyer SEO is the fastest way to break into competitive markets by securing top rankings for your law practice website.

Hopefully this gave you lots of valuable insight into the inner workings of search engine optimization and how they prioritize organic results for sites that give users what they’re looking for.

A solid SEO strategy is something that every digital marketing campaign should include. These strategies have worked for hundreds of other websites, so they’ll work for yours too! If you need help, working with an SEO company and SEO experts can help you build domain authority and site visibility faster through comprehensive digital marketing strategy. reach out to one of our law firm SEO experts to learn more.

The post Law Firm SEO – A 20 Step Action Plan for Attorneys appeared first on LinkGraph.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing web content to rank in search engines. The on-page SEO process encompasses keyword research, SEO copywriting, meta tag optimization, page experience, and more.

Site owners who implement on-page SEO across their web pages will likely see more keyword rankings and higher ranking positions for valuable keywords in their industry.

What’s Different about On-Page SEO in 2022 compared to 2021?

Although the best practices of on-page SEO for the most part remain the same, search engine technology grows more advanced every year, changing the way we execute optimization across our web pages.

For 2022, there are some key updates that site owners should be aware of so they can leverage them to achieve higher rankings and organic traffic.

Here are some of the top SEO trends for 2022:

• People also ask: A recent study showed that Google’s “People also ask,” feature now shows up for approximately 48.6% of all searches, and often above position 1.
• Core Web Vitals: Since the Page Experience update, Core Web Vitals are officially a Google ranking factor. Fast-loading, responsive web pages now perform better in the SERPs
• AI Copy Generation: More SEO software engineers are incorporating GPT-3 into their tools and applications to help content marketers create SEO content more quickly and at scale.
• Keyword Clusters: It’s estimated that Google processes over 63,000 keyword searches a second. There are hundreds to thousands of ways that users are searching, and keyword clustering is a more effective strategy for getting a web page to rank for all of those variations.

The Best On-Page SEO Tips for 2022

For 2022, on-page SEO is all about combining SEO best practices with newer strategies that help your web pages meet the quality signals Google crawlers are looking for.

1. Make Core Web Vitals Top Priority

Last summer, Google rolled out one of the largest algorithm updates in years — the Page Experience Update. In addition to security, mobile-usability, and page speed, Google considers a web page’s Core Web Vitals when ranking content.

Although load times and speed have not traditionally been viewed as “on-page seo” priorities, the reality is, a web page with high-quality content doesn’t mean much if it takes too long to load or items shift while the user scrolls or clicks.

Optimizing Core Web Vitals should now be a part of your fundamental SEO practice. To get a better understanding of where your web pages stand, use the Site Auditor tool in GSC Insights, or run your pages through Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool

2. Answer Common Questions

A recent study of 2.5 million search queries showed that Google’s “People also ask” feature now shows up for about 48.6% of searches. 

With its prominent placement at the top of the SERP results (and often above position 1), getting your content ranking in this coveted feature is the next great way to improve site visibility and generate organic clicks.

To get there, your writing team needs to provide answers to common questions in your content. Utilize questions in your h2s-h6s, and make sure your answers are detailed and comprehensive.

By providing answers to those questions on the page, your content can show up at the top of page one, even if your traditional SERP result appears lower on the page (or even sometimes on page 2)! 

Watch this tutorial on how to optimize for People also ask using the SEO Content Assistant.

3. Use Content Optimization Software

With more advanced natural language processing technology, Google is not just looking for your target keywords on the page anymore.

Crawlers are looking for related terms, subtopics, synonyms, and other semantic SEO signals. Original insight an analysis, topical-depth, and expert authorship are also quality signals that can help improve the ranking potential of content.

To better meet all these signals, a content optimizer tool like the SEO Content Assistant can give you the “cheat codes,” to better ranking content. The tool recommends Focus Terms, outbound links, word count, and can even generate content using GPT-3 technology.

4. Leverage AI-Powered Content Generation

With GPT-3 now widely available, more software engineers are incorporating this powerful NLP model into their applications. That means you are not only competing with the content writers of your competitors, but the robots they may be utilizing to help generate more content, more quickly, than you.

AI copywriting tools still have some way to go before replacing our writers entirely. Also, some tools are far better than others. Still, content marketing teams are already using these tools to speed up ideation, outlining, drafting, and on-page SEO optimization so they can scale up their content development.

Those brands that leverage these technologies, but still keep the human touch, are likely to scale up their SEO content strategy quickly this year.

5. Write Longer Content

Although not officially a Google ranking factor, there is a strong relationship between longer content and higher ranking positions. By improving the topical depth and length of your content, you can signal Google higher quality and more comprehensive exploration of the content.

How long should your content be? There is no magic number, but tools like the SEO Content Assistant will suggest a target word count based on the top ranking content for your target keywords.

6. Review your Content on Mobile

More searches are completed from mobile devices than desktop. That’s why search engines are now prioritizing content by what best suits their predominantly mobile user-base.

To rank better in today’s mobile-first world, you need to be focusing on how your content serves mobile users (even if your current site traffic is predominantly desktop users).

The first place to check for mobile usability issues is within your own Google Search Console. These are issues that Google has already flagged for your site, which means Google is already factoring “mobile usability issues” into your search rankings.

Here are things to look for:

• Are images and assets fitting on the screen?
• Are images and assets resizing appropriately for the screen size?
• Can users easily access all of the page content?
  • Is the page short enough to scroll through easily?
  • Are large/unnecessary page elements taking up all the space?
  • Does the user have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get through the page?
• Are any page elements overlapping in a way that hinders the user viewing content?
• Do you have huge blocks of unbroken text?
• Does the design still look clean?

What you can do:

• Get the user to relevant content faster
  • Hide unnecessary images on mobile
  • Reduce the font size of headers on mobile
  • Move important content to the top of the page
  • Add jump links for longer content
• Make content easier to view/read on a smaller device
  • Make sure images and graphics are resizing responsively
  • Adjust your navigation so mobile users can see all options
  • Break up text into 2-3 sentence blocks
  • Use more whitespace!
• Increase tap areas so it’s easier to scroll to relevant content
• Use a sticky nav so users can always find a “next step” if they get stuck

For more information on mobile SEO check out our Comprehensive Guide to Mobile SEO.

7. Use More Rich Media

Mobile users spend heavy portions of their time on social media feeds, YouTube, and Apps. There are all beautifully designed platforms heavy on visuals and multimedia content.

Multi-media keeps people scrolling, conveys concepts at-a-glance, and helps users interact more fully with content. Multi-media makes blog and page content more engaging.

With images and video pulling in at the top of SERPs now, that content is yet another way to get onto the first page.

8. Meet the User’s Search Intent

BERT helped Google better understand the intent behind search queries and launched at the end of October 2019. BERT-related refreshes and advancements still matter in 2022.

As Google continually refines its understanding of the intent behind search queries it will be serving better results, especially for long-tail queries and never-before-seen queries. This means that you should be hyper-focused on creating content that helps a user find the product, service, information, or entertainment that they’re looking for with a search.

To learn more about recognizing search intent, and indicators for informational vs. commercial oriented keywords, take a look at our What are Keywords in SEO Guide.

9. Write for Humans and Robots

Readability is understood differently by SEO professionals. In general, though, simpler sentences are easier to read and less prone to grammatical errors. In voice search specifically, Google avoids overly-complex language.

It is much easier to understand a badly formulated written answer than an ungrammatical spoken answer, so more care has to be placed in ensuring grammatical correctness.

Keeping your sentences simple can also make your content more accessible to a wider range of users. Although SaaS, software, or technologies companies may have more technical content by nature of their products of service offerings, it’s still important to write in a way that is not too academic or jargon-ridden.

A survey of 15,000 searches across 3 device types found the average reading level for voice responses was 8th grade. For reference, Harry Potter is about the same reading level.

10. Link Strategically

Google pays attention to what resources you share with your users. As Google puts it, outbound links matter because they:

• Show that you’ve done your research and have expertise in the subject manner

• Make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics

• Build relationships with other domain experts. For example, sending visitors can get you on the radar of other successful bloggers and begin a business relationship.

“Link Neighborhood” is a term coined by the SEO community. It refers to the type of sites that you link out to, and the type of sites that link back to you, and how they link to each other.

For example, if you were to look at the “link neighborhood” for a celebrity site, you’d probably see a lot of streets to gossip magazines, social media groups, fan sites, and concert venues. If you were to look at the “link neighborhood” for an MIT lab, you might see a lot of streets going to scientific publications, tech news, grant organizations, etc.

Internal links also matter because they keep users navigating across your site. Also, they help crawlers understand your site hierarchy, and spread PageRank across your web pages.

Link neighborhoods help give context for the topical focus of a site, and the relative authority of a site; is harvard.edu linking to the site, or is bestcrystalsforhealing.com linking to the site?

Your link neighborhood is a combination of your outbound links and inbound links coming back to your site and web pages.

Recap: Tips for On Page SEO in 2022

• Make Core Web Vitals Top Priority
• Answer Common Questions
• Use Content Optimization Software
• Leverage AI-Generated Content
• Write Longer Content
• Review your Content on Mobile
• Use More Rich Media
• Meet the User’s Search Intent
• Write for Humans and Robots
• Link Strategically

The post 10 Tips for On Page SEO in 2022 appeared first on LinkGraph.

Can I Do SEO on My Own?

Of course! Although there are professional SEO agencies that you can work with, there are many brands and business owners who do SEO on their own.

However, it’s important to remember that SEO is an ongoing process and it takes time to see results. You are unlikely to see results overnight, but if you stay proactive with SEO best practices, you’re likely to see your organic traffic increase.

What Does it Take to DIY SEO?

If you want to do search engine optimization across your website, it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of what Google’s ranking factors are and how to optimize your for them.

Some foundational parts of SEO you will want to have a firm foundation in include:

• On-Page SEO: Optimizing the elements on your web pages including content, meta tags, internal links, and more
• Off-Page SEO: Earning backlinks and brand mentions on other websites to show Google that your website is reputable and well-trusted
• Technical SEO: Optimizing the technical elements of your website to make it more easily indexed by search engine crawlers
• Page Experience: Improving the user’s experience on your web pages through faster load times, response times, and visual stability

Secondly, you will also need to have the right SEO tools to DIY SEO. Pairing these tools with your fundamental SEO knowledge will empower you to do SEO on your own and effectively.

What Are DIY SEO Tools?

SEO software tools will provide you with the ability to conduct a range of search engine optimization tasks right from your computer.

While some SEO software is very complex and designed for experienced professionals, other tools like SearchAtlas are loved by SEO experts but also easy for DIYers to use.

Here are 10 DIY SEO software tools you’ll need to start DYI-ing SEO, as well the best ways to use them.

On-Page SEO DIY SEO Tools

1. Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research is the foundation of on-page SEO, as keywords are what connect your business to your target audience online.

It’s important to choose keywords carefully. You want the keyword to be relevant to your products or services and to be commonly used by your audience. Also, you will want to find keywords that are realistic goals for your website.

To learn more about the many steps involved in keywords, read our keyword research guide.

SEO experts spend a lot of time doing keyword research to make sure they understand search intent and the competitive landscape of industry keywords. Tools like the SearchAtlas Keyword Researcher provide them with comprehensive keyword metrics, and any business owner or webmaster can easily use this tools as well!

With the Keyword Researcher, you can easily combine keywords into lists and find relevant alternatives when a keyword is too competitive, too uncommon, or doesn’t show very strong conversion potential.

You can also be confident that the keyword metrics are up-to-date and accurate.

2. Competitor Research Tools

Another important part of implementing a DIY SEO strategy is understanding your competition.

One of the most simple ways to research your competition is to use Google. Search for your competitors and see what type of content they have on their websites.

If you don’t know who your competitors are, simply type in the keywords that you hope to rank for to see what content Google promotes. and Google will show you how many results your competitor’s website has in Google’s search engine and also show you a brief overview of your competitor’s website.

But in addition to Google, you can use the competitor researcher in SearchAtlas to take a closer look at your competitors and what it will take to outrank them.

Here’s an overview of how to do competitor research on your own using this helpful tool.

3. Blog Ideas Generator

Consistently writing and publishing blog posts on your websites can help you rank for more relevant keywords and drive even more organic search traffic to your website.

But coming up with valuable blog post ideas takes time! With the help of AI, you can make that process simpler and deploy an effective blog strategy on your website.

Simply enter a target keyword into the tool and the Blog Ideas Generator will provide a selection of titles and summaries that you can work from.

This takes the hard work of coming up with a relevant piece of content much easier and helps you move from keyword to topic quickly.

4. Content Optimizer with AI Content Generation

Content optimization software essentially gives you the cheat codes to greater ranking potential (without actually cheating!)

If you’re intimidated about the content writing part of SEO, or don’t want to hire SEO content writers, these tools will tell you which terms to include in your content as well as ideal word count, readability, internal links, and more.

DIY SEO tools like the SEO Content Assistant also include AI integrations that can help you write faster and more often. Got writer’s block? Use the “Write for Me” button when you are just not quite sure where to go next in your blogs or landing pages.

Additional features like the internal links suggestions and rephrase feature can speed up your content writing in other ways.

If you want to DIY on-page SEO, there is no better choice then the SEO Content Assistant.

5. Content Strategy Planner

If you want to plan out your SEO strategy for the long term, a content planner tool can help you think far ahead about building topical authority on your website.

Although the goal of SEO is to rank specific pages on your website, brands that show lots of expert knowledge in industry niche are more likely to see strong ranking potential overal. This is called E.A.T. — expertise, authority, and trustworthiness — and you want search engine crawlers to see E.A.T. displayed across your entire website.

The Content Planner tool in SearchAtlas will provide you with over 300+ keyword clusters that you can use to build informative blog posts from. Simply enter a keyword that has relevance to your product or service offering and see what the tool suggests.

If you want to write those blog posts yourself – simply send a article suggestion over to the content queue and get writing. When complete, you can also publish to your WordPress website in just 1-click.

Off-Site DIY SEO Tools

6. Backlink Analyzer

When it comes to off-site SEO, backlinks are Google’s top ranking factor. When another website links to yours, it shows search engine crawlers that other people in your industry find your content valuable, as long as your links come from websites that also display E.A.T. and are not seen as spammy or low-quality.

This is where a backlink analyzer comes in. It allows you to see all of the backlinks and linking pages to your own website and your competitors. If your backlinks have lots of links from high quality website, you will need to similarly earn backlinks in order ot improve your Domain Authority score and your ranking potential overall.

If you want to to DIY your off-site SEO or link building, you can also use this SEO tool to identify potential websites that you may want to reach out to for link building opportunities. Consider sending link requests or guest posts to those websites in order to increase your inbound links and Domain Authority score.

Although earning backlinks takes a lot of effort and time when done the right way, it is one of the best ways and a quick way to elevate you performance in the SERPs.

7. DA Checker

When identifying which websites you want to reach out to for potential link building, you will want to use a DA checker to identify their Domain Authority scores.

A general rule of thumb is to try to earn backlinks from websites that have industry relevance to yours and a DA or DR score that is equal to or higher than yours.

Avoid reaching out to low-quality websites that seem spammy. Although backlinks from websites with lower DA than yours aren’t necessarily spammy, you will want to prioritize your public relations and ilnk building outreach efforts on those websites that will have the greatest impact.

Technical SEO DIY SEO Tools

8. Site Audit Tool

A site auditor tool can help you identify all of the SEO issues on your website that are impacting your keyword rankings, whether you have 5 landing pages or 5000. SEO Audits take the guesswork out of technical SEO and help those who want to do their own SEO have the knowledge they need to resolve technical issues.

For those webmasters who want to DIY their technical SEO and web development optimizations, the SEO audit tool provides detailed instructions on how to resolve the issues on your website and which should take the greatest priority.

You can work through your audit page by page or issue by issue and see any technical issues related page speed, robots tags and more. It will also identify any content issues with page titles, meta description, h1 tags, social media meta graph tags, and others.

If you use the SearchAtlas Site Auditor to DIY any SEO audit, you will also be able to track your SEO health over time. Our software will also alert you if any issues pop up with your website like broken links, failed Core Web Vitals and more.

9. Schema Markup Generator

One of the most powerful way to optimize your web pages is to add relevant schema markup so your pages can be eligible for Google’s rich results.

Google currently has 30+ types of rich results, from organization, small business, events, products, and more. Showing up at the top of the SERPs in these more prominent placements.

But optimizing with schema markup does require some work on the backend of a website. If you want to do SEO on your own, a schema generator can generate the correct markup for you so all you have to do is copy and paste the JSON-LD markup with all of the required properties into the header of your web page.

10. Rank Tracker

One of the most popular keyword rank tracking tools is Google Search Console. This tool is commonly used among SEO DIYers because it is totally free to site owners.

Google Search Console will show you every keyword that your website ranks for, but the platform can be difficult to navigate and doesn’t necessarily have the best user experience.

Another rank tracker SEO tool DIYers might want to consider is GSC Insights. Like Google Search Console, the rank tracker shows you 100% of your keyword rankings and provides daily position updates, but in a more helpful interface with more detailed performance insights.

Final Thoughts on Doing your Own SEO

With the right SEO tools, you can take ownership of your SEO and start seeing better result with keyword rankings and organic traffic.

To get started with a trial of the SearchAtlas tools listed above, get registered.

The post 10 DIY SEO Software Tools & Tips for How to Use Them appeared first on LinkGraph.

What is a Digital PR Tool?

Digital PR tools are online services that help public relations professionals manage their online presence and communications. They offer a variety of features, such as social media monitoring, media lists, and email campaigns.

Digital PR tools can help you keep track of your brand’s online presence, identify and respond to online conversations about your company, and build relationships with key media outlets. They can also help you design and send email campaigns, and manage your social media accounts.

Choosing the right digital PR tool for your company is essential for effective online communications. Consider the features that are important to you, and the size and type of company you are working with. There are a variety of digital PR tools available, so be sure to research and compare your options before making a decision.

What are the Types of Digital PR?

Digital PR is the process of managing the spread of information online through various digital channels. This could be anything from social media to online publications.

There are a few different types of digital PR:

Social media

This could involve creating and managing profiles on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You would post updates and links to articles on your company’s website, and respond to any comments or questions.

Online publications

This could involve writing articles about your company or industry, and submitting them to online publications. You would also promote these articles through social media and email campaigns.

Press releases

This could involve writing and submitting press releases to online and offline publications. You would also promote these releases through social media and email campaigns.

Blogging

This could involve setting up a company blog, and writing and publishing articles on a regular basis. You would also promote your blog posts through social media and email campaigns.

Viral marketing

This could involve creating videos, images, or articles that go viral online. You would promote these items through social media and email campaigns.

How do you Create a Digital PR Campaign?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to create a digital PR campaign will vary depending on your goals and the specifics of your business or organization. However, there are some general steps that you can take to create an effective digital PR campaign:

1. Define your goals

Before you start planning your campaign, you need to clearly define your goals. What do you hope to achieve with your PR campaign? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or something else entirely?

2. Identify your target audience

Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to identify your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your PR campaign? Once you know this, you can tailor your messaging and strategies to appeal to them.

3. Research your competition

It’s also important to research your competition and understand what they’re doing in terms of PR. What tactics are they using? What do they seem to be getting the most success with? Try to learn from their successes and avoid making the same mistakes.

4. Create a strategy

Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, target audience, and competition, you can start creating a strategy for your PR campaign. This will involve figuring out the specific tactics you’ll use to reach your target audience, such as social media, content marketing, email marketing, and more.

5. Execute your plan

Once your strategy is in place, it’s time to start executing it. This will involve creating content, building relationships with journalists and other influencers, and engaging with your target audience on social media and other channels.

6. Measure your success

Finally, it’s important to measure your success and track your progress along the way. This will help you determine whether your PR campaign is achieving its goals and make necessary adjustments along the way.

What are the Main tools for PR?

There are a variety of tools and methods that can be used in PR. The most common tools are press releases, which are a way to announce news or events to the public, and media relations, which is the process of building and maintaining relationships with the media.

Other common PR tools include social media, public speaking, and crisis management.

Best Digital PR Tools

Press Release Distribution Services

One of the most important tools for any digital PR campaign is a press release distribution service. A good distribution service will help you get your press releases in front of the right people, including journalists, bloggers, and other members of the media. There are a number of different press release distribution services available, so you should do your research to find the one that best suits your needs. Some of the most popular services include PR Newswire, Business Wire, and Marketwired.

Social Media Monitoring Tools

Another important tool for digital PR is a social media monitoring tool. A good monitoring tool will help you track conversations about your brand or product on social media. This can help you identify potential advocates and influencers, and track the success of your PR campaigns. Some of the most popular social media monitoring tools include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Brandwatch.

Website Analytical Tools

Another important tool for any digital marketing campaign is a website analytical tool. A good website analytical tool will help you track the performance of your website, including the number of visitors and the pages they are visiting. This can help you identify which pages are the most popular and which ones need improvement. Some of the most popular website analytical tools include Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Mixpanel.

Content Marketing Tools

Finally, another important tool for any digital PR campaign is a content marketing tool. A good content marketing tool will help you create and publish content that will help you achieve your marketing goals. Some of the most popular content marketing tools include WordPress, Hootsuite, and Canva.

Top Digital PR Tools

There are a multitude of digital marketing tools and platforms available to help you execute your digital PR campaign. The right tools will help you save time and energy while maximizing your results.

Here are some of the best tools and platforms for executing a digital PR campaign:

1. Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to manage all your social media accounts in one place. It also provides powerful analytics to help you measure the success of your campaigns.
2. Buffer: Buffer is a social media scheduling platform that allows you to schedule posts for all your social media accounts in advance. It also provides analytics to help you measure the success of your campaigns.
3. Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free web analytics service that allows you to track the traffic and engagement of your website. It provides powerful insights into how your website is performing and helps you measure the success of your campaigns.
4. Sprout Social: Sprout Social is a social media management platform that allows you to manage all your social media accounts in one place. It also provides powerful analytics to help you measure the success of your campaigns.
5. Mention: Mention is a social media monitoring platform that allows you to track the online presence of your brand or keywords. It provides real-time alerts and powerful analytics to help you measure the success of your campaigns.

These are just a few of the many digital marketing tools and platforms available. Choose the tools that best fit your needs and make sure to use them to their fullest potential to maximize the success of your digital PR campaigns.

The post The Best Tools And Platforms For Executing A Digital Pr Campaign appeared first on LinkGraph.

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric created by Moz that is used to measure the authority of a website. DA is determined by looking at a variety of factors, including linking root domains, number of links, MozRank, MozTrust, and domain age. The higher the DA score, the more likely it is that the website will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Domain Authority is important in SEO because it is a strong indicator of how well a website will rank in SERPs. A website with a high DA score is likely to rank higher than a website with a low DA score, all other things being equal. This is because a high DA score means that the website has a lot of authority and is likely to be trusted by search engines.

Domain Authority is also important because it relies on similar factors like backlinks and unique referring domains that Google uses to determine a website’s rank in SERPs. Domain authority is also determined by the number and quality of inbound links, the age of the website, and the number of pages on the website.

A website with a high DA score is likely to rank higher than a website with a low DA score, all other things being equal.

While Domain Authority is not the only factor that Google uses to determine a website’s rank in SERPs, it is a strong indicator of how well a website will rank. For this reason, it is important for SEOs to focus on increasing the DA score of their website.

What is Good Domain Authority Score?

Domain Authority is one of the most important metrics to measure when optimizing a website for SEO. A website with a high Domain Authority score will have a better chance of ranking higher in SERPs than a website with a low Domain Authority Score.

There are a number of factors that can influence a website’s Domain Authority score, including the quality and quantity of the website’s backlinks, the website’s content, and the website’s age.

How Long Does It Take to Increase Domain Authority?

The amount of time it takes to increase your Domain Authority depends on a number of factors, including the number and quality of the links you are able to acquire. Generally, if you focus on building high-quality links, you can see a noticeable increase in your DA score within 6-12 months.

Increasing domain authority is not an overnight process. It takes time and effort to improve a website’s ranking and domain authority. However, following the tips listed below will help to improve a website’s domain authority and help it to rank higher in search engine results pages.

Effective Ways to Increase DA

There are a number of ways to increase a website’s Domain Authority score, including increasing the number of backlinks, creating high-quality content, and increasing the website’s age. But more than anything else, the more high-quality backlinks a website has, the higher its domain authority will be.

Below are some SEO techniques that can be used to improve a website’s Domain Authority the right way, through high-quality, original content creation.

1. Create valuable content

Creating valuable content is key to any successful DA improvements. This means developing content that is not only interesting and engaging, but also provides real value to your audience. There are a number of ways to create valuable content, but some of the most popular methods include creating informative blog posts, creating helpful how-to guides, and developing interesting infographics.

When creating content, be sure to focus on your target audience and what they are interested in. Do some research to find out what topics are most popular within your industry, and then develop content that provides unique insights or perspectives on these topics that make other webmasters more likely to link to your content

Be sure to also make use of keyword research to help you identify the right keywords to target, and then use these keywords throughout your content to help it rank higher in search engine results pages.

2. Build high-quality links

When it comes to SEO, backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors. But not all links are created equal, and not all backlinks will help you improve your PA or DA score.

Here are four types of links that you should focus on for your Domain Authority building:

1. Backlinks from high-quality websites: These links are the gold standard for SEO. They come from websites with high authority and are seen as a vote of confidence for your website.
2. Links from relevant websites: Links from websites that are relevant to your business are also valuable for SEO. They help to show Google that your website is a relevant source of information for your target audience.
3. Backlinks from authoritative websites: Links from authoritative websites confer extra trust and authority to your website. This can help your site rank higher in search results.
4. Links from high-traffic websites: Links from high-traffic websites can send a lot of traffic your way. This can help boost your website’s SEO ranking and increase your conversion rate.

3. Build relationships with other websites

When it comes to elevating your link profile, building relationships with other websites is key. Not only will this help you to get more links to your own website, but it will also help you to learn from your competitors.

You can use your content marketing efforts to start building relationships with other websites. Once you’ve created some great content, reach out to relevant websites and publications and let them know about it. If they like your content, they may be willing to link to it.

Another great way to build relationships with other websites is to start a blog exchange. This is where you and another website agree to swap blog posts on a regular basis. This will help you to get your content in front of a new audience, and it will also help you to build a relationship with the other website. You can also outsource this link building to a guest posting service.

Lastly, consider a link exchange, as long as you do so in a Google-compliant way. Backlink exchanges are whe you and another website agree to exchange links on a regular basis. This will help you to get more links to your website, and it will also help you to build a relationship with the other website.

By building relationships with other websites, you will be able to improve your SEO strategy and you will be able to improve your Domain Authority over time.

4. Participate in social media

There’s no doubt that social media has become an important partner of SEO experts. For businesses, social media provides a way to reach out to potential customers and create a connection with them.

But what’s the best way to use social media to improve your Domain Rating or Domain Authority?

1. Share your old and new content on social media. The more people who see your content, the more likely they are to link back to it. Make sure the content is relevant to your customers and their interests or to other experts in your industry. You can promote any new content your create, including blog posts, infographics, images, and other types of content.
2. Leverage social media to connect with other webmasters. Simply following or sharing content from another website owner can help you start building relationships and creating a link building strategy
3. Use social media to drive traffic to your website. Make sure your social media profiles link to your website, and use effective calls to action on your social media posts to encourage your customers to visit your website. When the see all of the high quality content on your website, they will be more likely to see your ebsite as an authoritative site and reputable site and link to your piece of content in the future.

5. Remove Toxic Backlinks

One of the best ways to improve your website’s Domain Authority is to remove any toxic backlinks. A toxic backlink is a link from another website that is considered spammy or low quality.

Removing toxic backlinks can be difficult, but it is worth the effort. The first step is to identify the toxic backlinks. You can use a tool like Ahrefs, SearchAtlas, or different SEO tools to help you find the toxic backlinks.

Once you have identified the toxic backlinks, you need to contact the webmasters of the websites that are linking to you and ask them to remove the link. If they refuse to remove the link, you can use a tool like Disavow Links to disavow the link.

Removing toxic backlinks is an important step in improving your website’s search engine ranking. It can be difficult, but it is worth the effort.

It’s important to monitor your backlink profile and make sure you only get links from high-quality websites. Use tools like MozBar and Ahrefs to track your backlinks and see where your links are coming from.

6. Promote your content with Digital PR

There are a number of other methods of promotion you can use to get links, including email outreach and paid advertising.

But digital PR is one of the most effective and efficient ways to promote your content to earn backlinks from high authority websites. It entails reaching out to journalists and other influencers online to get them to share your content.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your content gets the most exposure:

1. Research the right journalists and publications to target. Not all journalists are created equal. You need to do your research to find the right journalists and publications to target. Start by finding the journalists who write about the topic of your content. You can do this by using a tool like BuzzSumo. Then, look for journalists who have a large following on social media. This will help you ensure that your content will get seen by a large audience.
2. Craft a catchy headline. Your headline is the first thing that journalists will see when they’re scrolling through their social media feeds. It’s important to craft a catchy headline that will make them want to click through and read your content.
3. Write a strong introduction. The introduction is also very important. It’s the first thing that journalists will read, so you need to make sure it’s captivating and interesting.
4. Send them a personalized email. The best way to get journalists to share your content is to send them a personalized email. Make sure you research the journalist you’re targeting and personalize the email accordingly.
5. Monitor your results. Digital PR is a long-term marketing strategy, so it’s important to monitor your results. Make sure you track the number of shares your content or guest posts receive and the amount of referral or organic traffic it generates. This will help you determine whether or not digital PR is working for you as a link building tactic.

Final Thoughts on How to Increase Domain Authority

Remember that Domain Authority is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. It is a measure of how well a website ranks in search engines. And any effort to increase domain authority through content marketing will mean positive SEO results.

Follow. the techniques above and make them a part of your link building strategy and you can help to increase domain authority and improve your website’s ranking in search engines.

The post The Most Effective Ways To Increase Your Website’s Domain Authority appeared first on LinkGraph.