Unless you have a micro-niche practice, your law firm likely draws its clients from a relatively small geographic region. In other words, your clients are locals. Which means you want — you need — to rank high in Google Local search.
A new study from BrightLocal examined how many citations (online references to your NAP — name, address, phone number) businesses need to rank in the top spots in local search results on Google. They examined several industry categories, including Legal, where the study sample was 5,347 keywords and 25,091 law firms.
What the study found was that law firms that had 90 citations grabbed the first three spots in Google Local ranking; those that ranked 4-6 had 89 citations and those that ranked 7-10 had 86 citations. The average number of citations for all law firms was 77.
So, to outrank your competitors, you need at least 90 citations.
The most popular citation sites for law firms include:
When compiling citations for your law firm, you must follow this steadfast rule: use a consistent firm name, address and phone number. Your listing must be exactly the same everywhere on the Internet to earn citations. Not doing so will negatively impact your search engine ranking!
This is because Google uses citations to gauge a business’ authority, an important component of SEO. Google looks for the number of citations, the accuracy of the data, and the quality of the platform where the citations are found. If you have few citations and the data is inconsistent, your Local Search rank will suffer!
For more tips on getting your firm to rank better in Google Local, take us up on our free webinar offer below.
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How to Get Your Firm Ranked on Local Maps Listings
No doubt you have done searches using general terms and Google popped up local providers. That is because Google knows the IP address of the searcher and serves up local options first. You will see a map and a few listings of high-ranking businesses. This is the sweet spot, and we will show you how to get there during our free webinar on How to Get Your Firm Ranked on Local Maps Listings.
During this free training, you will:
- Discover the 4 key factors that have the greatest impact on local maps ranking & the 2 secrets to beating the current leaders in your market
- Learn how to utilize Google reviews to improve your local maps ranking
- Get a list of the top 50 most important directory sites of the 1800+ local directories out there to determine where your firm needs to be
- Find out how to get your business listed on literally hundreds of directory sites for about the cost of a nice night out
- Obtain a step-by-step, paint-by-number instruction on how to optimize your local listings on the top 15 sites if you want to do it yourself
- Receive a copy of the presentation so you can optimize your listings at your leisure
Register online now to receive access to this free training webinar on How to Get Your Firm Ranked on Local Maps Listings.
