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This episode of Legal Marketing 101 is brought to you by Thumbs Up Survey. Build better online surveys faster with Thumbs Up Survey. Mention Legal Marketing 101 when you request access to the beta at thumbsupsurveycom to get access to features and discounts first. Thank you to our partners at thumbsupsurveycom. Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen.

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Today we are starting a new series on local SEO and in our first episode we are talking about what local SEO actually is. I'm sure you've heard of it and you've probably got a Google my Business profile, but what is local SEO and how do we, you know, actually do local SEO? So let's get right down to it. Local SEO, or local search engine optimization, is a specialized branch of SEO focused on optimizing a website or a business's Google my Business so that it can be found in local search results, and I really like to think of this as just optimizing the business so that it can be found in those search results. When I say local searches, this means searches that have local terms in them, but it also means searches on mobile and searches on platforms like Google Maps. Local SEO is the process of improving a law firm's online presence overall to attract more business from relevant local searches and for us, local SEO is about ensuring that when potential clients search for services like divorce lawyer near me or personal injury attorney in New York, their law firm will appear prominently in the search results. That's what this is all about this targeted approach. This helps us connect with individuals in our geographic area who are actively seeking our legal services.

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Now, if you don't already understand why is local SEO crucial for law firms, the answer really lies in consumer behavior, because we're not just guessing here. Clients today, they almost always turn to the internet when it comes to legal services, whether they're finding them in the first place or they're just doing some research. And according to a bunch of recent studies, which I'm not going to cite, because you can just Google them and you'll find a million different data points to support what I'm about to say, according to these studies, at least 95% of people learn more about a local company online than they do anywhere else. This includes researching law firms, reading their reviews, comparing the services they're maybe going to purchase, all of those things. And for a law firm, being visible in the local search results means being present where clients are looking. It's about creating opportunities for the firm's name to appear when someone searches for legal help nearby, and, in this case, doing it for free. This visibility helps us build trust and credibility, and being prominently featured in local searches signals to potential clients that the firm is reputable and, importantly, accessible.

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Local SEO comprises several key components, though, and each of these plays a really vital role in enhancing your online presence, so let's run through them. First up is Google my Business we're going to talk about this again. This is really the cornerstone of local SEO. The cornerstone of local SEO, gmb is a free tool that Google provides that allows businesses like law firms, to manage their online presence across Google, including on search and in maps. So just by claiming and optimizing your GMB listing a little bit, law firms can start to provide essential information, capture users, and on your profile, you can put more information, including your contact details, your location, your business hours, your photos, your description, wheelchair access, everything you can think of. We've talked about this before and we're going to again, but it's really critical for local SEO that you actually go and create a GMB profile. Number two is local keywords, which, again, we're going to talk about all these items again, so don't worry Incorporating location-based keywords into your website content itself. This is also really essential for local SEO. These are terms that potential clients are likely to use when searching for legal services in a specific area. So, for example, we've got things like estate planning attorney in Los Angeles or criminal defense lawyer near Miami, and by strategically using these keywords in your website content, you're going to increase your chances of appearing in relevant local searches.

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Number three and this is important local citations. This is something I can help you with too, but these citations, what they are is they're mentions of a law firm's name, address and phone number. That's NAP information. We've talked about it before and we will again, and these are on other websites, directories, social platforms, things like that. Consistent and accurate citations across the web help signal to search engines like Google that the firm is legitimate and trustworthy and that the business listing should rank highly on Google Popular citation sources. There are a billion of these, but a couple of the top ones Yelp, yellow Pages, and for lawyers, we have things like FindLaw and Avvo and Justia listing sources like that.

Speaker 1: 4:50

Number four is online reviews, and these are one of the things that we miss the most, because it's not something that's super easy to systemize, but they are so important, and that's because reviews are not just about feedback, but they're really important for local SEO. Reviews are not just about feedback, but they're really important for local SEO. Positive reviews from satisfied clients not only influence potential clients, but they also improve our search visibility. Google really likes to see positive reviews, so encouraging clients to leave reviews on platforms like Google, avvo and Yelp can significantly boost your firm's local SEO efforts. Talk to me about it if you have questions.

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Number five our final point here is localized content. We talked about this with keywords on your website, but we actually want to create some content that is localized and creating content tailored to local audience. It's a really powerful local SEO strategy. This can be anything from blog posts or case studies or articles that are talking about local legal topics even statewide or news or events. Not only do these things resonate with local potential clients like our reviews, but they also signal a lot of relevance to search engines, and this is good for our rankings. In essence, local SEO for legal professionals like us, this is about optimizing every digital touchpoint to ensure that the firm stands out in local searches. It has to be a multifaceted approach that combines technical optimization, content creation and reputation management to attract, engage and then convert local clients.

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And yes, we've talked about local SEO before on the podcast and I've done some webinars about it that you'll find on our YouTube page. But we're talking about all of this again because it's not going away, with all of the AI stuff coming into our view and the changes we're seeing to Google search results, just overall, local SEO has been a focus for me in the last 18 months because it's stable. It's not going away. Investing in content, seo and your website all of these can be a somewhat risky proposition when we consider the advancements of AI and how Google at all are implementing them, but you can bet some good money that people are still going to need Google Maps in two or five or ten years, even if it looks different than it does today. Seriously, just get in an Uber with somebody who's under 35 years old and you'll see what I mean.

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So in our series on local SEO, we're going to talk about everything you need to do to crush your competition. But if you haven't started yet, don't worry. There's still time. But you need to start now and you need to go and claim your Google my Business profile. Today we're going to be talking about tools and tactics and new ideas for pushing your firm to the top of the rankings, and you're going to need a GMB profile for all of that. So go ahead and go do it. In the course of this series, we're going to walk you through the steps for local SEO dominance and I'm going to give you the tools to make this part of your weekly marketing program without giving up too much time. But for today, that's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.