If you’re a lawyer aiming to attract more clients online, your SEO success hinges on one thing: keywords.

As a marketer working with law firms, I’ve come to understand the legal-related search terms that help boost legal websites. Targeting the right keywords makes all the difference in successful SEO for lawyers.

Keywords are the key to successful SEO. They help legal websites connect with potential clients when they’re actively looking for their services.

This article discusses SEO for lawyers and gives you a list of the top 20 legal keywords by monthly search volume. 

Why do keywords still matter for SEO?

Keywords remain a fundamental part of SEO because they connect what people search for with the content available on a website. While search engines have become more advanced, keywords, and clusters of keywords related to a topic, still help websites appear in relevant search results.

When your website is optimised for the right keywords, it’s more likely to appear in search results, driving targeted traffic and increasing inquiries.

For law firms, these might include terms like:

“divorce lawyer in Adelaide”
“personal injury attorney”
“property law Brisbane”

Here is a list of the top 20 legal SEO keywords based on monthly search volume, from my Ahrefs SEO tool:

SEO for lawyer example

How Randle & Taylor Barristers and Solicitors ranks for ‘estate lawyer’ in Adelaide

Here is an example of a legal services pages that ranks very well for it’s respective keyword. 

Randle & Taylor Barristers and Solicitors are a law firm located in Adelaide, Australia. I have been running their SEO campaigns for a while.

Pleasingly, their site ranks pretty well for a wide range of legal SEO keywords.

Of note, is this example page ‘estate lawyer Adelaide’. It has achieved strong rankings for the keyword ‘estate lawyer’ in Adelaide is rank #2. By carrying out extensive keyword research, we identified high-volume, low-competition cluster keywords related to their city.

Once we have our list of keywords, we can implement them into the website. Here’s how the process worked:

1. Draft service-specific content: For each keyword, we created detailed service copy explaining what the service entails, how it caters to clients in Adelaide, and the benefits for potential clients.
2. Publish dedicated pages: Dedicated website pages were developed for each service area, optimised specifically for the target keywords. These pages showcased the firm’s expertise in property law and highlighted their local knowledge.
3. On-Page SEO: The pages were optimised using key SEO elements such as: Meta descriptions, Headings, Internal links, and Alt text.

For example, the SEO page title and meta description for the example ‘estate lawyer Adelaide’ page are:

• SEO page title: Trusted Wills and Estate Lawyers Adelaide
• Meta description: Wills and Estate Lawyers Adelaide. Randle & Taylor Barristers and Solicitors are a specialist Wills and Estate Law Firm. 50+ Years Experience.

How to put this into practice for your law firm

If your law firm offers a specific service, let’s say, family law, you can create an optimised service page to attract clients searching for related legal help.  

Here’s how that looks.

1) Create a dedicated service page

Develop a page focused on family law, and go into further detail the services you offer, like parenting orders, divorce applications, and property settlements. Also include how your firm can guide clients through challenging times (creates empathy). Include local details to target searches in your area, such as “family law services in Adelaide.”

2) Optimise key SEO elements

• SEO page title: “Trusted Family Lawyers in [your city] – Expert Legal Advice.”
• H1 headline: “Family Law Services.”
• Meta description: “Compassionate family lawyers in [your city] providing guidance on practical legal advice for divorce, parenting orders, and property settlements.”

3) Incorporate related keywords

Use secondary keywords like “divorce lawyer,” “parenting orders,” and “property settlement lawyer” as subheadings (H2) and integrate them naturally into the content.

4) Add image tags

Include descriptive alt text for images, such as “family lawyer meeting with clients about parenting orders.”

5) Include FAQs

Address client concerns with questions like “How do parenting orders work in Australia?” or “How to protect my assets in a divorce?”

It also helps to regularly update and refine the content to stay competitive and drive consistent enquiries.

By tailoring a service page for your family law offerings and optimising it with strategic keywords and SEO elements, your law firm can achieve the same as Randle and Taylor by showing up on page one of Google.

Key Takeaways

• Create dedicated service pages for legal offerings like family or property law to improve rankings and attract clients.
• Use targeted keywords, meta descriptions, headings, and alt text for SEO.
• Add detailed descriptions, location-specific terms, and FAQs to showcase expertise and drive enquiries.

Marshall Thurlow is Director and Founder of Orion Marketing Pty Ltd. He is a digital marketer with expertise in SEO, website design, content marketing, and project management.