Google Voice Search and SEO

New Attorney Website SEO Trends

Following in the footsteps of Siri, the voice-activated search on iPhones, Google rolled out Google Voice last year. Google Voice Search is now available on both mobile and PC-based versions of Chrome, Google’s popular web browser. While still in its early stages, Google Voice Search is growing in popularity and promises to reshape your attorney SEO landscape.

Optimizing for voice search probably shouldn’t figure heavily into your local lawyer SEO strategy at this stage. However, keyword research and a basic understanding of these types of searches can help with your overall marketing strategy. In return,  you can experiment with driving traffic to specific landing pages with the use of long-tail keywords and a revised FAQ page.

Long-Tail Keywords for Your Law Firm’s Website

Keywords related to your practice areas and geographic location play a role in attorney website SEO. For example, the keyword phrase Baltimore personal injury attorney would appear when someone searches near the city of Baltimore. You may also be familiar with long-tail keywords. As their name implies, long-tail keywords are wordier than basic keywords. For example, instead of the standard keyword phrase Baltimore personal injury attorney, a long-tail keyword phrase might read Baltimore parking lot slip-and-fall accident attorney. By adding the parking lot slip and fall you have narrowed your area of focus. In addition, you have reduced the level of competition with other law firm sites. Instead of competing for search results with all Baltimore personal injury attorneys, you are now only competing with other parking lot slip and fall attorneys.

Google Voice Search Queries vs. Keyboard Queries

When improving attorney website SEO, think about what type of search queries clients use to find your firm. Google Voice Search queries and keyboard queries have some differences. Voice search queries tend to be longer and more closely resemble human speech patterns. People have learned to use short keyword phrases when looking for local service-providers with a standard typed query. Voice queries, on the other hand, encourage people to speak as they would in conversation.

So instead of typing Baltimore slip and fall attorney into Google, someone using Google Voice Search might ask, “What are some good slip and fall attorneys in Baltimore?” Or, they might have a specific question such as, “If I slip and fall at my apartment, is my landlord responsible?”

Of course, a searcher might type this question into Google rather than asking it with voice search. This raises another consideration: as Google Voice Searches and searches in general become more sophisticated, Google increasingly rewards (in the form of higher page rankings) pages that do a good job of providing quality information, including answers to questions. So if you can anticipate which questions potential clients will have, you can boost your Google rankings by designing your frequently asked questions (FAQs) page to address long-tail searches. Creating a FAQs page is imperative if you want to improve your attorney website SEO.

Long-Tail Searches and FAQs

Frequently asked questions tend to be relatively homogenous from one attorney’s site to another. We’ve all seen them: Do I need an attorney? How much will this cost me? What can I recover? Such questions are valuable to readers, but more specific questions could be more valuable. Because you deal with clients and potential clients daily, you know what people are actually asking on a regular basis. Placing these questions, near-verbatim, on FAQ pages on your website effectively turns them into long-tail keyword phrases and could give you better Google Voice Search results due to a lower level of competition.

Help with Attorney Website SEO

The better you are able to answer a searcher’s question, the better the chance they will stay on your site. This decreases the chances they will go to another site instead. In the long term, this should improve your ranking with Google search results pages and your help overall site SEO. However, implementing a successful search engine optimization for lawyers campaign and deciphering data from Google Analytics has its challenges.

At Legal Web Design, we offer a wide range of marketing solutions for lawyers, including attorney SEO and social media management. In addition, we conduct extensive keyword research to help create content for marketing materials, such as blog posts. For more information about legal web design services, visit our legal website services page. If you are interested in learning more about Google Voice Search and attorney website SEO fo your law firm, please request a FREE consultation!