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Authors: Shusaku Yosa
For a law firm, attracting clients from the web is an important channel for acquiring new consultation requests. To obtain inquiries steadily through search engines without relying on advertising, SEO (search engine optimization) is effective. This article explains why law firms should invest in SEO, along with specific measures and how to proceed.
Most people facing a legal problem first search for information on a search engine. They tend to search with keywords that include their concern and location, such as "divorce lawyer consultation" or "traffic accident compensation," so appearing at the top of search results makes it easier to turn searches into consultations. Paid search ads can also achieve top placement, but they incur a cost per click, and in highly competitive fields the cost per click rises sharply. If you can secure organic search traffic through SEO, you can build a stable client-acquisition foundation over the medium to long term while keeping advertising costs down.
Prepare a dedicated page for each practice area you handle, such as "inheritance," "divorce," "labor issues," and "debt consolidation." Rather than covering all areas on a single page, creating in-depth pages by area makes each one more likely to be evaluated for its respective keywords.
Because legal consultations are highly location-dependent, keyword measures that include place names, such as "Shibuya ward lawyer" or "Osaka inheritance consultation," are effective. By registering and optimizing your Google Business Profile and organizing your address, business hours, and reviews, you can also aim for exposure in map search (the local pack).
The legal field is an area where especially high trustworthiness is required in terms of search quality. Demonstrating expertise and trust through the lawyer's own profile (career history, bar association membership, registration number), case results, and clear identification of the author leads to better evaluation.
Continuously publish articles that answer questions consultees are likely to have, such as "How is the division of property decided in a divorce?" or "Under what conditions can I claim unpaid overtime?" By providing specific and useful information, you can increase points of contact with potential consultees.
First, organize your firm's strengths and the areas you want to focus on, and identify your target keywords. Next, design a page structure aligned with search needs, and systematically create area pages and column articles. After publishing, measure search rankings, traffic, and the number of inquiries to understand which pages are performing and which are not. By repeatedly improving content and adding keywords based on the data, you can gradually strengthen your ability to attract clients.
Advertising and representations in the legal field are subject to restrictions under the Attorney Act and the regulations of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. You should avoid exaggerated expressions or overly emphasizing contingency fees, and strive for accurate and appropriate communication. As for SEO techniques as well, excessive measures that deceive search engines (such as unnatural links or large numbers of thin pages) carry the risk of lowering your evaluation, so it is important to proceed with content creation that is genuinely useful to users as the core.
SEO for law firms rests on pillars such as building out area-specific pages, local SEO, high-trust content that is mindful of E-E-A-T, and publishing columns from the consultee's perspective. It does not produce results in the short term, but by working at it continuously, you can build a stable client-acquisition foundation that does not over-rely on advertising.
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