How to Optimize Your Law Firm’s Google My Business Listing
Google My Business is a fantastic social media platform for any law firm to include in their online marketing strategy. It can help you increase your visibility, establish your brand, and connect with prospects.
Not bad for a free marketing tool!
So how do you make the most of this great opportunity? Well, the first thing to do is create a Google My Business profile for your law firm. Then, it’s time to optimize your listing and start attracting leads.
Here are some handy tips to get you started.
Complete Your Profile
In order to make Google’s algorithms happy, you’ll want to make sure your law firm’s Google My Business profile is 100% complete. Fill out all the relevant fields, including your law firm’s:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Website
- Hours
- Business category
- Products and services
- Service area
This will help you rank higher in local search results and provide more useful information for potential clients and referrers who see your listing.
Make Sure All Your Information is Accurate (and Consistent)
Adding your information is essential, but that isn’t enough on its own. It’s also important to ensure that everything is accurate and up-to-date. You won’t do yourself any favors by misleading prospects with false info.
Consistency is key, too. Google will check to see if the details of your Google My Business profile line up with your website and other social media accounts. If their algorithms find any discrepancies, it could hurt your ability to rank.
Make sure you enter your contact information exactly as it appears everywhere else.
Write a Catchy Business Description
The “business description” part of your Google My Business listing is the perfect place to showcase your law firm’s unique brand voice.
Google only gives you 750 characters to work with for your business description, so you’ll need to keep things short and sweet. Don’t worry! That’s plenty. You can talk about what you do and how you’re different from your competitors.
Follow these tips to make it count:
- Use all 750 characters
- Try to hook readers within the first 250 characters (that’s all the reader will see without clicking “More”)
- Feel free to repurpose content from your law firm’s mission statement or About Us page
- Use relevant SEO keywords
- Don’t repeat any information you’ve already added elsewhere in your listing
- Don’t include any links or HTML
Add Photos
They say a picture is worth a thousand words—and that’s especially true on Google My Business. Businesses that add photos to their listing get 35% more clicks through to their websites than those that don’t.
So take the time to upload as many high-quality snapshots of your office and team as you can. (We recommend at least three to six3–6.) This is a great way to demonstrate your law firm’s professionalism and give viewers an idea of who they’d be working with.
And if you want to go the extra mile, you can hire a Google-approved photographer to create a 360-degree virtual tour of your whole office. Trust us, that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Show Off Your Google Reviews
According to the 2020 Local Consumer Review Survey from BrightLocal, 87% of consumers check out online reviews when assessing a local business, and 79% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family.
By including positive reviews on your Google My Business listing, you can establish credibility with potential clients and referrers right away. Plus, the more glowing reviews you have, the more likely you are to rank higher in Google’s local search results.
Use Google Posts
Google Posts is one of the more recent features added to Google My Business—and one of the most useful. You can use Google Posts to give readers brief updates and insights relating to your law firm, such as:
- Articles
- Videos
- Newsletters
- Special offers
- Promotions
- Case studies
- Announcements
- Invitations to events
- Employee achievements
This can help you increase brand awareness and communicate directly with your target audience. And if you include the right keywords, it can also boost your SEO strategy.
Get the Most out of Your Law Firm’s Google My Business Listing
By following these steps, you can optimize your Google My Business listing and expand your online outreach.
But of course, maintaining any social media platform takes time and energy. If you’d rather let someone else create and optimize your Google My Business listing, we’d be happy to lend a hand.
At Let America Know, we help lawyers across the nation improve their internet marketing strategies through social media and email. We can give you the expert support you need to strengthen your brand, reach your target audience, and network with your peers.
Click here to check out our done-for-you social media program for trial attorneys.