Thuy-My Vu
Google is the most widely used search engine in France, ahead of Yahoo, Bing and Qwant. Added to this is the growing use of voice search by Google users. It is therefore essential to become “Google friendly “. To achieve this, lawyers have a technique at their disposal: optimizing the content of their site.
The digital existence of law firms through content optimization presents a double challenge for lawyers. The latter must democratize or popularize their content, making the law audible and accessible. But to shine on the planet of Google, they must strive to produce content that is correctly referenced, based on the user’s query.
“Search results need to be descriptive, and reflect the way the user expresses his or her needs. You have to bear in mind that certain turns of phrase are not understandable by the search robot”, explains Salma Janjar, Digital Marketing Manager at Eliott & Markus.
A brief search of the keywords used by Google users to find your expertise will give you an initial framework for writing your content. However, don’t limit the use of these keywords to descriptions of your expertise or your teams. Optimization also involves “metadata”, i.e. the SEO title and Meta Description, which appear only on the search engine and not on your website.
However, Google may penalize keyword abuse, especially the repetition of the same term. Above all, it’s essential to identify the “best” keywords, and to choose and use them sparingly. To do this, you need a real SEO strategy: to stand out on the market, you need to identify your target and your competitors.
“In SEO, you have to pick your battles,” emphasizes Salma Janjar. To be well referenced, you need to choose the user queries on which you want to and can position yourself. And to say the least, there’s no shortage of “competitors” in terms of content. Government sites, media, legal definition sites: competition for the same query is polymorphous and tough.
When, for the same query, other sites seem to be attracting a higher volume of visitors, then writing “optimized content” will be time-consuming and irrelevant. For those firms that can, the most effective solution is to develop niche content, responding to so-called “long tail” queries. These queries, composed of three words or more, reflect the web user’s need for a precise answer.
For example, positioning on the query “employment law” will be less judicious than the query “expatriate employment lawyer”. This type of research has the advantage of leading to contact. Internet users looking for these specific elements are not only seeking information on employment law in general, but are also looking for legal support that best suits their current needs.