It is almost impossible for lawyers to rank on Google using SEO alone.
I have spent countless hours learning SEO and all its mysteries. Despite all this learning, what I have experienced is that it is pretty easy to rank for low competition services and businesses. But almost impossible to rank for ultra-competitive services like personal injury law firms.
Do you offer some obscure legal service that nobody else offers? Well you can probably rank for that. Do you represent those injured in car wrecks like every other lawyer in the world does? Well, that’s a whole different conversation.
I did a keyword search on Wordstream and found this:
| Keywords | Top of page bid (low range) |
| ||||
| Monthly search volume | Competition | |||||
| lawyers near me | 135,000 | $3.96 | $22.27 | LOW | ||
| attorney at law near me | 135,000 | $3.96 | $22.27 | LOW | ||
| lawyers close to me | 135,000 | $3.96 | $22.27 | LOW | ||
| near me lawyer | 135,000 | $3.96 | $22.27 | LOW | ||
| lawyer near by me | 135,000 | $3.96 | $22.27 | LOW | ||
| lawyers in near me | 135,000 | $3.96 | $22.27 | LOW | ||
| divorce lawyers near me | 110,000 | $2.38 | $21.25 | MEDIUM | ||
| family lawyers near me | 110,000 | $3.10 | $27.80 | LOW | ||
| personal injury lawyer near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| family law attorney near me | 110,000 | $3.10 | $27.80 | LOW | ||
| family court lawyers near me | 110,000 | $3.10 | $27.80 | LOW | ||
| family law lawyers near me | 110,000 | $3.10 | $27.80 | LOW | ||
| injury attorney near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| family court attorney near me | 110,000 | $3.10 | $27.80 | LOW | ||
| personal injury law firm near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| personal lawyers near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| family law offices near me | 110,000 | $3.10 | $27.80 | LOW | ||
| lawyer near me for divorce | 110,000 | $2.38 | $21.25 | MEDIUM | ||
| attorney divorce near me | 110,000 | $2.38 | $21.25 | MEDIUM | ||
| personal injury firms near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| pi lawyers near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| lawyer injury near me | 110,000 | $48.00 | $251.11 | LOW | ||
| attorney’s near me | 74,000 | $3.84 | $20.85 | LOW | ||
| immigration lawyer near me | 60,500 | $3.20 | $18.98 | MEDIUM | ||
| divorce attorney near me | 60,500 | $2.58 | $25.62 | MEDIUM |
Keyword traffic for your practice area plus your city is likely going to be slim. Even if you write tons of bog articles on “Covington car accident attorney,” it is nevertheless difficult to reach the first page when someone searches for it.
The graph above shows that these phrases are “low competition” meaning, at least theoretically, that it should be much easier for the lawyer’s website to show up on the first page if someone searches for those keywords.
Google’s algorithm has no idea if you’re a competent lawyer or not. It goes by rather dumb metrics such as “domain authority” and backlinks.
Domain Authority is directly affected by the quality and number of backlinks. Google, because they are exceedingly leftwing, considers the Washington Post as a very high authority domain. Yes, you read that correctly. The newspaper that spreads disinformation and propaganda is very authoritative to the supercilious folks at Google.
But when will WaPo ever link to a personal injury website? It would have to be an article that appealed to leftwing sensibilities, like migrants being shipped from Texas to New York City have Covid, because the Texas government refused to vaccinate and mask up their staff. Something like would pique their attention.
