Law Firm Keywords: A Quick Guide for Lawyers

A recent study revealed that up to 66% of call conversions for law firms come from organic search. If you want potential clients to find you online, you need to use law firm keywords in your content to boost search visibility.

In this post, we’ll cover how to do keyword research, how to use legal keywords in your website content, and tools you can use for your law firm’s SEO campaign.

What to Know About SEO Keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases people use when searching online for solutions. As an attorney, you want your website to rank for the most relevant SEO keywords.

When you incorporate legal keywords into your website, you can rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) when prospects search for those terms.

There are two types of keywords:

• Short-Tail Keywords. These terms are three words or less, such as “personal injury lawyer,” and are the most competitive phrases. Because they tend to be broader phrases, people use them for many reasons. So, most short-tail keywords have a high search volume and low conversion rate.
• Long-Tail Keywords. These are more specific, entail four or more words, and may include local SEO terms. For example:
  • Divorce attorney near me
  • What to do after a car accident
  • Child adoption process in California

Since over roughly 83% of organic website traffic comes from long-tail keywords, you can enhance your search engine ranking by incorporating these high search volume and low-competition phrases! Plus, long-tail searches tend to have higher conversion rates.

Tips for Law Firm Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of finding the keywords or keyword phrases that your target audience uses when searching online. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can build a pretty solid keyword strategy yourself:

1. Identify your seed keywords

These keywords are the root phrases involved in a specific niche. For example, here are the keywords that appear when I enter the seed keyword “car accident” on Moz (an SEO tool with some publicly available capabilities):

Seed keywords are the foundation of a strong SEO strategy because they help you identify what your audience is searching for and guide the direction of your content. By starting with these core terms, you can efficiently expand into relevant topics, uncover content opportunities, and build a scalable keyword strategy that keeps your site aligned with user intent.

2. Determine keywords your competitors rank for

In order to be seen by prospective clients, you don’t need to rank for the sake of ranking. You just need to be better than your competitors, so you need to be benchmarking against them. An important research step is figuring out your competitors’ keywords and where you can beat them or where you want to try and go around them.

You can look at competitors’ rankings using tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, SEMRush, or Google’s Keyword Planner. These online tools help you figure out how prospects in your industry search for legal services.

3. Run matching term reports

A fantastic way to gain inspiration for your keyword research strategy is to use the Matching Terms report in Ahrefs. Think of this tool as the “People also Search for” results but more refined and backed by tangible data.

The Matching Terms report helps you identify keywords with your seed keywords:

By analyzing these related terms, you can expand your content strategy, target a wider range of search intents, and strengthen your overall keyword coverage for better SEO visibility.

4. Explore what people actually search

Often, when creating content lawyers start with questions they think people need to know. That is a good sentiment, but it doesn’t always match what people are actually looking for. To understand how people are actually searching, you can use Ahrefs to pinpoint what questions searchers are asking, such as:

Then, think beyond SEO research tools and dig deep into the source of the viewer’s questions. Websites like Justia, Lawyer.com, and Answer the Public can help you visualize the questions your target audience asks.

Why? When searching for law-related questions, these queries offer insights into clients’ intent and needs and allow you to spot long-tail keywords for better SERP performance. In addition, you can use the results to develop new content ideas, helping you establish yourself as a thought leader and grow credibility.

Justia and Lawyer.com have a massive Q&A section where people seeking legal advice or solutions to their queries can submit questions. After this, attorneys with in-depth knowledge provide answers.These are the types of questions you want your SEO content to answer.

*Bonus tip* Answer the Public allows you to enter a keyword or phrase to identify the different types of questions people ask online. For instance, if I enter “car accident” on this site, I receive significant data related to different question forms, such as “how,” “what,” “when,” and more.

5. Build your keyword strategy

Once you’ve completed your keyword research, the next step is deciding which keywords to target first. The key is to find the right balance between keyword difficulty and search volume.You want terms that enough people are searching for, but that your firm can realistically rank for. 

Focus on competitive keywords and phrases that align with your practice areas, but don’t overlook long-tail keywords. These more specific phrases often include shorter, high-value keywords and tend to attract visitors with stronger intent to take action.

It’s also important to distinguish between high-intent and low-intent keywords. High-intent keywords, such as “hire a personal injury lawyer,” signal that someone is ready to contact an attorney, while low-intent keywords, like “what does a personal injury lawyer do,” indicate early-stage research. A strong keyword strategy uses both.

This can be done on a spreadsheet. Where you can track what content is optimized for your priority keywords.

6. Structure your content with keywords

This is where you write the actual content such as blogs, practice area pages, and social media posts that speak to these keywords, remember to keep it simple and easily provide the answer to the question.

Good formatting with keywords is beneficial in two ways:

• First, it makes your material more accessible to read. You want short paragraphs with subheadings with active verbs that are straightforward to scan and understand.
• Second, proper formatting informs search engines about the general quality of your material.

Remember to strategically place your primary keyword in key areas such as titles, headers, meta descriptions, and image alt text without overstuffing. The goal is to make your content helpful for users and clear for search engines, so your law firm can stand out in competitive search results.

7. Monitor your results

Once your keyword strategy is in motion, consistent monitoring is essential to measure performance and refine your approach. Pay close attention to metrics such as organic traffic, click-through rates (CTR), impressions, and conversions. These indicators show whether your chosen keywords are effectively driving qualified leads to your site.

Regular reporting allows you to spot trends and make data-driven decisions. For instance, if certain keywords are gaining traction, you can build more content around them. If others are underperforming, consider updating the related pages or shifting focus to new opportunities.

Consistent keyword tracking and reporting help ensure your SEO strategy remains proactive rather than reactive. By continually measuring results, your law firm can adapt to changes in search behavior, strengthen visibility, and maintain steady growth in organic search rankings.

Keyword Research Tools for Attorney SEO

Keyword research tools to make this procedure productive and efficient. These are a few essential tools for keyword research for attorney SEO.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a premium tool that integrates competitor analysis and keyword research tools. It offers helpful tips when creating your list of target keywords and shows you related keywords, keyword intent, and keyword difficulty.

Within Ahrefs, you can see which keywords have the highest monthly search volume and traffic potential, along with which law firm websites hold the top positions in Google’s search results.

Semrush

Semrush is an effective SEO tool that helps attorneys select the best keywords for law firm websites. It enables long-tail keyword discovery, competitive monitoring, trends over time, and search volume.

Additionally, it has a content optimization function that recommends relevant law keywords to improve search engine optimization. This technology can increase internet visibility, draw in customers, and save costs by producing possible leads and organic traffic.

Google Trends

You can use Google Trends, a helpful tool, to choose the ideal keywords for your legal practice website. You may monitor changes in your field by seeing the trend of specific keywords over time.

You can discover the most talked-about topics for conversation by using Google Trends to find popular terms in your business. Additionally, it will enable you to compare several keywords and determine which ones are genuinely valuable.

Your website’s traffic will increase, and you’ll attract more potential customers by utilizing the right keywords with frequent searches.

Moz

Moz provides various SEO tools, including Moz Keyword Explorer, which includes keyword performance and difficulty data. Lawyers may utilize Moz Keyword Explorer to find high search volume competition keywords and prioritize them in their SEO operations.

Moreover, Moz provides site audits, link tracking, and domain research, which makes it an invaluable resource for lawyers trying to enhance their entire SEO approach.

Google Search Console

Attorneys can use this free tool to monitor keyword performance and troubleshoot any problems that might be influencing their website’s search visibility. You can see data on impressions, click-through rates, and average position for particular keywords.

Related Searches Section

An area usually appears near the bottom of the search result page when you conduct a search. This section includes additional search queries related to the original search query.

The Related Searches area can help attorneys find additional keyword options and focus their keyword research. Attorneys can increase organic traffic and visibility in search results by integrating relevant keyword searches into their content strategy.

Get Started With Keyword Research Today

Keyword research is important for lawyers looking to consistently get new clients and scale their practice. Every day, 10,000+ people are searching online for legal help. If you use the right law firm keywords, you can gain more visibility and sign more clients.

At FirmPilot, we know that a busy law practice has little time for marketing and SEO copywriting. That’s why we developed an AI platform that helps law firms manage their marketing campaigns, from local SEO to national PR. Find out how FirmPilot can help you grow your law practice.