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SEO Best Practices for Estate Planning Law Firms

By Marc Apple   ●    January 18, 2025   ●   7 min read

SEO Best Practices for Estate Planning Law Firms

Table of Contents

TL:DR Performing the proper keyword research, optimizing website content, and earning backlinks are some of the best practices for law firms looking to improve SEO for estate planning lawyers. Monitoring SEO performance is also a vital component.

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According to a 2020 survey, almost 80% of lawyers say search engine optimization (SEO) is their most effective marketing tool. If your law firm is creating a strategy for digital marketing for estate planning lawyers, SEO should play a significant part.

Law firms that don’t take SEO for estate planning lawyers seriously often fail to attract as much attention as those that prioritize it. This sometimes affects their bottom line and prevents their growth.

Is your estate planning law firm operating without a well-thought-out SEO strategy?

Discover why you’re making a big mistake by not investing more time in SEO and learn about the latest SEO practices.

What Is SEO for Estate Planning Lawyers?

SEO for estate planning lawyers involves optimizing different elements of a law firm’s website to help it climb higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo decide which websites to recommend to internet users based on everything from the keywords included on them to the internal and external links incorporated into their content.

Search engines aim to suggest websites with the highest-quality content possible so internet users can find the answers to their questions.

Confident woman in yellow smiling at office

For this reason, law firms must make it their mission to add the right content to their sites.

This will improve their chances of being pushed to the top of their SERPs for all to see.

Why Is SEO Important for Estate Planning Law Firms?

SEO is important for estate planning law firms for many reasons. For starters, the U.S. has more than 200,000 estate planning law firms, providing plenty of options for those in the market for one.

When estate planning law firms don’t prioritize SEO, they’ll typically end up buried beneath their competitors on SERPs.

Even if they have more experience and expertise in estate planning, people looking for law firms might not even come across them before deciding to go in another direction.

SEO is also essential for estate planning law firms because it allows them to showcase their authority and develop trust with the general public. People are more likely to view these firms in a favorable light when it’s clear they have put thought into every aspect of their sites.

Confident man with glasses in modern office

Additionally, SEO enables law firms to target their content to those most likely to be interested in reading it.

If your firm takes steps to optimize its website, it is more likely to appear when people in your community search for phrases like “what is estate planning,” “how does estate planning work,” or “estate planning lawyer near me.”

What Are the SEO Best Practices for Estate Planning Law Firms?

One thing you should remember about SEO for estate planning lawyers is that the top SEO practices are consistently changing. From an SEO perspective, what works today might not work as effectively in six months.

However, a handful of tried-and-true SEO best practices have continuously worked wonders for law firms.

Your firm should test them to see how well they do when trying to take your practice to the next level.

Performing Keyword Research

Before formulating an SEO strategy for estate planning lawyers, make sure you know your law firm’s target audience. This will come in handy as you start performing keyword research and trying to determine the search intent of your prospective clients.

Ideally, your website’s content should contain keywords your target audience tends to search for the most. If, for example, your target audience is high-net-worth individuals, your keywords should reflect this for your SEO strategy to enjoy success.

Once you’ve identified your target audience, use SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner to pinpoint which keywords to work into your website’s content.

Confident young woman smiling with arms crossed

By doing this effectively, you will improve your site’s keyword ranking and convince Google and the other search engines to push it up their SERPs and show your content to more people.

Optimizing Website Content

Coming up with the right keywords to include in your estate planning law firm’s content is only half the battle. You also must work these keywords into various parts of your site seamlessly to get the results you’re hoping for.

These keywords must appear in blog posts and service pages where internet users will see them when visiting your site. However, you shouldn’t stop there, as you should also include keywords in:

  • Page titles
  • Meta tags
  • Image alt tags
  • URLs

You should not get into the habit of cramming keywords into every nook and cranny on your website. Google and other search engines have strict anti-spam policies to prevent keyword stuffing and other unsavory SEO tactics from producing positive results.

At the same time, you shouldn’t be shy about performing keyword research and using the right keywords in all content created for your site.

You’ll miss out on connecting with more potential clients if you choose not to optimize content.

Landing Backlinks

In addition to optimizing the content on your law firm’s website with the right keywords, you should also fill it with a healthy mix of internal links (links to other pages on your site) and external links (links to other sites and usually used to cite sources for statistics). These links will encourage people to click around on your site more and allow you to build relationships with other sites.

When these sites get wind of your law firm linking to them, they may provide links back to your site.

Confident businessman standing in modern office

These backlinks are essential building blocks for SEO for estate planning lawyers.

The more backlinks you collect, the more trustworthy your law firm’s site will look in the eyes of search engines. Because of this, you should proactively try to secure as many backlinks as possible by:

  • Offering to write guest blogs on other sites in exchange for links back to your site
  • Agreeing to participate in media interviews when reporters need legal experts to explain complex topics
  • Sharing links to your site’s content with other websites, especially if they post estate planning-related content regularly

Pushing to publish more original content that people can’t find anywhere else also enhances SEO for estate planning lawyers. For instance, a case study or a survey your firm conducted could become an excellent backlinking opportunity once published.

Making the Most of Local SEO

General on-page SEO is vital for estate planning law firms, but it’s even more imperative that they get a grip on local SEO sooner rather than later.

Whenever someone from your community is looking for estate planning lawyers, you want your firm’s name to appear prominently in their local search.

Improve your law firm’s local SEO by:

  • Adding location-specific keywords to your website content
  • Publishing content that relates directly to the people within your community
  • Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile

You should also boost your local SEO by signing up for social media accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Five professionals posing confidently in business attire

This may help you connect with people in your community and create more backlinks to your content.

How Should I Monitor the Results of SEO for Estate Planning Lawyers?

After implementing an SEO plan for estate planning lawyers, it is paramount to monitor your progress. You want to ensure that search engines and your target audience notice your SEO efforts.

Google Analytics and the Google Search Console are fantastic tools for tracking SEO performance. Use them to keep an eye on:

  • Organic traffic
  • Keyword rankings
  • Clickthrough rate
  • Bounce rate
  • Indexed pages

These tools will highlight what is and isn’t working regarding your site’s SEO.

Seek Help With Your Estate Planning Law Firm’s SEO Efforts

SEO for estate planning lawyers is a simple enough concept. However, it might also become a time-consuming strategy if you don’t know what you’re doing or don’t enjoy the content creation process.

Forward Push Law Firm Marketing is here to help with your SEO efforts if you lack the time or desire to tackle them yourself. Call us at (800) 692-4037 today for all your search engine optimization needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to other frequently asked questions about SEO for estate planning law firms.

Do Law Firms Need SEO?

Law firms don’t technically need SEO to survive, but not taking advantage of the latest SEO best practices may hinder their growth substantially. It could also impact their bottom line by making them less visible to those within their community.

Can Law Firms Handle SEO on Their Own?

Law firms can handle SEO on their own if they have enough time and energy to devote to it. However, SEO is an ongoing process that requires consistency and attention to detail that law firms can’t always deliver.

How Much Does SEO for Estate Planning Lawyers Cost?

The cost of SEO for estate planning lawyers varies. It depends on the scope of an SEO project, SEO work performed on a law firm’s website in the past, and other key factors.

Marc Apple - Forward Push Law Firm Marketing
Article By

Marc Apple
Partner & Founder

Marc Apple is a Law Firm Marketing Expert, Author, and Partner and Founder of Forward Push Law Firm Marketing, an Inc. 5000 award winning agency dedicated to helping sole practitioners and small law firms grow their practices through strategic marketing. With a background in Fortune 500 marketing, his expertise in integrated marketing strategies has helped countless attorneys and law firms build a strong online presence and expand their client base.