If you’ve decided to increase your law firm’s presence on the Internet, then you definitely need to learn the term “keywords”. Regardless of which method of online promotion you choose, you will meet it along the way.
Keywords are actively used in contextual advertising, website optimization, content creation, etc.
Even if a digital marketing agency is responsible for your promotion, you will still hear about keywords regularly – when discussing marketing strategies and in the agency’s monthly reports. Moreover, your advertising costs largely depend on which keywords will be used in promotion.
What are “keywords” and why are they so important? We will talk about this now.
Basics of Keyword Research
When users want to find some information, product or service on the Internet, they request search engines. The words and phrases that people enter into the search box are keywords. Simply put, these are any words that help you find the data you need on the Internet.
As you can imagine, there can be a huge variety of words and their combinations. Some of them are used extremely rarely, others, on the contrary, are very popular. The marketing task is to choose from all these numbers top keywords for lawyers that will lead the user to your company and your service.
How can we achieve this? The work always starts the same way – with the study of the market, the definition of advertising goals, and the compilation of a semantic core. The semantic core is a pool of those keywords that will be most effective for your promotion. Further, the action plan depends on which method of promotion you have chosen – SEO or PPC.
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
In SEO, you need to correctly and thoughtfully distribute keywords from the semantic core throughout the site. It will help in the future to bring the site to the TOP in search engines. The user will see your site in the search results, go to your page – and you will receive organic traffic.
Read more in Ultimate Technical SEO guide
- Pay per click (PPC)
PPC works differently. You should list your keywords when you create your ad campaign on Google, Facebook or any other platform.
When users search for information specifically for these keywords, they will see your ad. If a user clicks on your ad, then you will have to pay for that click. The more clicks, the more you pay to the ad platform.
But there is another important factor that affects the overall cost of your campaign. It’s about the accuracy of the keywords. For example, the keyword “lawyer” might cost you $54 per click. The effectiveness of this word will be scanty for you. It is unlikely that a new client will find your company for this request.
To have a better chance, you need to choose a more accurate word. For example, indicate your specialization – “personal injury lawyer” or “car accident lawyer”. In this case, each click will cost you much more – $62.9 and $168.66, respectively. The more specific and local your keyword is, the more money you will need.
Unfortunately, I must warn you that the cost of legal keywords is one of the highest in Google Ads. Here’s the Average Cost Per Click (CPC) in AdWords across industries:
- Healthcare services – $52.6.
- Loans Price – $60.8.
- Higher education – $72.6.
- Mortgages – $85.6.
- Credits – $118.
- Legal services – $347.
Therefore, it is necessary to select keywords very carefully and accurately. Marketing mistakes are not allowed here.
Read more in Why Small Business Owners Are So Bad at Creating Promo Materials
Long-Tail or Short-Tail
For more effective website promotion, so-called “long-tail keywords” are often used. If short-tail keywords contain one or two words (“lawyer”, “attorney”, “legal service”), then long ones contain three or more. In these queries, each subsequent word is thematically and logically related to the primary query.
The long-tail is often a clarification of location and specialization. For example, “boston workers compensation attorney” or “personal injury lawyers in houston tx”.
Long-tail phrases are more specific and attract the target audience to the site. Clarifying words increase the likelihood that a user will visit your site and order your service. Because each additional word brings users closer to the service they are looking for. If with such a narrow request, they end up on your website, then you are exactly what they need.
Note that increasing the tail can greatly affect the cost of a keyword. Usually, the price rises as the search narrows down. For example,
- Lawyer – $54.
- Car accident lawyer – $168.66.
- Car accident lawyers in Atlanta – $189.
- Car accident lawyers in Houston Texas – $222.
The last two examples can be attributed to the most expensive ppc keywords for lawyers.
But sometimes the opposite effect occurs – long-tail keywords for lawyers with very low conversions can be cheaper. It’s because these keywords are not popular with users. Accordingly, phrases will have low efficiency.
Best Legal Keywords by Practice Area
Best keywords can be interpreted differently for every law firm and every ad campaign. Much depends on marketing objectives, practice areas, target audience, and advertising budget. Overall, you need to find some balance between performance and keyword value.
For example, I recommend using both short-tail legal keywords and long-tail keywords at the same time. Also, you should consider the following factors:
- Keyword Competition (keyword difficulty). It’s an indicator of how difficult it is to rank for a given query.
- Keyword Search Volume. This metric helps you understand how many times users have used a given keyword in a given period.
Now let’s see how these keyword metrics can vary widely across legal areas.
Immigration Lawyer
Obviously, in this niche, the most popular keyword is “immigration”. It has a volume of 206,000. Even a “visa” is very much inferior in this indicator (145,000). Both keywords have hard difficulty. Keywords related to law firms have a significantly lower volume.
The attorney keywords with the lowest volume (10-20) and easy difficulty include “immigration lawyer best”, “immigration lawyer help”, “immigration lawyer with free consultation”, “immigration lawyer office”, and “immigration lawyer office near me”.
| Keyword | Volume | Difficulty |
| immigration lawyer | 33000 | Medium |
| immigration attorney | 9300 | Medium |
| immigration attorney near me | 3600 | Medium |
| immigration law firm | 700 | Hard |
| immigration lawyer cost | 350 | Easy |
| immigration law attorney | 150 | Easy |
| immigration attorney consultation | 100 | Easy |
| immigration lawyer prices | 80 | Easy |
| immigration lawyer free consultation near me | 50 | Medium |
| top immigration lawyers near me | 40 | Easy |
Divorce Lawyers
In this niche, the main common keyword “divorce” has a volume of 80,000 and hard difficulty. The key “divorce lawyer” has a volume almost 4 times less (21000), but difficulty also has a “hard” degree.
The legal keywords with the volume 10-20 and easy difficulty include “divorce separation lawyers”, “divorce and custody lawyers near me”, “affordable divorce attorney near me”, “find divorce attorney”, and “cheap divorce attorney near me “.
| Keyword | Volume | Difficulty |
| divorce lawyer near me | 13000 | Medium |
| family law attorneys | 2600 | Easy |
| best divorce lawyers near me | 800 | Hard |
| free divorce lawyer | 800 | Hard |
| divorce lawyer cost | 300 | Medium |
| cheap divorce attorney | 200 | Hard |
| divorce lawyers for women / for men | 200 | Easy |
| family law offices near me | 150 | Hard |
| divorce law firm | 150 | Hard |
| separation lawyer | 90 | Easy |
Personal Injury Lawyer
In this category, the keywords with the highest volume and degree of “hard” include “disability lawyer” (12000), “personal injury attorney” (11000), and “car accident lawyer” (11000).
The legal keywords with the volume 10-20 and easy difficulty include “top rated personal injury attorney”, “personal injury lawyer usa”, “rear end accident lawyer”, and “personal injury lawyer cost”.
| Keyword | Volume | Difficulty |
| injury lawyer | 9800 | Hard |
| personal injury lawyer near me | 6700 | Medium |
| injury attorney | 4200 | Easy |
| accident lawyers | 3200 | Medium |
| personal injury lawyers | 2500 | Medium |
| personal injury attorneys | 1500 | Medium |
| accident lawyers near me | 1200 | Easy |
| work injury attorney | 600 | Medium |
| best personal injury lawyer | 350 | Easy |
| personal injury accident lawyer | 90 | Easy |
Tax Attorney
In this niche, the keyword “tax” has a volume of 131000 and hard difficulty. Keyword “tax attorney” has volume 9000, but its difficulty is “easy”. In this category, quite a few important words have easy difficulty.
The keywords for tax attorney with the volume 10-20 and easy difficulty include “top tax lawyer”, “tax estate attorney”, “tax litigation lawyer”, “tax law lawyer”, “tax attorney consultation”, and “tax law specialist “.
| Keyword | Volume | Difficulty |
| tax attorney near me | 6400 | Easy |
| tax lawyer | 4900 | Medium |
| tax lawyer near me | 1800 | Easy |
| tax fraud lawyer | 250 | Easy |
| property tax lawyer | 200 | Easy |
| property tax attorney | 200 | Easy |
| tax attorneys in my area | 150 | Medium |
| local tax attorney | 100 | Easy |
| tax law attorney | 70 | Easy |
| tax lawyer cost | 40 | Easy |
Bankruptcy Attorney
In this niche, the trend continues. The main keyword “bankruptcy” has a high volume (145000) and hard difficulty. Keywords with a mention of lawyers have lower statistics.
The attorney keywords with the volume 10-20 and easy difficulty include “bankruptcy lawyer in my area”, “bankruptcy lawyer help”, “affordable bankruptcy attorneys near me”, and “bankruptcy attorney in my area”.
| Keyword | Volume | Difficulty |
| bankruptcy attorney | 13000 | Hard |
| bankruptcy attorney near me | 10000 | Medium |
| bankruptcy lawyer | 6300 | Medium |
| bankruptcy lawyer near me | 6100 | Hard |
| best bankruptcy attorneys near me | 350 | Hard |
| lawyers for bankruptcies near me | 200 | Medium |
| cheap bankruptcy lawyers | 200 | Easy |
| foreclosure lawyer | 150 | Easy |
| debt settlement lawyer | 100 | Easy |
| bankruptcy lawyer fees | 80 | Medium |
Business Attorney
In this area, the volume of the keyword “business” is very high (389,000) and has hard difficulty. The volume of the “business law” keyword is 46 times less (8400) and has hard difficulty.
The attorney keywords with the volume 10-60 and easy difficulty include “corporate lawyer free consultation”, “business lawyer fees”, “business lawyer advice”, “business contract lawyers near me”, “business lawyer consultation”, “startup business lawyer fees”,”small business lawyers in my area”, “business lawyer cost”, and “lawyer for business startup near me”.
| Keyword | Volume | Difficulty |
| business lawyer | 4600 | Medium |
| business attorney | 4000 | Easy |
| corporate lawyer | 4000 | Medium |
| business lawyer near me | 3100 | Hard |
| business lawyers near me | 1800 | Medium |
| small business attorney near me | 500 | Hard |
| business litigation attorney | 450 | Medium |
| small business lawyer near me | 350 | Easy |
| corporate lawyer near me | 300 | Easy |
| small business lawyer cost | 100 | Medium |
How To Find And Use Attorney Keywords
The challenge with PPC is that Google doesn’t have much room to sell ads. Only three positions can be accommodated there. If there are more advertisers, then the auction starts. Google only gets paid for ads when a visitor clicks on the ad. Therefore, it is very important for the platform that your ad is well targeted to the audience. The more clicks you get (versus total views), the lower your cost-per-click (CPC) will be.
On the other hand, if a user clicks on your ad, visits your site, doesn’t find the content they want, and leaves, then your ad spend will be useless. This is why it is extremely important to choose and use the right keywords for PPC.
Select A Keyword Research Tool
Of course, you can choose some of the keywords yourself thanks to your experience and knowledge of the target audience. Nevertheless, I highly recommend using special software that will help you find more accurate and “cheaper” keywords. Here are some options for such tools.
- Google Keyword Planner. This tool uses statistics about Google users in its work. If you intend to advertise on this particular platform, then Keyword Planner is perfect. The tool searches for new queries and generates statistics, predicts traffic and suggests new keyword combinations. Google Keyword Planner is 100% free.
- SpyFu is a highly functional service. It allows you to download the semantic core of other sites without restrictions. Also, shows statistics on the number of clicks and payments for each word. One of the platform’s tools helps to identify the phrases that you did not use for three sites. You can get data on everything from local and global monthly traffic volume, click-through rates, ad spend, ad history and ranking, backlinks.
- Moz Keyword Explorer shows search volume, word difficulty, organic click-through-rate, suggests multiple similar word suggestions, and so on. You can also search by domain to see what keywords a competitor is using. The free version of the service allows you to make only a limited number of requests.
- Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer collects keywords from a competitor’s site, filters and analyzes them. Knows how to identify dozens of words on the topic of the page. The site has round-the-clock support 5 days a week, a private Facebook group and training materials for work.
I have named the most popular and effective tools, but this list may be longer.
Create A “Seed” List
I recommend starting with a broad list of keywords that can be used in your ad. To do this, you can focus, among other things, on the following factors:
1. Keywords must be relevant to your business. Avoid using too general terms (for example, the word “divorce” in advertisements for legal services for divorce). They will be ineffective and often generate poor-quality traffic.
2. Keywords should reflect buying interest. Users looking for “prenuptial agreement,” “postnuptial agreement,” or “joint legal custody” are likely just learning about a topic of interest. Users looking for “divorce lawyer”, “divorce lawyer free consultation”, “divorce lawyer cost”, and “divorce law firm” have clearly made a decision and are ready to hire a lawyer.
The following steps will help you reduce the total number of keywords and choose the optimal ones.
Run Your Keyword Research
Once you’ve created your initial list of keywords, you need to get as much information as possible about each of them. Use the tools I’ve listed above. Make a spreadsheet and fill it in with metrics such as volume, visits, CPC, and difficulty. You will have to spend a lot of time on this, but otherwise, you will not be able to conduct a full analysis. You need to see the pros and cons of each keyword.
Refine Your Keyword Selections
An in-depth analysis of statistics will help you narrow down your keyword list. But which words should you choose? As I said earlier, you need to strike a balance between relevance, search volume, and competition. Remember that high-volume keywords in demand have more competition and a higher CPC. At the same time, legal keywords with low search volume should not be ignored. If they are extremely relevant to your promotional offer, then it makes sense to use them.
Feel free to spy on competitors, but be very careful! The keyword they are using may not be correct for you. In addition, competitors can make a mistake during the analysis of words and choose unsuccessful options. By copying them, you run the risk of repeating its mistakes.
Use Keywords In Your Content
Before launching an advertising campaign, think about where exactly the link from your ad will lead. It is very important that users, following the link, immediately receive all the information they need about the service you offer. A very good strategy is to create a landing page. There you can explain what exactly you are ready to help the client, what issues you decide, how much your services cost. Also, tell them about your company, include your contact details, and don’t forget the call to action.
Read more in Website Landing Page Design
How Often to Redo Keyword Research for Your Law Firm
There are two main reasons to start redoing keyword research.
- Start of a new advertising campaign. Every time you want to advertise with a link to another service, you need to research the market, competitors, make a list of keywords, analyze them and choose the best ones. That is, completely go through the entire training cycle. The keywords that are suitable for the “tax attorney” service are not suitable for the “business attorney”.
- Low results of the current ads. Any advertising campaign must be monitored and monitored daily. If you see that the indicators are not what you expected and there is no improvement, then it is better to stop this campaign right away. Otherwise, you risk wasting your ad budget. Better to re-analyze your keywords, identify errors, and restart your campaign.
However, the best way to avoid mistakes is to hire professional marketers. They can help you create your ad strategy, launch your campaign, and get enough leads.
Read more in 19 Reasons Why You Should Hire Digital Marketing Agency
The Most Expensive PPC Keywords For Lawyers
At the beginning of this article, I gave you examples and showed that legal services are among the most expensive categories to promote. Now let’s take a look at which keywords are the most expensive PPC keywords for lawyers.
We took three keywords from six different categories and compared the cost per click using data from the SpyFu tool. I would like to point out that we didn’t use “the best”, “the most popular”, “the most expensive lawyer PPC keywords” or “the cheapest keywords” for our research. We took those keywords that are easy to compare because they are similar in structure.
| Category | Keywords | Cost Per Click* |
| Personal Injury Lawyer | injury lawyer | $36.9 |
| injury attorney | $43.5 | |
| injury lawyer near me | $89.6 | |
| Immigration Attorney | immigration lawyer | $6.03 |
| immigration attorney | $6.46 | |
| immigration lawyer near me | $7.01 | |
| Divorce Lawyers | divorce lawyer | $14.1 |
| divorce attorney | $11.3 | |
| divorce lawyer near me | $15.6 | |
| Tax Attorney | tax lawyer | $23.5 |
| tax attorney | $33.04 | |
| tax lawyer near me | $31.3 | |
| Bankruptcy Attorney | bankruptcy lawyer | $16.7 |
| bankruptcy attorney | $16.3 | |
| bankruptcy lawyer near me | $16.4 | |
| Business Attorney | business lawyer | $8.09 |
| business attorney | $8.9 | |
| business lawyer near me | $9.1 |
* The prices are for 2021.11.27
This simple study shows that PPC advertising costs are highest in categories such as personal injury lawyer, tax attorney, and bankruptcy attorney. Of course, if you select keywords more accurately (for example, indicating the location), the cost of each click can increase dramatically. For example, the long-tail keyword “personal injury attorney in denver” will cost $215 per click, and “injury lawyer in Albuquerque” – $252.
Must-Have Negative PPC Keywords For Lawyers
Negative keywords can help make your ad campaign more effective. These are the words for which your ads will not be shown.
For example, you want to advertise the service “car accident lawyer”. You can use the keyword “vehicle accident lawyer” in your advertising campaign. The problem is that the term “vehicle” includes other forms of transport (motorcycle, bicycle, etc.). There is a risk that users will go to your site using this keyword and then leave because you are not providing the service they need. To avoid such a misunderstanding, you need to exclude unnecessary words and add them to the list of negative ones.
Negative PPC keywords for lawyers allow you to block ads from showing if those words are in a user’s search phrase. Please note that they will only work if the forms of negative keywords and words in the query completely match.
Finding such negative keywords and adding them to your ad campaigns helps filter out irrelevant traffic, which gives you several benefits:
- Saves you money that would otherwise be wasted on irrelevant ad clicks.
- Provides higher quality traffic and therefore a higher likelihood of conversion.
- Makes your content and ads more relevant to viewers.
Therefore, I recommend you spend as much time on negative PPC keywords for lawyers as you do on regular keyword research.
FAQ
What Are The Best Keywords To Use For Immigration Lawyer?
Keywords to use for immigration lawyer can be divided into several main groups:
-using the word “immigration” (immigration lawyer, immigration lawyer near me, immigration attorney, immigration solicitors, best immigration lawyers, immigration law firm, immigration law office, top immigration lawyers, immigration lawyer consultation, etc.);
-indicating the legal specialization (citizenship lawyer, asylum lawyer, deportation lawyer, criminal immigration lawyer, family immigration lawyer, federal immigration law, immigration divorce lawyer, refugee lawyer, etc.);
-mentioning the type of visa (green card lawyer, visa lawyer, visa law, h1b lawyer, etc.);
-with a mention of the cost (immigration lawyer cost, pro bono immigration lawyer, cheap immigration lawyer, cheap immigration lawyer near me, etc.).
In general, the value of keywords in this niche is quite low compared to other types of legal practice. Therefore, you have the opportunity to find a good keyword pool at a reasonable price.
What Are The Top Long Tail Keywords For Divorce Lawyers?
Here are the long-tail keywords for divorce lawyers that SpyFu Tool recommends:
-to find the best lawyer: best divorce lawyers near me (1,800), best divorce lawyer near me (1,100), divorce lawyer best near me (200), best divorce lawyers for fathers near me (162), best family divorce lawyer near me (100), top-rated divorce lawyers near me (80), etc.;
-to find an inexpensive lawyer: divorce lawyer near me free consultation (1,800), divorce lawyer free consultation (1,100), free divorce lawyer for low income (870), divorce lawyer near me free consultation (750), divorce lawyer san francisco free consultation (720), free consultation divorce lawyers near me (570), free divorce lawyer for low income near me (180), etc.;
-to find a lawyer based on specialization: international divorce lawyers near me (290), military divorce lawyers near me (200), divorce and immigration lawyer near me (110), collaborative divorce lawyer (80), etc.
The search volume for each word is indicated in brackets. With the help of this data, it will be easier for you to determine which words are most in demand among users.
What Are The Best Keywords For Personal Injury Lawyers?
The keywords for personal injury lawyers that have the largest search volume can be divided into two main groups:
-with an indication of the legal specialization (disability lawyer, personal injury attorney, injury lawyer, personal injury lawyer, medical malpractice attorney, accident attorney, accident lawyer, injury attorney, medical malpractice lawyer, dog bite injury lawyer, workplace injury attorney, work injury attorney, accident injury lawyers, etc.);
-with reference to auto accidents and insurance (auto accident attorney, auto accident lawyer, car accident lawyers, insurance lawyer, accident lawyers, car accident attorney, truck accident lawyer, auto wreck lawyer, etc.).
Keywords that indicate road traffic injuries have the highest search volume. Their cost per click is also usually higher. This category generally has the most expensive PPC keywords for lawyers, so be careful when choosing.
What Are The Most Expensive PPC Keywords For Lawyers?
Various companies and experts conduct research on this topic every year. At the same time, the shortlist changes slightly, but the main trend remains the same. Among the most expensive PPC keywords for lawyers are terms that are related to car accidents and injuries. In addition, it is always long-tail keywords for lawyers, where the tail increases due to localization.
For example, the leaders in terms of cost include:
– dallas truck accident lawyer ($425.70);
– truck accident lawyer houston ($411.04);
– are personal injury settlements taxable ($377.70);
– car accident lawyer phoenix ($358.03);
– los angeles car accident attorney ($332.58);
– colorado car accident lawyers ($287);
– las vegas auto accident lawyers ($285);
– injury lawyer houston texas ($284);
– san diego car accident lawyers ($281);
– atlanta auto accident attorney ($277), etc.
Also, the leaders include various keywords related to mesothelioma disease. For instance, florida mesothelioma lawyer, mesothelioma compensation, mesothelioma lawyers new york, best mesothelioma attorneys, best mesothelioma lawyer, etc.
Let Us Handle All Your Marketing Efforts
I tried to tell you in some detail how to choose keywords for PPC and avoid pitfalls. But it is impossible to describe all the nuances. The difficulty of this type of advertising is that any careless step leads to a waste of the budget.
PPC can be a very effective way to promote, but only if experienced marketers are planning your ad campaign.
If you need to quickly acquire new clients, then PPC is for you. If you don’t know where to begin, get your free consultation with Lasting Trend.
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