{"id":27184,"date":"2022-02-17T19:59:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T00:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arraydigital.com\/common-seo-mistakes-to-avoid\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T11:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:16:35","slug":"common-seo-mistakes-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arraydigital.com\/common-seo-mistakes-to-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Law Firm Website Making These Critical Seo Mistakes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You’ve put in the effort to keywords and SEO, yet you still seem to fall short. Maybe the problem is not lack of effort, but rather making mistakes in that effort, but do not worry. These mistakes are common and have solutions. Array Digital can help you pinpoint your SEO mistakes\u00a0and resolve them, shooting you to the top of the\u00a0SERPs. Give us a call at 757.333.3021<\/a> or use our contact page<\/a> today to learn more about our SEO services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you want your law firm website to perform well, you must learn to avoid these 10 common SEO mistakes.<\/p>\n

Why\u00a0search Engine\u00a0optimization\u00a0is Critical to Online Marketing Success?<\/h2>\n

When a potential client searches online for a law firm that does what you do, it is through a properly optimized website that they can find you. Statistics show that the top page listed on a website has a\u00a0click-through rate of 32%<\/a>, which is quite high. Not only that, but 75% of people will never scroll past the first page of the results. If you are not on the first page, you are going to lose a huge amount of potential traffic.\u00a0Search engine\u00a0optimization\u00a0is the key to preventing the loss of this traffic and ensuring your site is able to reach your potential clients effectively.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are strategies you can use to push your website to the top of the search results for the keywords that matter most to you. SEO allows the\u00a0search engines, and therefore your potential clients, to find your firm.<\/p>\n

Most law firms are well aware of the need for SEO. Yet many law firms are practicing SEO without the right knowledge, leaving their owners frustrated with the lack of results. These sites may have\u00a0web pages\u00a0with keywords, but a poor\u00a0user experience, or they may have tons of\u00a0backlinks, but no\u00a0internal linking.<\/p>\n

Making these\u00a0common\u00a0SEO mistakes\u00a0will make it hard for your law firm to get the right traffic.<\/strong> Without the right traffic from\u00a0Google searches, you will struggle to grow your client base. While\u00a0digital marketing\u00a0involves more than just SEO, an optimized website is really the starting point of your online marketing efforts. If you fail here, the rest of your online marketing efforts will also fall short.<\/p>\n

Mistake 1: Not Having a Plan<\/h2>\n

Digital marketing\u00a0for your law firm website is not going to happen by accident. You can put out a website with a beautiful design<\/a>, but without a strategic plan for optimizing that site, it will remain practically invisible. The Internet simply has too many sites, many of which offer the same services you do, to rank sites well when they are not using SEO effectively.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons so many law firms fall short with their SEO efforts is because they lack the time to make a good plan, and sometimes they also lack the knowledge. While the knowledge is available on the web, lawyers are busy serving their clients, and few have the time to really delve into the resources available to them. So, they simply put out a site, add some keywords, and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

SEO planning takes effort and sometimes monetary investment, so this is one of the most\u00a0common mistakes\u00a0law firms make when trying to reach their\u00a0target audience\u00a0using SEO.<\/p>\n

You need a plan for your\u00a0SEO strategy, but in 2020,\u00a070% of\u00a0small businesses<\/a>\u00a0did not have an SEO plan. That is a huge majority and includes many law firms.<\/p>\n

Mistake 2: Not Defining Your Audience<\/h2>\n

Before you create your SEO plan, you need to know who you are trying to reach with your online marketing efforts. Your\u00a0target audience\u00a0is going to drive your SEO plan, so spend some time defining them.<\/p>\n

Knowing who you are trying to reach will help you with your\u00a0keyword research. When you know your potential\u00a0searchers, you can better determine search intent when choosing your\u00a0long-tail keywords. What questions are they trying to answer about your practice area? Use\u00a0relevant\u00a0keywords\u00a0to answer those questions. By focusing on search intent, you can refine your\u00a0SEO strategy\u00a0to make it even more effective at reaching your\u00a0potential customers.<\/p>\n

Knowing your ideal client helps you dictate the right tone for your website. This affects everything from the style of content you write to the web design\u00a0template\u00a0you choose. For this reason, failure to define your\u00a0target audience\u00a0will derail all of your online marketing efforts from the start, including your SEO work.<\/p>\n

Defining your\u00a0target audience\u00a0is also going to help you create a\u00a0user experience\u00a0that reaches them well. You need to know how your\u00a0target audience\u00a0is likely to search so you can customize a website that appeals to them. For example, if your audience is going to primarily use\u00a0mobile devices\u00a0when searching for law firm services, you need to optimize for mobile, making it\u00a0user-friendly\u00a0for the majority of your potential audience.<\/p>\n

Mistake 3: Not Understanding Keywords<\/h2>\n

Once you know who your audience is, you can start outlining your\u00a0target keywords, but this is a place where you can make another mistake. Here are some ways you can hurt your\u00a0keyword research<\/p>\n

Using the Wrong Keywords<\/h3>\n

Many law firms use the wrong keywords. For example, you can optimize for global keywords, yet your law firm likely only markets to local customers. You could choose general practice-area keywords, but this might draw in visitors who do not need your services. Some keywords draw in people looking for free legal advice, while keywords that are too broad have too much competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not Doing\u00a0keyword Research<\/h3>\n

To avoid using the wrong keywords, you need to spend some time researching. Use a\u00a0keyword research\u00a0tool to find details about particular keywords, and choose some that have low competition and a high focus on what you do.<\/p>\n

Keyword Stuffing<\/h3>\n

If every other word on your website is a keyword, you are guilty of a mistake called\u00a0keyword stuffing. The Google\u00a0algorithm\u00a0is highly intelligent, and it can pick up on sites that do not use keywords naturally. Use keywords, but avoid the temptation to overdo it.<\/p>\n

Using Keywords That Are Not Properly Optimized<\/h3>\n

Make sure your keywords fit your particular online marketing goals. This is where an online marketing team, like the team at Array Digital, can help direct your research.<\/p>\n

Using Keywords With Too Much Competition<\/h3>\n

If you have a keyword that seems perfect for your\u00a0target audience, but it has a high amount of competition, you are going to struggle to move up in the\u00a0search rankings. Sometimes, tweaking that keyword just a little can help you improve your ran and lower the competition.<\/p>\n

Ignoring\u00a0long-tail Keywords<\/h3>\n

Long-tail keywords\u00a0are search phrases made up of three to five words that allow you to hone in on a particular search demographic. This makes your\u00a0target audience\u00a0more specific. For example, instead of using “injury lawyer” as your keyword, you could use “Los Angeles personal injury lawyer” as a\u00a0long-tail keyword.<\/p>\n

Mistake 4: Creating a Slow Website<\/h2>\n

We live in the age of the Internet and one-day Amazon Prime delivery. This means that people are impatient. If your\u00a0site speed\u00a0is too slow, they will click away to your competition.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0page\u00a0load\u00a0speed\u00a0also impacts SEO. Google knows when a\u00a0page loads\u00a0too slowly, and it penalizes pages with a long\u00a0load time.<\/p>\n

To figure out if your\u00a0page loads\u00a0too slowly, use Google\u00a0PageSpeed\u00a0Insights. It will show you how quickly your\u00a0page loads. Strive to have a\u00a0page\u00a0load\u00a0time of fewer than two seconds. If yours is slower than this, work with Array Digital to make it faster.<\/p>\n

Mistake 5: Poor Content<\/h2>\n

The content on your page needs to be\u00a0high-quality\u00a0content.\u00a0Quality content\u00a0not only helps build trust with your reader, but it is also a\u00a0ranking factor\u00a0that determines your rank on the\u00a0search engine\u00a0results\u00a0page. Thus, it has two roles, one for law firm branding and one for SEO.<\/p>\n

To make the content as\u00a0high quality\u00a0as possible, make sure you have properly written, grammatically correct, relevant content that addresses what your potential clients want to know. Outsourcing your content to a\u00a0content marketing\u00a0professional is not a bad idea, but make sure you are not getting\u00a0low-quality\u00a0work back.<\/p>\n

Avoid the temptation to have\u00a0duplicate content\u00a0on your website. Taking content from another law firm website is not only illegal and unethical, but it hurts your SEO efforts. Duplicating your own content is not illegal, but Google does notice this and will penalize your site.<\/p>\n

Keyword stuffed content also hurts your SEO efforts. Use keywords, but use them well.<\/p>\n

Finally, not having a\u00a0content marketing\u00a0plan will hurt your SEO. Google wants to see fresh, relevant content, and you need a plan for that. Working with a\u00a0content marketing\u00a0expert, like the team at Array Digital, will help you create a strategy that works.<\/p>\n

Mistake 6: Ignoring Mobile-friendly Design<\/h2>\n

We live in the age of the mobile smartphone. Smartphones display websites on a tiny screen, and thus they cannot display the same type of website that someone would view on a computer screen. You must have a mobile-friendly design to reach today’s clients.<\/p>\n

Yet you may want a fuller site to display on computer screens. So how can you do this? Creating a responsive website that can change based on what type of device the user is using is the answer.<\/p>\n

When you have a mobile-friendly website, you give your user a great\u00a0user experience, no matter their device. Google knows this, and thus the Google\u00a0bots\u00a0look for mobile-friendly or responsive web design when awarding top spots in the\u00a0SERPs.<\/p>\n

Mistake 7: Poor\u00a0link Building\u00a0strategy<\/h2>\n

Linking, both\u00a0external links,\u00a0and\u00a0internal links\u00a0is still part of the\u00a0search engine\u00a0optimization\u00a0process. Many\u00a0webmasters\u00a0get so focused on content,\u00a0page\u00a0load\u00a0speeds, and keywords that they forget about a\u00a0link-building\u00a0strategy.<\/p>\n

Today,\u00a0internal links\u00a0matter more than\u00a0external links, though both do matter. When the Google\u00a0crawlers\u00a0come to your site, they want to see that it has a web of links connecting one page to the next.\u00a0Broken links\u00a0or lack of links will hurt your SEO efforts because they cannot crawl through the site.<\/p>\n

Once you have a nice sitemap of\u00a0internal links\u00a0for the\u00a0search engines\u00a0to crawl, you are ready to focus on\u00a0external links. External\u00a0backlinks\u00a0from\u00a0high-quality, authoritative websites help show the\u00a0search engines\u00a0that your page, and your law firm, are also an authority in your topic. Many marketers make the mistake of focusing on link quantity instead of quality. You can get thousands of\u00a0low-quality\u00a0links to your site, but this is going to have less of an impact on your SEO than a few\u00a0high-quality\u00a0links.<\/p>\n

You can generate\u00a0high-quality\u00a0backlinks\u00a0by guest blogging on appropriate blogs, listing your site in professional directories, and even posting on\u00a0social media. All of this helps with\u00a0indexing\u00a0your site, because the more links that point back to your site, the more impressive it seems to Google.<\/p>\n

When building links, both internal and external, focus on\u00a0anchor text. Using a targeted keyword as the link’s\u00a0anchor text\u00a0makes the link more powerful in your SEO. Never simply tell the user to “click here,” as that completely wastes the opportunity to use\u00a0anchor text\u00a0for your keyword. Similarly, vary your\u00a0anchor text, so you get more keywords pointing back to a particular page.<\/p>\n

Remember,\u00a0link building\u00a0requires a plan, and that is why many law firms ignore it. Working with an SEO professional will help.<\/p>\n

Mistake 8: Ignoring Analytics<\/h2>\n

One of the best things about Google for marketing is the large number of analytics the\u00a0search engine\u00a0provides. Using\u00a0GOogle analytics, you can learn how your\u00a0SEO strategy\u00a0is doing and where you could make improvements to boost your ranking.<\/p>\n

Google Analytics\u00a0shows you invaluable information about your site. While the tool has a wealth of\u00a0metrics\u00a0available, some of the most important\u00a0metrics\u00a0include:<\/p>\n