Let’s be honest. Search engine optimization seems like an alphabet soup of acronyms and odd-sounding phrases: SERP, SMP, anchor text, META tags, long tail keywords. In this post, you will learn what long tail keywords are and how they can generate more conversions for your law firm’s website.

What are Long Tail Keywords?

Long tail keywords are search terms that are not primary drivers of traffic to your site, but have notable search volume and are generally longer, more specific phrases. In the following search example, Google is trying to figure out why I am interested in “long tail keywords”. Do I want examples of long tail keywords or, perhaps, tools to help me use long tail keywords? The beauty of these searches is that they prompt users to define their search goals and, in turn, serve up highly relevant results.

An example of a higher volume general phrase would be something like “New York Accident Lawyer”; a long tail search might be “New York attorney for work injury”.

Why Should You Use Them?

Are you interested in generating more traffic for your law firm’s site? Of course you are! Long tail keywords are proven to prompt higher conversions. Why? Though they usually have lower search volume, they will convert more Web traffic because their results are targeted to user needs.

A successful Consultwebs.com client found that 88.3% of their Web traffic used unique, long tail search phrases to find the site. Optimizing for long tail searches is especially recommended for newly launched sites because of their ability to cut through high competition for general search phrases and reach prospective clients, as demonstrated by the following graph:

How Should You Use Them?  

There are three ways you can optimize your legal site to reach out to your prospective clients through long tail search.

Locate and Target Long Tail Keywords in Your SEO

The first, and most obvious, way is to target long tail keywords in your law firm website’s SEO campaign. Though you may have to get a bit more creative, or hire experienced legal writers to be creative for you, there are many ways to integrate long tail keywords into your content. Our experienced legal writers are Google Analytics certified and, along with our client account managers, use their experience with Google’s keyword search tools and ongoing client reporting data to develop and update content that keeps long tail searches in mind. Consider the following example from one of our client’s websites:

Charles R. Ullman & Associates, a North Carolina divorce attorney, has a custom SEO campaign that targets divorce and family law cases. As you can see from the screenshot, Charles Ullman’s resource page is the first attorney website users see on the search engine results page. His page was especially written by our award winning attorney writer teamto include converting keywords. Charles has experienced measureable success with utilizing long tail keywords to drive Web traffic.

Use Keyword Synonyms In Your Content

Google’s algorithm takes synonyms into account and, when optimizing your content, it is a good practice to target multiple sides of an issue to get wider visibility. When you build a page around one key idea, such as divorce, you can target multiple long tail search phrases within the content of that page. For example, if you have a page on asset division law you could target “Who is responsible for debt in asset division?”, “Do we have to complete a property settlement agreement?”, “What is the equitable distribution process?” and so on.

One word of warning on targeting keywords: If a SEO vendor has promised you a list of exact keywords to target, then you should be wary. With the ever-changing nature of legal Web marketing, a currently ranking search phrase may be here today and gone tomorrow. It is impossible to guarantee that a pre-defined list of keywords will secure top rankings for your firm. Furthermore, an SEO vendor that promises to target a select number of keywords will limit your firm’s ability to reach out to long tail keyword searchers. If over 80% of your search traffic sources from long tail keywords, you will miss an opportunity to reach over 80% of your client base! Ensure that your Web marketers won’t limit your long tail keyword revenue potential.

Spend Your PPC Dollars on Long Tail Keywords

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is highly effective in legal marketing. The benefit from using long tail keywords in your PPC advertising is that your campaign will likely have a lower cost-per-click, because long tail keywords have lower search volume.

By serving up highly relevant results, you can be certain to make searchers happy. When Internet users win, your law firm wins.