Are You Marketing the Services Your Clients Are Actually Searching For?

For law firms, having a strong online presence is no longer simply about being visible. It is about being visible for the right services, to the right people, at the right stage of their search.

Many firms invest heavily in their website, SEO and digital marketing but still struggle to generate a consistent flow of relevant enquiries. One reason is that their marketing strategy may be built around the services they want to promote, rather than the services prospective clients are actually searching for.

This raises an important question for every law firm: Are you marketing the services your clients are actually searching for?

Understanding what potential clients are searching for

Legal professionals naturally use technical terminology to describe their areas of expertise. Prospective clients do not necessarily search in the same way.

A solicitor may refer to a matter as “contentious probate”, for example, while a potential client may search for “contesting a will”, “probate dispute solicitor” or “how to challenge a will”. The legal service is essentially the same, but the language used to find it is different.

This is why keyword research should form an important part of any law firm’s digital marketing strategy. It provides insight into the terminology, questions and concerns being used by potential clients and can reveal opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked.

Search intent is just as important as search volume

Search volume is not a sufficient basis for deciding which keywords a law firm should target. Understanding search intent is equally important.

Someone searching “what is a financial settlement in divorce?” is likely to be researching the subject. Someone searching “financial settlement solicitor Liverpool” has demonstrated a much stronger intention to find legal representation.

Both searches are relevant to family law, but they represent different stages of the client’s decision-making process. A successful SEO strategy should therefore consider the entire search journey. Informational content can help establish expertise and introduce potential clients to a firm’s services, while commercially focused service pages cant target people who are further along the decision making process and are actively considering instructing a solicitor.

The objective is not simply to attract visitors. It is to attract visitors whose needs align with the services the firm is seeking to grow.

Are your practice areas too broad?

Another common issue is that law firms structure their websites around broad practice areas without providing sufficient coverage of the specific services and problems that sit within them.

A page titled “Employment Law”, for example, may be relevant to a wide range of searches, but it is unlikely to provide the same level of relevance as dedicated pages covering unfair dismissal, settlement agreements, employment tribunal claims, etc. The same principle applies across almost every area of legal practice.

Clients rarely begin their search by thinking about which department of a law firm they need. Their first search is likely to describe the particular problem rather than the broader legal category in which it sits.

Law firms that understand this distinction can structure their websites and content around the issues potential clients are actually trying to resolve.

What are your competitors doing?

Competitor analysis can also provide valuable insight. Examining the firms that currently appear prominently for commercially important searches can reveal gaps in your own website and marketing strategy. It can show which services competitors are prioritising, which locations they are targeting and the types of questions they are answering for potential clients.

This does not mean simply replicating a competitor’s content. Instead, it provides an understanding of the search landscape and can help identify opportunities for differentiation.

There may be areas where competitors have limited or outdated content, where important services are poorly covered or where potential clients’ questions are not being adequately addressed.

A thorough competitor analysis can therefore help law firms make informed decisions about where to invest their marketing resources.

How BSD Legal can help your law firm

At BSD Legal, we understand that successful legal marketing is about more than increasing website traffic or producing content for the sake of it. Our approach focuses on understanding a law firm’s objectives, its target market and the search behaviour of potential clients. By combining keyword research, SEO, content strategy and an understanding of the legal sector, we can help firms identify opportunities to improve their visibility for commercially relevant searches.

This can include developing new service pages, refining existing content and creating a broader content strategy around the questions and issues potential clients are researching.

Get in touch with Bark Street Digital Legal to arrange a no-obligation discovery call, and we will take a closer look at what your digital marketing strategy is currently doing and where it could be working harder to support stronger client relationships.