{"id":1107,"date":"2016-08-10T11:01:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T18:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seofirst.com\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2016-08-10T11:01:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T18:01:41","slug":"top-ranking-challenges-for-lawyer-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seofirst.com\/index.php\/all-about-search-engine-optimization\/top-ranking-challenges-for-lawyer-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Ranking Challenges for Lawyer Websites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A little while back Moz.com published their <em>2015 Local Search Ranking Factors<\/em>. Positive, negative and other specific ranking factors are called out (Local SEO\u2019s would do well to review this page).<\/p>\n<p>Now, on August 4, 2016 Alexandra Tachalova published on Moz.com, <em>A Different Kind of SEO: 5 Big Challenges One Niche Faces in Google<\/em>. This article focused specifically on SEO for the legal niche.<\/p>\n<p>Having SEO\u2019d a dozen or more legal sites over the years, I was interested to see her take on the challenges for this niche industry.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the main findings boiled down to bullet points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Online legal business are dominating local SERPs<\/li>\n<li>Google doesn\u2019t give priority to local legal businesses in organic search results<\/li>\n<li>The local pack is still a saving grace for local businesses<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t stand out without a site \u2014 even in local pack results<\/li>\n<li>There\u2019s no correlation between a legal website\u2019s ranking number one in a local pack and its number of reviews<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Since I\u2019m in the southern California region, I thought I would do a quick and <em>not in-depth<\/em> test of just one keyword phrase, \u201clawyer Los Angeles\u201d to see what I could glean from this.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.seofirst.com\/images\/blog\/lawyerr-los-angeles-comp-done.png\" width=\"514\" height=\"2142\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Even though this screenshot represents a small amount of information regarding lawyer SERPs in the Los Angeles area, we can glean this:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>4 out of the 6 organic listings at the top of the page are not for local law firms<\/li>\n<li>3 of the 7 organic listings at the bottom of the page are not for local law firms<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This means that 7 out of 13 organic listings on the Google homepage, including the Maps section, are not for local lawyer sites. As the Moz.com article points out, the local legal SERPs are some of the most competitive in Google. Most other local niche businesses don\u2019t have to deal with this specialized type of competition that make local legal SEO so challenging.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/blog\/different-kind-of-seo-5-big-challenges-one-niche-faces\">https:\/\/moz.com\/blog\/different-kind-of-seo-5-big-challenges-one-niche-faces<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/local-search-ranking-factors\">https:\/\/moz.com\/local-search-ranking-factors<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A little while back Moz.com published their 2015 Local Search Ranking Factors. Positive, negative and other specific ranking factors are called out (Local SEO\u2019s would do well to review this page). Now, on August 4, 2016 Alexandra Tachalova published on Moz.com, A Different Kind of SEO: 5 Big Challenges One Niche Faces in Google. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-about-search-engine-optimization"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.4 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most other local niche businesses don\u2019t have to deal with this specialized type of competition that make local legal SEO so challenging.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Kantola\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"google-site-verification\" content=\"2OLu8NI9rIHB2UFMSNkzfWkrq4teDUOC_z9srG7HgMI\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seofirst.com\/index.php\/all-about-search-engine-optimization\/top-ranking-challenges-for-lawyer-websites\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.4\" \/>\n\n\t\t<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.googletagmanager.com\/gtag\/js?id=G-4576SPKYVQ\"><\/script>\n<script>\n  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];\n  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}\n  gtag('js', new Date());\n\n  gtag('config', 'G-4576SPKYVQ');\n<\/script>\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO -->\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"| SEO First","description":"Most other local niche businesses don\u2019t have to deal with this specialized type of competition that make local legal SEO so 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