Menu Close

How Small Law Firms Can Compete with “Big Firm” Rankings

Do you feel like your small law firm’s website gets buried under “big firm” competitors in search results? It’s frustrating to lose business simply because larger firms have more resources to invest in SEO and content. But by getting strategic with focusing on ranking for high-value niche terms and building trust signals like backlinks, small firms can absolutely compete – and beat – overblown giant firm sites. This article will examine common struggles small firms face around authority and discoverability in SEO along with proven solutions to implement to drive more qualified organic traffic from Google.

How Small Law Firms Can Compete with “Big Firm” Rankings

The Problem – Limited Authority and Discoverability

Common challenges small firms face include:

  • Getting outranked on competitive keywords by prominent metro firms with hundreds of pages and backlinks. Impossible to compete at that scale.
  • Lacking resources for large-scale content creation and link building efforts.
  • Having a website that feels less “authoritative” on first glance compared to slick mega sites.
  • Not having niche specific pages targeting the long-tail keywords that attract ideal clients.
  • Publishing blog content inconsistently without promotion hurting organic visibility.
  • Relying on general ranking gains instead of tracking landing page metrics.

While larger sites look daunting, they also tend to be bloated and unattuned to ranking for the precise terms that convert for small firms. By getting surgical with SEO efforts around valuable micro-opportunities, we can absolutely gain visibility and trust.

Most people stop reading here and reach out.
Why waste time on learning another job?ee

The Solution – Targeted Optimization for Rankings

We recommend a focused approach that:

  • Identifies the niche, hyper-local keywords that clients are searching and converts. Analyze search volume and competition levels to pick strategic targets.
  • Creates optimized on-page content around these seed keywords, with synonyms woven throughout to tap into similar searches.
  • Publishes consistently to establish you as the authority on these topics. Content promotes the expertise of your specific attorneys.
  • Builds relevant links from directories, other legal sites (as guest contributors), local listings/citations to boost rankings.
  • Leverages schema markup to highlight credentials and positive reviews.
  • Monitors if visitors from rankings convert through calls, contact form submissions, etc to double down on what works.

By ranking well for the 5-10 terms that generate business, you siphon clients away from firms targeting hundreds. Quality beats quantity.

We also recommend monitoring clicks/leads from organic traffic to identify new opportunities – expanding keywords and pages. This agility lets you adapt and seize more traffic over time.

Competing with “big firm” search dominance feels daunting, but by out-ranking them for the niche terms that convert prospects into clients you can win. For a free SEO strategy session examining how to optimize for more direct client conversions, contact our team. We’ll conduct an in-depth audit identifying quick win opportunities for profitable rankings. Let’s craft a targeted approach that has you outperforming the competition where it matters most – in the SERPs for your ideal clients.

Done Reading?
Get ready to read a LOT more to do this right.
Or just reach out and let us do it.