The Ultimate Guide to Family Law Digital Marketing – 7 Tactics to Win Traffic & Leads
You want more website visitors, leads, and phone calls for your law practice, right?
Well, family law digital marketing doesn’t have to be rocket-science. In fact, just like with most things in life, mastering the basics will get you 90% of the way to success.
Today, I’m going to talk about two key aspects of a successful family lawyer digital marketing strategy. Rather than give you a big list of 16 different things to try, I’m going to teach you how to completely master these two aspects for maximum effectiveness – then, let you into a sneak peak of five other strategies that can be effective.
After all, there’s a big difference between doing something… and doing something really well.
Here’s the thing:
- Having a website isn’t enough. It needs to be great.
- Having a family law SEO strategy isn’t enough. It has to drive targeted traffic.
- Making posts on Facebook won’t do much. You need real engagement.
- Throwing money at Facebook and Google ads willy-nilly will burn a hole in your pocket. Quickly.
All of these things are great family law digital marketing strategies, but in order to be truly effective, they need to be done correctly. Otherwise, you’re just throwing money at a wall.
Look: you’re the best at what you do, right?
It’s time for your family law marketing strategy to reflect that.
Like anything else worthwhile, it just takes a little work. Let’s get started.
1. Your Website is at the Core of Your Family Law Digital Marketing Strategy
All roads lead back to Rome. Same goes with your website.
Your law firm website must be great or your family law digital marketing strategy will suffer.
Most business owners don’t know much about their website. They hired someone to build it years ago, and just pay the monthly invoice when it hits their desk.
The smart ones use their website like the asset it was designed to be.
Your website will be the central hub where all of your digital marketing strategies converge. It had better be good – and I’m not talking about how it looks, either.
Here’s what makes a family law website great:
- It has tons of content – service pages, location pages, and blog posts.
- It loads really, really quickly.
- It connects (and feeds into) your social media profiles.
- It shows up for localized search terms.
- It allows you to track its effectiveness.
All of that sounds pretty obvious, but not so fast. Lets take a closer look at each one of those aspects to see how we can optimize them for our digital marketing strategy.
Content Marketing for Family Attorneys
According to Hubspot, content marketing is one of “
People don’t visit your website for its fancy graphics. They visit for the content you provide.
For most family law firm websites, we can break content down into three categories.
- Entry page content.
- Landing page content.
- Outreach content.
Each provide separate but equally important functions to your content strategy.
Let’s explore their differences, along with some practical examples of how to use them.
1) Entry Pages are Designed to Drive Traffic
But wait… don’t I want all of my pages to drive traffic?
The short answer is no, but it’s a little complicated.
Before I explain why, let’s make a few assumptions that will inform and dictate the rest of our family law digital marketing strategy.
- Most of your long-term traffic will come from search engines.
- Your content has to target specific keywords (and keyword groups) to earn that traffic.
- Individual pages (ie. pieces of content) should only target one keyword or keyword group.
Cannibalization is a big problem in SEO. When more than one page on your website targets the same keyword, you confuse Google – not to mention your customers. Furthermore, why would you want to compete against yourself when you already have so many other companies vying for that same coveted top spot?
Take this article, as an example. This is a guide to family law digital marketing – that’s the keyword we’re targeting. We have a separate page dedicated to family law SEO. Are they highly related? Of course (which is why we just placed those links). But they’re different keywords, so they require their own page.
Furthermore, there are other keywords within our targeted keyword group, such as:
- Digital marketing for family law firms
- Family law firm marketing
- Family law marketing
- Family law marketing ideas
- Marketing for family law firms
Notice that all of those keywords share similar words – that’s what makes them a group.
Bottom line: individual pages on your website must target specific keywords that have real search volume in order to earn traffic from search engines.
Earning traffic is what makes them entry pages, and entry pages should be the first thing you build as part of your family law content marketing strategy.
Here are some examples of entry pages in practice.
Location-Specific Entry Pages Will Drive Most of Your Traffic
Likely, you have a specific radius in which you offer your service as a legal advisor. There are likely many different towns and cities within that radius. If you want traffic from all of them, you have to target them – and the only way to do that is by having separate pages for each.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s say you offer the following:
- Divorce
- Child Custody
- Child Support
You’d naturally have a page on your great-looking website for each of those services. They would appear in your main menu. But hold on!
Those are your landing pages (don’t worry, we’ll get to those in a minute).
After all, it doesn’t make sense for someone searching for “divorce lawyer” in Baltimore to have your practice located in Chicago to show up.
In order to create entry pages for those services, they must include a location.
For instance:
- Divorce lawyers in Chicago
- Child custody attorneys in Chicago
- Child support lawyers in Chicago
Notice that each of these listings directly references the location.
They’re entry pages – designed to earn traffic.
But wait… what if you offer your services in more than one location?
Each of those would need to be its own entry page, too.
For instance:
- Divorce lawyers in Arlington Heights
- Child custody attorneys in Arlington Heights
- Child support lawyers in Arlington Heights
To keep from mucking up your website structure, you could place these links in the footer of your website instead of the main menu. Like this:
By simply combining your services with the locations in which you want to get traffic from, you can build out dozens of entry pages, each earning its own bit of traffic from search engines. Each one will have to be optimized, of course, but we’ll get to that a little later.
Blog content can sometimes act as entry pages, too.
This one is tricky – and it may seem a little counter-intuitive.
For local businesses, blog content should generally act as landing pages – meaning it doesn’t drive traffic, it converts that traffic into phone calls or leads.
Local businesses often make the mistake of tagging all of their blog posts with locations. The result is generally ugly, and looks something like this:
- How To Find the Best Family Law Attorney in Chicago
- How to Choose the Best Divorce Attorney in Chicago for Your Needs
- 5 Things to Ask Your Child Custody Lawyer in Chicago
I’ve bolded the keywords those headlines would be targeting.
What’s the problem?
If you’ve followed the steps above, you should already have entry pages targeting those keywords. Remember: we don’t want to confuse Google (or worse, compete against ourselves).
What would be better blog content that could act as entry pages?
- How To Get a Divorce in Chicago
- Chicago Divorce Laws: Everything You Need to Know
Again, I’ve bolded the keywords. Notice the difference?
The topic of these blog posts include the location by nature – we don’t have to shoehorn it in. It already looks natural. And guess what? People search for those specific keywords.
Your blog content should be stellar – not over-optimized junk that’s designed to get a few quick clicks. They should primarily be used as landing pages.
Let’s talk about those.
2) Landing Pages are Designed to Convert Traffic into Leads
Landing pages are designed to do one thing really, really well: sell your services.
These are the pages that convert visitors into leads.
Generally, these are going to be the pages in your main menu.
Here’s an example:
Notice that this page isn’t optimized for a bunch of keywords. That’s not its goal.
Its goal is to convince a visitor to contact them. That’s a landing page.
Here are some reasons why it works so well:
- The headline is optimized for people, not search engines.
- There are many trust-building signals.
- The header simply explains the purpose of the page – ie. Family Law.
- There’s a free consultation form front and center.
You should have a landing page for each of your services. This is a key aspect of your family law digital marketing strategy, allowing you to convert visitors into leads.
Blog content should mostly act as landing pages.
What better way to sell your services than to display your competence in your field by answering commonly asked questions, providing free resources to visitors, and solving their problems before they even pick up the phone to call you?
Blog content should primarily act as landing pages. They’re designed to convert traffic.
Here’s an example of that put into practice:
Notice that these headlines aren’t optimized around one keyword or another – they’re commonly asked questions that provide value to the reader.
That should be your goal.
But wait!
You can (and should) get something out of that exchange, too.
While blogs should act as landing pages, they should support your entry pages.
Here’s how:
- Place your blogs in more than one page. Most business owners place their blog posts solely on the “Blog” page of their website. This is a huge missed opportunity. Let’s say you have a number of blogs related to “divorce,” and they’re acting as landing pages. Great. But wouldn’t they also build relevance to your entry pages? Of course! Place article boxes (like the ones above – your website likely has similar functionality) in all of your entry pages for related blog posts. This is a great for SEO.
- Link from your blog content to other landing pages – and entry pages, too. Contextual content links within your website are the cheapest (aka free), easiest, and most effective thing you can do for your SEO strategy. Each page on your website should have at least 4-8 internal links (menus, sidebars, and footers don’t count) pointing to other pages on your website. Similar to what we’re doing here.
You’ll find that by leveraging your entry and landing pages together, you’ll get far better results.
3) Content Outreach Helps Entry Pages Rank
Guest blogging is still one of the most powerful forms of linkbuilding in all of SEO. It can do wonders to help rank your entry pages for competitive keywords – not to mention send some traffic back to your website. It’s a vital part of your family law digital marketing strategy.
It’s a fairly simple process. Essentially, you offer another website or publication a stellar piece of content for free. In exchange, they allow you to link back to your website within the article, often including an author box displaying your name, biography, and a link to your company’s website.
Of course, in order for this to work, you have to invest in content for other publications. But that cost is easily outweighed by the amount of backlinks you can build back to your entry pages, helping them rank higher for competitive keywords.
Here are a few ways to secure guest blogging partners.
Reach Out to Attorneys in Other Locations
Pick a city far enough away from your own that you wouldn’t be competing for the same clientele. Find out who’s already ranking or close to ranking for competitive search terms – they’re likely investing some time and resources in content or SEO.
Pitch them a simple offer: you’ll provide them with a piece of content to place on their website. In exchange, they can do the same for yours. The result? You both get a free piece of content – not to mention some quality, highly relevant backlinks.
Leverage Google to Find Publications That Accept Guest Posts
You’ll have mixed results with this strategy, but it’s quick and easy. Just make sure to research each website, making sure its quality standard matches your own.
Here are some Google searches you can use to find publications:
“family law” + “write for us”
“family law” + “contribute”
“divorce”+ inurl:guest-posts
“child custody” + inurl:write-for-us
“law” + inurl:guest-post-guidelines
Of course, you can add in different keywords to get different results.
Again, make sure you check each website for quality. There are plenty of content mills and low-quality websites out there that would be happy to take your content for free – or worse, try to get you to pay for placement. While payed placement isn’t always a bad thing, it can quickly eat up your budget if you’re not careful. Make sure you’re only targeting quality publications.
The low-quality website are pretty easy to spot.
11 Publications Accepting Guest Posts From Family Lawyers
Don’t want to search for publications yourself? Don’t worry – we’ve done the heavy listing for you. Any of these websites would be great candidates for your family law digital marketing strategy.
- Family Lawyer Magazine
- Divorce Mag
- Law Plain & Simple
- Marriage.com
- Divorced Moms
- It’s Over Easy
- Divorce Answers
- Survive Divorce
- Moms.com
- Child & Family Blog
- Security Law Brief
Content is incredibly important for your family law digital marketing campaign. It is the bedrock by which all of your other marketing efforts lay. After all, in order to get traffic, you have to provide a reason for people to visit your page.
Now, lets talk about some more ways to earn that traffic…
2. SEO: A Key Family Law Digital Marketing Strategy to Drive Targeted Traffic
Now that we’ve talked about the types of content you should have on your website, it’s time to talk about getting traffic to that content. Namely, optimizing your content for search engines.
Remember: we’re talking about entry pages.
For a family law practice, those pages are almost always going to be targeting keywords with a location. “Divorce attorney in Chicago,” for instance.
The question is… how do you find those keywords?
This is incredibly important, because it’s going to dictate which pages you build – and which you don’t. After all, what good is an entry page if it doesn’t get any traffic?
Keyword Research for SEO Success
This is the most important aspect of any SEO campaign. You’ll need a special tool like SEMRush to do this well, but a free alternative would be Google’s Keyword Planner.
Fact of the matter is, most people get this dead wrong.
Often, it might seem reasonable to just tack on a location to your services.
Like this: “Divorce attorney Chicago Il.”
Let’s take a look at why that might not be a good idea…
Uh-oh. That’s not a lot of volume.
If you targeted that specific keyword, you might be in trouble.
But if you did some keyword research first, you would find all of these:
From just this list, you could make the following keyword group.
Chicago divorce attorneys
- divorce attorney chicago
- chicago divorce attorney
- divorce attorneys chicago
- divorce attorneys in chicago il
- divorce attorney in chicago il
- best divorce attorney chicago
- divorce attorney in chicago
- best divorce attorney in chicago
This one keyword group has a monthly search volume of 4,980.
They all have many words in common, which means you could create one entry page to target all of them. We’ll get into some actual optimization tactics in a minute.
First, lets find some more keywords.
Using SEMRush, we can take a look at the top-ranking page for “divorce attorney chicago” to see what other keywords they’re ranking for.
Spoiler: it’s quite a lot.
Okay, some takeaways:
- This one page gets roughly 1.9k visits each month.
- It’s ranking for 92 individual keywords (which means there are a lot more to find).
- If you payed Google Ads for this amount of traffic, it would cost $19.3k every month.
Another large takeaway: the keyword “divorce lawyers in chicago” gets a whopping 4.4k monthly searches. That’s a keyword we didn’t include in our previous list.
I could do this all day.
Again, you’re going to be hard-pressed to do this type of research without a tool like SEMRush.
I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Optimizing Your Entry Level Pages For Keywords & Keyword Groups
Okay, time to get into the nitty-gritty details.
In order for search engines to know what your page is about (remember: we’re optimizing pages, not just your home page!), there are a few aspects you need to focus on. They’re listed below:
1) Title tag.
This appears at the very top of your browser. It should include your main keyword.
2) URL structure.
This is the actual address of your website page. It should include your keyword. It could look something like this: www.familylawexperts.com/divorce-attorney/
3) Meta description.
This is the description you see under the listing on Google. It should also include your main keyword, as well as some copywriting or a tagline of some sort to convince people to click.
4) H1 tag.
This is a header tag – the most important one on your website. It should include your main keyword, and should appear near the top of your page.
5) H2-H5 tags.
These are more header tags. They should include secondary and tertiary keywords, or any other variations of your main keyword.
6) Image file names, titles and ALT tags.
Your file name is, well, the name of the file. You can set the title and ALT tag of the image after uploading it to your website. These should include keyword variations.
7) SCHEMA markup
This is a piece of code on every page of your website that helps search engines better understand what it is about. Typically, family lawyers will want to use the Attorney markup.
Of course, there are some other aspects such as the use of semantic keyword, keyword density, and more, but for the sake of brevity, we’ll stop here. If you optimize those seven aspects, you’re going to be further than the vast majority of websites – even those with SEO work.
Keep in mind, though: you still have to create great content. After all, humans are the ones who will be reading your content and giving you a call – not search engines. So keep all of these things in mind, but don’t overdo it. If you page reads like it was solely written for a machine, you’re not going to get the leads you want – no matter how high your search engine rankings are.
6 Link Building Tactics That Actually Work
Now that you have a great list of targeted keywords and wonderful entry pages optimized for those keywords, it’s time to start building links to them.
No matter what you’ve heard, link building is hard.
It’s incredibly difficult to get even a handful of quality backlinks, which is what makes them so valuable (and why so many people pay for them).
Get rid of the notion that you need to build hundreds or thousands of backlinks to your website within a couple weeks or months.
If you can even find that many for a local business website, you’re probably doing something wrong (not to mention angering the search engine gods).
Instead, we’re going to focus on quality.
Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit.
1. Free & Paid Law Firm Directories
While time-consuming to submit to, these directories can really pack a punch.
Keep in mind, however – there are thousands of these directories out there. Most won’t do anything. The ones that will, you’ve likely already heard of.
This article gives a pretty comprehensive list, but here are some you should consider:
In general, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to allocate 30% of your link-building budget to these big-brand resources.
2. General Business Directories
Unlike the above, these links in general do not pack a punch.
However, they’re necessary for a well-rounded link profile (and for local SEO purposes).
In general, I do not advise paying for premium listings on these sites.
BrightLocal has a great list of these, but here are the ones you should focus on:
Spend some time on these, but don’t go overboard. 100 or so should do fine.
3. Reach Out to Local Business Contacts
Almost no one does this, and I don’t know why.
You likely already have relationships with local businesses in your area. There’s probably a few restaurants you frequent. I bet if you thought hard enough, you could think of other businesses you have a relationship with.
Reach out to them. Ask if they would like to include a link to your website – in turn, offer to include a link to theirs.
Send out a couple dozen emails. Talk to the owners you know personally. If you especially like their services, offer a review (just include a link back to your website) for them to post.
Not everyone is going to agree.
But remember: one good link is hard to come by.
This will likely get you a handful, almost immediately.
4. Content Outreach – AKA Guest Blogging
We talked about this a little more in-depth earlier in this article.
5. Become a Source for Journalists
HARO is a great platform that connects journalists with industry leaders. It allows journalists to get quotes and information from authoritative voices in an automated way.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up as a source.
- You’ll be sent automated emails three times a day for a wide range of questions and topics. Pick the ones related to you, and provide your input. Just be sure to do it quickly – and with professionalism – in order to have your thoughts selected. This link-building method has gained tons of steam recently, and it can be hard to stand out amongst the crowd.
6. Publish the Best Content You Possibly Can
People will naturally link to great, authoritative content in their industry within the blog articles they write. Just take a look at this one – I’ve linked to many other websites and articles. Why? Because they add value. No one had to ask me to do it.
The same can happen with your blog.
Remember: blog posts aren’t entry pages. They’re landing pages.
Write the best damn piece of content you possibly can. Seriously.
5 More Family Law Digital Marketing Strategies to Drive Traffic & Leads
While I think that having a killer website with an effective SEO strategy is the best family law digital marketing strategy you can implement, this wouldn’t be an ultimate guide if we didn’t mention some other campaigns.
The good thing about these strategies is that they often lean into your website and SEO strategy, so if you already have those in place, they can exponentially amplify these tactics.
If you use them well, each of these strategies work.
However, we’ll discuss some of the common pitfalls family attorneys fall into when trying to implement these digital marketing strategies.
Let’s get started.
1. Create & Use a Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is something of value you give away in exchange for a person’s contact information, usually for the purpose of building a list of leads. I’ve included this strategy first because it can amplify every other family lawyer digital marketing strategy you employ.
Lead magnets can come in the form of:
- eBooks
- Webinars (live or recorded)
- Case Studies
- Checklists
- Anything else that provides value for free.
The important part here is that you’re giving something of value.
This works best when combined with Google or Facebook ads.
Sure, you can offer a free consultation – but doesn’t everyone?
What if you offered something like this instead:
- eBook: How to Navigate a Messy Divorce With Grace
- Webinar: Child Custody Town Hall: Ask Me Anything!
- Case Study: How We Secured $X in Divorce Settlements For Our Clients Last Year
- Checklist: How to Get Your Ducks in a Row Before a Divorce: The Ultimate Checklist
Once you have your list of leads, you can decide how best to follow up.
A good lead magnet could be right under your nose, too.
If you have an active blog, maybe combine ten of your best posts into an eBook?
If you’re popular on social media, maybe create a list of your top posts?
If you’re on Youtube, maybe create a playlist of your most popular videos?
Bottom line: create something of value, then give it away for free.
Just make sure to get some contact information while you’re at it.
2. Create a True Social Media Following
Social media for businesses is hard to get right. Most of the problem comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what social media can (and should) do for your business.
Here’s a quick thought experiment: What do you use social media for?
Do you use it to shop for products or services?
Do you use it to find helpful blog posts?
Do you use it to discover new businesses in your area?
Or do you use it to engage – even if that just means lurking around?
The same way search engines reward you with visitors for giving them what they want, social media rewards you with likes, comments, and engagement for giving its users what they want, too. And here’s a hint: it’s not your latest blog post.
Effective social media strategies revolve around building a following, then engaging with that following not as a company, but as another human.
This is what makes engaging with an audience so hard as a business page.
Take a look at L.L. Bean’s Facebook page. They have over 1.2 million followers.
Guess what their typical engagement looks like?
Maybe a couple hundred likes per post, with a handful of comments.
That’s with an audience size of 1.2 million!
On social media, people generally don’t want to engage with brands.
They want to engage with people.
Does that mean your family law practice shouldn’t be active on social media? Of course not. You should be as active as you reasonably can – especially if you’re engaging with your audience and not just blasting them with messages.
But you should tempter your expectations.
Likely, a personal account from one of your attorneys – or even your social media manager – will have a much higher reach and get much better engagement.
Maybe that’s the point.
3. Use Facebook Ads to Drive “Likes” & Traffic
Facebook Ads can be a great part of your family law advertising strategy. Though it takes a little time to get up and running, these ads can do wonders for your website traffic and page visibility.
One of the reason businesses love Facebook ads is for its ability to hyper-target audiences:
- You can target by demographics, such as location, age, couple-status, occupation, and more.
- You can target by interests, such as pages people like, communities they engage in, and more.
- Facebook has a built-in analytics feature, making it easier to track the effectiveness of your campaigns.
This article has a great “nuts and bolts” overview of what it takes to build and serve ads.
When considering your ad campaign, here are some things to keep in mind:
- What is your ad’s goal?
Are you trying to send people to your website, get more likes on your law firm’s Facebook page, collect leads directly from Facebook, or something else? Different goals require different strategies. Start with a crystal-clear goal in mind, then build your campaign out from there.
- Who are you targeting?
Facebook Ads can go wrong quickly – and cost a lot of money in the process. One of the biggest reasons they lose money is due to poor targeting.
Think about your buyer’s persona before setting out a campaign: who are they, what are their interests, what are their problems, what are their hopes, and what motivates them?
Narrow your target audience as much as you can. For instance, an ad for a divorce attorney wouldn’t do much for someone who is listed as “single” on their profile.
You should spend as much time or your targeting as on your ads.
- What are you offering?
Remember that lead magnet we talked about before?
Now would be a great time to use it.
Maybe you could offer a free consultation?
Maybe you could send traffic to one of your latest blog posts?
Whatever you’re offering, make sure you’re providing value to your audience.
When done right, Facebook Ads can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your website – and even get leads directly on the platform. However, some serious thought needs to go into your ad’s goal, targeting, and offer.
4. Use Google Ads to Drive Targeted Traffic
Want to get targeting to your website quickly?
Google Ads can help.
This article does a great job at describing the process of targeting keywords, building ad groups, creating ads, and leveraging extensions for your campaign.
Warning: this is not for the faint of heart.
More than any other family law digital marketing strategy, I do not recommend those without extensive PPC experience to run their own ads. It can get incredibly expensive very quickly – and you really have to know what you’re doing to filter your keywords and reduce wastage.
If you’re determined to do it yourself, here are some tips to help you out:
- Only run a handful of exact match keywords – this ensures your ad only shows up for the exact keyword and not a derivation of it
- Aggressively use negative keywords – cities or regions outside of your local area, how to, legal aid, job listings, education, college, grants, etc.
Google Ads is just a numbers game. However, it’s very hard to make the numbers work.
5. Start a Podcast
Believe it or not, many family law attorneys have found success podcasting.
Need some inspiration? Here are a few popular examples:
What better way to become an influencer and authoritative voice in your industry than by hosting a popular podcast, speaking to people, and interviewing guests?
Starting a podcast isn’t hard, and it can be a great marketing channel for your family law practice. Just pick a name, a co-host (or a lineup of guests!), and get talking!
Digital Marketing for Family Lawyers
It starts with a killer website.
How can your website provide value to your visitors? What questions can you answer? What resources can you provide? How can you help?
From there, you optimize for search engines to drive targeted traffic.
Entry pages are easy to create. Optimize them for keywords that include locations. Pay attention to your keyword groups – and their volume. Build links back to your pages. Use blog content.
Lead magnets do wonders for your conversion rates, no matter which family law digital marketing channel you’re targeting.
Social media is a great way to engage with a loyal following.
Facebook and Google ads can send targeted traffic quickly.
Podcasting can position you as an authority – and it’s fun!
The bottom line: there are many different family law digital marketing strategies you can employ. No matter which you choose, choose to do it well. Better than any of your competition.
Anyone can have a website. Anyone can post twice a week to their Facebook page.
There is a reason why some marketing strategies win… and most fail.
Put time, effort, and resources into your marketing strategy.
Think hard. Plan harder. Execute better.
Then? Reap the rewards.
What’s your favorite family law digital marketing strategy? Where have you seen the best results? On what channel have you seen the worst? Let me know if your comments below! :)
