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If you want injury case leads, part of your marketing mix must include search engine optimization (SEO) of your law firm’s website. Personal Injury law is a competitive space. But with an effective SEO marketing strategy, you can profitably capture these Google searchers.

Why Does SEO For Personal Injury Lawyers Matter?

What Is Personal Injury SEO?

Personal Injury SEO is a process that involves quality website content prioritized based on injury case value along with technical website expertise skills to rank a law firm’s website for dozens of different personal injury search terms. 

There are the two core areas of SEO that you have to consider:

Let's take a look at each of these areas. 

Local SEO for Personal Injury Lawyers

Ranking in Local SEO results has to do with two core elements: 

Below is an example of Google’s 3-pack of local results, as illustrated in red.

The local SEO process is very different from the Traditional SEO process and requires different strategies to rank. (Read our related post on, what is local SEO?)

Physical Location of Your Office

Google defines cities and towns in its own way. Therefore, if your law office is not physically located within the boundaries that Google has drawn, you have lower chances of ranking in the local 3-pack of results, regardless of the effort.

Here’s an example of how Google defines Temecula - notice the red dotted line (if you're in Temecula and searching for a Temecula SEO Company). 

Suppose your office is not located within these boundaries. Then, your chances of ranking in the local pack for “Temecula Personal Injury Attorney” are not as high as for a law firm within the boundaries. But this doesn’t mean you won’t rank for anything, but it will be harder for your office to show well for geographic-specific queries like this. 

Proximity To The Searcher

How close your law office is to the searcher is an important factor. The closer your law office is, the higher likelihood that you will rank well for that search phrase. Your proximity is only one factor affecting your law firm rank. And if your marketing agency is ineffective at local SEO, being close to the searcher won’t help you. 

If you’re starting a new office or have the opportunity to move your office, think long and hard about where to locate it, as this will affect the exposure and clicks you receive in local searches and within maps.  

NAP (Name, Address, Phone) and Citations

Consistency in your law firm’s name, address, and phone number throughout the web is a significant component of Google’s local ranking algorithm.

Google uses other sites (aka citations), such as Yelp (related post here on Yelp Ads), Superpages, other legal directories, etc., as third-party validators that you are who you say you are and that your location is accurate.  

Is it consistent when Google visits these other sites and finds information about your law firm? The last thing Google wants to do is serve a result in a local 3-pack that could be potentially incorrect because that would lead to a poor user experience for the searcher. Therefore, building up a solid and accurate citation list is a significant factor in ranking in Google local searches. 

Law Firm Name

Your law firm’s name plays a role in your rankability in local searches and on maps. If your company name has keywords in it, you will have a better chance, with all things being equal, of ranking higher than a competitor that doesn’t have keywords in their name. In addition, geographic terms (i.e., the city or town) or industry category terms (personal injury, attorney, lawyer, law firm) affect your firm’s rank ability. 

Traditional Organic SEO Listings

Ranking here has to do with content and on-page SEO factors primarily. Below is an example highlighting a traditional organic listing. (read our related post on How To Get Your Website On Google’s First Page for more detailed tactics and strategies)

But…

Stay with me here…

The above image paints a simplistic picture of injury law firm SEO.  

What is essential to recognize is that there are more than 12 different places within Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) that you can rank your site within (you can read more about these other places here). Each location has a different approach and strategy to rank. Therefore, an SEO strategy should take a holistic approach to maximize your law firm’s presence in these places. The best analogy to ranking in Google is comparing it to the shelf space at a grocery store - the more spots you occupy, the more likely you will win the click and book a new injury client.  

Here’s a list of some of the features you can rank in:

Read this additional post for a deeper dive into the top places you can rank your site in Google. And an additional article on creating an SEO funnel of content where we used personal injury as an example. 

And so, the bottom line is that you need content plus SEO to rank well in the traditional organic search results. Without content, you will have minimal presence in Google. (read our case study on content marketing and SEO and another on why content marketing and SEO are necessary for additional insights).

And content requires a data-driven approach. We can uncover search volume and economic value behind the hundreds of topics and questions people search for. A data-driven plan allows you to create content with a purpose prioritized by economic value - not all search terms or keywords are created equal. 

Next, Content Organization 

 The SEO SILO and Content Hub Strategy are essential in PI. Basically, it just means organizing your content around themes.

Because PI is so competitive, your content should be well organized. And in this case, organized around geographic areas that you want to rank in. For example, if you’re in San Diego, you would first organize content around San Diego since it’s the largest city in the county.

Here's an example: San Diego Personal Injury Attorney, Car Accident Attorney San Diego, Wrongful Death Attorney San Diego, and so on. 

Next, perhaps you optimize around Carlsbad, CA, and those related PI phrases.

Content Hub, Silo Implementation

URL Structure

Use URL structure and selective internal links between related posts to pass internal link equity between similar pages. For example, for the URL structure, you might use:

And if you optimized for Carlsbad, then you create URLs where San Diego is replaced with Carlsbad.

The benefit of this URL structure is that it shows a hierarchy of related content to search engines and users.

URL Structure

In addition, you would also support this site organization with internal links between related geographic pages – so, the San Diego personal injury page would link to the San Diego car accident page, and so on.

Organizing content this way has many SEO benefits. First, it’s organized well for users and search engines, and with the internal links you’re passing link equity between related pages, improving the SEO signals.

Your Next Steps

What Are Google (LSA)?

LSA (also sometimes referred to as Google Screened Ads) are Google ads are a relatively new ad product from Google that appear at the very top of a Google Search Results Page above all other Google results. LSA also appear above Google pay-per-click ads.

Here's an example that shows 3 LSA at the top of the page - the LSA show first, then  Google Ads (PPC), then the non-paid organic results. 

To be eligible to show for LSA you have to submit an application to Google and pass its background checks. For attorneys, Google wants to see your licensing, how long you have been in business, etc.

Keep in mind, however, you do have to be licensed in the state your ads show so you will not be able to run ads if you or someone in your firm is not licensed in that particular state and added to your LSA account. The approval process can take up to 2 weeks or more after you submit everything to Google. But once your account is approved, your ads will show with the Google Screened badge. 

When someone clicks on your LSA ad, they go to your LSA page in Google, not your website. Your LSA page has more information about your firm and contact information. Leads can call you or message you from the LSA ads directly and you have a permanent record of all the leads.

Google is keeping this traffic on your Google LSA page and not sending it through to your site. 

How and When Do My LSA Show?

LSA for attorneys are eligible to show in Google search results once you are approved. How often you show and when you show is partly based on your bidding and budgeting, among other factors. 

LSA are eligible to show when someone types a query into Google using keywords, such as, Immigration Attorney Near Me, Personal Injury Attorney Near Me, or Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me. This is similar to how the more common Google Ads (PPC) are triggered to show in a search result to users, but that's the only similarity between the two Google ad products. 

Not Keywords, Job Types

Unlike Google Ads, LSA are set up by predetermined legal categories (i.e. Immigration, Criminal, Personal Injury, etc) that you choose and then sub-specialties (referred to as Job Types), but not by keywords as is the case with the more common Google Ads. See below screenshots.

Your LSA ad competes with the other attorneys that are bidding for those law categories and specialties as well. But your LSA ad does not compete with the typical Google Ads (i.e. Google PPC) which show below LSA ads. 

Immigration Attorney LSA Job Types

Below is an example of the 11 Job Types within the Immigration attorney category that you can target. Each Job Type can be toggled on or off:

Personal Injury Attorney LSA Job Types 

Criminal Defense Attorney LSA Job Types

Are LSA More Effective Than Google Ads/PPC?

In many situations, if your goal is only leads, LSA can be a more effective strategy than Google Ads. LSA are strictly bottom of the funnel lead generation - meaning people that typically need help now. And we have seen LSA that produce leads that cost up to 10x less than a Google Ads (PPC) campaign.

But with LSA, you are not advertising mid-funnel or upper funnel, there's no branding - meaning you are not advertising to people that are further away from converting to a lead right now. So with LSA there's no retargeting, no Display Ads, no YouTube ads, just search targeting for leads that are bottom-of-the-funnel. 

What Makes LSA Ads Effective At Lead Generation?

And if a lead was not valid, for example, it was for the wrong category of legal services or job type, or it was a sales call, you can contest the lead and ask Google for a refund. Google records all the calls so there's a history of what the person is looking for. Google seems reasonable when contesting illegitimate or incorrect leads and credits you - typically the next billing cycle. 

As a side note, we have found that the Google Ads (PPC) cost-per-click for many search terms goes up by 30% - 50% or more when LSA ads show. Google is cannibalizing it's own PPC ads with LSA. 

LSA Cost Per Lead For 3 Different Law Services

The below bar chart shows the cost per lead results for 3 different attorney categories: Immigration, Criminal, and Personal Injury. 

Cost Per Lead (CPL) Comparison : LSA vs Google Ads

To make this comparison simpler between LSA and Google Ads, let's look at the CPC (cost-per-click) for Google Ads and then estimate a reasonable website conversion rate for click traffic.

CPC & CPL For Immigration Attorney Keywords in Google Ads

For Google Ads, the CPC for immigration keywords ranges from $13 - $20 per click.

To get a conversion and an actual customer, it's reasonable to assume perhaps 10% of that click traffic will convert to a lead (your mileage will of course vary, but that's a reasonable conversion rate to use). So if your website is converting 10% of its traffic then your cost per lead (CPL) from Google Ads would cost approximately $130 - $200.

LSA CPL for Immigration Attorneys

Now compare the Google Ads CPL above to that of LSA cost-per-lead (CPL) below. In the below table, we captured 208 leads in 1 month at an average cost of $31 per Immigration lead! That is a 6x or 7x difference in cost per leads by using LSA!

Immigration Attorney Services CPL Comparison: LSA vs Google Ads

CPC & CPL For Criminal Defense Attorney Keywords in Google Ads

In Google Ads, the CPC for criminal defense words costs between $53 and $75 per click. 

To get an actual criminal defense customer, we assume 10% of that click traffic converts to a lead so your CPL from Google Ads would cost approximately $530 - $750. Compared to immigration, we can see as the space becomes more competitive so do the leads.

LSA CPL for Criminal Defense Attorneys

Now compare the Google Ads CPL for criminal defense attorney keywords above to that of LSA CPL below.

In the below table, we captured 42 leads in 1 month at an average cost of $111 per criminal defense lead! That is a 5x or 7x lower cost difference per lead by using LSA versus Google Ads.

Criminal Defense Attorney Services CPL Comparison: LSA vs Google Ads

CPC & CPL For Personal Injury Attorney Keywords in Google Ads

In Google Ads, the CPC for Personal Injury keywords costs between $195 and $300 per click (more than that if you are chasing "car accident" phrases). 

To get an actual personal injury customer, we assume 10% of that click traffic converts to a lead so your CPL from Google Ads would cost approximately $2000 - $3000 per lead. 

LSA CPL for Personal Injury Attorneys

Now compare the Google Ads CPL for personal injury keywords above to that of LSA CPL below.

In the below table, we captured 22 leads in 1 month at an average cost of $229 per personal injury lead! That is a 10x or more difference in cost per leads by using LSA versus Google Ads.

Personal Injury Attorney Services CPL Comparison: LSA vs Google Ads

Summary

So wrapping this up, LSA ads from Google are a far better option in most cases to generate qualified leads for attorneys. Your mileage will vary based on variables such as the your legal niche (i.e. Immigration, Personal Injury, Criminal, Family, etc), competition in your local market, your budget and more. But it's clear that these ads deliver far more economic value versus Google Ads for attorneys.

Google Ads are still useful, of course, but if your budget is limited and your primary goal is only leads then LSA might be a good option for you. But depending on the legal niche, your geotargeting, and other variables it can be challenging to produce the volume of leads you may need.