2022 Google Ranking Factors

As an attorney, you know the importance of SEO for law firms. Surveys find that the majority of people looking for legal advice start online. This makes attorney SEO marketing crucial for your business. To master SEO for attorneys, you need to know the ranking factors that Google considers when ranking web pages and law firm websites.

There are hundreds of website metrics you can track for your website. Google Analytics enables you to monitor over 200 metrics. But not all of them are things Google directly considers when ranking your pages and sites.

Google’s algorithms are closely guarded secrets, and Google updates them periodically. But Google’s engineers have revealed some ranking factors, and careful studies by lawyer SEO experts have uncovered others.

There are several categories of Google ranking factors:

Domain and Site Factors

These relate to the overall website. Google values domains and sites more if they:

• Have original and valuable content
• Demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness
• Have a logical site architecture with a sitemap, as these help Google inspect your site
• Are optimized for mobile users
• Load fast with little downtime
• Are regularly updated with fresh content

Having original, up-to-date and valuable content is the most critical factor. Google may rank a site highly that has helpful, relevant content, even if it loads more slowly than another site.

Page Factors

On-page SEO can help your pages rank higher in the search results. Effective on-page SEO for lawyers includes

• Optimized headers and meta tags, as these help Google see what your page is about
• Including the keyword in the meta description as this can increase the click-through rate
• Longer and more detailed content – one study found web pages appearing at the top of the results averaged 1400 words in length
• A linked table of contents to help Google scan your page
• Including the keyword in the first 100 words of the page

Backlink Factors

Backlinks are still critically important for site rankings, but how Google uses them has changed over the years. When looking at backlinks to a page, here are some things Google considers:

• Age of linking domains – backlinks from older domains are more powerful
• Number of linking pages
• Authority of the linking pages – links from pages that Google ranks highly are more valuable
• Links from pages ranking on the same results page as yours, because these pages are highly relevant
• Diversity of links – Google considers links from many different domains a more natural link profile

Site, page, and backlink factors are critical ranking criteria for Google. Some of the other significant ranking factors are outside your direct control but stem from these criteria. These other ranking factors include:

• Click-through rate, which is affected partly by the meta description
• Bounce rate, time on page and visitor comments which are functions of the site content
• Growth in the number of backlinks, which results from your site’s valuable content

Every lawyer must engage the best SEO services for attorneys. Our professional law firm SEO services can help your pages rank in 2022. If you’re looking for the top SEO agency for law firms, contact Law Firm Sites today.