Why Legal Service Schema Should Be Step #1 In Your SEO Strategy

Search engines use schema and it is very useful in search engine legal marketing. Schema falls under the technical factors that lead to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) success. Therefore, in legal marketing, this is an important measure to gain a competitive edge in search engine results. Most of your competitors will not be using schema for legal services, meaning you will have an advantage over your learned friends if you do!

What Is Schema In Law Firm SEO?

Schema is a type of metadata, or “fine data” that is not overtly displayed. It is a kind of “structured data” that informs search engines of the legal services you offer in your legal practice. It cannot be seen on the content of the web page, but only through structured data markup tools like the Google Structured Data Tool or the Google Rich Results Tool (rich snippets). You can also see structured data on the source code of the website, but this is hard to find in the page. Schema influences search result rankings because it informs Google and other search engines of the purpose and intent of the website in the fastest way. Therefore, getting it right and accurate improves your search marketing efforts.

What Are The Benefits Of Legal Service Schema Markup?

The benefits include that your legal practice will have a tool to get ahead of competitors in SEO through better search result rankings. When your rankings are better, you get more traffic, and thus, more leads thorugh your website. 

Examples Of Law Firm Website Schema Markup

Here is an example of how schema markup looks like on a law firm website through a structured data markup tester:

You are not obliged to understand this document. What you need to know is that it contains specific information about the business Google needs to know. For example, the postal address, opening hours, and so on. Note, that for this specific law firm, Four Square Legal, their structured data is slightly incorrect, as they have used “Service” schema, instead of “Legal Service Schema“. Service schema is less accurate than legal service schema, so they are not maximising their use of schema.

What Kind Of Schema Markup Should I Use For My Law Firm Website?

There use to be “Attorney Schema” available. However, this is not “deprecated”. 

Deprecation means it is no longer in use. Therefore the only valid schema for law firm is “Legal Service Schema“.

This web page explains all the specifications and requirements for legal service schema. There are sub sections of the Schema documentation like “Local Business Schema”, “Payments Accepted” and so on. Some of these parameters enable rich snippets, which can look like this:

So you see, the purpose of implementing this kind of structured data is to give additional information to Google that you might not want to write as content for your website. Hence, structured data through schema is a useful way to convey information to Google you do not wish to overtly display it. As you can see, search marketing is very complex and best left to specialists.

Local Business Schema Markup

Local business schema is very important for local SEO. Local SEO is SEO geotargeting your local area. This is vital for law firms with a specific service area. Here is the key information you need:

• Currencies accepted
• Opening hours
• Payments accepted
• Price range

Organisation Markup

Includes:

• Area served
• Address
• Legal name
• Review

Place Markup

Important information includes:

• Telephone number
• Fax number

How To Add Schema Markup To My Law Firm Website

Plugin Method

We suggest the Schema & Structured Data plugin for WordPress. Here is their documentation on adding Legal Services Schema.

Manual

An SEO Specialist can also insert Legal Services Schema via Google Tag Manager. The advantage of this method is that it is more accurate and can be fine tuned to have the correct details at a higher level than through a plugin.

Should I Use Attorney Or Legal Service Schema Markup For My Law Firm Website?

As we have mentionned earlier, Attorney Schema is deprecated. Hence the only valid one to use is Legal Services Schema for your law firm website. Legal marketing is difficult and complex, so you should follow documentation as accurately as possible to achieve maximum results. Search engines reward the use of schema, so you should use these features, which include rich snippets.

Conclusion

If you have never heard of Schema before today, don’t worry, most other law firm’s haven’t as well. Adding Schema is usually left to a professional digital markerter or agency due to the complexity of its implementation. Adding Legal Services Schema markup to your firm’s website is a great way to get an advantage over your competition. Schema is seen by Google as a technical factor that contributes to your SEO ranking success and should be taken as seriously as any other SEO element. 

Marketlyitcs are digital marketing experts who can integrate SEO and Schema into your firm’s website, so you can rank higher with Google. Our team can implement all the appropriate Schema your firm needs to surpass your competitors. Marketlyitcs are experts in all things digital marketing for lawyers. If you would like know how we can help your firm, book a Discovery Call with Clarence now.

All discovery calls are confidential