seo law critical thinking question

SEO Law Program

A diversity program offering scholarships, academic prep, and internship opportunities for underrepresented incoming law students.

Welcome to the application site for the SEO Law Fellowship and Scholarship Program! The SEO Law Fellowship Program is a program that offers training and paid internships for underserved incoming law students. The SEO Law Scholarship include three scholarships to incoming law students. For more information, please visit our website here . 

Should you have any questions about the application process, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] . 

We look forward to receiving your application! 

• Sponsorship

Subscribe to receive featured episodes and staff favorites once a month.

Recent Episodes

A Better Perspective: How Mindset Shifts Can Enrich Life and Legal Practice

The Reclassification of Marijuana

Emerging Legal Ethics for AI; How-Tos for AI in Law Practice; & “Michigan Man”

SEO For Lawyers – A Guide to Law Firm SEO

• By Paige Locke
• June 1, 2022

For so many law firms, SEO seems like the golden ticket to attract new clients and get your law firm noticed. And while SEO remains one of the most effective ways for law firms to grow their business, how do you play the SEO game successfully?

In the early days of search engine optimization (SEO), keywords were everything. Many search engines, including Google, relied heavily on matching keywords and phrases in a user’s search query. However, SEO has come a long way since then – and with new algorithms and semantic search capabilities, Google has started looking at the context of content, rather than simply scanning for keywords. So what does this mean for your law firm’s SEO? Are keywords still relevant? And how can you implement the best content marketing and SEO strategy for your law firm?

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• The fundamentals of law firm SEO.
• Why focusing on keywords is the wrong approach for the SEO battle.
• How to best optimize your law firm’s SEO strategy.
• Creating content that answers questions 
• What Google wants from a law firm’s website.
• How to build authority and trust.

Lawyerist Podcast

#171: A Law Firm Website Audit Checklist, with Karin Conroy

Your user agent does not support the HTML5 Audio element.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is simply the process – or processes – of attracting  more prospective clients to your law firm’s website by increasing your website’s position in Google’s search results. This requires in-depth keyword research, onsite optimization, link building, content development and more. 

Tip: According to a report by the Search Engine Journal , 75 percent of Web users never scroll past the first page of search results.

Why Keywords Still Matter in SEO (But They Aren’t Everything)

Contrary to popular belief, while keywords are still useful in SEO, they are not the most important factor. This is because SEO is far more complex than simply putting keywords on a page. 

Google has continued to optimize their search engine algorithms by focusing more and more on the consumer experience and the context of content, rather than just keywords. This has required SEO and content marketing strategies to shift away from a keyword-density focus, to more of a human focus. And while this may seem like just another step to have to master in the SEO battle, it is actually a benefit for lawyers and law firms looking to improve their website’s ranking. 

Counsel Cast

Why is focusing on keywords the wrong approach to SEO? with Lorraine Ball

Great Keyword and Question Research Tools:

• Ubersuggest’s Free Keyword Tool
• Answer the Public
• Ask-Socrates

How to Best Optimize your Law Firm’s SEO Strategy?

When it comes to SEO, lawyers lose sight of the fact that they are not trying to win the Google race – they are trying to win the client race. At the end of the day, you’re really trying to capture the clients attention, not Google’s attention. So how do you do this? 

Creating Content that Answers Questions

Perhaps one of the best ways to capture clients’ attention and increase client conversions is through providing them with the best content possible. Ask yourself: ‘ What is it that your clients want to know? ’ ‘ What are the questions potential clients want answered? ’

Starting with questions is the best place to start when re-thinking your law firms’ SEO strategy .  Instead of optimizing for a keyword, you’re optimizing for your clients’ questions – and at the end of the day, it’s the clients that matter (and paying you) not Google. 

By taking this approach to SEO, your law firm is simply taking the questions of potential clients, then answering them through high-quality content posted on your firm’s website. This approach to SEO not only provides value for potential clients, but it also helps build rapport and translates well across Google’s platform. 

It is also easier than trying to optimize for keywords! When you are optimizing for keywords on your website, you are competing against every other law firm out there that is trying to optimize for the same keywords. And because people search so differently and the search phrases that clients put in can vary so much, you can’t always optimize for certain keywords. But …you can optimize for client questions. You can optimize your website content to  sustainable online business.

Tip: Question-related searches are a significant part of the overall searches Google receives each day. Recent studies suggest that of the roughly 3.5 billion searches per day, approximately 8% of search queries are phrased as questions. And with more and more people using voice search commands on their phones, this number is ever increasing. So now, more than ever, optimizing your law firm’s website for question keywords can make a huge difference to your overall SEO strategy. 

Lunch Hour Legal Marketing

Ukraine, SEO Debate Club, and Questions from Techshow!

#139: 14 Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your SEO Profile, with Jeff Skrysak

Improving Customers’ Experience on Your Website

Keywords and quality content are only a small piece of your overall SEO score . While good content on your website is key, how you deliver this information is just as important. 

Companies often spend a lot of time (and money) on keywords, and not a lot of time on the consumer experience when customers actually come to the website. You are way better off spending more time, money and research on the customer experience than you are on your website’s keywords. So how do you improve the customer experience on your website, and – in turn – improve your overall SEO performance?

What Google wants from a Law Firm’s Website

A key aspect to consider when looking at customers’ experience on your website is – ‘Are customers finding value when they visit your site?’ Google loves high keyword-rich content, but it hates a high bounce rate. So once customers find your website, what are you doing to keep them there (and to keep them coming back) ? 

Tip: Your bounce rate is simply a measure of how many people view only one page on your site before immediately leaving again.

A few tips to keep users engaged, decrease your bounce rate and increase your chances of client conversions include:

1. Making Quality Content Easily Accessible for Website Users

Your law firm’s website should not be confusing or difficult to navigate. When potential customers visit your site, it should be easy for them to find and access the information they are looking for. This includes making contact information readily available, utilizing dropdown menus or menu bars, effectively using headings and subheadings throughout your site, etc. 

2. Having Relevant Information

In addition to making content easy for users to access, the content on your website also needs to be relevant to their search needs. Your content needs to provide users with what they expect. They need to land on your page and get exactly what they wanted as soon as possible. If you can do that, most people will stay on the site long enough, which will tell Google your site is topically relevant.

3. Creating Engaging Website Copy and Content 

Law firms that create content optimized for search engines greatly improve their chances of getting their business and their services in front of potential clients. But that’s only half the battle. After getting that initial click, your content needs to keep users on the site. Quality content and engaging copywriting are how you hook someone’s attention and keep them interested in learning more. The best content conveys empathy for the problem and instills confidence that the law firm can provide the most satisfactory solution. When content appeals to a user – and they spend more time scrolling or clicking through your website, Google takes that as a favorable sign which boosts your law firm’s chances of higher rankings.

Tip: A great and easy way to provide value to potential customers is through checklists and resource files customers can download. This not only helps you build rapport and authority with potential customers, but it is also a great way of capturing email leads. Content that answers questions, is engaging, easy to read and provides valuable information to a potential client, are all important factors to consider when creating content for your law firm website. 

What to Keep in Mind About Law Firm SEO

Law firm SEO is an ongoing and long-term marketing strategy. It’s about providing value and building goodwill with users who are then more likely to become future clients. And it is a must for law firms that are looking to stand out and continue to grow their businesses in an ever competitive online marketplace.  With the constantly evolving landscape of online search, the biggest thing lawyers and law firms should focus on when it comes to SEO strategy is – their clients . Lawyers and law firms understand the needs of their clients better than anyone else. By redirecting your law firm’s SEO focus from keywords to quality content for your clients, you will be amazed by the results.

YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT IMPROVING YOUR LAW FIRM’S SEO IN THE FOLLOWING PODCAST EPISODES:

The Digital Edge

Website Wizardry: The Right SEO for Your Law Firm

Legal Toolkit

The Impact of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Optimizing SEO with Schema Markup

#243: Audience, Attention, and SEO, with Rand Fishkin

The Un-Billable Hour

Getting Seen, Getting Heard, Getting Hired In the Digital Jungle

Back to Basics: Smart Marketing for Solos Part 2

Share This Post

Paige Locke

The Ultimate Guide to Law Firm SEO in 2024

What is SEO and Why Should Law Firms Use It?

Search engine optimization  (SEO) describes the tactics and strategies for optimizing a website to improve visibility on organic search. Search engine rankings are crucial for any business looking to drive engagement and generate new leads. Yet time and again, law firms overlook SEO – a mistake that’s likely to prove costly in terms of web traffic, new leads, and increased revenue.

The fact is, the majority of potential clients are using the internet when they need to find a lawyer or legal services. 

Great search engine rankings will also help your firm in several other key ways. To learn more about the many ways improved search engine rankings can help your firm, check out our past blog.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: how seo can help you generate leads, 7 seo tips to boost lead generation, how to approach keyword research, how to optimize content for seo, chapter 2: the components of seo for law firms, what is on-site seo, what is off-site seo, what is technical seo, what law firms should know about keywords, searcher intent: why it matters for seo, the importance of competitor research, backlinking, why legal directories are important for seo, content marketing, chapter 3: how do i monitor seo performance.

• Free SEO Monitoring and Analysis Tools for Your Law Firm

Paid SEO Monitoring and Analysis Tools for Your Law Firm

Chapter 4: how can my website rank in google, seo cheat sheet: best practices for ranking in the google top 10, chapter 5: seo vs other channels, seo vs ppc: similarities and differences, using social media to improve seo, how social media impacts seo, the best social platforms for seo, 7 tips for using social media to improve seo.

Effective SEO should complement your firm’s lead generation efforts by increasing brand awareness through organic website traffic. Potential clients will have an easier time finding you when your website regularly appears on Google’s first page for relevant search terms. 

Paying attention to SEO is one of the best ways to boost your online presence, get more leads, and grow your firm. 

1. Create a Blog with Content Optimized for SEO

Maintaining an active blog packed with valuable content is one of the most effective means of leveraging SEO to drive lead generation. 

2. Ramp up Your Website Speed

The Google algorithm places a big emphasis on the user experience. Fast load times will go a long way towards improving your website rankings. 

You can use Google’s Page Speed test to analyze specific web pages and implement suggestions for improving load times. 

3. Take the Time to Conduct Keyword Research

Optimizing for keywords is a critical element of SEO for law firms. There are lots of tools available to help with this research, but Google Analytics Keyword Planner is a good place to start. 

4. Begin Link Building

Link building is the practice of acquiring links from other sites to your own, and it’s surprisingly important for SEO. Link building is crucial, but you need to focus on quality over quantity. 

5. Focus on Local SEO Strategies

It’s great to rank high for content, but for firms that operate within a certain geographic area, it’s more important to rank well locally. Claim listings in online directories, use local keyword data, and work on generating positive reviews. 

6. Maintain Active Social Media Channels

The more social media attention you have, the more likely you are to collect links to your content. 

7. Obtain and Manage Client Reviews

Customer reviews strongly impact SEO, as well as a potential client’s first impression of your firm. Reviews are a strong signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy. 

Keyword research is at the heart of a successful SEO strategy. If you don’t get this part right, it’s hard to get much traction in the search engine rankings.

Because search engines have become much better at identifying how specific terms relate to each other, you can focus on more exhaustive pieces of content that use target “adjacent” phrases such as “personal injury attorney”, “personal injury lawyer”, “attorneys who specialize in injuries at work”, etc. You can begin identifying relevant topic clusters by:

• Brainstorming with your team. What do people search to find your services (or your competitors’)? Talk to existing clients and to your sales team as well. 
• Understand your competitor’s performance.  It’s extremely helpful to benchmark how similar firms are performing online. Make a short list of your most important competitors and then periodically review their positions in search for the same keywords that you want to rank for.
• Leveraging the right tools.   Try using tools like SEMRush Magic Keyword Finder or a free option like UberSuggest . They will help you to analyze keywords and find similar terms. 
• Monitoring industry conversations.  Participate in LinkedIn or Facebook groups and see which topics are most discussed. 
• Looking to Google autocomplete. Start by typing in a general term that relates to your business and then see what suggestions Google makes. Or try using a specialized keyword tool like SEMrush to refine terms. 

Aligning content with intent is crucial when it comes to SEO for law firms. As you narrow down your list of terms, make sure you understand searcher intent. 

Finally, prioritize keywords based on a mix of volume and difficulty. Understand how competitive a keyword is before you take the time to invest in content creation. 

Once you’re armed with a keyword list, you and your team can begin the work of creating and optimizing content to bring more high-quality traffic to your website:

1. Update current on-page content

Review all of the existing content on your website. Make sure your language is not only clear and concise but also follows SEO best practices. Make sure to take advantage of Google Analytics tools and use the findings to improve all of your on-page content. 

2. Focus on Quality, Not Quantity

While leveraging SEO for lead generation will bring potential clients to your website, they’ll only engage if the content is helpful, interesting, and valuable. 

3. Include content updates in your ABM strategy

No t all page visitors will be ready to become clients. But once you’re creating and posting content on a regular basis, it can be leveraged to help guide these potential clients down the sales funnel.

Review data (or set up workflows using marketing automation) to see what key contacts are viewing, and then send them personalized content that’s related. 

To gain a full understanding of how to create a successful ABM strategy, check out this on-demand webinar .

From keyword selection and matching searcher intent to link building and content marketing, an effective SEO strategy consists of many moving parts. 

As you begin to develop your overall plan, you’ll need to consider three specific aspects of SEO: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. 

Also called on-page SEO, on-site SEO refers to the practice of optimizing pages on your website to increase ranking ability and drive more organic traffic.

The quality of your on-site SEO is what will allow the algorithm to determine whether your content meets a user’s intent when they query specific keywords.

So you’ll want to optimize things like:

• User Engagement
• Technical Structure
• Interlinking
• Mobile Optimization

To learn more about the on-page SEO factors that help your site rank, please read this blog.

Simply put, all of the activities that happen outside of updating or publishing content to your website –  brand or citation building, content marketing, social media, and more –  fall under the umbrella of off-site SEO. 

12 Off-Page SEO Tactics to Implement

Off-site SEO offers many options for improving your domain authority:

1. Link Building

Earning backlinks from other sites with high credibility is an integral way of boosting your own site’s authority. 

2. Brand building

In order to do this properly, focus on increasing your brand searches online. You can keep an eye on this metric by entering your firm name in a keyword performance tool.

3. Content Marketing

Use content marketing to boost off-page SEO signals. The content types that tend to be best for this are blogs, infographics, and long-form collateral like whitepapers and ebooks. 

4. Digital PR

Using PR tactics to develop a great story, promote it widely, and then earn a significant amount of links to it is a common tactic. 

5. Local SEO

Getting your business to rank in the map pack is technically off-page SEO (since it pertains to a website outside of your own). One thing that can also help is focusing on consistency in citations. Citations are mentions of your firm that contain your name, address, and phone number (NAP). 

6. Social Media

Make sure to maintain a consistent and professional presence and engage regularly, and people will discover your social media channels as part of their research process. 

Focus on forums as part of a comprehensive strategy to position yourself as an expert and share thought leadership . Sites like Reddit and Quora have a strong community where you can engage and have real conversations. 

8. Online Events

Spending time hosting online events will drive social engagement and can even contribute to your link strategy as people share your upcoming event or follow-up information. 

9. Guest Posting

Guest posting on a related organization’s site helps to expand your audience while ensuring the readers are still relevant to your business. 

10. Podcasts

They are a great way to reach new audiences, share expertise, and gain a competitive advantage. Plus, Google and Apple’s podcast platforms are a search engine, so people can find your content based on keywords. 

11. Reviews

Reviews can help Google to understand your site and how people feel about it. To a certain degree, Google can derive brand signals from them, which can contribute to increased domain authority and eventually your position in search. 

12. Content syndication

Many publications syndicate content from other sources to supplement their original material. This is helpful in terms of backlinks but use syndication thoughtfully. Content syndication is another way to amplify your content’s reach. 

Technical SEO focuses on the components that make a site load quickly and ensure the search engine bots crawl and index its pages. Effective technical SEO also addresses factors that can hurt your rankings, including duplicate content, non-working links, inaccurate redirects, and more.

The most important characteristics of a technically optimized website are:

• Crawlability
• Healthy links
• No duplicate content
• Structured data
• XML sitemap
• Hreflang tags

For an in-depth explanation of how to have a technically optimized website, check out this checklist .

Think of keywords as the backbone of SEO for law firms. 

As the terms prospective clients are most likely to enter  when researching the service you offer, they hold the “key” to bringing more traffic – and more qualified leads – to your website

Ranking for the Right Keywords

Not sure what keywords to optimize for? Here are some tips to ensure you’re targeting the right terms for your law firm’s organic and paid search campaigns.

As a digital marketer, you need to be aware of searcher intent. How well you understand that intent will directly impact your page’s ability to rank online and it will influence your reader’s satisfaction with your content once they arrive at your site.

According to Yoast , “Search intent (or user intent, audience intent) is the term used to describe the purpose of an online search. It’s the reason why someone conducts a specific search.” Search engines have evolved over the past few years and are not as susceptible to SEO tricks. They are more sophisticated when it comes to judging content and are focused on serving up results that align with what the searcher actually wants to learn about. You can read more about this in Google’s Quality Evaluator Guidelines . 

A comprehensive understanding of search intent will enable your firm to: 

• Perform more effective keyword research by targeting terms that best align with your firm’s and your prospective client’s needs. 
• Develop content that answers user questions and then create pages in a way that is friendly to both visitors and search engines. 
• Rank higher in search engines by creating material that search engines judge to be more valuable and helpful for their users. 

Types of Search Intent

The types of search intent sometimes overlap, but there are generally 4 categories:

• Navigational Intent – This means that the user is looking for a certain page, physical address, or domain. It aligns with Google’s “visit” and “website” search intent and also includes local search. For this type of intent, it’s important to keep in mind that the searchers already know what they’re trying to find. 
• Informational Intent – With this type of intent, the searcher is hoping to learn something. It’s common for searchers to pose these searches as questions and use words like who, what, how, etc. 
• Transactional Intent – These searchers want to do something specific, either in person or using their device. To make the most of this type of intent, begin by understanding what conversion means to you. Do you want them to sign up for a consultation? Register for something? Then, provide the most relevant information in a straightforward and user-friendly manner. 
• Commercial Search Intent – A hybrid of informational and transactional intent refers to commercial search intent. This refers to the keywords and phrases that searchers use to research before making a final decision. For example, once someone has determined that they need an attorney, they will start looking for specific information that can help them choose one. 

Performing competitor research to identify weaknesses and opportunities will help you improve your overall strategy by allowing you to:

• Set benchmarks for your current SEO efforts
• Identify areas to improve when it comes to strategy
• Uncover competitor gaps and weaknesses
• Gain insight from competitor strategies – and apply them to your own

Running a thorough competitor analysis is a great way to take stock of your overall industry, competitors, and market, in addition to how search is working across those areas. 

10 Steps for Completing an Effective Competitor Analysis

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link back to your website. All marketers should be interested in building links to drive referral traffic and increase their site’s authority. Even as SEO has continued to evolve, backlinking has remained a highly effective tactic for attracting attention from Google and other search engines.

A successful backlinking strategy should include:

• Guest blogging on authoritative sites
• The creation and sharing of infographics
• An active social media presence
• Sharing resource links from trusted sites
• Creating content pillars
• Looking at competitors’ backlinks
• Earning editorial links

For a breakdown of how to implement each of these tactics, check out this post.

What Makes a High-Quality Backlink?

Nobody can say for sure how link quality is measured, and what makes a high-quality link is somewhat subjective. However, there are three core elements that most experts agree on. 

A high-quality backlink should be:

• Natural – It’s essential that website owners choose to link to your site because it makes sense and adds value and not because you have paid them to or manipulated them in any way. 
• Reputable – Today’s search engines look for social proof of how credible web pages are. 
• Relevant – Search engines pay attention to the relevancy of both the page and domain of a backlink. 

For more backlink strategy tips, check out this post.

Online directories can be a powerful way for firms to build links and bring more traffic to their site. There are several benefits of using online directories (also called business directories or business listings). 

The Benefits of Online Directories

Online directories are a key way to increase your visibility online. Additionally, 

• Online directories offer targeted and relevant reach. Directories commonly index companies by niche, location, or category. Even better, they often include reviews. 
• Online directories result in trusted links . Because they are usually trusted sources of information with high-ranking websites, a link to your own site will help to increase its authority. 
• Online directories are cost-effective. Though some specific directories charge a fee to list your firm, some are free. Options like Bing Places, Yelp, and Foursquare are all free to list with. 

How to Find the Right Online Directories for Your Firm

There are a lot of active directories to choose from. Here are a few things to think about: 

• Relevance – Choose directories relevant to your firm. Smaller directories geared towards your niche or geographic area can have more impact than larger, more general directories.
• Domain authority – It can be more helpful to get an inbound link from a site with an excellent domain authority than to get several links from those with lower domain authority.
• Listing features – Every directory is different, and some go into more detail than others or have different functionality. You’ll need to establish whether you want a simple name, address, and phone number listing, or one that shares photos, reviews, etc. 

Content marketing describes the process of planning, creating, and optimizing content that ranks at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) and provides something of value for your target audience. As your rankings improve, you’ll bring more organic traffic to your site, attract more qualified leads, and see revenue begin to rise — a huge win for your law firm.

Struggling to write content that ranks well in the SERPs? For more tips on effective content marketing, check out this blog post . 

Local SEO describes a set of tactics that aim to improve rankings and visibility in local search results such as Google’s Map Pack or Local Pack. Ranking high for local search is crucial for any business targeting people in a specific region, city, or area – something that tends to be particularly true of law firms.

Why Local Listings Matter

Google has also gotten really good at identifying immediate, local needs and catering results to this type of search.  When the algorithm detects that someone’s “intent” is local (that they are looking for something in the area around them), Google’s Map Pack results will appear more prominently at the top of search result pages. 

While a great user experience is important for overall organic SEO, Google also supplies a set of guidelines for local SEO . Following these guidelines is critical for maximizing visibility in the Map Pack and not having your listing suspended for any reason. 

How to Improve Your Local Search Ranking

In our experience, three categories matter when it comes to local search:

• Relevance – How well a local business profile matches what someone is searching for
• Distance – How far each potential search result is from the location term used in search queries
• Prominence – How well-known the business is, according to Google

To boost your local rankings, pay attention to the following eight factors: 

Tip: Take the 2 minutes to run a free SEO audit of your site so you can see where you stand on search engines and get a clear picture of the on-site issues you may want to fix in order to rank higher.

Why Reviews are Important for Local SEO

In recent years, it’s been proven that reviews are one of the most important ranking factors for local searches. In fact, businesses with prominent reviews often perform better than other websites with higher domain authority. 

Why do Reviews Matter?

There’s been a lot of research into how reviews impact local search engine results. The bottom line is that businesses with a significant number of positive reviews on their Google My Business page are likely to rank relatively well in local packs. 

However, as you might expect, just having lots of reviews won’t help you too much. More important than the quantity of reviews is what is contained within them. Other factors that Google seems to take into account for local pack results are things like how many reviews have been responded to, average weekly or annual reviews, reviews with photos, and new reviews within the past month. 

Chapter 3: How do I Monitor SEO Performance?

Knowing exactly where to direct your SEO strategy can be challenging.

Google and the other search engines are always updating their algorithms, and much – if not most – of the information they use to determine rankings remains a secret. 

So how will you know which SEO tactics are working for you and which aren’t?

F ortunately, law firms can choose from a multitude of SEO tools – free and otherwise – designed to make SEO monitoring much, much easier.

Free SEO Analysis and Monitoring Tools for Your Law Firm

Here are a few free tools law firms can use to monitor their SEO and improve their rankings:

• HubSpot Website Grader
• Google Search Console

There is a multitude of free tools out there that can help your firm improve its SEO strategy. For a full list click here .

Even if you choose to forego other tools, it’s essential to SEO that your firm has a professional analyze your website. You can get a free SEO website analysis here.

All of the above free tools do a great job of helping law firms monitor and manage their SEO. But if you have the budget for it, you might also want to consider giving some of these paid platforms a try:

• HubSpot SEO Marketing
• ContentKing

For a full list of our favorite paid SEO monitoring tools, click here .

As a law firm, getting your website into Google’s top 10 results is essential to achieving your business objectives. However, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy! In the ever-evolving world of search algorithms, it’s important to stay abreast of the latest tactics for ensuring a successful SEO strategy.

So now that you have a better understanding of SEO and how the various optimization tactics can help your law firm bring more organic traffic to its website, it’s time to think about leveraging SEO in combination with other digital marketing channels, including paid search (PPC) and social media marketing. 

SEO and PPC for law firms both have the same goal: to get your website to the top of search engine rankings and to drive people to your website. 

But because it relies on content creation, there’s no cost associated with SEO unless you choose to outsource the writing. With PPC, on the other hand, marketers create digital ads and bid on keywords. Those ads appear above the organic results when searchers query those keywords. 

Law firms will generally benefit by leveraging both SEO and PPC. Because both content marketing and paid advertising drive traffic from the same search terms, the keywords that work well on one side can provide insight into those that will work on the other. Using analytics will help you get the most value out of both SEO and PPC.

Social media is an incredibly powerful platform that your firm should be using in your overall marketing efforts. There are so many benefits to a well-planned social media presence, and some are more obvious than others. An often overlooked advantage of social media is that it can play a key role in SEO. 

It’s important to note that social media itself is not a ranking factor for search engines. However, your activity and the links you share across social platforms expand your exposure. Think of every post on social as an opportunity to be viewed and to influence SEO in these ways: 

• Broader distribution of your content
• Content with a longer lifespan
• Increased online visibility and more organic traffic
• More opportunities for brand recognition
• Brand management and enhanced brand reputation
• Better local search engine performance

Generally speaking, the more that people share your content online, the more social signals are sent to search engines to indicate that your posts are useful to your target market. 

Social sites have robust functionality that allows them to operate as a sort of search engine themselves. Experts agree that these are the top social media sites to focus on if you want to integrate social activity with SEO. 

• LinkedIn – This is the top site for lead generation and also the content marketing hub for many B2B marketers. 
• Medium – If your blog is short on readers, you might want to try posting on other sites to drive more activity. This site allows users to post all kinds of things like personal stories, republished articles, or original material. 
• Facebook – By far the top social media site in the world, Facebook makes it easy to share content and links. 
• Twitter – Twitter is ideal for sharing all types of content that can increase social signals due to its retweet, reply, and quote tweet functions.

Hopefully, you can see why social media is good for SEO, but we haven’t really covered the “ how ”. What are the best practices for using social media to improve SEO? 

• Focus on high-quality content. 
• Make it easier for readers to share with social share buttons and clear CTAs
• Optimize social media profiles like you would organic content.
• Don’t forget about images. 
• Engage with active conversations by replying to others in your industry, sharing others’ posts, or posting polls.
• Create interesting and relevant post captions. 

SEO is one of the most powerful tools law firms can leverage to improve organic rankings, bring new traffic to their site, generate high-quality leads, and drive conversions. But effective SEO is also highly complex and consists of many components, all of which must be well-optimized in order to earn the favor of ever-evolving search algorithms.

Related Posts

• Optimizing SEO and Content Marketing for Law Firms
• SEO for Law Firms: 8 Critical SEO Trends to Know About for 2024
• Law Firm SEO: 19 SEO Tips To Dominate Google
• SEO for Lawyers: Your Top 16 SEO Questions, Answered
• 10 Law Firm SEO Myths to Leave Behind

Refine your interests »

Written by:

Published In:

Good2bsocial on:.

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Enter the URL below into your favorite RSS reader.

Logic Ab Initio: A Functional Approach to Improve Law Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

• Citation (BibTeX)

View more stats

While certainly not suggesting that formal logic training would remedy all that ails legal education or even that it could enhance critical thinking for all students, this article asserts that law schools should make the process of legal reasoning more transparent and explicit from the outset, and proposes techniques that can be adopted quickly with minimal institutional costs or upheaval. Part I examines possible reasons that law-school matriculants increasingly lack critical-thinking skills needed for success. Part II maps out three basic components of informal logic training: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and fallacy. It then identifies related law-school competencies that could be enhanced through training in these areas. Part III proposes a relatively painless method of incorporating functional logic training across the law-school curriculum. Given the breadth and depth of the critical thinking deficit, this approach presents a pragmatic—though admittedly imperfect—solution to the problem.

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools?” ― C.S. Lewis , The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Law professors and legal employers alike lament a modern trend of diminishing critical-thinking skills among law students and new graduates. [1] These concerns are not imaginary: a recent study that followed thousands of undergraduates through college concluded that large proportions of college graduates lacked critical thinking, complex reasoning, and written communication skills once thought to be the foundation of university education. [2] This means that law schools are increasingly enrolling students who lack the skill set traditionally associated with law-school success. [3] To complicate matters, this critical-thinking crisis comes at a time when law schools face stricter and more detailed accreditation standards than ever before. [4]

The concept of “critical thinking” has many overlapping definitions. [5] It’s been described as an “intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, [] or evaluating information.” [6] In cognitive terms, critical thinking is “problem solving in situations where ‘solutions’ cannot be verified empirically.” [7] In the specific context of legal education, critical thinking can be broadly described as “questioning knowledge.” [8] It requires students to remember, understand, and apply both law and facts, and then analyze, evaluate, and integrate that knowledge to determine “what is important, what is missing, and what is vague.” [9] In this respect, critical thinking is the “foundation for the ‘key intellectual tasks’ associated with the sophisticated higher order thinking required in law school.” [10]

We are all born with the ability to think, but critical thinking generally requires considerable training and hard work. [11] The ancient philosophers excelled at critical thinking because most formal learning involved—to a greater or lesser extent—the mastery of logic. [12] Classical philosophers like Aristotle practiced “formal” logic, so named because of its emphasis on the “form,” or structure, of the argument. [13] To formal logicians, whether the substance of an argument was true or false was unimportant. Their focus was on the argument’s logical structure and whether the form itself was reliable. [14] Those ancient philosophers spent considerable time thinking about how they were thinking and, were, perhaps, the first true metacognitive [15] thinkers.

But formal logic was and remains a discipline requiring rigorous training—an impractical detour on the path to critical thinking in law school. Therefore, requiring a course in formal logic in law school is much like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut: the benefit is outweighed by the collateral damage. What’s needed is a practical method harnessing the metacognitive benefits of logic that fits unobtrusively into existing law-school curricula. By introducing informal or “functional” logic into the curriculum, law schools can not only enhance students’ comprehension of individual lessons, but make them better overall thinkers.

The late Judge Ruggero Aldisert was an outspoken proponent of teaching logic to law students. In 1989, he published Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking , [16] a text that cogently explained that the basics of legal reasoning, including the use of precedent, are merely variations of deductive and inductive reasoning—the building blocks of logic. Logic for Lawyers coincided with a late-20 th and early-21 st century burst of legal scholarship exploring the relationship between law and classical logic and rhetoric. [17] In 2007, Judge Aldisert published the article Logic for Law Students: How to Think Like a Lawyer , [18] a more streamlined version of his earlier work, “explain[ing], in broad strokes, the core principles of logic and how they apply in the law-school classroom.” [19]

This article builds on Judge Aldisert’s premise that “thinking like a lawyer”—critical thinking—means “employing logic to construct arguments.” [20] It goes a step further, however, proposing that training law students to use logic would not only provide professors and students a common language to identify specific deficiencies in analysis, it could actually increase students’ cognitive capacity for critical thinking.

While certainly not suggesting that such training would remedy all that ails legal education or even that it could enhance critical thinking for all students, this article asserts that law schools should make the process of legal reasoning more transparent and explicit from the outset, and proposes techniques that can be adopted quickly with minimal institutional costs or upheaval. Part I examines possible reasons that law-school matriculants increasingly lack critical-thinking skills needed for success. Part II maps out three basic components of informal logic training: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and fallacy. It then identifies related law-school competencies that could be enhanced through training in these areas. Part III proposes a relatively painless method of incorporating functional logic training across the law-school curriculum. Given the breadth and depth of the critical thinking deficit (detailed below), this approach presents a pragmatic—though admittedly imperfect—solution to the problem.

Part I: A Lack Of Critical-Thinking Skills And (Some) Reasons For It

Success in law school (as opposed to success in most undergraduate disciplines) requires skills beyond mastery of facts, dates, formulas, and established theories and positions of academics. It requires independent reasoning. [21] And that reasoning cannot be theoretical or abstract: it must comport with societal norms of justice, fairness, and overall propriety. [22] Furthermore, that reasoning must be drawn from—and remain consistent with—numerous sources of law. Legal reasoning must be sound and valid; in other words, it must be logical. But increasingly, students come to law school ill-equipped for this type of rigor. [23] In recent years, law student credentials have decreased across the board: between 2010 and 2013, the median score of the Law School Admission Test (“LSAT”), which purports to measure critical-thinking skills, declined from 157 to 155. [24] In fact, nearly ninety percent of law schools had a lower median LSAT score in 2013 than in 2010. [25]

As to the cause, there is no shortage of finger pointing. Professor Jay Sterling Silver has opined that primary education—often undertaken in overcrowded public schools, where learning is geared toward mastery of standardized tests—teaches students not to think. [26] Professors Susan Stuart and Ruth Vance blame federal law, specifically noting that the current generation of law-school matriculants has been almost wholly educated under No Child Left Behind, which, since enactment in 2001, has shifted primary education focus towards mandatory achievement of minimum skill. [27] Others point to systematic grade inflation at the undergraduate level as contributing to students’ inflated opinion of their competency. [28] Still others suggest that institutional use of student evaluations as part of tenure decisions contributes to lower teaching standards. [29] Moreover, there appears to be no end in sight to the decline, given educational, social, and technological trends.

It’s likely impossible to identify the contributing factors exhaustively. But, as explained below, trends in undergraduate education and technology partly explain why students generally seem to have adopted a more shallow, heuristic method of thinking. This is particularly true of the Millennial generation, whose unique cultural characteristics make them all the more prone to such thinking shortcuts.

a. The Changing Nature of Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate education has changed over the last fifty years. [30] Some scholars theorize that modern law students lack adequate thinking skills partly because undergraduates no longer receive the benefit of a classical liberal-arts education. [31] A foundation in the liberal arts was long presumed to prepare students “to become civic and professional leaders, to prepare them for lifelong learning and inquiry.” [32] These students were well versed in the humanities, logic, and rhetoric, and developed “communication skills through a variety of oral and written exercises.” [33] This liberal education, focused on flexibility, creativity, critical thinking, analysis, and written communication, [34] would, unsurprisingly, prepare a college graduate to successfully participate in and benefit from the rigors of a law-school classroom. [35]

But while classic liberal-arts education did indeed mold creative and well-rounded learners for many decades, colleges and universities—along with students and their parents—have, over time, become increasingly dubious of its practical value. Knowledge of classical literature, arts, and natural sciences does not provide specific, marketable competencies for a defined entry-level job. [36] Some presume that a broad, liberal-arts education is unlikely to lead to the same level of monetary reward as, for example, a Master’s degree in Business Administration [37] or Engineering. [38] As a result, undergraduate institutions in the United States have, since the 1970s, shifted curricular emphasis from liberal arts to more professionally-oriented or vocational training. [39]

Colleges and universities now promise to prepare students for specific careers. But a classic liberal-arts program used classic literature, history, the arts, and natural sciences (as opposed to applied sciences) to shape thinkers who could, presumably, succeed in any number of careers. “The essential paradox, or one might even say the miracle of liberal education, is that by being evidently impractical, it equips a student for life far more richly and completely, and across a far wider expanse of time and space, than does education whose sole aim is to be useful.” [40]

Whether caused by an institutional shift away from liberal arts or some other phenomenon, the decrease in critical-thinking skills in undergraduates is well documented. In 2011, two researchers, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, collected empirical evidence of a downward trend in critical-thinking skills in undergraduates. Their book, Academically Adrift , proposed that undergraduates are overwhelmingly distracted by work, social lives, and an educational culture that puts learning low on the priority list. [41] Arum and Roksa collected data using the Collegiate Learning Assessment (“CLA”), a test comparing similarly situated students from a wide variety of colleges and universities. [42] The test measured critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving, and writing skills, all of which are essential during the first year of law school. [43] The study tracked the academic progress of 2,322 students, scoring them once in their first semester of college and again at the end of their fourth semester (half-way through college). The study found that forty-five percent of students gained virtually no critical thinking, complex reasoning, or writing skills over the assessment period:

While these students may have developed subject-specific skills . . . , in terms of general analytical competencies assessed, large numbers of U.S. college students can be accurately described as academically adrift. They might graduate, but they are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that it is widely assumed college students should master. [44]

Other studies have painted an equally grim picture of college graduates’ critical-thinking skills. The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, [45] conducted in 2006-2007, concluded that thirty percent of undergraduates tested showed no growth—or even declined—in critical-thinking skills after completing four years of college. [46] These results confirmed those of earlier studies, which also suggested a long-term decline in skills acquisition among undergraduates. [47]

Arum & Roksa’s study revealed another disturbing problem: universities participating in the assessment were not closing the achievement gap experienced by socioeconomically disadvantaged students. [48] In the initial, freshman-year CLA assessments, minorities and students from less-educated families scored significantly lower in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing than white students from more-educated families. [49] According to the study, this “achievement gap” between privileged students and their less-advantaged peers only increased after the first year of college. In other words, “[t]he results of the CLA ‘suggest higher education . . . reproduces social inequality,’” [50] insofar as it correlates to lack of critical thinking skills. Accordingly, the critical thinking necessary for law school is likely foreign to students who lack that privilege. [51] Law schools that purport to promote diversity and equal opportunity in learning simply cannot ignore such data.

The effect of this achievement gap is brought into sharper focus by the recent, colossal downturn in law-school applications. Higher-tier schools made up for the deficit in applications by accepting students they previously would never have considered. [52] Those students were effectively pilfered from middle-tier schools, which made up for their own losses by accepting students who they, in turn, would previously have rejected. [53] But this left many lower-tier schools, particularly those created to provide opportunities for minorities or other at-risk students, with an existential crisis: disappear, or continue the valuable mission with less-qualified and, presumably, less-prepared students. At the end of the day, nearly every law school has been left with a student cohort less likely than previous ones to pass the bar exam. [54]

The ostensible decrease in critical thinking in college graduates across socioeconomic spectrums impacts more than just individual students. A first-year law student who has never had the opportunity to disagree with a professor or to independently form opinions about cultures based on their art, literature, or music will almost certainly struggle to synthesize seemingly inconsistent judicial opinions into a cogent legal principle. But a critical mass of students struggling on the same level will fundamentally change the dynamic of a law-school classroom and prevent the purposeful exchange of ideas.

b. The Effect of Technology on Students’ Ability to Think

The effect of the digital age and the ubiquity of technology in nearly every detail of daily life cannot be understated when considering the reasons for waning critical thinking. “The Internet has made so much information available to us, more than we could possibly retain in our brains, that we are more often ‘handing off the job of remembering’ things to technology.” [55] But technology causes problems more worrisome than just intellectual laziness: technology is changing the way students learn.

Learning can be described as any “relatively permanent change in a neuron.” [56] Neurons are simply the brain’s cells which, when activated, release chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters connect neurons to other neurons, creating electrochemical pathways in the brain that form our thoughts, memories, emotions, and sensations. [57] When confronted with challenges, the human brain adapts by modifying existing neural connections. [58] This is known as brain plasticity or neuroplasticity. The brain can “efficiently reorganize allocation of its resources to meet demands and compensate for deficits.” [59] “Evolution has given us a brain that can literally change its mind—over and over again.” [60] This means humans “can form bad neurological habits as well as good ones.” [61]

In The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains , author Nicholas Carr describes the subtle—yet ultimately profound—effects the Internet and other technological advances are having on human brains. Just as we can strengthen our mental capabilities through use of technology, Carr explains that human brains are subject to “intellectual decay.” [62] His collected research suggests that information and communication technologies are changing humans at a neurological level. [63]

For example, Carr posits that the Internet has supplanted reading as the primary source of information gathering (as did television, to some extent, before it). In terms of neurological development, the emergence of reading—particularly the “deep reading” necessary to consume literature and other book-length works—rewired and optimized the human brain for “deep thinking.” [64] The ability to read not only expanded one’s knowledge; it allowed previously unattainable levels of comparison to thoughts and experiences of others. [65] To fully appreciate the written word, one would have to discipline one’s mind to “follow a line of argument or narrative through a succession of printed pages.” [66]

The Internet, in contrast, features small chunks of information punctuated with distracting hyperlinks, multimedia, and ads. These features activate the prefrontal cortex, overtaxing the brain, making online reading a “cognitively strenuous act.” [67] In response to this stress, Carr suggests, our brains’ plasticity kicks in, rewiring and optimizing neural connections (and pruning unnecessary ones) for this new, rapid method of information gathering. [68] His research shows that as little as five hours of Internet use can significantly rewire the neural circuitry of the prefrontal cortex. [69]

The triumph of the Internet as a single medium for communication and information gathering may, therefore, also be its greatest danger. Just as computers have evolved to function simultaneously as typewriters, encyclopedias, phones, televisions, and social gathering spaces, their users have, unsurprisingly, become skillful multi-taskers. [70] And the same plasticity that, over millennia, had optimized our brains for deep thinking is now strengthening the neural circuitry customized for “rapid and incisive spurts of directed attention” that enable multitasking. [71] Unfortunately, quick shifts of attention and multitasking are quite useless in a typical 1L classroom. The reasoned analysis necessary in law school is not achievable without focused attention for a sustained time period. [72] Thus, critical thinking takes another hit thanks to technology.

One last insult to critical thinking occurs as a result of “The Google Effect.” [73] This phenomenon describes the automatic forgetting of information that can be found online. [74] Neuropsychologists know that, to maintain efficiency, our brains constantly—and subconsciously–prune memories. [75] Since there is less need to preserve information that can be readily retrieved, facts and ideas are more often pruned when the brain perceives that the information will be archived. [76] For law students faced with hundred-page reading assignments and looming deadlines, this phenomenon would appear rational and advantageous. Sometimes, “the effort needed to acquire knowledge outweighs the advantage of having it.” [77] The Google Effect could, therefore, be further eroding law students’ capacity for successful legal analysis. For example, a student accustomed to efficient and fruitful Internet searches will have little success using those techniques to brief a case before class. In the context of legal research, the wide-cast net of a Google search will yield poor results in comparison to a systematic, linear exploration of legal sources made possible by understanding jurisdictional structure. [78] Rule-based subjects, such as Civil Procedure and Evidence, which require memorization of rules as building-blocks of greater concepts, [79] could be challenging for a student whose brain is unaccustomed to storing large amounts of data. As technology rapidly pushes aside millennia of neurological refinements allowing for deep thinking and logical reasoning, legal education will likely have to adapt.

c. Millennial Zeitgeist and Beyond

Shifts in undergraduate education and technology may indeed be the two main ingredients for the collective deficits in critical-thinking skills of matriculating law students. But the culture and attitudes of the 21 st Century could be the seasoning that makes those deficits so unpalatable in the context of law-school learning. It’s all too easy to blast the Millennial generation [80] for its (real or imagined) lack of intellectualism, [81] perfunctory knowledge of history, [82] or narcissism. [83] But Millennials are also more socially conscious and idealistic than previous generations. [84] Their early exposure to computers and the Internet make them “the most technologically savvy and resourceful generation yet to hit the law school scene.” [85] They are “education-oriented, career-minded, motivated, connected, and self-confident.” [86] These same characteristics have led some scholars to brand Millennials as overconfident and entitled. [87]

In the context of legal education, overconfidence should be distinguished from confidence. Students who matriculate to law school have generally achieved much: They have completed a Bachelor’s degree—at least—with enough success to be accepted into a graduate-level program. [88] They have succeeded on the LSAT to the extent that their scores have earned them a place in an entering law-school class. Non-traditional students entering law school as a second or third career may have already achieved business success. As a result of this widely varied success, many students come to law school overestimating their intellectual abilities. [89] Often, students “express high academic expectations and professional ambitions but fail to realistically appreciate the necessary steps to achieve their goals.” [90]

This pattern is consistent with a fascinating psychological phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Dunning-Kruger Effect [91] was proposed in 1999 by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, cognitive psychologists at Cornell University. Their study concluded that unskilled people generally hold overly favorable views of their intellectual abilities. This overestimation of ability increases as actual ability decreases. In other words, incompetence “robs [the incompetent] of the metacognitive ability to realize” they are incompetent: [92]

[S]kills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain—one’s own or anyone else’s. Because of this, incompetent individuals lack what cognitive psychologists variously term metacognition, metamemory, metacomprehension , or self-monitoring skills. These terms refer to the ability to know how well one is performing, when one is likely to be accurate in judgment, and when one is likely to be in error. [93]

Dunning and Kruger’s study is particularly interesting considering that the researchers used logical reasoning skills—in the form of LSAT questions—as one of the metrics for measuring the effect. [94] Overall, subjects (forty-five Cornell undergraduates) overestimated their logical reasoning skills relative to their peers. [95] But bottom quartile subjects overestimated their performance by a staggering degree: although they scored at the 12th percentile on average, they nevertheless estimated that their general logical reasoning ability fell at the 68th percentile. [96] In other words, the poorest performers considered themselves significantly above average.

The point, of course, is not that law-school matriculants are incompetent. But the existence of the Dunning-Kruger effect may shed light on why those students most lacking in critical-thinking skills are either unaware of their deficits or are unable to rectify them. [97] More importantly, it suggests that students would benefit from learning specific metacognitive skills at an early stage in law school so that they can evaluate their own analytical competence before and after graduation.

Whatever the reasons for the (real or perceived) lack of critical thinking skills, a more appropriate discussion is what law schools can do to address any real deficits. There is no definite etiology for dwindling reasoning skills, nor is there any real need to articulate one. But if legal educators sense that “things are not as they were,” and that observation is coupled with increasing attrition rates or decreasing bar exam success, [98] then we must take corrective measures.

Part II: The Basics of Logic and Related Law-School Competencies

Law schools purport to teach students to “think like lawyers.” [99] But despite the need for clear and logical reasoning in the legal profession, law schools do not teach principles of logic. [100] Or do they?

The fact is that modern law curricula do use principles of logic—without denominating them as such. Law-school competencies—identifying issues, articulating rules and exceptions, comparing precedent to new facts, understanding public policy, addressing counterarguments—all require some form of logical reasoning. When law students apply a general legal rule to a specific legal issue on an exam, they engage in deductive reasoning. When students synthesize precedent into a general legal principle in legal writing class, they engage in inductive reasoning. When students argue in a brief or oral argument that a particular precedent should be followed, they engage in reasoning by analogy. [101]

But often, students see these law-school learning methods as nothing more than their professors’ personal methodological preferences. [102] They fail to appreciate that these techniques have been tested over thousands of years by history’s greatest thinkers. Hence the need for basic logic training: exposing neophyte law students to the basic principles of logic could provide them and their professors a common language to identify and correct deficits in reasoning and critical thinking. In addition, such training could—through the magic of brain plasticity—remediate deficiencies in cognitive analytical ability and foster better learning.

The principles of logic that could benefit a law-school curriculum in this way represent only a fraction of the discipline of formal logic. It would be impractical and counterproductive to teach a comprehensive additional discipline in the already-crowded list of required subjects. Sufficient metacognitive benefits can be achieved through exposure to three fundamental principles of logic: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and fallacy. [103] While philosophers may cringe at such attenuation of the Art of Aristotle, Aquinas, and Wittgenstein, [104] the goal is not to teach logic for its own sake. It is to provide students with a practical—perhaps heuristic—method for evaluating the quality of their reasoning. In short, one “familiar with the basics of logical thinking is more likely to argue effectively than one who is not.” [105]

a. Deductive Reasoning and Rule Application

Perhaps the easiest logic principle to teach law students is deduction, a lawyer’s most fundamental skill. [106] This process of reflective thinking [107] moves from general truth to specific conclusion. [108] In its simplest form, deduction involves two propositions which, if true, taken together lead undeniably to a third proposition. The classic tool of deductive reasoning is the syllogism, [109] demonstrated by this ubiquitous example:

All humans are mortal. Socrates is a human. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

The reliability of a syllogism comes from the objective certainty that the conclusion follows from the truth of the first two propositions, or “premises.” [110] The first, the “major premise,” represents a universal truth. The second, the “minor premise,” represents a specific and more narrowly applicable fact. The third, the conclusion, is a new idea that follows inferentially from the truth of the first two premises. It is this progression of thought, based on the relationship between known truths, that instills confidence in the resulting conclusion. [111]

Logicians test the validity of a syllogism by analyzing the patterns of the terms within each premise. [112] Each of the three premises is made up of two terms: a subject term (e.g., “All humans”) and a predicate term (“are mortal”). The specific idea contained in each of these terms appears twice in the syllogism. The “major term” appears in the major premise and the conclusion. The “minor term” appears in the minor premise and the conclusion. The “middle term” appears in the major and minor premises but not the conclusion. [113] So, in the Socrates example, “mortal” is the major term, “human” is the middle term, and “Socrates” is the minor term. [114]

All humans are mortal. Middle Term , Major Term

Socrates is a human . Minor Term , Middle Term

Therefore, Socrates is mortal. Minor Term, Major Term

Each term can further be described as “distributed” or “undistributed.” A subject term is distributed if it represents all members of the class and is undistributed if it represents only part of a class. [115] A predicate term is distributed if it is a negative statement and undistributed if it is a positive statement. [116] Only certain patterns of distributed and undistributed terms can be valid syllogistic forms. [117]

In the legal context, the syllogism involves taking a legal premise (an enacted or judicially created “rule”) and applying it to a factual premise (the facts of a case) to reach an objectively sound result (the conclusion). Judge Aldisert used a generic template, which he called the “prosecutor’s model,” to illustrate this fundamental “categorical syllogism” of legal reasoning:

Major premise: [Doing something] [violates the law] Minor premise: [The defendant] [did something] Conclusion: [The defendant] [violated the law]. [118]

The benefits of presenting legal ideas in this structured way are manifest. The structure promotes clarity and consistency and prevents many analytical errors. [119] It allows one to test the accuracy of individual arguments by observing each step of the analytical process. For lawyers, who must routinely debunk opponents’ arguments, this reasoning skill is critical. [120] Another helpful structure is the conditional (or hypothetical) syllogism, which takes an “if-then” format. The “if” term is known as the “antecedent” and the “then” term is known as the “consequent.” To be valid, a conditional syllogism must take one of two forms. [121] One such form, known as modus ponens , [122] is structured,

If p , then q ; p , therefore q.

The syllogism is valid when the antecedent is “affirmed” as existing or being true. For example,

If a non-competition clause is not in writing, then it is unenforceable. The defendant’s agreement not to compete was oral. Therefore, it is unenforceable.

When the minor premise of a conditional syllogism negates the consequent of the major premise, the form is called modus tollens . [123]

If p , then q ; Not q , then therefore not p .

These conditional syllogism forms appeared in a recent Florida First District Court of Appeals case, Madison v. Florida. [124] In Madison , the majority reversed the defendant’s conviction on the grounds that the trial court had abused its discretion in failing to properly consider and grant the defendant’s motion for a continuance. [125] The deferential standard of review for abuse of discretion required “affirmance of the trial court order unless no reasonable judge could have reached the decision challenged on appeal.” [126] But, in his dissent, Judge T. Kent Wetherell pointed out that, when broken down into a modus tollens syllogism, the majority’s decision demonstrated flawed logic: If reasonable judges could disagree as to the propriety of the trial court’s ruling, then the trial court did not abuse its discretion.

The trial court abused its discretion. Therefore, reasonable judges could not disagree as to the propriety of the trial court’s ruling. [127]

If the majority’s conclusion that the trial court had abused its discretion were true, then the antecedent (reasonable judges could not disagree as to the propriety of the trial court’s ruling) would also have to be true. But Judge Wetherell—presumably a reasonable judge— did disagree. The syllogism, according to Judge Wetherell, revealed the majority’s illogic. [128] He then demonstrated that, because the antecedent was true, the consequent (the trial court did not abuse its discretion) must be true as well under modus ponens . [129] Alas, deductive logic did not carry the day in Madison . But the case cogently demonstrates the utility of breaking an argument into its fundamental parts: doing so reveals illogic and, simultaneously, suggests the better outcome.

This greatly attenuated description of deductive reasoning would be enough to start students on the path to recognizing syllogisms in judicial opinions and, more importantly, to “shoehorning” [130] their own arguments into the illuminating pattern of syllogistic thought. By thinking meaningfully about their thought processes in this way, students gain metacognitive skills that could improve overall learning.

b. Inductive Reasoning and Precedent

In areas where the law is unsettled, deductive logic is an insufficient reasoning tool. [131] If there is no universal “rule,” there can be no material for the major premise in syllogistic thinking. [132] In such cases, rules must be extracted from many specific outcomes. [133] This is the process of inductive reasoning. [134]

“Induction is the inference from the observed to the unobserved, occasionally, and rather loosely, termed inferring the general from the specific.” [135] Unlike deductive reasoning, where the conclusion follows absolutely from the premises, inductive reasoning does not produce conclusions guaranteed to be correct. [136] However, if one examines enough similar, specific outcomes, one can ascertain with some confidence the resulting new principle. [137]

Consider scientific research. A scientist conducts enough trials of an experiment to be able to observe a pattern in the results. Numerous similar results can then suggest a general hypothesis: if A, B, and C all have result X, then D (which is similar to A, B, and C) will probably also have result X. As long as the scientist conducts enough trials, he or she can have confidence in the accuracy of the hypothesis. [138] It is unlikely, however, that a scientist would suggest that simply repeating results consistently creates scientific proof or absolute certainty in the result. [139] The process of induction as applied to legal reasoning is no different.

Inductive reasoning generally takes one of two forms: inductive generalization (or enumeration) or reasoning by analogy. [140] The process of inductive generalization lies at the heart of common law: in the absence of codified law, the accumulation of many specific holdings in individual cases has led, over time, to common acceptance—and formal articulation—of generalized legal precepts or principles. [141] The common law, therefore, “is but the accumulated expressions of the various judicial tribunals in their efforts to ascertain what is right and just . . . .” [142] Again, this inductive process does not provide certainty. It yields probabilities and generalities—but often extremely reliable ones.

One instructive example of inductive generalization is found in Justice Cardozo’s opinion in the early products liability case of MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. [143] The case involved an injury from a collapsed wooden wheel of an automobile. [144] At the time, lack of privity of contract between the automobile’s owner and the manufacturer would have prevented the injured owner from collecting damages from the manufacturer. [145] Rather than decide the case on established contract principles (as the dissent suggested), [146] Justice Cardozo used inductive reasoning to fashion a rule that avoided the unjust result existing law seemed to require. Cardozo compared the results of sixteen factually diverse products liability cases. [147] He identified relevant similar or divergent features between the cases, such as whether the defendant was a manufacturer and whether there was a near certainty of injury, should the product be defective. [148] By analyzing a large enough number of specific circumstances of liability and comparing relevant resemblances between them, Cardozo was able to derive a new (and yet, not new) principle: A manufacturer who constructs an automobile using defective component parts may be liable to a remote purchaser of the automobile for injuries resulting from those parts. [149] Cardozo’s rule has withstood the test of time. [150] Its longevity can be attributed to the large number of cases Cardozo compared and the significance of the common features he analyzed. In other words, Cardozo used enough relevant particulars to generalize a reliable statement of the law.

Analogical reasoning is also a form of induction. It’s arguably one of the most crucial skills in the study and practice of law. [151] Analogy is simply the comparison of similarities between things with the attendant expectation that, if they resemble each other in several ways, then they will likely share some other property. [152] In the law, analogical reasoning involves comparing precedent—with established facts and outcome—to a new set of facts to determine the likely outcome of the new case. The more relevant similarities between the cases, the more likely their outcomes will be similar as well. Unlike inductive generalization, analogy’s reliability is not dependent on presenting a large number of particulars. [153] Rather, it is the quality of the comparison of the cases that makes the analogy reliable:

The success of the analogy depends on how significant the reader perceives the factual similarities between the two cases and whether any differences strike the reader as even more significant. An analogy can fail as much because an advocate ignores significant differences between two cases as because of a dearth of similarities. [154]

One could rightly state that our system of jurisprudence is built on a foundation of analogy. Stare decisis , the doctrine that underlies our case law system, requires that courts compare pending cases to existing precedent such that similar facts lead to similar legal consequences. Accordingly, students with a healthy working knowledge of induction (both inductive generalization and analogy) will not only better understand our legal system’s foundational principles but will be equipped to mold and manipulate legal ideas in useful ways.

c. Fallacy and the Quality of Arguments

If an argument can be defined as an attempt to establish the truth, a fallacy can be described as an argument that appears to do so–but doesn’t. [155] The ability to recognize fallacy allows law students to meaningfully evaluate judicial opinions and question outcomes in cases. As a result, it improves the quality of students’ argumentation and assessment of opponents’ counter-arguments.

Unfortunately, much like the public at large, students entering law school have been so inundated with arguments undermined by logical fallacies [156] that they are psychologically predisposed to accept logical fallacy as a substitute for sound reasoning. [157] People routinely “make logical mistakes, ignore logic altogether, or actually prefer certain illogical argument patterns.” [158] Essentially, audiences are conditioned to pick up on cues embedded in an argument that hint at the desired conclusions. These thinking shortcuts, known as “superficial heuristics,” often take the place of actual analysis. [159]

Of course, superficial heuristics and faulty reasoning should be avoided at all costs in law school. Exposing these thinking shortcuts and their attendant risk of error is the gateway to avoiding them. Therefore, learning a bit about common logical fallacies would help law students and law professors alike: When a student makes a faulty argument in class, the professor can describe the problem using the common language of functional logic.

A formal fallacy describes an error in the structure of an argument. [160] In a formal fallacy, a conclusion could be false even if all of the premises are true. [161] For example, using the classic “Socrates” syllogism:

All humans are mortal Socrates is mortal Therefore, Socrates is human.

This syllogism is fallacious because it is entirely possible that Socrates is the name of the neighbor’s cat. The formal error is the swapping of the minor term (in the minor premise) with the major term (in the conclusion). As with all formal logic, recognizing a formal fallacy requires familiarity with the patterns of distributed or undistributed terms. Again, this level of knowledge is beyond what’s needed for our limited goal of improving critical thinking. Nonetheless, it’s important to recognize that formal fallacy and formal deductive logic are two sides of the same coin.

Informal fallacies, also known as material fallacies, [162] are harder to spot. Informal fallacies could be described as mistakes in “the content (and possibly the intent) of the reasoning.” [163] Logicians have identified hundreds of distinct types of informal fallacies; [164] therefore, a comprehensive list of them is unworkable here. But some are so common—and so effective—that learning to recognize them should be considered a critical law-school skill. The following common fallacies demonstrate the potential deceptiveness of otherwise appealing arguments:

Ad Hominem : This fallacy is committed by abusing the proponent of an argument or by dismissing the proponent’s position on the grounds of the proponent’s appearance, circumstances, or background. [165] An advocate can cross the line from identifying weakness in an opponent’s argument into an improper attack on the opponent’s character. In Bauer v. Yellen , [166] the Second Circuit admonished counsel (and reduced its award of attorney fees) for the following ad hominem attack on its opponent, a pro se litigant: “Ms. Bauer has pursued this case blindly, recklessly, vindictively, maliciously and without a shred of evidence to support her wild and deluded claim of copyright infringement. . . . Ms. Bauer’s opposition papers mirror the nasty, mean-spirited approach she has taken in prosecuting this matter.” [167]

Bandwagon Fallacy : Also known as the ad populum fallacy, this type of fallacious argument suggests that, because a great number of people believe something, it must be objectively true. This fallacy occurs when a party argues that a court should adopt a rule because of “near universal agreement among . . . courts that have confronted [the] issue,” [168] rather than because of the merits of the rule.

Begging the Question : This fallacy assumes as true what is to be proved. [169] It can be as simple as a single step of faulty reasoning (e.g., “The hospital was negligent because it failed to use ordinary care”) or it can be buried in several steps of circular reasoning (e.g., An indigent prisoner claims a right to a free trial transcript because he wishes to argue ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal. There is no requirement to furnish an indigent prisoner with a free transcript unless he is unable to show that he has a non-frivolous claim. Because the prisoner cannot show that he has a non-frivolous claim, he has no right to a free trial transcript).

Fallacy of Accident : This fallacy, also known as dicto simpliciter , occurs when one applies a general rule to exceptional circumstances or facts. [170] For example, an Internet pornographer arguing that his website’s content is “Free Speech” may be committing the fallacy of accident by not acknowledging that limitations on obscenity and commercial speech exceptions likely apply—and must be analyzed—in his case.

Hasty Generalization : Essentially “jumping to conclusions.” A Hasty Generalization fallacy occurs when a conclusion is induced from too few particulars. [171] The reliability of any inductive generalization depends on having considered enough specific instances with identical outcomes to eliminate doubt as to the likelihood of non-conforming outcomes. But drawing a conclusion from only a few particular instances lacks that reliability. For example, in O’Conner v. Commonwealth Edison Co. , [172] an expert witness committed the fallacy when he testified that a plaintiff’s cataracts were caused by exposure to radiation at a nuclear plant where he worked. [173] His opinion was based on previously observing five patients with similar cataracts, all of which had been radiation-induced. [174]

Post Hoc : Any argument that suggests causation simply because one event preceded another is guilty of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. [175] It’s also known as the false cause fallacy, and it is tricky. The danger of presuming a causal connection between events when none exists is obvious. But in a legal context, it’s often rational to conclude that when a legally significant event is followed by a result, that result probably flowed from the event. [176] For example, a criminal defendant could claim her medication prevented her guilty plea from being knowingly and voluntarily made. [177] It sounds reasonable, but absent evidence that the medication affected the defendant’s cognitive function, it’s spurious. Despite the fallacy, post hoc arguments are an effective tool for litigators since they are so enticing to jurors. [178] Straw Man : This is a fallacious argument in which one “creates the illusion of having refuted a solid proposition by substituting a similar, weaker proposition for it and refuting the substitute instead.” [179] By exaggerating or misrepresenting an opposing argument, one can more easily present one’s own position as reasonable. Consider the statement by former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who, during a Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum, suggested that opponents of gun control “think they should have a missile launcher in their backyard as a Constitutional right . . . .” [180]

These—and the scores of other known fallacies—all have the common attribute of obscuring the truth. But fallacies are often highly persuasive and can be used to manipulate—intentionally or otherwise. [181] And to properly represent clients and fulfill one’s professional responsibilities, lawyers must, if not pursue the truth, at least be aware of when it is being obscured. Knowing how to recognize fallacies is, in itself, a tool for honing critical thinking, and should be considered a fundamental lawyering skill.

Part III: Integrating Functional Logic Training Across the Law-School Curriculum

Regardless of how theoretically beneficial logic training may be, students cannot be expected to distill the principles of logic on their own. [182] Integrating basic, informal logic training into the law-school curriculum could be relatively painless and cost-effective and, most importantly, could begin to bridge the ever-widening gap between how students think and how academics expect them to think.

a. Logic During Orientation

The obvious moment to begin exposing students to a paradigmatic system of thinking is during orientation. Orientation varies in length, depth, and purpose from school to school. Schools use orientation for everything from registering parking passes and assigning study carrels to presenting more substantive programs that introduce the cohort to systems of law and the Socratic Method. Schools with more in-depth programs could introduce basic principles of logic in a two-to-three hour session, incorporating outside reading and a formative (perhaps online) assessment.

Orientation programs introducing logic should be straightforward and unintimidating. The goal is to build a solid foundation upon which to build the thinking processes students will encounter in the first weeks of law school and beyond. The classic categorical syllogism is a perfect starting point. [183] After introducing the basic form of a syllogism, the professor should provide numerous real-world examples of valid syllogisms:

Lack of sleep makes one drowsy during the day . Joe Law Student stayed up all night . Joe Law Student will be drowsy during the day . [184]

When we finish this orientation session, it will be time for lunch. We have not yet finished this orientation session. Therefore, it is not time for lunch. [185]

Once the basic form is clear, students should see examples of legal syllogisms: the basic application of rules to facts, along with their consequent conclusions. A formative assessment at this point could test students’ ability to distinguish rules from facts.

Students with innately sound reasoning skills (or, perhaps, previous training in logical reasoning) would recognize the deductive pattern at once and organize their thinking about legal issues accordingly. But for students who lack critical-thinking skills, this breakdown of the basic syllogistic form would provide a step-by-step process upon which to structure analysis. Armed with an effective process of reflective thinking, these students could avoid analytical missteps, which often go unnoticed until mid-term or final exams—in other words, too late.

In addition to basic deduction, Orientation should present the basic principles of inductive reasoning. Simple but engaging exercises in a “what do all these cases tell you about the law” model—presented as “induction”—would not only prepare students for the progressive integration of law that will happen once classes begin, but would give a name to the process they will be expected to use and, eventually, master. Professors involved in Orientation can enhance this benefit by preparing exercises specifically engineered to call out invalid induction. For example, a set of cases that seem to induce an obvious answer, save one anomalous result, tempts students to commit the fallacy of hasty generalization. [186] The fruits of the endeavor would be enduring: students who take the time to consider why their answers are good or bad are thinking like lawyers.

Introducing deductive and inductive reasoning during Orientation would, therefore, likely bear fruit once classes begin. By repeating these processes in different contexts as classes progress, students will naturally strengthen their brains’ neural networks responsible for critical thinking. [187]

b. Logic in Doctrinal Classes

Merely knowing the principles that distinguish good and bad reasoning is not enough. To enhance critical thinking, law students should replicate the process of putting analytical components together in multiple contexts. In other words, students should be encouraged to use syllogistic logic across the curriculum.

But herein lies the greatest difficulty: changing the way law students think means a change in the way law professors think and teach. Law professors, however, are not generally known for their great desire to implement teaching innovations. [188] Fortunately, simple adjustments to existing instructional models might yield unexpected mutual benefits and ease frustration for both professors and students.

In nearly every American law-school class, students read appellate decisions in casebooks and answer professors’ questions about the holdings and principles of law contained in the cases. This “Case Law” or “Socratic” [189] method of instruction remains the standard teaching method in law schools, despite concerns about its effectiveness and recommendations against its widespread use. [190] But despite its prevalence, law schools generally fail at explaining the process and goals of the Socratic Method. [191] Many professors assume that students implicitly recognize these goals. [192] There is generally no explanation of the underlying thought process that gets the students to the “right” answer. [193] Many students eventually work out that professors are not simply “hiding the ball,” but are, rather, drawing out reasoned analysis. Others however, may stumble through law school never quite understanding the reason for the trauma and humiliation that the Socratic Method engenders. [194]

The frustration is mutual. First-year professors complain that students’ exam answers are missing analysis. [195] Students jump from identifying a rule to stating a conclusion with no significant application of the rule to facts in between. What is missing in those answers, logically speaking, is the syllogistic minor premise. [196] On an exam, many students struggle to even articulate the accurate legal issue.

Consider a scenario where a defendant is charged with aggravated battery for using a deadly weapon. The facts state that the defendant sloshed household bleach in the victim’s face. [197] The rule is that any object can be a deadly weapon if it is used in such a way as to make it likely to cause great bodily harm. [198] It may seem obvious to an experienced lawyer that the precise legal issue is “whether bleach, sloshed in a victim’s face, is likely to cause great bodily harm.” But a student with poor analytical skills might begin by stating the issue as “whether the defendant used a deadly weapon” or even more obtuse, “whether defendant committed aggravated battery.” With this as a starting point, it’s no wonder that students resort to incomplete, heuristic thinking in place of reasoned analysis.

Now, imagine if every professor began requiring students to express arguments in the form of a syllogism. Certainly, the process would be a struggle, if not downright ugly, in the first weeks or even months of law school. But with repetition, students would quickly become proficient at identifying the proper components of the syllogistic process—thereby clarifying their reasoning. A simple approach to achieve these benefits in nearly any law-school classroom is to require students to articulate rules as “if-then” statements. [199] By reframing rules in this way, students are forced to critically examine the constituent elements of the rule: its requirements and its consequences. [200] Consider the following basic rules in Torts, Constitutional Law, and Civil Procedure:

If the plaintiff proves elements X, Y, and Z, then tort liability is established. If the state deprives a citizen of notice and opportunity to be heard, then the right to Due Process is violated. If a party currently resides in the state and intends to remain there indefinitely, then he or she qualifies as a “citizen” for diversity jurisdiction purposes.

Note that these simple rules are structured so as to force the rule’s requirement (the “if”) and consequence (the “then”) into plain view. This skill alone is beneficial for students because it not only trains the brain to recognize the pattern of rules, it transfers to skills necessary for legal writing and drafting: coherence and clarity. More importantly, however, these if-then rules form the major premise of a conditional syllogism. In such a major premise, the “if” clause is the middle term and the “then” clause is the major term.

Once students are comfortable articulating rules as the major premise of a syllogism, the next step is to present the facts of a case—whether a hypothetical presented by the professor or an assigned case reading—as the minor premise. Here are the minor premises that correlate to the major premises above:

Defendant did facts A B C. The state imposed a fine without affording the party an opportunity for a hearing. Plaintiff owns a houseboat that is moored in the state.

The subject of each minor premise is the minor term. The predicate of each minor premise is the middle term—or at least it would be, if the syllogism were complete. In a complete syllogism, of course, the middle terms would match exactly. Here, the middle terms do not match—yet. This is the advantage of this syllogistic exercise: students can immediately spot the precise legal issue in a case by joining the two middle term positions (in bold):

The issues revealed in this way are:

Do facts A B C —> satisfy elements X Y Z? Did the state’s imposing a fine without affording the party an opportunity for a hearing —> deprive the citizen of notice and opportunity to be heard? (YES) Does merely owning a houseboat currently moored in the state —> mean that a party currently resides in the state and intends to remain there indefinitely? (NO)

In this way, the analysis can be tested for accuracy. And in the first weeks and months of law school, the reliability of students’ analyses is of paramount importance.

These functional logic exercises, repeated in various contexts across the curriculum, would undoubtedly have at least some metacognitive benefits. And professors might find that the process improves not only students’ preparation, but also the quality of dialogue between them and their students.

c. Logic in Legal Writing and Analysis Courses

There is no question that legal writing professors are on the front lines of recognizing—and attempting to mitigate—shortcomings in law students’ reasoning. Legal writing assignments force students to reveal their thought processes on paper. [201] In grading their memos and briefs, we see that students’ “confusing prose reflects their confused thinking.” [202] Moreover, legal writing courses bridge a curricular gap between doctrine and skills. Students learn theory in their doctrinal courses and learn to apply it in a meaningful way toward the resolution of a client’s legal issue in legal writing classes. These courses help students integrate material across curriculum “because they do not separate the learning of theory from its application.” [203] Naturally, this setting is ideal for reinforcing functional logic skills.

Most law students are exposed to fundamental logical reasoning in their first-year research and writing course. They just don’t know it. Basic IRAC structure (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion)—the hallmark of legal writing organization—represents a deductive syllogistic process. [204] But written legal analysis involves induction as well. [205] Virtually no analysis is complete without incorporating analogical reasoning by comparing the facts of one’s case to precedent. And when a factual scenario presents novel or troublesome facts that seem not to fit established law, students are taught to engage in rule synthesis. [206] In other words, the legal writing classroom is rich with opportunities to practice deduction and induction in ways that incorporate both theory and practical application. What’s critical, however, is for legal writing professors to use logic terminology (i.e., deduction, induction, analogy, fallacy) when teaching these skills. It’s not that IRAC , synthesis , case illustration , or application are bad terms: legal writing professors have had great success using these and other labels for parts of analysis and should continue to do so. [207] Rather, it’s the additional benefit of reinforcing the concepts of logical thought in various contexts that will strengthen those skills across the board. [208] Accordingly, during the writing-instruction phase of a typical first-year legal-writing course, professors should take every opportunity to point out deductive and inductive analysis wherever it can be found. The professor should demonstrate that the Rule Synthesis section (the “R” of IRAC) has, overall, the same function as the major premise of a syllogism: as a unit, it represents a universal truth against which the facts of the case must be tested. Ideally, students should be exposed to several such deductive (or “rule-based” [209] ) analyses during their first legal-writing class session. Doing so connects legal writing not only to the deduction they learned about in Orientation, but also to the deductive processes used in their doctrinal courses. It also serves as a jumping-off point for the next step: the inductive process of applying precedent to new facts.

New law students learning predictive writing [210] are often confounded by the concept of analogizing facts of a case to established precedent. [211] It’s not that students don’t understand analogy: they’ve likely mastered the “head is to hat as foot is to shoe” analogy prevalent on the LSAT. [212] Rather, it’s the fact that using multiple (and often seemingly contradictory) analogies to reach a conclusion is a foreign concept to most non-lawyers. Moreover, even the conclusions reached by such a process can be less than satisfying, since they lack certainty. [213]

In drafting their first memos, rookie law students often make the mistake of analogizing a single precedent case to the facts of the memo problem. Despite having described several precedent cases, they default to choosing “the closest” single case to apply to the untested facts without endeavoring to reconcile other precedent or, much less, the law as a whole. The result is a superficial conclusion and inadequate prediction. To combat this tendency, legal-writing professors should reinforce that the two inductive forms, (1) inductive generalization and (2) analogy, should feature in the application (the “A” of IRAC) section of a memo.

In inductive generalization, a legal writer extracts multiple, often intersecting, points of similarity among a representative group of precedent cases to reach a working standard. [214] Say a legal writing professor includes four precedent cases in a closed-universe memo assignment. The professor undoubtedly chose those cases because they represent basic concepts relevant to the expected analysis. Case 1 has characteristics A and B ; Case 2 has characteristics A and C ; Case 3 has characteristics similar to A , B , and C , but mostly hinges on D ; and Case 4 falls short on A , B , C , and D (and, accordingly, fails to meet the legal standard at issue). Again, a student may be tempted to base his or her application simply on which of these cases most closely resembles the untested set of facts. But a professor can avoid this dangerous shortcut by taking time in class to break down each case conceptually, identifying and describing characteristics A , B , C , and D , and, where possible, articulating a formula describing characteristics necessary for the standard to be met.

Disorderly conduct provides a good example. In Florida, disorderly conduct is rather abstractly defined by Florida Statute section 877.03 as conduct that “corrupt[s] the public morals,” “outrage[s] the sense of public decency,” or “affect[s] the peace and quiet of persons who may witness [it].” [215] This mushy definition makes pure deduction difficult. Precedent, however, provides more helpful concepts. In one case, a defendant’s loud verbal conduct attracted a crowd of curious onlookers, but it was his physical act of interfering with the police officer’s lawful duties that made his conduct disorderly. [216] In another case, the defendant’s verbal conduct attracted a crowd, and he was physically aggressive toward an officer; this was also sufficient to constitute disorderly conduct. [217] In a third case, the defendant’s verbal conduct attracted a crowd that became hostile toward the officer, and this too was considered disorderly conduct. [218] But in a case where a defendant’s loud verbal conduct merely attracted a crowd of annoyed onlookers, the conduct was not considered disorderly. [219]

From these cases, at least three conceptual points of comparison arise: (A) conduct that draws a crowd; (B) conduct that interferes with an officer’s lawful duties; and (C) conduct that puts the officer in danger. In the cases where the disorderly conduct standard was met, there was some combination of (A) attracting a crowd and either (B) interfering with the officer’s duties or (C) putting the officer in danger. In the one case where the standard was not met, only (A) was present. Therefore, even from this limited selection of precedent, an implicit working standard can be extracted: Where (A)+(B) or (A)+(C) are present, conduct will be considered disorderly. If the formula is reliable, it should explain the results in all cases.

What’s happened here is induction: a general principle has been extracted from a number of particulars based on relevant similarities. [220] That general principle would then be applied to the untested facts of a new case. Admittedly, four cases may be a small sample from which to extract a general standard. But if the chosen cases are highly representative of all the cases on point, then the standard is likely to be highly reliable. [221] Nonetheless, because the conclusion reached by this process is uncertain, further substantiation is needed. That’s where analogy comes in.

Using analogical reasoning, the legal writer justifies his or her conclusion in terms of the chosen precedent. [222] Our typical “rookie” law student tried analogy, but failed to connect it to the law as a whole; therefore, it was superficial and analytically flimsy. But analogy coupled with the application of the inductive working standard demonstrates that a predicted outcome is consistent not only with an individual case, but also with the entire body of law on that issue. Thus, instead of describing random or disconnected similarities and distinctions between precedent cases and a set of untested facts, students can think of analogical reasoning as “proof” that the inductive formula was reliable.

Back to the disorderly conduct example. Suppose a memo fact pattern described a suspect—a witness to a shooting—who was loudly insisting that an officer take his statement, despite the fact that the officer was busy arresting the shooter. The suspect’s antics of yelling at the officer attracted a crowd of onlookers. The suspect, perhaps fueled by having an audience, put his face within two inches of the officer’s face, causing the officer to push him away with a free hand. The issue, of course, is whether the suspect can be charged with disorderly conduct.

In applying the law to these facts (the “A” of IRAC), a writer may initially want to point out that the statute does not provide concrete enough concepts upon which to base a purely deductive analysis. [223] Therefore, the analysis would be inductive. First, the writer should articulate the inductive generalization that the charge is generally supported by evidence that the defendant’s conduct (A) caused a crowd to form and either (B) interfered with an officer’s lawful duties or (C) put the officer in danger. Based on that working standard, the writer can state that the facts satisfy the inductive standard: the suspect both attracted a crowd and interfered with the officer making the arrest.

Next, it’s time to analogize the precedent cases. Because analogy compares cases with the expectation that, if they resemble each other in several relevant ways, then they will likely share the same outcome, [224] the writer must demonstrate that the specific relevant similarities between the chosen precedent and the untested facts support the stated conclusion. Because the relevant characteristics ( A , B , C , or D ) have already been described in the inductive generalization, it’s sufficient to briefly connect them to the specific facts of the memo problem. Analogy, in this sense, further substantiates the reliability of the inductive process.

What I’ve described above does not differ significantly from analytical processes taught by the average legal writing professor. But I believe there’s a significant additional benefit gained from reinforcing basic logic processes and terminology along the way.

d. Logic in Oral Advocacy

One final golden opportunity to reinforce basic logic is during the oral argument component of a first-year persuasive-writing class. Besides being a blood-curdlingly terrifying event forever etched in students’ memories and an important rite of passage, the appellate oral argument is fertile ground for using and recognizing informal fallacy. Generally, the lead-up to the oral argument is preceded by several weeks of instruction on oral persuasion and, ideally, in-class practice. Students already exposed to the concept of informal fallacy would be more adept at responding to their opponents’ positions, perhaps even identifying faulty logic by name. A student’s argument that “opposing counsel asserts X, but that is without merit because (restate original premise for the ninth time)” can become “opposing counsel asserts X, which falls into the logical fallacy of hasty generalization and is, therefore, not a reliable result.”

One way to achieve this benefit is to use class time to brainstorm every possible fallacious (but compelling) argument that could be made in the context of an appellate-brief fact pattern. Do the facts of the case allow for an improper appeal to authority? Can an ad hominem argument be made against an unsympathetic witness? This exercise not only reinforces the meaning of individual fallacies in a practical way; it challenges students to test how far advocacy can stretch before it becomes no longer persuasive.

Introducing basic logic into the legal writing classroom, therefore, requires little substantive change to existing pedagogy. But if students learn that the familiar paradigms of legal writing are exactly the same logic principles introduced in orientation and reinforced in doctrinal classes, their ability to critically think about legal issues—and their overall comprehension—could significantly increase.

Legal education in the United States has evolved over time in response to economic and social change. But the social, educational, and technological changes of recent decades, which have noticeably altered students’ ability to think critically, merit at least an adjustment in the way law schools teach. The time-tested methods of logic—even when pared down to their most practical and functional components—could begin to remediate some of the problems students face in the modern law-school classroom.

See generally Paul Douglas Callister, Beyond Training: Law Librarianship’s Quest for the Pedagogy of Legal Research Education , 95 L. Lib. J. 7, 9 (2003) (discussing legal employers’ frustration with new graduates’ poor legal research skills); Rebecca C. Flanagan, The Kids Aren’t Alright: Rethinking the Law Student Skills Deficit , 2015 BYU Educ. & L.J. 135, 138 (2015) (discussing possible reasons for law students’ decreasing critical-thinking skills); Courtney G. Lee, Changing Gears to Meet the “New Normal” in Legal Education , 53 Duq. L. Rev. 39 , 67 (2015) (decreased critical-thinking skills of many law schools’ entering classes is likely to continue for years to come); Karen Sloan, Practice Ready? Law Students and Practitioners Disagree , Nat’l L.J . (March 6, 2015), https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/almID/1202719928678/?slreturn=20171030205801 (last visited Nov. 30, 2017) (discussing a survey by BarBri finding that only 23% of practitioners felt that graduating law students were ready to practice law); James Etienne Viator, Legal Education’s Perfect Storm: Law Students’ Poor Writing and Legal Analysis Skills Collide with Dismal Employment Prospects, Creating the Urgent Need to Reconfigure the First-Year Curriculum , 61 Cath. U. L. Rev. 735, 740—41 (2012) (discussing law-school “education-to-profession” disjunction).

Richard Arum & Josipa Roksa, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses 35—36 (2011).

Flanagan, supra note 1, at 144—45.

Changes needed to implement innovative curriculum changes have been “hampered,” in part, by American Bar Association regulations. Kristen K. Tiscione, How the Disappearance of Classical Rhetoric and the Decision to Teach Law as a “Science” Severed Theory from Practice in Legal Education , 51 Wake Forest L. Rev. 385 (2016); see also ABA Sec. Leg. Educ. & Admissions to the Bar , Managing Director’s Guidance Memo: Standard 316, Bar Passage (Aug. 2016), http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_education_and_admissions_to_the_bar/governancedocuments/2016_august_guidance_memo_S316.authcheckdam.pdf (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Michael Scriver & Richard Paul , Defining Critical Thinking, The Critical Thinking Community , http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Joanne G. Kurfiss, Critical Thinking: Theory, Research, Practice, and Possibilities , ASHE-ERIC Higher Educ. Rep. 1, 5 (1988).

Flanagan, supra note 1, at 144.

Id. (quoting Judith Welch Wegner, Reframing Legal Education’s "Wicked Problems ," 61 Rutgers L. Rev. 867, 871 (2009)).

Henry Ford is reported to have said, “Thinking is hard work, and that’s why so few people do it.”

See Kurfiss, supra note 7, at 14.

Stephen M. Rice, Indiscernible Logic: Using the Logical Fallacies of the Illicit Major Term and the Illicit Minor Term as Litigation Tools , 47 Willamette L. Rev. 101, 108 (2010).

Cheryl B. Preston et al., Teaching “Thinking Like a Lawyer”: Metacognition and Law Students , 2014 BYU L. Rev. 1053, 1057 (2014) (defining metacognition as “thinking about thinking”).

Ruggero J. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking , 28—29 (Nat’l Inst. for Trial Advo. 3d Ed. 1997); Edwin W. Patterson, Logic in the Law , 90 U. Pa. L. Rev. 875 (1942).

See, e.g. , Michael R. Smith, Rhetoric Theory and Legal Writing: An Annotated Bibliography , 3 J. ALWD 129 (2006) (listing dozens of scholarly works discussing logic and rhetoric in the discipline of legal writing); Richard D. Friedman, Logic and Elements (Symposium: Premises and Conclusions: Symbolic Logic for Legal Analysis), 73 Notre Dame L. Rev. 575 (1998).

Ruggero J. Aldisert et al., Logic for Law Students: How to Think Like a Lawyer , 69 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 1, 2 (2007).

Paula Lustbader, Construction Sites, Building Types, and Bridging Gaps: A Cognitive Theory of the Learning Progression of Law Students , 33 Willamette L. Rev. 315, 338 (1997) (“What is expected of students at the undergraduate level is vastly different from what is expected in law school. Prior to law school, learning mainly involved memorizing and regurgitating predigested, prepackaged, and organized information obtained from textbooks, lectures, and the media. Consequently, they are ill-prepared to read critically, synthesize rules, or analyze material to the extent required in law school.”).

Jesse Franklin Brumbaugh, Legal Reasoning and Briefing: Logic Applied to the Preparation, Trial and Appeal of Cases, with Illustrative Briefs and Forms 59 (1917) (“Ordinary logical theory requires but truthfulness only in the materials of the syllogism and form, but legal logic adds the social elements of justice and equity . . . .”); James R. Maxeiner, Thinking Like A Lawyer Abroad: Putting Justice into Legal Reasoning , 11 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev . 55, 60 (2012) (“It is elementary learning that law seeks justice.”).

Ruth Vance & Susan Stuart, Of Moby Dick and Tartar Sauce: The Academically Underprepared Law Student and the Curse of Overconfidence , 53 Duq. L. Rev. 133, 134 (2015) (“[M]any matriculating law students arrive at law school woefully underprepared at the same time legal educators are challenged with the task of producing practice-ready graduates.”).

Aaron N. Taylor, Diversity as a Law School Survival Strategy , 59 St. Louis U.L.J 321, 329 (2015).

Id . While not the only predictor of law-school success, the LSAT measures “natural skill or reasoning,” skills that law schools and state bars consider essential to lawyering. Robert Steinbuch & Kim Love, Color-Blind-Spot: The Intersection of Freedom of Information Law and Affirmative Action in Law School Admissions , 20 Tex. Rev. L. & Pol. 181, 201 (2016) (citing Nicholas Georgakopoulos, Bar Passage: GPA and LSAT, Not Bar Reviews (Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Research Paper No. 2013-30 Sept. 19, 2013), http://bit.ly/20Ar8aB [ perma.cc/62MU-JRR7 ]).

Jay Sterling Silver, Responsible Solutions: Reply to Tamanaha and Campos , 2 Tex. A&M L. Rev . 215, 229—30 (2014).

Vance & Stuart, supra note 23, at 137. A full discussion of the deficiencies of K-12 and undergraduate educations is beyond the scope of the article.

“Despite a dramatic decrease in hours spent studying, college students are receiving higher grades.” Flanagan, supra note 1, at 139 (citing Kevin Carey, ‘Trust Us’ Won’t Cut It Anymore , Chron. Higher Educ. , Jan. 18, 2011, http://chronicle.com/article/Trust-Us-Wont-Cut-It/125978/ (last visited Dec. 12, 2017). (“Yes, there’s been grade inflation. A-minus is the new C.”); Lee, supra note 1, at 66; see also Rebecca C. Flanagan, Do Med Schools Do It Better? Improving Law School Admissions by Adopting a Medical School Admissions Model , 53 Duq. L. Rev . 75, 81 (2015) (“Many students can earn above-average grades throughout their undergraduate years by artfully selecting courses and majors.”).

Lee, supra note 1, at 66.

Flanagan, supra note 1, at 135—36.

Viator, supra note 1, at 753 (“From the late seventeenth century through the end of the nineteenth century, all levels of American schooling were dedicated to the study of classical literature and history.”).

Flanagan, supra note 1, at 148; see also Marilyn R. Walter, Erasing the Lines Between the Law School and the Liberal Arts Curricula: A Comment on “A Liberal Education in Law,” 1 J. Alwd. 153, 154 (2002) (discussing that familiarity with the classical authors and with principles of oratory was viewed, pre-Civil War, as essential to a lawyer’s excellence).

Tiscione, supra note 4, at 400.

Carol T. Christ, Myth: A Liberal Arts Education Is Becoming Irrelevant , Am. Council on Educ. (Spring 2012), http://www.acenet.edu/the-presidency/columns-and-features/Pages/Myth-A-Liberal-Arts-Education-Is-Becoming-Irrelevant.aspx (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

“[T]he best preparation for the intense phase of the apprenticeship we call ‘going to law school’ is a broad-based liberal arts education.” Patricia Sayre, “Socrates is Mortal”: Formal Logic and the Pre-Law Undergraduate , 73 Notre Dame L. Rev . 689, 703 (1998).

Flanagan, supra note 1, at 148.

Doug Mataconis, College Students Lack Critical Thinking Skills, But Who’s To Blame? , Outside The Beltway (Jan. 18, 2011), http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/college-students-lack-critical-thinking-skills-but-whos-to-blame/ (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

“Most of the top earners in the liberal arts end up matching only the bottom earners in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — known as the STEM fields — and some will earn less than high school graduates who have vocational skills, like welders and mechanics.” Patricia Cohen, A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding , N.Y. Times (Feb. 21, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/business/a-rising-call-to-promote-stem-education-and-cut-liberal-arts-funding.html (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Id. ; Michael Delucchi, “Liberal Arts” Colleges and the Myth of Uniqueness , 68(4) J. of Higher Educ. 414, 414 (1997) (“[T]he curricular trend in higher education since about 1970 has been toward studies related to work . . . . Enrollment concerns in recent years have compelled many liberal arts colleges to abandon or sharply scale back their arts and sciences curriculum in order to accommodate student preoccupation with the immediate job market.”); see also Mark Yates, The Carnegie Effect: Elevating Practical Training over Liberal Education in Curricular Reform , 17 Legal Writing 233, 243 (2011) (“Since the 1970s, undergraduate institutions in the United States have been shifting their curricular emphasis from liberal arts to more professionally oriented education. This shift is due largely to enrollment concerns caused by changes in the labor market and corresponding changes in the expectations of entering students.”); Judith T. Younger, Legal Education: An Illusion , 75 Minn. L. Rev. 1037, 1043 (1991) (arguing that, in attempting to democratize higher education, colleges and universities abandoned the liberal arts in favor of specialization and vocationalism).

Nicholas Lemann, Liberal Education and Professionals , 90 Liberal Educ. 14 (Spring 2004), http://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-sp04/le-sp04feature1.cfm (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Arum & Roksa , supra note 2, at 96—98.

See Flanagan, supra note 1, at 140 (describing Collegiate Learning Assessment test subjects as similarly situated students from wide variety of colleges and universities).

Id . (characterizing critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving, and writing skills as essential skills during the first year of law school).

Arum & Roksa, supra note 2, at 121.

Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College, Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education , http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/study-research/ (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College, Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, Fourth Year Change Summary , http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/333946/10418206/1296073333850/4-year-change-summary-website.pdf?token=ZVEVCl3%2ButHXke%2Fk0YqlLCJCYMo%3D (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

“[S]tudies have not found positive evidence of broad-based skills acquisition by college students since the 1990s.” Flanagan, supra note 1, at 142.

Id. at 143.

Id. (quoting Arum & Roksa, supra note 2, at 40).

Elizabeth Olsen, Study Cites Lower Standards in Law School Admissions , N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 27, 2015, at B1; Jennifer M. Cooper, Smarter Law Learning: Using Cognitive Science to Maximize Law Learning , 44 Cap. U.L. Rev. 551, 552 (2016).

See generally Taylor, supra note 24.

Jeremy Berke, Law-School Grads are Bombing the Bar and It’s a Sign of Trouble for Legal Education , Business Insider , http://www.businessinsider.com/bar-passage-exam-rates-have-dropped-in-several-key-states-2015-11 (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Shailini Jandial George, Teaching the Smartphone Generation: How Cognitive Science Can Improve Learning in Law School , 66 Me. L. Rev. 163, 169 (2013).

Id. at 172.

Id. at 172–73.

Sara Bernard, Neuroplasticity: Learning Physically Changes the Brain , EDUTOPIA (Dec. 1, 2010), http://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-neuroplasticity (Dec. 12, 2017).

Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains 31, 34 (2011).

Id. at 120.

Jennie Bricker, Where No One Has Gone Before: Practicing Law in the Digital Age , 72 J. Mo. B. 18 (2016).

Carr, supra note 60, at 65.

See id. at 72.

Id . at 75.

Id. at 122.

Id. at 141—42.

Id . at 121.

A slightly exaggerated, but not-all-too-unrealistic multi-tasking scenario is described at the outset of George, supra note 55, at 164.

Carr , supra note 60, at 140.

Vance & Stuart, supra note 22, at 141.

Daniel M. Wegner & Adrian F. Ward, The Internet Has Become the External Hard Drive for our Memories , Sci. Am. (Dec. 1, 2013), http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-internet-has-become-the-external-hard-drive-for-our-memories/ (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Patrick Meyer, The Google Effect, Multitasking, and Lost Linearity: What We Should Do , 42 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 705, 716 (2016).

William Poundstone, The Internet Isn’t Making Us Dumber — It’s Making Us More “Meta-Ignorant,” N.Y. Mag. (July 27, 2016) , http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/07/the-internet-isnt-making-us-dumber-its-making-us-more-meta-ignorant.html (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Meyer, supra note 74, at 712—13.

Gabriel H. Teninbaum, Spaced Repetition: A Method for Learning More Law in Less Time , 17 J. High Tech. L. 273, 302 (2017).

Neil Howe & William Strauss , Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation 4 (2000) (defining a Millennial as anyone born during or after 1982).

Data suggests that Millennials do not read print newspapers, watch television news, or purposely visit news websites, instead receiving information on selected stories through social media. The Media Insight Project, How Millenials Get News: Inside the Habits of American’s First Digital Generation , http://www.mediainsight.org/Pages/how-millennials-get-news-inside-the-habits-of-americas-first-digital-generation.aspx (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Poundstone, supra note 77 (“Most — more than 50 percent — of millennials can’t name anyone who shot a U.S. president or discovered a planet; they don’t know the ancient city celebrated for its hanging gardens, the one destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, or the emperor said to have fiddled while Rome burned; and most millennials can’t name the single word uttered by the raven in Edgar Allan Poe’s poem.”).

“The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health; 58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982.” Joel Stein, Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation , Time Magazine (May 20, 2013) http://time.com/247/millennials-the-me-me-me-generation/ ; see also Vance & Stuart, supra note 22, at 134—35.

Kari Mercer Dalton, Bridging the Digital Divide and Guiding the Millennial Generation’s Research and Analysis , 18 Barry L. Rev . 167, 173—74 (2012).

Eric A. DeGroff, Training Tomorrow’s Lawyers: What Empirical Research Can Tell Us About the Effect of Law School Pedagogy on Law Student Learning Styles , 36 S. Ill. U.L.J. 251 (2012).

Vance & Stuart, supra note 22, at 134—35.

Anthony Niedwiecki, Teaching for Lifelong Learning: Improving the Metacognitive Skills of Law Students Through More Effective Formative Assessment Techniques , 40 Cap. U. L. Rev. 149, 160 (2012); Cooper, supra note 53, at 556.

Cooper, supra note 52, at 556.

See generally Justin Kruger & David Dunning, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments , 77 J. Personality & Soc. Psychology 1121 (1999).

Id . at 1121.

Id . (citations omitted).

Id. at 1124.

Participants placed themselves in the 66th percentile relative to others, significantly higher than the actual mean of 50. Id . at 1123.

Id . at 1125.

Legal Writing guru Bryan Garner linked the Dunning-Kruger effect to the legal profession. He suggested that attorneys overestimate their writing skills and, therefore, fail to take steps to improve it, even when doing so would be beneficial. Bryan A. Garner, Why Lawyers Can’t Write: Science Has Something to Do with It, and Law Schools Are Partly to Blame , 99- Mar. A.B.A. J. 24 (2013).

See 2016 MBE Statistics, Nat’l Conf. Bar Examiners, http://www.ncbex.org/publications/statistics/mbe-statistics/ (last visited Sept. 29, 2017) (showing a decline in MBE National Mean Scaled Scores from 2007 to 2016).

“Thinking like a lawyer” has been described as “employing logic to construct arguments.” Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 1.

Jack L. Landau, Logic for Lawyers , 13 Pac. L.J. 59, 60 (1981); Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 2; Stephen M. Rice, False Persuasion, Superficial Heuristics, and the Power of Logical Form to Test the Integrity of Legal Argument , 34 Pace L. Rev. 76, 76 (2014).

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 28—29; see Patterson, supra note 16, at 903 — 04 (describing types of analogies).

Professors often hear, “I know the material; I just didn’t present it the way you wanted it.”

The Honorable Jack L. Landau, Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon, proposed essentially the same in 1981, when he was an Instructor of Law at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College:

Much of what is currently taught in logic classes is entirely too cumbersome for analysis. However, there are certain techniques, namely deduction, induction and analogy, and the avoidance of informal fallacies, that can easily be taught to first-year students, that do have a direct bearing on the legal reasoning process, and that can definitely improve the quality of reasoning and critical thinking skills exhibited by students and lawyers alike.

Landau, supra note 100, at 60.

Judge Aldisert expressed similar unease at possibly offending logicians and mathematicians. Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 2. But it is, perhaps, the greatest approbation to demonstrate Logic’s utility even in such a highly diluted form.

“Deductive reasoning is a mental operation that a student, lawyer or judge must employ every working day.” Aldisert, supra note 16, at 45.

See, e.g. , id. at 48—49.

There are three basic types of syllogisms:

Conditional Syllogism: If A is true then B is true (If A then B). Categorical Syllogism: If A is in C (and B is in A) then B is in C. Disjunctive Syllogism: If A is true, then B must be false (A or B).

See id . at 145.

This is true, of course, only if the syllogism is valid.

Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 4.

See generally Aldisert, supra note 16.

Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 6.

For beginners, it may be easier to remember that the major term represents the broad or universal class, the middle term represents a portion of that class, and the minor term represents the narrowest or most specific component.

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 57—58.

The informal or practical logic envisioned in this article does not necessarily require students to understand these patterns or, for that matter, to create exclusively valid syllogisms. Rather, it is the process of forcing ideas into a syllogism—whether revealing an objective “truth” or not—that is likely to improve students’ critical-thinking skills. A secondary effect of this approach may be that some students become interested in more formal logic and pursue it further.

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 237.

“[Formal logic] structure allows legal thinkers to comparatively analyze legal argument, by comparing and contrasting it to necessarily valid or invalid logical structures, and reach conclusive logical decisions about the validity or invalidity of the form of the argument.” Stephen M. Rice, Conspicuous Logic: Using the Logical Fallacy of Affirming the Consequent as a Litigation Tool , 14 Barry L. Rev . 1, 13 (2010).

Andrew Jay McClurg, Logical Fallacies and the Supreme Court: A Critical Examination of Justice Rehnquist’s Decisions in Criminal Procedure Cases , 59 U . Colo. L. Rev . 741, 774 (1988).

Rice, supra note 120, at 9.

132 So. 3d 237 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2013).

Id. at 245.

Id. at 247 (quoting Clark v. State, 95 So. 3d 986, 987 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2012)).

Id. at 247 n. 16.

Naturally, it is possible that, in this particular judgment on this particular issue, Judge Wetherell was not reasonable. Nonetheless, his use of conditional syllogism to compare the facts (judges disagreed about the ruling) to the legal standard (no abuse of discretion if reasonable judges could disagree) was effective, in theory.

Id . at 12.

See Aldisert , supra note 16, at 48.

Kent Sinclair Jr., Comment, Legal Reasoning: In Search of an Adequate Theory of Argument , 59 Calif. L. Rev. 821, 827 (1971), http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/californialawreview/vol59/iss3/13 (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 13.

Anita Schnee, Legal Reasoning "Obviously ," 3 Legal Writing 105, 112 (1997), http://www.legalwritingjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/volume3.pdf (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 92—93.

Carlo Rovelli, Science is not Certainty , NEW REPUBLIC (July 11, 2014), https://newrepublic.com/article/118655/theoretical-phyisicist-explains-why-science-not-about-certainty (“Science is extremely reliable; it’s not certain.”) (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

Mary Massaron Ross, A Basis for Legal Reasoning: Logic on Appeal , 3 J. Ass’n Legal Writing Directors 179, 182 (2006).

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 50, 92.

Kansas v. Colorado , 206 U.S. 46, 97 (1907).

111 N.E. 1050 (N.Y. 1916); see Schnee, supra note 137, at 113.

MacPherson , 111 N.E. at 1051.

Id . at 1055 (commenting that “defendant was not absolved from a duty of inspection” because it bought the wheels from a third party manufacturer); Schnee, supra note 137, at 113.

Id. at 1055 (Bartlett, J., dissenting) (opining that the majority’s opinion extended vendor liability further than any case the court previously approved).

Id. at 1051—53 (majority opinion); Schnee, supra note 137, at 113.

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 100—01.

MacPherson , 111 N.E. at 1055.

Schnee, supra note 137, at 113.

See Aldisert , supra note 16, at 91 (“Inductive generalization is used in all aspects of the legal profession – in studying law, in practicing law and in judging cases. Thus, it looms large in the common-law tradition in the development of legal precepts in the case by case experience.”).

Ross, supra note 140, at 185 (“Typically, deductive reasoning proceeds from a general proposition to a conclusion that is either a particular proposition or another general proposition.”).

Kristen K. Robbins, Paradigm Lost: Recapturing Classical Rhetoric to Validate Legal Reasoning , 27 Vt. L. Rev . 483, 532 (2003).

Bruce Weinstein, How Trump and Friends Could Learn a Few Things From Mr. Spock , Fortune Magazine Online (March 8, 2016), http://fortune.com/2016/03/08/fallacious-arguments-logic-trump/ (discussing fallacies in recent presidential campaign speeches).

Consider some pop-culture examples of blatant fallacy: Advertisements in the “Four out of five dentists approve” variety (demonstrating appeal to authority fallacy); talking head debates over whether ISIS militants are or are not “genuine Muslims” (no true Scotsman fallacy); political candidates stating their opponents are in the pocket of special interests, hate the middle class, are socialist, are racist, etc. (ad hominem argument); arguments against the theory of evolution using a picture of a chimpanzee and asking, “Is this really your ancestor?” (straw-man fallacy).

Indeed, use of fallacy is so prevalent that television and commercial writers have found it a ripe target for satire: A Simpsons episode where Homer concludes that a rock is capable of repelling tigers because, while the rock was present, no tigers were about ( post hoc fallacy), Simpson- I want to buy your rock , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3U6IUMTDHY (last visited Sept. 28, 2017); a Direct TV commercial suggesting, “Don’t wake up in a roadside ditch: Get rid of cable” (slippery slope fallacy).

Rice, supra note 100, at 79—80.

Id . at 82.

Id. at 82—83.

Ross, supra note 140, at 189 (“Formal fallacies are based on a mistake in the form or logic of the argument.”).

Aldisert, supra note 16, at 141.

Aldisert , supra note 16, at 143.

Cory S. Clements, Perception and Persuasion in Legal Argumentation: Using Informal Fallacies and Cognitive Biases to Win the War of Words , 2013 BYU L. Rev . 319, 332 (2013).

LOGICALLY FALLACIOUS: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION OF OVER 300 LOGICAL FALLACIES , https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies (last visited Sept. 28, 2017).

Michael Sean Quinn, “Scholarly Ethics”: A Response , 46 J. Legal Educ. 110, 112 (1996).

375 Fed. App’x 154, 157 (2d Cir. 2010) (unpublished).

375 F. App’x at 156 n.2.

Scheck v. Burger King Corp ., 798 F. Supp. 692, 698 n10 (S.D. Fla. 1992).

Aldisert , supra note 16, at 208.

Id. at 193.

Id . at 195.

807 F. Supp. 1376 (C.D. Ill. 1992).

Id . at 1391.

Aldisert , supra note 16, at 199.

Eugene Volokh, The Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope , 116 Harv. L. Rev . 1026, 1102 (2003)

See State v. Brown , 305 P.3d 48 (Kan. App. 2013).

See generally Neal R. Feigenson, The Rhetoric of Torts: How Advocates Help Jurors Think About Causation, Reasonableness, and Responsibility , 47 Hastings L.J. 61, 165 n 154 (1995).

Gabriel H. Teninbaum, Reductio Ad Hitlerum: Trumping the Judicial Nazi Card , 2009 Mich. St. L. Rev. 541, 554 (2009)

Weinstein, supra note 155.

Doing so would be “like asking them to design a rocket without teaching them the rules of physics.” Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 2.

Id . at 6. Judge Aldisert describes the prosecutor’s syllogism as a useful template for most legal problems:

Major premise: [Doing something] [violates the law] Minor premise: [The defendant] [did something] Conclusion: [The defendant] [violated the law].

A basic categorical syllogism.

A modus tollens conditional syllogism.

Aldisert , supra note 16, at 195.

“The more times a network is stimulated, the stronger and more efficient it becomes.” Bernard J. Luskin, “If I Had a Better Brain!” Brain Health, Plasticity, Media, and Learning Can be a Perfect Storm , Psychology Today (Aug. 20, 2013), https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-media-psychology-effect/201308/if-i-had-better-brain (last visited Dec. 12, 2017).

See Michael Hunter Schwartz, Teaching Law by Design: How Learning Theory and Instructional Design Can Inform and Reform Law Teaching , 38 San Diego L. Rev . 347, 360 (2001) (law schools’ emphasis on scholarship and publication, the criteria by which law schools measure professors’ performance for tenure purposes, discourages teaching innovation); Samantha A. Moppett, Control-Alt-Incomplete? Using Technology to Assess “Digital Natives” , 12 Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop . 77, 86 (2013) (law professors fear change because of concern about academic freedom, resistance to changing status quo, and hesitation over increasing workload).

The Case Law method, introduced by Christopher Columbus Langdell at Harvard Law School in 1870, has been commonly labeled the “Socratic Method.” This is, somewhat, a misnomer. Ruta K. Stropus, Mend It, Bend It, and Extend It: The Fate of Traditional Law School Methodology in the 21st Century , 27 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 449, 453 (1996) (“Unlike Socrates, who focused purely on the questioning process, Langdell sought to combine both the substance of the law and the process of the law into the legal classroom.”) Despite this technical difference, I refer to the typical law-school instructional method as “Socratic.”

See, e.g., William M. Sullivan et al., educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law 56—60, 75—78 (The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Preparation for the Professions Program, 2007); A.B.A. Section of Legal Educ. & Admissions to the Bar , Legal Education and Professional Development–an Educational Continuum, Report of The Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap 233—36 (1992) [MacCrate Report].

Tiscione, supra note 4, at 399—400

Niedwiecki, supra note 89, at 168.

Id. at 169.

See generally Jennifer L. Rosato, The Socratic Method and Women Law Students: Humanize, Don’t Feminize , 7 S. Cal. Rev. L. & Women’s Stud. 37 (1997) (discussing students’ humiliation as an integral part of the Socratic Method).

Timothy R. Zinnecker, Syllogisms, Enthymemes and Fallacies: Mastering Secured Transactions Through Deductive Reasoning , 56 Wayne L. Rev. 1581, 1589 (2010) (quoting James M. Boland, Legal Writing Programs and Professionalism: Legal Writing Professors Can Join the Academic Club , 18 St. Thomas L. Rev. 711, 726 (2006)).

State v. Smith , 969 So. 2d 452, 453 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2007).

Id. at 454.

I am indebted to my colleague, Professor Brendan Beery, for this pragmatic and tested approach for using conditional syllogisms to promote what he terms “right thinking.” Professor Beery conducts voluntary logic workshops that not only teach the syllogistic process using functional terminology, but which enhance students’ ability to express their reasoning on exams.

See generally Kevin H. Smith, Practical Jurisprudence: Deconstructing and Synthesizing the Art and Science of Thinking Like a Lawyer , 29 U. Mem. L. Rev . 1, 49 (1998).

Carol McCrehan Parker, Writing Throughout the Curriculum: Why Law Schools Need It and How to Achieve It , 76 Neb. L. Rev . 561, 571 (1997).

Viator, supra note 1, at 742.

David S. Romantz, The Truth About Cats and Dogs: Legal Writing Courses and the Law School Curriculum , 52 U. Kan. L. Rev. 105, 139 (2003).

Schnee, supra note 137, at 106.

Laura P. Graham, Why-Rac? Revisiting the Traditional Paradigm for Writing About Legal Analysis , 63 U. Kan. L. Rev. 681, 688 (2015) (citing Kristin Konrad Robbins-Tiscione, Rhetoric for Legal Writers: The Theory and Practice of Analysis and Persuasion 111—13 (2009)).

See generally Jane Kent Gionfriddo, Thinking Like A Lawyer: The Heuristics of Case Synthesis , 40 Tex. Tech L. Rev . 1 (2007).

But see Terrill Pollman, Building A Tower of Babel or Building A Discipline? Talking About Legal Writing , 85 Marq. L. Rev. 887, 924–25 (2002) (discussing the need for consistent legal-writing terminology, or “jargon,” to effectively communicate about writing and about the substance of the academic discipline of legal writing).

Some writing texts already approach legal analysis using logic terminology. See generally Deborah A. Schmedemann & Christina L. Kunz , Synthesis: Legal Reading, Reasoning, and Writing (3d ed. 2007); Teresa J. Reid Rambo & Leanne J. Pflaum, Legal Writing by Design (2d ed. 2013).

See Laurel Currie Oates & Anne Enquist , Just Memos (3d ed. 2011).

Predictive writing is nearly always taught before persuasive writing. Kathy Stanchi, Teaching Students to Present Law Persuasively Using Techniques From Psychology , 19 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Res. & Writing 142, 142 (2011).

See, e.g ., Dan Hunter, Teaching and Using Analogy in Law , 2 J. Ass’n. Legal Writing Directors 151, 151 (2004).

Cass R. Sunstein, On Analogical Reasoning , 106 Harv. L. Rev. 741, 745 (1993).

Ross, supra note 140, at 180.

Fla. Stat. § 877.03 (2016).

C.L.B. v. State , 689 So. 2d 1171, 1172 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1997).

Wiltzer v. State, 756 So. 2d 1063, 1065 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2000).

W.M. v. State, 491 So. 2d 335, 336 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986).

Fields v. State, 24 So. 3d 646, 648 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2009).

See Aldisert et al., supra note 18, at 12.

“If the analysis is based on a complete set, then the conclusion will be strong. But if a complete set is not used for the analysis, the conclusion may be weak. The advocate must test the strength of the conclusion by examining the sample’s size and its representativeness.” Ross, supra note 140, at 181.

Dan Hunter, Reason Is Too Large: Analogy and Precedent in Law , 50 Emory L.J. 1197, 1246 (2001).

In reality, Fla. Stat. § 877.03 provides one concrete example of disorderly conduct: “brawling or fighting.” However, in a “closed universe” memo, that part of the statute can be left out for pedagogical purposes.

Aldisert , supra note 16, at 93.

124 Essential SEO Tips for Law Firms to Increase Visibility and Attract More Clients

Looking for inspiration to improve your law firm’s search engine optimization performance? Below is a running list containing 100s of SEO tips from the team at Juris Digital.

Discover what type of content ranks for your target keyword before creating the content

You’ve decided that a given keyword will bring in good leads if you can rank. Before you create content to optimize for that keyword, explore what the content looks like that already ranks for your keyword. Don’t swim upstream by creating a service page when every page that ranks is a blog post or article.

Optimize for lower-competition variants of competitive keywords

“Divorce lawyer Chicago” is a high-competition keyword that is hard to rank for. However, “low cost divorce lawyer chicago” or “divorce lawyer chicago free consultation” are keywords variants that are have much lower competition but can still bring in relevant leads. They’re easier to rank for and therefore easier to achieve search engine rankings.

Make sure the goals you set are outcomes, not outputs

“Publish 100 new blog posts” is a poor goal because it’s an output, but it’s not an outcome. “Generate 100 qualified leads per month” is a great goal because it’s an outcome. Start by defining what outcome you want to achieve, and then go about determining what sort of output will be required to get there.

Add unique and relevant testimonials and case results to important pages

Anyone who knows about SEO knows that “unique” content is crucial. You can make your law firm’s website content more unique by incorporating content that is actually unique to your law firm; your client testimonials and your case results.

Create micro-sites to own more search real estate for valuable keywords

Do you already rank and get traffic for your most important practice areas? Consider creating a second website to cover the same topics but in a unique way. Check out  FightVirginiaRecklessDriving.com  for an example of an attorney using a microsite to take up more search result real estate for the same group of keywords.

Use your priority keyword in your URL slugs

Even though Google will never admit it, time and time again we have seen that having your target keyword be explicitly included in your URLs correlates positively with better rankings. Keep your URLs short and sweet, but be sure to include your target keywords. In most cases, your URL slug should exactly match your primary keyword.

Use real questions you frequently get from clients to come up with content topics

Do you get asked the same question over and over again by your clients and potential clients? Write blog posts answering those questions. In fact, you have probably answered them a dozen times in emails. Go back through your emails and use that content on your website.

Update content that performs well regularly

Identify what pages on your website perform the best – both in terms of traffic/rankings AND in terms of actually generating new clients – and plan to update that content regularly. This will help you achieve and maintain high rankings by showing Google and users that you care about keeping your best content as fresh and relevant as possible.

If your website doesn’t get any traffic / is brand new an SEO audit is not what you need. You need a strategy.

An SEO audit can be a valuable service. However, if your website is brand new, or if it’s tiny (just a handful of pages) you do not need an SEO audit. What you need is an SEO strategy or roadmap which lays out what SEO success looks like for your firm, and how to get there.

Find news stories that have mentioned you / your law firm but don’t link to you and ask for link

A great way to get high-impact links is to find news stories or other sorts of articles online where you or your law firm is mentioned by there is no link back to your site. These are called “unlinked brand mentions”. Reach out to these folks and ask that they add a link to a relevant page of your website!

Use Special Characters in Google Docs for creative page title separators

One way to make your pages stand out in search results – and potentially increase click-through rates – is to use special characters. For a huge selection of special characters, open up a new Google Doc, click Insert, and then Special Characters. Then browse the characters to find interesting options. Copy and paste the character you choose directly into your title tag element. For instance, the title tag of this page is “124 Law Firm SEO Tips  ⨳  Juris Digital”. You can see that we’ve used a special character as a separator between the title and our brand name.

Have an intake process BEFORE you start SEO.

All the leads in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t have a solid process for following up with them and signing them up as clients. Get your intake system established before you make an investment in law firm SEO.

Consider enabling messaging in Google Business Profile

Allow potential new clients to message you directly from Google search by enabling the messaging feature in your Google business profile.

Record videos to supplement informational content

As you produce informational content that addresses legal topics related to your practice, consider shooting quick videos to supplement the text content. This is a great way to reach a wider audience with your web content and to build trust by showing people who you are, how you speak, and that you know what you’re talking about.

Start a Meetup group

Attorneys have valuable knowledge that others could benefit from. Start a Meetup group on a topic that you are passionate about and hold at least one event every month. Then,  follow this guide  to make sure that those efforts turn into links for your website.

Add square image near the top on important pages to trigger mobile image SERP

Google oftent displays images next to mobile search results. You can give yourslef the best chance at getting images in search results by adding a square image – which is unique and relevant – near the top of your content.

Dominate your backyard before you try to move into additional locations

Before you consider opening new offices in new markets, achieve ranking dominance of your primary market first. This way you’ll be making those additional investments from a place where you are already generating consistent new leads.

Create a GoFundMe for a topical, worthy cause

By creating a GoFundMe for a worthy cause, you will get a nice backlink from gofundme.com and you also might get news coverage as well.  Check out this example from one of our clients .

Remix your content in different formats

By taking your website content and putting it into different formats (graphics, PDFs, slide decks, etc.) you can use these assets to get links from 3rd party sites.

Search your main keywords and buy listings on the directory sites that rank

Chances are, there are websites that already rank for your target keywords that sell listings/ads which will link back to your site and help you rank better for those keywords. Additionally, these listings may generate direct business for your firm.

Create practitioner listings for attorneys in your practice

Did you know that Google allows you to create Google Business Profile listings for individual attorneys at your firm? These are called Practitioner listings, and when used strategically they can help you gain more local visibility for a wider array of practice areas.  Learn more here

Donate to worthly local nonprofits

Do research to find worthy causes in your city or state that align with your own values and mission. Donate to them in exchange for a logo and link from their website to yours.

Create example templates for various legal forms

Do you handle non-compete litigation? Create a noncompete template and publish it on your website. This will help you be found by folks who could have legal needs around your area of practice.

Add attribute “onsite appointments” if relevant

Do you meet with clients and potential new clients in-person at your office? Be sure to select “onsite appointments” as an attribute in your Google business profile.

Add attribute “online appointments” if relevant to appeal to more customers

Do you offer virtual appointments to clients and potential clients? Be sure to select “online appointments” as an attribute in your Google business profile.

Know what your top performing pages are and squeeze all the juice you can from them

Don’t be blind to what specific pages on your site generate the most positive outcomes. Know what pages are the most impactful and focus on getting everything you can from them

Use citation building services to get listed on the primary directories

Don’t create your own citations. It’s mind-numbing. Use one of the many quality services that exist for creating listings on the most important local business directory websites.

Add as many relevant categories as you can in your GMB listing

Don’t feel like you can only set one category. If there are multiple categories that are relevant to the services offered by your law firm, select them all.

Get listing on Bing and Yahoo Local

Don’t forget to get listed on Bing and Yahoo local as well! Google is most of the ballgame, but it’s not the whole thing. It’s worth making sure that your law firm’s local SEO efforts extend to the other prominent search engines as well.

Write success stories for all of your most successful cases

Don’t get me started on how powerful client success stories are. A well-done client success story proves to your potential best clients that you have the chops to help them with their issues.  Learn more here .

Always include author information on blog posts and informational content – this builds trust

Don’t publish content from anonymous authors. Sign your name (or some else’s name) to your content. A short bio and a headshot are bonuses.

Make sure your website loads fast on all devices

Even if it often seems like slow websites rank just fine in Google, optimizing your site to load as fast as possible is still time well spent. A fast-loading website delights the people who visit, and delighted users tend to become clients.

Reach out to clients to request reviews continually

Even if more reviews do not help you rank higher (which is a topic of debate) the importance of getting regular, positive reviews cannot be overstated. Getting client reviews should be an ongoing part of your law firm’s SEO and marketing plan. Have a process in place to continually solicit reviews from happy clients.

Add FAQPage Schema to relevant content

FAQPage Schema is a great way to set your pages apart in search results and deliver answers to your users as quickly as possible. Check out this guide to learn  how we optimize FAQPage schema at Juris Digital .

Use public data sources to create original research pieces

For example, many states publish vehicle crash data via online databases. Personal injury lawyers can use this data to create original research content that relates to their areas of practice. For example, use data to answer the question “what are the most dangerous roads in (your city)”

Don’t use generalists to write your content – use writers who specialize in legal

For your website content to perform – rank in search and ultimately produce leads – it needs to be accurate and compelling. This simply cannot be achieved by a general content writer. Make sure the people writing your content have specialized knowledge in your areas of practice.

Answer Legal Questions on Forums

Forum spam has a long history with SEOs. For years, spammy link builders nuked forums in every corner of the web with spam accounts and spun comments. But there is a way to leverage forums for links that add real value. In fact, we have outlined our process for doing so here.

Form relationships with local reporters

Getting links to your website from local news publications is a great way to build your site authority. Use LinkedIn and other social networks to form connections with local reporters, and offer to be their go-to legal commentator.

Ask and answer questions on your GMB listings

Google maps have a Q&A feature. Think of this as an FAQ page for your law firm that lives right on Google’s first page. Ask and answer common questions about your law firm’s services and areas of practice.

H1 tags are important because Google often uses them as the page title – make em good

Google often uses your Heading 1 tags as the title it displays in search results. For this reason – and because it’s a prime place to include your main keywords – you ought to pay attention to making your H1 tags as relevant and compelling as possible.

Add your site to Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that provides a ton of useful data about your website’s performance, and reports for helping you make strategic changes to better optimize your website.

Open offices in more than one location

Google shows local map-pack results for a huge proportion of lawyer-related keywords. The more offices you have across your markets, the more search visibility you will gain.

Make sure you look good when people search your attorneys names + reviews

Google the names of the individual lawyers in the firm and make sure that the first page of Google looks good. If there are low-quality images, bad reviews, bad news stories, or anything else that you don’t want to be associated with the attorneys at your firm, take action to make improvements.

Add open date in your GBP to show years of experience

Google uses this data to show folks how long you have been in business right in search results. Make sure to add your law firm’s open date in your Google business profile.

Make sure you look good when people search your law firm’s name + reviews

Google your law firm’s name and see what page 1 of the search results looks like. Are there sites with positive reviews showing up? Does your law firm website rank first? Is there a Google business knowledge graph on the right-hand side? If any of these elements are sub-optimal, take action to make your firm look better.

Improve your content’s readability using Hemmingway app

Hemmingway is a desktop application that gives you feedback on the readability of your content and gives advice for making improvements. For just 20 bucks this is a hugely valuable tool that will help you differentiate your website content.

Make sure your schema markup is valid using Google’s strucured data testing tool

Use this free tool from Google to make sure that your various forms of Schema markup validate properly:  https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data

Host local events and add them to GMB

We could say more about it but you might as well just check out  this post from Sterling Sky.

Don’t offer contact methods to your potential clients that you aren’t equipped to follow through on

It’s tempting to let your prospective clients contact you using every method available. However, this can actually lead to a bad experience if you aren’t well equipped to offer a given form of communication. For example, if you don’t have someone who can answer your phones, don’t prompt people to call you.

Make sure that Google is indexing your primary citations

If Google does not crawl and index the 3rd party websites where you have business listings, you won’t get any SEO benefit from them. Use the site command operator to check if your primary local citations are indexed in Google.

Don’t cheap out on your website hosting provider

If you are paying just a few bucks a month for website hosting, your website is probably slower and less secure than it needs to be. Don’t go with the cheapest possible web hosting option.  Learn more here .

Link quality is more important than link quanitity

If you conduct some competitive research you’ll soon find that the sheer volume of links rarely correlates with high rankings. It’s much more important that the backlinks you have be of high quality than that you acquire massive amounts of links.

Set Attributes for your firm in GMB

In general, you want your GMB listing to be as complete as possible and this means selecting any relevant Attributes that apply to your law firm and your office.

When analyzing traffic data pay special attention to your top Landing Pages

In reality, your “website” isn’t what generates traffic from SEO. Rather, specific pages on your website generate traffic when they rank for keywords that people search. When analyzing the performance of your website be sure to focus on what your top traffic-generating landing pages are.

Create county pages to target searches to target “county name” + keywords

In some markets in the US people are more inclined to search for a lawyer by the name of the county rather than by the name of the town or city. You can take advantage of this by creating pages that are optimized for the names of the counties you serve.

Add custom Services to your GBP isting

In your Google Business profile, you can add custom services. Use this area to get super granular with the specific types of cases you handle. These services can help you rank for specialized areas of practice.

Optimize the anchor text for your internal links

Internal linking is important for SEO, and the anchor text you use in those links is also important. Take the time to use keyword-optimized anchor text in your internal linking.

Nail your internal linking

Internal linking really is impactful. Make sure that both users and Google know exactly what your most important pages are by linking to them often and from other important pages. Use keyword-rich anchor text, and link from pages on relevant topics.

Select the right Category for your GBP listing

It might sound obvious but make sure your law firm is properly categorized in Google. You can’t rank for relevant search terms if you aren’t categorized as a law firm that handles those specific types of cases. Example: Personal Injury  Attorney

Make sure you have a responsive website

It’s 2022 and honestly, this shouldn’t be something that needs to be said, but it is. You don’t need a separate website for mobile devices. You need a website that responds to whatever the viewport size is. That’s how the name “responsive” came about.

Your homepage isn’t always the best page to use to rank for your highest competition keywords

It’s a common misconception that your homepage should always be optimized for your highest competiton, most important keyword. This isn’t always the case. Search that keyword in Google and see whether it’s mostly homepages that are ranking. If not, think again about your strategy.

Traffic is a better indicator of success than rankings

It’s impossible (and infuriating) to understand where your site ranks at any given moment for any given keyword. The nature of personalized search results is such that ranking and positioning are in constant flux. So rather than focusing on rankings, focus on traffic. If an important page on your site had 30 hits last month, and 100 this month, your rankings, on average, went up. That’s really all you need to know.

Add LegalService schema to your website

LegalService schema can help boost your local search rankings by telling Google exactly what type of business you are and where you are located. Use  our free tool to add LegalService schema to your website .

Pay attention to your reviews and use the feedback you get

Many law firms just want to know how to get rid of negative reviews, but this is small thinking. When you get a negative review, use it as an opportunity to listen to your clients and improve your services. There is so much more to gain by listening to your client’s feedback than by trying to suppress it.

Localize your informational content to your audience

Most lawyers can only take cases in specific states, and sometimes specific cities. Give yourself the best chance at ranking high AND bringing in only qualified leads by localizing your informational content.  Learn more here

Optimize for “Near Me” searches

Near me is a great keyword variant to use in your content because people do tend to want a lawyer who is near them, and so it’s common for people to add the “near me” modified to common lawyer searches.

Use custom graphics in all your content, not corny stock photos

No-code design tools like Canva make it easy for non-designers to create custom graphics that don’t look half bad. Taking that little extra time to customize graphics on your site is essential for high-performing search content.

You can rank in multiple positions for the same keyword by addressing different intents

Often people who search the same keywords are actually looking for different information. Identify opportunities to rank in multiple positions by addressing multiple user intents, but the same keyword.

When changing your URLs ALWAYS implement 301 redirects to the new URL

One of the best ways to trash your law firm’s SEO is to change the URL of important pages and then fail to redirect the old URL to the new one. It’s generally fine to change your URLs (especially when you are making them more optimal) but always be sure to redirect the old to the new.

Report competitors who have fake GMB listings

One way to enhance the visibility of your Google listing is to knock out spammy competitors. If you know that law firms that are outranking you in Google maps are not legitimate, report them as spam and see if Google will take action to remove them.

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of published

Over the years we have had a handful of clients who sabotage their own SEO success because they were so reluctant to publish content or approve a design. Don’t let your perfectionism be the enemy of your progress. Publish when it’s ready, and you can always perfect over time.

Write custom, optimized page titles

Page titles remain among the most critical on-page SEO elements (despite recent changes by Google to how they treat titles). Page titles are worth spending time on. Make them unique from your competition, compelling, and relevant to what the searcher is looking for.

Create practice area specific settlements/ verdicts / payout pages

People facing a legal claim often search questions related to what their case settlement might be worth. For example, someone who is considering suing for wrongful termination in California might search “California wrongful termination settlements”. Create the content on these topics to get in front of these folks.

Optimize for “best” + “top rated” searches

People frequently search “best” or “top” along with their search for a lawyer. Use these words in your content (ethically) to give yourself a chance at ranking for keywords with these variants.

Be transparent about your pricing structure and fees

People need to know what it will cost to hire you. Yet most law firms would never give this information out on their website. Be radically transparent with your pricing and your potential new clients will be drawn to you.

Make sure you are listed on Apple Maps

People use Apple Maps to find businesses. Make sure your firm is listed on Apple Maps. Generally, if you have a Yelp listing, you have an Apple Maps listing, but it’s worth double-checking. You can also verify and manage your Apply Maps listing here:  https://register.apple.com/placesonmaps/ .

Use table of contents to get rich results and improve readability

Putting a “table of contents” in your informational content is a great way to improve usability and achieve rich results in Google that can have a positive impact on clicks.

Use your client reviews / testimonials in your sales copy

Rather than trying to come up with compelling things to say about your law firm in your sales copy, use your own client’s words instead. Check out this example:  SilvaInjuryLaw.com .

Add customized calls to action based on the topic of each page

Rather than using generic calls to action that read the same on all pages, customize your calls to action based on the topics of individual pages. For example, if you have a blog post about the statute of limitations for a given civil action, your call to action should include language like “don’t let the clock run out on your case”.

Add descriptive keywords to your firm’s name

Sad but true, this is the number one way to improve your Google maps rankings. Proceed with caution as this tactic can bring attention to your listing and cause both temporary and permanent listing suspensions. However, generally, we have seen that the rewards far outweigh the risks.

Use PAA results to come up with content topics

Search something related to your practice area and then have a look at Google’s “people also ask” results. This will help you build out a large inventory of content topics that you know people are asking about.

Show people that your firm is comprised of real humans – get photos, write compelling bios, etc.

Show your face. Talk about yourself. Be human. This will differentiate you from your competition and form connections with your potential new clients before you ever speak to them.

Use dictation tools for faster content creation

Slow typer? Utilize dictation tools to speed up your content creation process. Google Docs actually has a dictation feature built-in. You can also use the dictation feature on your phone.

Write a compelling attorney bio for youself – don’t be basic

Spend some time on your bio. People do research you when they are considering hiring you, and a compelling bio page can be the difference between signing up that new client or seeing them go to one of your competitors.

Understand that a single piece of content can generate millions in revenue

Stop thinking of content in the aggregate. A single piece of content can generate literally millions of dollars for your law firm. Identify the topics and keywords that are most valuable to your firm and invest in making those individual pieces of content as compelling as they can possibly be.

Respond to Google reviews

Studies show that consumers are willing to overlook negative reviews if the business responds adequately. Always respond to your Google reviews – negative and positive. This show prospective clients that you are engaged, you care, and that you are open for business.

Make your website text easy to read

The whole goal of SEO is to get people to your law firm’s website. When they get there it’s essential that the content you present be easily comprehensible. Text readability is a crucial element of effective law firm SEO.

Hedge your investment by optimizing for lower-competition, transactional services

There are a ton of niche practice/service areas for which competiton is much lower. You can hedge your law firm SEO investment by optimizing for keywords related to less competitive service areas, including more transactional services like contract reviews and hourly consulting.

Create tools that help your potential clients

There are few better ways to earn the trust and goodwill of your potential clients – before you ever meet them – than by offering them something for free that helps them solve a problem or get an answer to a question. Think calculators, form templates. etc.

It ok to house important content on your blog, but make sure those posts get linked to prominently and frequently

There is a misconception that blog posts are somehow a less good “home” for important content. It’s fine to house important content on your  law firm’s blog , so long as you have a solid plan for linking to your most important posts prominently from relevant content on your site. Remember, internal linking is what matters in terms of showing Google what pages are most important, not what type of page template you use.

Use GMB’s Post feature to add regular, compelling content to your listing

There is no data showing that adding Google Posts to your listing directly benefits rankings, however, this utilizing this feature is a great way to show your prospective clients that you are active, and open for business.

Create optimized profiles on high authority web 2.0 sites

There are a ton of websites out there that allow you to create profiles for yourself individually or for your law firm. These sites normally allow you to add links to your website and your social profiles. While these links can be done in a spammy way if you focus on creating high-quality profiles – with custom graphics and unique content – they can add real value to your website and your overall online reputation.

Use topical clusters and keyword clusters

These concepts are essential to any effective SEO-centered content marketing strategy.  Learn more here .

Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools

This is a free tool from Bing that provides you with lots of good SEO-related data on your website’s performance. It’s also often overlooked because, well, it’s Bing.

To check if a specific page in in Google’s index, use the “site:url.com” operator

This is a great trick to spot-check your new content to make sure it’s in Google’s index. Open Google and type site:yourwebsite.com/page-you-are-checking/. This will tell you whether or not Google has indexed your page.

Find broken links and redirect them appropriately

This is a low-hanging fruit item that can make a big impact on your site’s performance. Identify old links – both from your site and from external sites – that no longer display content and redirect those URLs to pages that do have content.

Use SVG logos on your website to ensure your branding looks as crisp as possible

This is a simple way to look sharper than your competitors. Make sure your logo is as crisp as possible by using an SVG file format rather than a compressed jpg or png.

There is no ranking benefit based on the type of TLD you have (.law, .com, .net. .legal, etc.)

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t carefully consider what TLD to use when you are creating a new website for your law firm. However, SEO should not be a consideration in this decision as the TLD you use will not impact search rankings in a direct way.

Do something weird

This lawyer created a Super Bowl ad that includes quotes from the bible, a flaming graveyard, and heavy metal, and also got links from dozens from online publications like Time.com and People.com.

Use your target keywords in you image filename and alt text

This may seem old-school, but using your primary keywords in your image file name and alt text has a real, measurable impact on rankings. Always optimize your website’s images by adding your target keywords.

Comment on legal blogs

This should really be a part of a larger online networking strategy rather than just a way to earn one-off links. At any rate, engaging with other legal bloggers by commenting on their work is a great way to build links quickly – by dropping your website or blog URL in the appropriate field – and to generate higher quality links over time.

Create whiteboard videos to supplement your top performing pages

Use Fiverr to create short whiteboard videos to act as a supplement to your important pages.  Check out this example .

Use UTM (tracking) URLs in your GMB listings

Use this tool —  https://ga-dev-tools.web.app/campaign-url-builder/  — to create tracking URLs so that you can see exactly how much traffic is being generated by specific online sources, such as your Google Business listing.

Optimize for “free consultation” variants on your important keywords

We see that people often search for law firms that offer free consultations. Use this modifier in your content to scoop up traffic from these types of searches.

Differentiate yourself from your competitors

When a potential client finds your law firm online, what will their impression of you be, and how will you stand out in their mind? It’s crucial that you differentiate your firm through the words you use, the design you deploy, then questions you answer, and how you make people feel when they “meet” you online.

To rank for “best” keywords rank yourself in relation to your competitors rather than writing generic braggy content

When creating content meant to rank for keywords containing “best” try to actually compare yourself with your competitors to demonstrate why you think you are the best option.

Create a review link to make it easy for people to leave reviews

When you are asking people to do you a favor – like leaving a Google review – make it easy for them. Use this free tool to generate a link that will direct folks directly to where they can leave you a review.

Take a unique approach with your content

When you search a keyword like “best dui lawyer las vegas” you’ll find that most of the pages that rank take the same approach with their content. So, take a unique approach. Rather than telling people about why you are the best, consider waxing philosophical about how “best” is subjective and how the best lawyer for person A might be a terrible lawyer for person B.

In most cases, WordPress is the right CMS for law firms

WordPress is the most popular content management system on the web, and a huge percentage of law firm website use WordPress. We aren’t saying it’s the best option in every case, but it usually is (…for now).

Write guest articles on your friends / colleauges websites

Work your personal network and arrange to contribute content to websites operated by folks that you know. This is a great way to increase your own exposure and to get valuable links to your site.

Have your staff / paralegals write your content

Writing on a subject is one of the best ways to learn that subject. By having your legal staff and paralegals write informational content for your website, you not only benefit from the content from an SEO / marketing standpoint, but you also give your staff the opportunity to clarify their thinking about subjects that matter to your law firm’s clients.

Do something valuable for your law school

You are a successful alumnus, The odds are that your law school would love to publish an article from you on their website or blog wherein you give advice to graduating students, or simply reflect on how your education prepared you to develop your successful law practice. Reach out to your law school and figure out how you can do something valuable for them.

Add animated images to GMB products

You can add animated graphics to your Products on your Google business listing.  Here’s a complete guide to accomplish this .

Get listed on legal-specific directories

You know the usual suspects here – Justia, FindLaw, lawyer.com, etc. Links from these sites likely won’t be enough on their own to help you rank for your most important keywords, but they can still help move the needle toward getting there.

Help young lawyers and law students

Young lawyers and law students are all over the web. Find them and offer to help them with anything you can. These are the current and future publishers in your niche; make friends with them and links will follow.

Create a custom GMB profile graphic

Your Google profile image will often be the first impression that your firm makes online. Take the time to create a custom graphic that makes you look good.

Repurpose your emails into website content

Your outbox is a goldmine of unique and informative content centered on your legal practice areas. Mine your emails for content that you can repurpose on your website for SEO.

Publish content on informational keywords

Your practice area plus your location (eg. divorce lawyer in Chicago) is not the only type of keyword that will bring in new clients. And, those keywords are always going to have the most competition. Publish content that answers your client’s questions (eg. how long does a divorce take in Chicago?). This type of content helps earn trust and positions you in front of people who are potential clients.

Treat your SEO provider like a partner, not a vendor

Your results from SEO will suffer if you treat your SEO provider purely as a vendor. Instead, invite your SEO team into your business. Collaborate with them. Answer their questions thoughtfully, Inform their efforts with your unique insight. Be partners and your results will improve.

Ask your clients how they prefer to communicate with you, and offer your pontential clients each of those options

Different people prefer to communicate in different ways. Figure out how your clients prefer to communicate and offer them those options through your website. This generally means email, texting, phone calls, video calls, and good old fashion in-person meet-ups.

Know what your competitive advantage is and market it

Take time to understand what you bring to the table that other firms do not. This doesn’t mean that you have to prove that you are the best lawyer of all time. Simply that your law firm offers something uniquely beneficial to its clients.

Improve your internal inking with the Link Whisper

We love  this tool  because it allows you to quickly add internal links to your important content. It gives suggestions for adding internal links and it makes adding those links easy – just a click rather than having to make the edits manually.

Use the RankMath plugin to manage your SEO in WordPress

Rank Math  is quickly becoming our preferred WordPress SEO plugin. It’s got great features, great support, and the pricing is reasonable.

Be intentional about the location of your law office (if you have one)

With the December 2021 so-called  vicinity update , Google is using proximity-to-the-searcher as an even more significant local ranking factor. Law firms can gain an advantage in local SEO by investing in office space that is in close physical proximity to their potential clients.

Attorney Jude Basile

Legal marketing guides.

Top 25 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Interview Questions and Answers

Prepare for your next SEO job interview with our comprehensive guide. This article provides insightful SEO interview questions and answers to help you demonstrate your understanding and expertise in search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is commonly known, has become a cornerstone in the digital marketing landscape. This dynamic and constantly evolving field focuses on improving website visibility, driving organic traffic, and enhancing user experience to achieve higher rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs). In an era where information is abundant and attention spans are short, mastering SEO strategies can be the game-changer that sets your online presence apart from the rest.

SEO is not merely about incorporating relevant keywords or building backlinks; it’s about understanding algorithms, analyzing user behavior, optimizing site architecture, creating quality content, and much more. It requires combining technical prowess with creative thinking, making it one of the most sought-after skills in today’s digital world.

In this article, we delve into some of the most common yet critical SEO interview questions and answers. These range from basic concepts to advanced techniques, covering various aspects such as keyword research, on-page and off-page optimization, link building, SEO tools, and algorithm updates. Whether you’re an aspiring SEO specialist or an experienced professional looking to brush up on your knowledge, this collection will serve as a valuable resource.

1. Can you describe how you’ve used Google’s Webmaster tools to improve a website’s SEO performance?

In my previous role, I utilized Google’s Webmaster tools to enhance a website’s SEO performance. I started by setting up the site on Google Search Console (GSC), which allowed me to monitor its search traffic and performance. Using GSC, I identified keywords that were driving traffic to our site and optimized content around these terms.

I also used the ‘Coverage’ report in GSC to identify any crawl errors or pages excluded from indexing. By fixing these issues, we improved the site’s visibility on SERPs. Additionally, I submitted an XML sitemap through GSC to ensure all important pages were indexed.

Furthermore, I leveraged the ‘Speed’ report to improve page load times, as this is a crucial ranking factor. Lastly, I used the ‘Links’ report to understand our backlink profile and identify opportunities for link building.

2. How would you perform an SEO audit on our current website?

An SEO audit involves several steps. First, crawl the website to identify any broken links or errors that could be affecting its performance. Use tools like Screaming Frog for this task. Next, analyze your site’s on-page SEO by checking meta descriptions, title tags, and keyword usage. Ensure they are optimized for search engines. Then, review your site’s content quality and relevance. High-quality, relevant content is crucial for good SEO. Check your site’s backlink profile using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Identify any toxic backlinks and disavow them. Finally, assess your site’s mobile-friendliness as Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in their rankings.

3. Can you explain how you utilize backlinks for SEO? How do you ensure they are high quality?

Backlinks, or inbound links, are crucial for SEO as they signal to search engines that your site is a credible resource worthy of citation. To utilize backlinks effectively, I focus on creating high-quality content that others naturally want to link to. This includes informative blog posts, infographics, and case studies.

To ensure the quality of backlinks, I use several strategies. First, I analyze the authority of the linking website. High-authority sites provide more valuable backlinks than low-authority ones. Tools like Moz’s Link Explorer can help with this analysis. Second, I consider the relevance of the linking site to my own. Links from related industries or niches indicate to search engines that my content is relevant to those topics. Lastly, I look at the anchor text used in the link. If it’s descriptive and relevant to my content, it can improve my SEO ranking.

In addition, I avoid black-hat SEO practices such as buying links or participating in link farms, which can lead to penalties from search engines. Instead, I focus on organic link-building strategies that enhance user experience and align with search engine guidelines.

4. How do you stay current with Google’s algorithm changes?

Staying current with Google’s algorithm changes involves several strategies. Regularly reading SEO-focused blogs and websites such as Search Engine Journal, Moz, or Google’s own blog can provide updates on any changes. Attending webinars and conferences also offers insights into new developments. Participating in online forums like Reddit’s r/SEO allows for discussion and interpretation of changes. Using tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs helps monitor website performance and identify impacts from algorithm shifts. Lastly, testing different SEO techniques on your site provides firsthand experience of what works best under the new algorithms.

5. Can you explain the role of Meta tags in SEO and how you use them effectively?

Meta tags play a crucial role in SEO as they provide search engines with information about the webpage’s content. They are embedded within the HTML code and aren’t visible to users visiting the site, but are read by search engine crawlers.

The most important meta tags for SEO include the title tag, which should contain relevant keywords and accurately represent the page’s content; the meta description, which provides a brief summary of the page and can influence click-through rates; and the header tags (H1, H2, etc.), used to structure content and highlight key points.

To use them effectively, ensure each page has unique meta tags that reflect its specific content. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your tags without keyword stuffing. Keep your title tags under 60 characters and descriptions under 160 characters to avoid truncation in search results.

6. Describe how you’ve used keyword research to improve organic search results.

In my previous project, I utilized keyword research to enhance organic search results. I started by identifying the target audience and their search habits using tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush. This helped me understand what keywords they were using when searching for our product.

Next, I analyzed competitors’ websites to identify which keywords they were ranking for. By doing this, I was able to find gaps in our own SEO strategy that could be filled with high-ranking keywords.

I then incorporated these keywords into our website’s content, meta descriptions, and title tags. It was important to ensure that the usage of keywords appeared natural and relevant to the context, avoiding keyword stuffing as it can lead to penalties from search engines.

Post-implementation, I monitored the performance of these keywords using analytics tools. The data showed an increase in organic traffic and improved rankings on SERPs, confirming the effectiveness of the keyword research.

7. What metrics do you use to measure SEO success?

SEO success is measured using several key metrics. Organic traffic, the number of visitors coming from search engines without paid promotion, is a primary indicator. A rise in organic traffic often signifies effective SEO strategies. Keyword rankings are also crucial as they show where your site ranks for specific keywords. Higher rankings generally lead to more visibility and traffic.

Another important metric is backlinks, which are links from other websites to yours. They not only drive referral traffic but also improve domain authority, positively impacting SEO. Bounce rate, the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing one page, can indicate if content meets user expectations. Lower bounce rates suggest that users find the website valuable.

Page load time affects both user experience and search engine ranking. Faster loading times result in better user engagement and higher rankings. Lastly, conversion rate measures how many visitors complete desired actions, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. This indicates whether the website effectively persuades its audience.

8. How would you handle a website penalized by Google for a poor backlink profile?

To handle a website penalized by Google for a poor backlink profile, I would first identify the problematic links using tools like Google Search Console. After identifying these links, I’d create a list and use the disavow tool to request Google not to consider them while assessing my site. Simultaneously, I would work on improving the quality of new backlinks. This involves creating high-quality content that naturally attracts backlinks and reaching out to reputable websites for link building opportunities. Regular monitoring of the backlink profile is crucial to prevent future penalties.

9. Can you describe your experience with mobile optimization and how it impacts SEO?

In my experience, mobile optimization significantly impacts SEO. With the rise of smartphone usage, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their rankings. I’ve worked on optimizing websites for mobile by ensuring responsive design, fast loading times, and easy navigation. This involves using CSS media queries to adjust layouts based on screen size, compressing images to reduce load time, and simplifying menus for touch-screen interfaces. Additionally, I’ve utilized Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to further enhance mobile user experience. These efforts not only improve user engagement but also boost the site’s visibility in search engine results.

10. How do you incorporate social media into your SEO strategy?

Social media can be incorporated into an SEO strategy by using it to increase website traffic and improve search rankings. This is achieved through sharing high-quality content on social platforms, which drives user engagement and increases the likelihood of backlinks. Social profiles also appear in search results, enhancing brand visibility. Additionally, Google considers social signals like shares and likes when ranking websites. Therefore, a strong social presence can boost SEO efforts. Furthermore, integrating social buttons on your site encourages users to share your content, indirectly improving SEO.

11. How would you approach optimizing our site structure and URL for a search engine?

To optimize site structure, I’d ensure a logical hierarchy with clear navigation. This includes using breadcrumbs and internal linking to guide users and crawlers. For URL optimization, it’s crucial to use readable URLs that include keywords relevant to the page content. Avoiding unnecessary parameters or session IDs in URLs can also improve crawlability. Implementing an XML sitemap would further assist search engines in understanding the site structure. Lastly, ensuring each page has unique and descriptive meta tags is vital for SEO.

12. Can you explain how you’ve used structured data to improve SEO?

In my previous role, I utilized structured data to enhance SEO by implementing Schema.org markup. This allowed search engines to better understand the content on our website and improve its visibility in SERPs. For instance, we used Product schema for our e-commerce pages which resulted in rich snippets displaying price and ratings directly in search results, increasing click-through rates. Similarly, we implemented FAQ schema on our help pages, providing direct answers in SERPs and improving user experience. We also used LocalBusiness schema for our contact page, enhancing local search presence. Regularly monitoring these implementations through Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool ensured they were error-free and effective.

13. Describe your experience with international SEO and handling multiple languages.

In my experience with international SEO, I’ve handled multiple languages by implementing hreflang tags to indicate language and geographical targeting. This helps search engines understand the different language versions of a website, improving visibility in targeted regions. Additionally, I’ve used country-specific domains for better local ranking and hosted sites on local servers to improve load times. To avoid duplicate content issues, I ensured unique content for each locale. Furthermore, I’ve conducted keyword research specific to each region’s dialect and culture.

14. Can you explain how you’ve used content marketing to improve SEO?

In my previous role, I utilized content marketing to enhance SEO by focusing on creating high-quality, keyword-rich content. Understanding that search engines prioritize relevance and quality, I conducted thorough keyword research to identify terms frequently used by our target audience. This informed the creation of engaging blog posts, articles, and website copy.

I also ensured regular updates to keep the content fresh and relevant, as search engines favor regularly updated sites. Additionally, I incorporated internal and external links to boost page authority and improve crawlability, respectively.

Moreover, I optimized meta descriptions and title tags for better click-through rates from SERPs. To measure effectiveness, I tracked metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate using tools such as Google Analytics.

15. How do you handle duplicate content issues that could hurt SEO?

Duplicate content issues can negatively impact SEO by confusing search engines about which version to index or rank. To handle this, use the following strategies:

1. Use 301 redirects: Redirect duplicate pages to the original content. 2. Canonical tags: These tell search engines which page is the primary one when duplicates exist. 3. Noindex meta tag: This prevents search engines from indexing duplicate pages. 4. Parameter handling in Google Search Console: Specify how you want Google to treat URL parameters. 5. Consistent internal linking: Ensure all internal links point to the same URL for a piece of content. 6. Content Syndication: If your content is being published on other sites, ensure they link back to the original article.

16. How would you approach improving the page load speed and how can it affect SEO?

Improving page load speed is crucial for SEO as it directly impacts user experience and search engine ranking. To enhance this, I would first analyze the current load time using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights. This will identify areas of improvement such as image optimization, minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, reducing redirects, leveraging browser caching, improving server response time, and utilizing a content distribution network (CDN).

Image optimization involves compressing images without losing quality. Minification removes unnecessary characters from code. Reducing redirects prevents additional waiting time for HTTP request-response cycle. Leveraging browser caching stores cacheable resources locally to reduce data costs and loading times. Improving server response time identifies performance bottlenecks like slow database queries or insufficient memory. A CDN distributes the load of delivering content by storing copies of your site at multiple geographically diverse data centers.

Faster page load speeds lead to better user engagement, retention, and conversions which are factors that search engines consider when ranking sites.

17. Can you describe how you have handled a major Google algorithm change in the past?

In response to Google’s BERT update, I focused on enhancing the quality of content and its relevance to user queries. Recognizing that BERT aimed at understanding natural language better, I prioritized long-tail keywords and conversational phrases in my SEO strategy. Additionally, I ensured the website structure was logical and easy for both users and search engines to navigate. Regular audits were conducted to identify and fix any technical issues that could hinder site performance or crawlability. Furthermore, I kept abreast with Google’s updates and guidelines to ensure compliance and maintain high rankings.

18. What strategies would you use for local SEO?

Local SEO strategies involve optimizing a website to increase traffic, leads, and brand awareness from local search. The first step is keyword research, identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines within the specific geographic area. Next, optimize your Google My Business listing by providing accurate information like address, phone number, business hours, and category. Encourage customers to leave reviews on Google as this can improve local ranking.

On-page optimization involves including local keywords in title tags, meta descriptions, and content. Create location-specific pages if you serve multiple areas. Also, ensure your site is mobile-friendly since most local searches are done on mobile devices.

Off-page optimization includes building high-quality backlinks from reputable local businesses and industry authorities. Participate in local community events or sponsorships to get mentioned on their websites. Lastly, use social media platforms to engage with local customers and create more visibility for your brand.

19. How have you used data analysis in your SEO strategy?

In my SEO strategy, data analysis has been instrumental in identifying trends and patterns. I’ve used Google Analytics to track website traffic, bounce rates, and user behavior which helped me understand what content resonates with our audience. This information guided the creation of targeted keywords and meta descriptions. Additionally, I utilized A/B testing for different SEO strategies to determine their effectiveness. By analyzing these results, I was able to refine our approach and improve site ranking.

20. How would you improve the crawlability and indexability of our website?

To enhance crawlability and indexability, I would implement the following strategies:

1. XML Sitemap: Create an updated sitemap to guide search engines through your site’s structure. 2. Robots.txt File: Use this file to instruct crawlers on which pages to ignore. 3. Site Architecture: Ensure a logical, hierarchical structure for easy navigation by both users and spiders. 4. Internal Linking: Strengthen internal linking to help crawlers understand content relevance and relationship. 5. Page Speed: Optimize page load times as slow speeds can deter crawlers. 6. Mobile-Friendly Design: With mobile-first indexing, ensure your site is responsive on all devices. 7. Meta Tags: Utilize meta tags effectively to provide information about each webpage.

21. Explain how you’ve used SEO tactics in conjunction with SEM/PPC campaigns.

In my previous role, I integrated SEO and SEM/PPC campaigns to maximize online visibility. For SEO, I focused on keyword optimization, meta descriptions, and quality content creation. This improved organic search rankings over time. Simultaneously, I ran PPC campaigns targeting the same keywords to gain immediate visibility in SERPs. By analyzing PPC data, I could refine our SEO strategy, identifying high-performing keywords and user behavior trends. Additionally, landing pages for PPC ads were optimized for SEO, ensuring a seamless user experience and further boosting organic rankings.

22. Can you describe any A/B tests you’ve conducted for SEO purposes and their outcomes?

I conducted an A/B test on meta descriptions to improve click-through rates (CTR). The control group had generic descriptions, while the experimental group used keyword-rich, compelling copy. Post-test analysis showed a 15% increase in CTR for the experimental group, indicating that well-crafted meta descriptions can significantly enhance SEO.

Another A/B test involved changing the site structure. We hypothesized that a flatter architecture would boost crawlability and indexing. The control group maintained the existing deep hierarchical structure, whereas the experimental group adopted a flat one. Results revealed a 20% improvement in indexed pages for the experimental group, confirming our hypothesis.

23. How do you handle keyword cannibalization issues within a website?

Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on a website compete for the same keyword. To handle this, first identify potential issues using SEO tools to find keywords your site ranks for. Then, evaluate whether these instances are problematic by checking if they target identical search intent or cause confusion.

If there’s an issue, consolidate similar content into one comprehensive page and use 301 redirects from old URLs to the new one. This strengthens the relevance of the consolidated page. Alternatively, you can differentiate pages by adjusting their focus keywords and meta tags to target unique aspects of the topic.

Another strategy is to use internal linking wisely. Link lower-ranking pages to higher-ranking ones with anchor text that includes the targeted keyword. This signals to search engines which page is more important for that keyword.

Lastly, consider deleting or no-indexing less valuable pages if they don’t provide significant value to users or contribute positively to your SEO efforts.

24. Can you describe how you would implement and optimize an XML sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a crucial tool for SEO as it aids search engines in understanding the structure of your website. To implement an XML sitemap, I would first generate one using a sitemap generator tool that includes all pages I want indexed. After generating, I’d upload it to the root directory of my site.

Optimization involves ensuring all important and updated content is included while excluding unnecessary URLs like those with duplicate content or non-canonical versions. Prioritizing key pages by assigning higher priority tags can guide crawlers to index these pages faster. Regularly updating the sitemap when new content is added ensures it remains current.

Furthermore, submitting the sitemap directly to search engines via Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools expedites indexing. This also provides valuable insights into any crawling issues that may arise, allowing for prompt resolution.

25. How would you approach an SEO strategy for a brand new website with zero domain authority?

An SEO strategy for a new website with zero domain authority would involve several steps. First, keyword research is crucial to understand what potential visitors might search for. This can be done using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush. Once keywords are identified, they should be incorporated into the site’s content and meta tags in a natural way.

Next, creating high-quality, relevant content that provides value to users is key. This not only attracts visitors but also increases the chances of getting backlinks from other sites, which boosts domain authority.

Additionally, technical SEO aspects such as mobile-friendliness, fast loading times, and secure connections (HTTPS) should be ensured. These factors contribute to user experience and are considered by search engines when ranking websites.

Lastly, it’s important to set up Google Analytics and Search Console. These tools provide valuable insights about the site’s performance and can help identify areas for improvement. Regular monitoring and adjustments based on these data are essential for ongoing optimization.

Top 25 Tkinter Interview Questions and Answers

Top 25 user interface interview questions and answers, you may also be interested in..., top 25 select query/statement interview questions and answers, top 25 singleton design pattern interview questions and answers, top 25 inter-process communication (ipc) interview questions and answers, top 25 dockerfile interview questions and answers.

70 Tips To Improve Your Law Firm SEO Rankings

Guide chapters

Get Our Best Legal Marketing Tips

Home » SEO For Lawyers » Step-By-Step Guide to Improve Your Law Firm Rankings

This SEO for Lawyers Guide gives you over 70 actionable steps that you can take to improve your SEO.

You can implement most of these changes yourself, while some may require the assistance of a developer. You can also use this guide to audit your current SEO campaign.

Whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or you have a digital marketing company , this guide will give you amazing insight into your project.

Table of Contents

What is SEO For Lawyers?

Search engine optimization for lawyers refers to the strategies and tactics that an attorney or law firm uses to improve their positions on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This typically includes the following categories:

• On-site SEO : This refers to actions you take on your site to improve your search engine rankings . This includes content , internal linking, and technical SEO.
• Off-site SEO : This refers to the strategies you use offline to improve your rankings and visibility. This includes link-building , outreach, and paid placements in legal directories.

Do both well and you’ll set yourself up for great results.

Why Does Law Firm SEO Matter?

• 96% of people seeking legal services use a search engine in their process
• 74% of consumers visit a law firm’s website to take action
• 62% of legal searches are non-branded
• 31% of all law firm related website traffic comes through mobile search (FindLaw Aggregated Hosted Site Data 2014)
• 71% of people looking for lawyers think it is important to have a local attorney (FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014)

What are the Three Most Critical Components of Attorney SEO?

In our opinion, it’s:

• Is your site fast? Does it have errors that negatively impact the user experience? Is your navigation intuitive for your users? We cover technical SEO below and the steps you can take to make sure your site is running at an optimal level.
• Content is the cornerstone of SEO. Without content, there’s nothing for which you can do SEO. Great content is critical for the long-term success of your project. But what is great content? Find out below.
• You can go a long way with great content. But to dominate in your market, you will need a link-building strategy. We cover several proven strategies below.

Ready? Let’s get started!

1. Onsite SEO for Lawyers (Technical SEO, User Experience – UX)

Onsite SEO refers to the actions you take on your site to improve the overall quality for better search engine rankings. Many of these factors don’t directly impact your lawyer SEO but rather improve the user experience, which in turn helps your rankings.

Get WordPress

The first thing you’ll want to do is get set-up on WordPress. WordPress is a free CMS (content management system) platform that you can use to build your website.

Why do we recommend WordPress? Simple. You need a platform that will allow you to easily add content.

To rank competitively for your target keywords, you’ll need to produce high-quality content that satisfies the user’s intent. WordPress makes it easier to produce content.

Better yet, you can also install plugin-ins (more on that later) that will allow you to create a better user experience.

The best way to get WordPress is by using a managed WordPress host like WPEngine.com .

[ back to top ]

Install Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin

This WordPress plugin provides the following features that are important for SEO:

• Set title tags
• Set meta description
• Gives you an SEO score based on your onpage optimization
• Gives you a readability score
• Creates an XML Sitemap (see below)
• Add breadcrumbs

While there are other plugins that do similar things, we like how easy Yoast makes it to get up and running.

Check out the Yoast guides on Installing Yoast and Configuring Yoast .

Further Reading :

• How to Setup Yoast Correctly – Neil Patel

Submit Your XML Sitemap to Google Search Console

• What is an XML sitemap and why should you have one?

Use Schema Markup – (Structured Data)

You want to make sure that your site has schema markup. It helps Google better understand your site. Where this really comes into play is for local SEO.

While there is schema markup for other components of your site, that should be handled by a developer.

Where can you get legal schema for your site?

Merkle created a Schema Markup Generator .

Once you have this code, insert it in your <head> tags on your site.

Here’s a link to the Install Headers and Footers WordPress plugin.

Test your schema :

Make sure you test your schema after uploading it. Google provides a tool so that you can confirm that you have valid schema markup on your site: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results

When you test your Schema, don’t worry about the “priceRange” category unless you want to enter a price.

Improve Your Title Tags

Title tags are critical for rankings.

With Yoast (see above), you can set each title tag for maximum SEO benefit.

As an attorney, you typically want to make the title the same as what you’re trying to rank for. For example, let’s say you’re trying to rank for “Los Angeles restraining order lawyer.”

In Yoast, you might enter something like this: “Los Angeles Restraining Order Attorney | [BRAND].”

You can also flip the order “Restraining Order Attorney Los Angeles,” as putting “restraining order” near the front puts the keywords at the beginning of the title ( which could provide a slight SEO benefit ).

IMPORTANT : You usually want to include the CITY and/or STATE in the title tag.

Check with your State Bar rules before applying superlatives to your title tags. You might be able to say, “Top-Rated Los Angeles restraining order attorney.” But you may be prohibited from saying, “Best Los Angeles restraining order attorney.”

Improve Your Meta Descriptions

Your meta description gives users a preview in the search engine results of what your page is about. According to Google , a meta description tag should “generally inform and interest users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about.”

While meta tags aren’t a direct ranking factor, a great meta tag makes it more likely that a user will click on your result. And click-thru-rate is a ranking factor. So take the time to write solid meta descriptions.

Make sure you include your keyword, as Google highlights it in search results. If you offer a free consultation, try to work that into the meta description as well, in a natural way.

Remember, keep this short and appealing. Yoast will tell you if you’ve written more than Google will display.

Improve Your Site Speed

Site speed has long been considered a ranking factor. Whether it actually is or not, slow site speed has a tremendous negative impact on users. This in itself is a great reason to make sure your site loads fast.

Further, Google has announced that it will begin to consider site speed as a ranking factor through what they call the Core Web Vitals .

If you’re familiar with site speed and want to skip to testing your site, we recommend the following tools (with a brief explanation on each below):

• Google Page Speed
• Webpage Test

Core Web Vitals

What are the Core Web Vitals ? According to Google:

Web Vitals is an initiative by Google to provide unified guidance for quality signals that are essential to delivering a great user experience on the web.

The Core Web Vitals consists of the following:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Speed
• First Input Delay (FID) – Responsiveness
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Visual Stability

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures loading performance. In other words, this measures when the largest visual element in the viewport becomes visible. It should download in under 2.5 seconds . For most attorney sites, this will be the large hero image (picture of you) under the top-level menu.

First Input Delay (FID): “ FID measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page (i.e. when they click a link, tap on a button, or use a custom JavaScript-powered control) to the time when the browser is actually able to begin processing event handlers in response to that interaction.”

FID can easily be confused with Time to Interactive (TTI). Here’s the difference. TTI measures how long it takes for a page to become interactive, while FID measures how long a page takes to respond to a user interaction . FID applies more to pages like contact forms, where user interaction is key.

As you can see, a good score is under 100 ms.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): “ CLS measures the sum total of all individual layout shift scores for every unexpected layout shift that occurs during the entire lifespan of the page.”

Have you ever downloaded a webpage and it seems to jump around while downloading? You commonly see this in the top level menu or large hero image. This is the CLS.

In this category, a good score is under 0.1 seconds.

When Will Core Web Vitals Become a Ranking Factor?

May 2021 ( click here for more information).

How Can I Check My Core Web Vitals?

Here are four ways to check it.

1. Using Google Page Speed Insights to Check Your Core Web Vitals

First, you’ll want to go to Google Page Speed Insights .

Once you’re there, simply enter the URL you want to test. For an attorney site, the most important page will usually be the homepage.

Remember, the test results are page specific, so it’s a good idea to test different pages to get a sense of how you’re doing: Home, About Us, Practice Area Page, Contact Us.

2. Using Google Search Console to Check Your Core Web Vitals

First, go to Google Search Console for your site and click on “Core Web Vitals” on the lefthand side.

Next, you’ll see two sections on the right-side. It will show you a report for Mobile and Desktop.

To get more information per section, click on “Open Report” and you can see which pages are receiving poor scores.

Click on the area under details to get more information per page.

After you fix the low scoring pages, click on “Validate Fix” to have Google re-crawl those pages.

3. Using Lighthouse in Chrome to Check Core Web Vitals

To do this, you’ll need to open up Google Chrome Incognito.

Then, go to your website. Once you’re there, click on View (top bar) –> Developer –> Developer Tools

Next, you’ll see a developer screen below. Once you see it, click “lighthouse,” then mobile or desktop (depending which score you want), and then “Generate Report.”

4. Use Pingdom to Check Your Site Speed

Pingdom is another great tool to check your site speed. Just add your URL and pick the city closest to you.

Ideally, you want to shoot for a download speed of under 2 seconds.

5. Using Webpage Test to Check Your Site Speed

Webpage Test (WT) will give you a great overview of various important metrics. When using WT, make sure you look at your Time To First Byte (TTFB). That’s how long it takes for the user to get the first byte of data when downloading your site.

While it’s debatable whether site speed is a direct ranking factor, TTFB is widely considered a ranking factor.

Tips to Speed Up Your Site

• Get better hosting . Your site speed will depend largely on the quality of your hosting. We recommend using WPEngine.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) . A CDN duplicates your site on servers all over the world. When a user goes to your site, they will receive the files from the server nearest them.
• Avoid large images . If you do use large images, make sure you use an image compression plugin to minimize the file size.
• Avoid embedding maps in the footer . Instead, save the embedded maps for the Contact Us page.
• Scripts . Minimize scripts and/or async or defer them.

WordPress plugins to speed up your site

• WP Rocket : Great all-around plugin to help you speed up your site. It handles just about every critical aspect like lazy-loading images, deferring JS, and minimizing html files.
• Using this plugin is more complicated than WP Rocket, but worth checking out if you have any stubborn pages for which you can’t improve the site speed.
• One feature worth mentioning is the criticalcss.com add-on. With Critical CSS, you can remove render blocking CSS.
• Imagify : Large, unoptimized images will kill your site speed. Imagify does all the work for you. It will compress all your images. That alone can significantly increase your site speed.
• What are Core Web Vitals? – Backlinko
• WP Speed Fix – 3rd Party Vendor

Secure Your Site Using an SSL Certificate

An SSL (secured socket layer) Certificate encrypts any data sent to you by your user. This assures that they can send confidential information to you via your website. When a site has an SSL cert, you will see the “https” instead of “http.”

How do you get an SSL Certificate? Most hosting providers offer this service for an extra fee.

Once you order it, your hosting provider typically handles setting this up for you.

Fix Site Errors

Site errors can negatively impact the user experience. You’ll want to run a site audit using Ahrefs. The Ahrefs’s site audit will give you a comprehensive list of any errors. You can also use Screaming Frog to look for errors.

Pay special attention to the following errors:

• A 301 redirect occurs when a user clicks on a link but is sent to a different page. While this creates slight latency, the real problem occurs when an user is sent to a page that isn’t a great match for the link they clicked. Fix your 301 redirects by either removing the link or changing it to another page on your site.
• A 404 error occurs when a user clicks on a link on your site and is taken to a page that doesn’t exist. That results in an awful user experience. Prioritize fixing any 404 errors.
• Your site probably has outbound links to authority sites. Sites delete pages all the time. If they don’t do a redirect, your user will get a 404 error on that external site. That hurts the user experience, as your user didn’t get the resource they expected to see.
• Avoid having pages buried deep in your site for two reasons. First, your users can’t find them. Second, Google has a limited crawl budget to crawl your site. By having pages buried that require a lot of clicking to get to, you risk Google not crawling your site. Ideally, you don’t want any page to be further than 4 clicks away from the homepage.
• Screaming Frog
• Broken Link Checker

Fix Broken Inbound Links

A broken inbound link refers to a link to your site from another, but that link goes to a page on your site that no longer exists.

Why does this matter? Because if a link goes to a non-existent page, you don’t get credit for that inbound link.

You also create an awful user experience. The user clicked on a link from another site, but now ends up on a 404 error page on your site.

To check your broken inbound links, you’ll need an Ahrefs account.

Once you’re logged in, enter your URL, then click “Broken” under Backlink profile.

Next, you’ll see a report like the one below. Go through each link and determine if you want to set up a redirect to a relevant page. If you get Yoast Premium, they have a redirect tool. If not, you can use another WordPress plugin for creating redirects.

Remember, when setting up a redirect, make sure you send the user to a page that makes sense.

Tool : Ahrefs

Improve Your Site Structure

When setting up your site, you’ll want to consider if you want to set it up using a flat site structure.

Flat architecture means that users and search engines can get to any page in 4 clicks or less .

As an attorney, you’ll typically want to set up your site using a flat architecture as it’s considered better for SEO and the user experience.

Example of a flat structure :

• site.com/baltimore-car-accident-lawyer/
• site.com/blog/
• site.com/steps-to-take-after-car-crash/ (blog post)

Another consideration is whether you have one target location or multiple offices.

Single-location Practices

For a single location firm, your homepage will usually be the main page that you’re trying to rank for a given keyword. For example, if you’re a personal injury lawyer in Baltimore and you only have one office in Baltimore, your site might be structured like this:

• site.com (homepage targeting: Baltimore personal injury lawyer)

Multi-location Practices

If you practice in several locations, we recommend using location pages with the location-specific practice areas siloed underneath each location.

This lets your users know exactly where they are on the site and how to get back to the “main” page, which is usually the location page for the city they reside in.

Let’s use an example where the homepage is focused on Maryland. Each city (location) page might look like this:

• site.com/baltimore/car-accident-lawyer/
• site.com/annapolis/car-accident-lawyer/

PRO-TIP : We recommend that you create separation between the blog posts and the homepage. The pages closest to your homepage in terms of structure should be your practice area pages or city pages (for multi-city sites).

Having your practice area pages closer to your homepage signals to Google that your practice area pages are more important. You also create a better user experience because all of the blog posts will be clearly siloed under “/blog/.”

site.com/blog/latest-blog-post/ vs. site.com/latest-blog-post/

Tool : Screaming Frog

Sample Site Architecture

Below you will find a sample site structure for a multi-location project. The homepage can be for whatever city you want.

Here’s a sample site architecture you can use (family law site):

• About the firm
• Attorney Bio 1
• Attorney Bio 2
• Testimonials
• Client Reviews
• Child Custody
• Child Support

You should also research your competitors. How did they layout their site structure? If you look at most attorney sites ranking on the first page, they will have a structure similar to what you see above.

Remember, the exact structure you use doesn’t matter. What matters is that your site is easy to navigate for your users.

Have you ever been lost on a site? Have you ever found yourself wondering, “how do I get back to that page I was on?” Make sure that doesn’t happen to your users.

If you get lost on your own site, your site visitors are probably lost as well.

Don’t accept excuses from your marketing company. If you can find your way around Amazon, which has millions of pages, you should be able to find your way around your own site.

• Website Architecture – Backlinko

Make Sure Your Site is Mobile Friendly

Almost 50% of searches are now conducted on mobile. As such, you want to make sure that your site is mobile friendly. You should consider this a non-negotiable.

Fortunately, Google makes it easy to test whether your site is mobile-friendly.

Just head over to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test .

Remove Zombie Pages

By this, we mean you should remove pages that get little to no traffic. The only exception is when these pages are well-written articles on low-traffic topics.

In other words, you may have written an in-depth scholarly article on the felony-murder rule. Assuming it’s well-written for your target audience, you may want to keep that page.

You can either delete or de-index (see below) low-quality pages.

For an advanced content audit that you can do yourself, check out this Content Audit from Ryan Stewart.

De-Index Thin Pages

Does your site contain thin pages that provide little to no value to your users? If so, you might want to consider de-indexing. If you installed Yoast, all you have to do is scroll down to the Yoast settings and change “YES” to “NO” under “Allow search engines to show this Post (or page) in search results?”

Does Your Site Pass The 5-Second Test?

Can your users tell what your site is about in 5-seconds? If not, you could be losing out on potential leads. Recent studies show that we have an 8-second attention span .

By sticking to the 5-second rule, you ensure that you don’t lose potential business because they couldn’t figure out what you do.

Want to try the 5-second test? Here’s what you do.

• Find someone (friend, neighbor, whatever) who has never seen your site,
• Pull up your site on your laptop,
• Let them look at it for 5-seconds and then close your laptop.

They should be able to tell you the name of the business, what you do (personal injury, family law, etc.), and have a sense of where you’re located.

If not, you’ll want to work with a designer to make sure that these three items are instantly apparent.

Compress Your Images for Better Load Time

The easiest way to make your images faster is install a plugin that compresses images. We recommend Imagify , but you can also try:

Tools: Imagify

Improve Your Navigation

Your site should have 3 main navigation areas so that your users can move around easily.

Top-Level Menu

• Breadcrumbs, and
• Sidebar Navigation

Your top-level menu should consist of the most important pages on your site.

For most attorney sites, the top-level menu should consist of:

• This could be a drop-down menu choice that shows the user the practice area pages most important to you.
• Spanish (or other language)

Another option is to populate the top-level menu with your main practice areas.

For a personal injury lawyer, that might look like this:

• Pages dealing with car accidents
• Pages dealing with motorcycle accidents
• Pages on different types of truck accidents
• This could list various injuries
• Language (Spanish, Russian, etc.)

Regardless of the approach you take, we recommend keeping the top-level menu succinct.

Why? Two reasons.

First reason : You don’t want to overwhelm the user with too many choices. Instead, lead with the pages that matter to your firm. If you mainly do medical malpractice, lead with those pages in the Practice Areas drop-down.

For the remaining practice areas, create a page where you list all your practice areas in alphabetical order.

Second reason : The pages you include in your top-level menus signals to Google that those are your most important pages. Therefore, make sure that your top-level menu actually contains your most important pages.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a great way to let your users know where they are on your website. Breadcrumbs usually reside at the top of the page and show the user the path from the homepage to the page that they are currently viewing.

If you use the Yoast plugin WordPress, it gives you an option to add breadcrumbs.

SideBar Navigation

Another great place to include navigation is in your sidebar. A common example would be to include a “Practice Areas” sidebar in all the practice area pages. That way, your users can easily maneuver around your site.

Interlink between articles

Have you even been on Wikipedia reading about one topic, and next thing you know its two hours later and you’re on a completely different topic?

If yes, it’s because of their amazing internal linking. They take the time to link to an internal page for every relevant concept mentioned in the article.

For example, look at the first few paragraphs on Tort Law .

You see how every legal concept is a link that takes the user to a relevant page? (links in blue)

You want to spend time internal linking for several reasons.

First , solid internal linking creates an amazing user experience. Your users will inevitably have questions regarding terms like “damages,” “loss of consortium,” and “plea bargain.”

Instead of sending the user elsewhere to find the meaning, why not create a page like “What is a Plea Bargain” and link to it every time you mention “plea bargain”?

Second , solid internal linking forces you to make a better website. You can’t link to your page explaining what a plea bargain is unless you have it.

By looking for all the terms that require further explanation and creating that content, you are making a more complete site.

Third , internal linking lowers bounce rate. What is bounce rate? Bounce rate refers to when a user goes to a page on your site and leaves without interacting with your site further. In other words, bounce rate is a single page session on your site.

Depending on the nature of your page, a high bounce rate could be considered a negative SEO factor. On other pages, it might not be a negative factor.

For example, a page on “how to tie a tie” will probably have a high bounce rate. And that’s ok. It’s meant to be a page that the user lands on, gets what he needs, and moves on.

But if the topic is “motorcycle accidents” or the “consequences of a domestic violence conviction,” it makes more sense that the user clicked elsewhere on your site (about us page, legal term that links internally to an explanation page, etc.).

Link Whisperer : Check out Link Whisperer. They do a great job analyzing your content and giving internal linking ideas. Yoast also offers an internal link suggestion tool, but we find Link Whisperer to be much better.

Have a Call to Action Button that Stands Out

When users go to your site, you want them to do one thing – contact you. To encourage them to contact you, you want your site to have a call-to-action button that starts them down the conversion process.

By having a call to action (CTA) button that stands out from the rest of the site, we activate that part of the brain that notices differences. This is referred to as our “lizard brain.” According to this article, “ part of our survival instinct is to notice differences in our environment .”

If your CTA stands out, your users are more likely to focus on it and make a decision based on interacting with it.

While it’s common to see a CTA that says something like “Free Consultation”, you also want to make sure that the CTA “pops” out from the images and text around it.

Add a Call Button to Your Mobile Site

Your mobile site should have a prominent call button that remains visible as the user scrolls.

This allows your users to call you at any point.

Jay Murray Personal Injury Lawyers

Create Videos of Your Law Firm

Videos are a great way to connect with your users. They also help your SEO by increasing your onsite dwell time (how long a user stays on your site).

Once you have videos, make sure you create a YouTube channel and upload your videos there. Also, add your contact info and a link to your site in the video description.

Lastly, embed your YT videos on your site (don’t embed your videos directly on your site).

Pro Tip : Invest in high-quality videos. Don’t record videos on your cell. That’s not going to cut it. If you want amazing videos, check out Crisp Video .

Upload Media Clips – If You Have Them

If you’ve been in the news or on TV, add those appearances to YouTube and embed them on your site.

There’s no better way to get instant credibility with your site visitors than to let them see you on TV as an expert.

Add Trust Logos

Adding trust logos is a great way to give your site visitors visual cues that build trust. When choosing trust logos, include logos from your State Bar and the BBB if you’re an accredited member. Also include logos from any other local attorney bars that you’re a member of.

Improve your URLs by Adding Keywords

Make sure you add keywords to your URL for your practice area pages.

As an example, consider your page for car accidents.

If your URL is www.smithfirm.com/car-accidents, that’s ok.

But a better approach is to include the geographic area you’re targeting.

So if you’re in Phoenix, AZ, you may want to change your URL to: www.smithfirm.com/phoenix-car-accident-lawyer.

This approach incorporates every keyword into the URL. This is a powerful signal for both users and search engines.

With that said, shorter URLs are typically better. Try to keep your URLs to no longer than five words .

Remove Dates From Your Blog Permalinks

Does your blog posts have dates in the URL structure? If yes, we recommend you remove the dates.

Why? Because you don’t want your content to be dated unless it’s date-specific. A news article about a current event might be date specific. But a blog post titled “What is Negligence?” is not.

Evergreen content like the example above becomes less relevant overtime if dated.

To update your blog links, click on “Settings” in your WordPress Admin menu and then “Permalinks.”

You’ll then see the screen below. Once you’re there, click on “Custom Structure.” After that, add “/blog” before “/%postname%/” (without the quotes).

IMPORTANT : Once you do this, you’ll need to create redirects from the old posts with dates to the new posts.

2. Content for Lawyers

Make the content about the user.

At all times, your content should be focused on the user. Remember, the user wants the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?).

Your content should focus on:

• Shedding light on their situation,
• Your experience, and
• How your experience will benefit them

As an example, see the car accident page we did for Rosenbaum & Rosenbaum in NYC. We lead with information about the attorney and how their experience can help you.

We then move on to answering questions people might have after a car accident.

Keep the content focused on the user at all times and you’ll do great.

Answer Questions – Make Users Happy

When people search online, they are usually searching for answers. When you develop your content, think about the questions a user has and answer them.

Example 1: Car Accident Page

Potential Questions

• Should I Hire a Lawyer?
• How Much Money Can I Get?
• What If I’m Partially At-Fault?
• How Long Do I Have to File a Claim?

Example 2: Divorce Lawyer Page

• How Long Does a Divorce Take?
• What are Grounds for Divorce in [STATE]?
• What are the Residency Requirements for Divorce?

PRO TIP : When you answer the question, get to the point quickly. Don’t write a three paragraph intro to each answer. Users want the answer quickly. If you don’t answer the question quickly, someone else will.

Tools: Ahrefs to find questions.

How to Find Questions Users Are Asking Using Ahrefs

When we search on Google we often start by asking a question.

To find what questions people are asking that relate to your practice type, we recommend using AHREFs . You can get a trial account for only $7.

After creating an account, login and click “keyword explorer” in the top menu.

Then enter a keyword (we used “car accident lawyer”), and then click the orange button (see below).

The next screen will show you relevant keywords and questions. In the example below, you have several questions you can start with today if you’re a personal injury lawyer:

• How to get money from a car accident without a lawyer (yes, it’s a good topic for a lawyer to answer)
• When to call a lawyer after a car accident (try to use this phrase in the article when answering the questions above).

Remember, use the question as your (1) title tag, (2) <h1> tag, and (3) URL (/when-to-get-a-lawyer-for-car-accident/).

SEO Keyword Research To Improve Your Content

When you’re developing content, you want to include variations of your keyword to capture as much traffic possible for your target search term.

To do this, we recommend several tools below. Once you find additional keywords, work them naturally into your content.

An amazing paid tool for doing keyword research. We use SEMRush for keyword ideas for all the content we produce. This tool is to legal SEO what Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw is to attorneys – indispensable.

Once you enter your main keyword, you’ll get a ton of ideas and insight like you see below.

Click on “View full report” to see more keyword options that you can incorporate into your content.

Another great tool for keyword research is Ahrefs. To use Ahrefs, you’ll need to login and click on “Keywords Explorer.”

Then enter your target keyword and scroll below for useful info like “Keyword ideas by search volume” and “Questions.”

You might be able to work the questions into your article or create a separate article addressing that question.

SEO Keyword Research for Lawyers: An Alternative Method

A lot has been written on the topic of “SEO keyword research for lawyers.” Here’s the problem.

Often times, you have no idea where to start. An SEO expert tells you “do keyword research!” And you’re thinking, “which keywords do I research?”

Don’t Start with Keyword Research – Start With Finding Topics to Write About

Start with competitor research to find out what topics your competitors are writing about.

For example, using the method below, ( Steal Your Competitors’ Traffic ), you’ll be able to find the topics your competitors wrote about and how much traffic they are getting from those topics.

When using SEMRush for competitor, you’ll see which keywords result in a particular page or post getting traffic.

Make sure to include those keywords in your headers or in the content paragraphs.

Don’t stop by just looking at your local competitors. Using the method shown below, look at the top ranking sites in all major markets in your state.

Should I Ever Do Keyword Research?

Yes, but not the way most online guides recommend it.

Instead, find a topic you want to write about based on competitor research.

Before you publish it, do an SEO content audit with SEMRush (see: Use SEMRush to Improve Your Content ), or use a tool like SurferSEO to find out which keywords you should include to capture more traffic and increase your rankings.

Steal Your Competitors’ Traffic (in an ethical way)

You’re not going to actually steal anything. Instead, you’re going to find out what content drives traffic to your competitors and do it better.

To do this, we will use a method we learned from Ryan Stewart .

You will need a SEMRush account. We guarantee that this strategy is worth every penny of SEMRush’s monthly subscription fee.

See the video below for more information.

Use SEMRush to Improve Your Content

SEMRush has an awesome tool that you should consider using when developing your content.

Once you’re in SEMRush, click on “Content Marketing” and “SEO Content Template.”

After that, insert your target keyword. If you’re a Boston car accident lawyer, you would enter that into the “Enter your target keywords” box.

After you enter your password, you’ll get the following screen (see below). The “SEO Recommendations” tab gives you a list of competitors and keywords you should use.

The real magic happens in the “Real-time Content Check” tab. Enter your content there to see how it stacks up against the competition.

Tools: SEMRush

Further Reading:

https://www.semrush.com/kb/812-content-toolkit

Use Hemingway App To Check Your Legal Content’s Grade-Level

According to one study, the average American reads at the 7th to 8th grade reading level .

When you create content, you’ll want to make sure it’s accessible to all users. To do this, use the Hemingway Editor to make sure you’re content is at about the 8th to 9th grade level.

Tool: Hemingway App

Link Out to Authority Sites

One of the biggest mistakes we see attorneys make is not link out to authority sites in their content. Whenever you list a statistic or fact, it’s a good idea to cite your source via a link.

This increases user trust because you allow the user to independently verify the information you presented.

Linking out to authority sites helps Google build a relationship between your site and the sites you’re linking out to.

Add Images and ALT Tags

Pictures help bring your article to life. Make sure you add images whenever relevant. That includes pictures of you.

Do not use images you find online without the proper permission. You will inevitably get a letter one day from a company asking for money for infringing on someone’s copyright.

Here’s a great place to find images: https://www.istockphoto.com .

Don’t forget to add ALT tags to images. While we don’t recommend spamming the ALT tag with exact match phrases like “Boston personal injury lawyer,” we do recommend trying to use keywords in the ALT tag.

Content-Length

Studies show that longer content tends to rank better. With that said, we don’t recommend trying to hit any particular word count.

Instead, start with an outline of the sub-topics you plan on discussing (See “Proper Use of H Tags” below for how to create an outline).

Then, make sure you cover each sub-topic with a sufficient amount of detail.

For example, a “car accident lawyer” page might include a discussion on “What Types of Damages Can I Recover After a Car Accident?”

We recommend you provide an overview of damages (economic, non-economic) and create a new page just on damages that’s more in-depth.

That way, your visitors get a general overview on your car accident page and can get more in-depth info if needed.

Proper Use of H Tags

An H tag is an html tag that indicates a heading on a page. Think of H tags like your outline.

H tags are numbered 1 – 6, with 1 being the most important.

You can (and will) have multiple instances of H2 – H6, but you should only use the H1 tag once (at the beginning of the article).

IMPORTANT : Your H1 should contain your main keyword. If you’re trying to rank for “New York City Car Accident Lawyer,” that should be your H1 (or a variation of that).

Before writing a long article, we recommend that you first create an outline. That outline will become your H tags.

If you’re not sure what to write about, we recommend you do the following:

• Google the term you’re trying to rank for (let’s use NYC car accident lawyer)
• Next, take the URL of the first result and put it in https://www.browseo.net . This will give your H tag outline on the right.
• The Headings outline you see in Browseo will give you a good idea of what sub-topics you should focus on.
• Pay attention to the keywords used in the H tags . In the example above, do you notice how almost every H tag has a GEO modifier?
• We recommend you look at the top 5 ranking pages so that you can make a comprehensive outline.
• Remember – the goal is to make a better page than the ones already ranking (if you don’t, you’ll never outrank them).

Additional Resources

• Google Developer Documentation Style Guide – H Tags

Improve Your About Us Page

Typically, the 2nd most visited page on your website will be your ABOUT US page.

Put time into this page. Don’t make it 800 words about where you went to college and law school.

Instead, make it about how your experience will help your prospective client.

Use Google Search Console To Get More Traffic to Existing Articles [Video]

One overlooked tool to get more traffic to your site is Google Search Console (GSC). In the performance report, you can see what keywords are driving traffic to your pages.

What you want to do is find the low-hanging fruit and work those keywords into your content. By low-hanging fruit, we mean keywords for which you’re ranking on the second page.

See this video for a brief explanation.

Blog the Right Way

If you did the competitor research above, then you should have plenty of ideas for new content. When you’re adding blog posts to your site, keep the following in mind:

Add value :

• What is the purpose of your blog post?
• Does your blog post answer a question you get often from clients?
• Is the information in your post useful to your readers?

Geographic relevance : Does the post add geographical relevance to your site? If you’re a personal injury lawyer in Houston, then you should have blog posts that are customized to fit your audience. Try to regionalize the topic as much as possible.

Informational intent – no selling : Blog posts are a great place to give your site visitors useful information. Don’t try to sell them on your services in a blog post. It’s annoying.

Instead, wow them with great info. If you do that, they’ll want to learn more about you and your services. If you don’t wow them with your blog posts, your competitors will.

Create Linkable Assets : Blog posts are a great way to create linkable assets. By that, we mean pages that you can link to when guest-posting or that users will link to as a resource.

Important : Do NOT do short blog posts regurgitating news stories about local car accidents. Unless you’re providing legal analysis regarding a particular event, you’re better off not having those posts on your site.

Here’s why. Those posts are usually short, low-quality, and provide no further insight than the original article from which it was essentially copied. They age poorly, and someone searching for a car accident lawyer is not likely to find you because of that post. Instead, focus on answering questions that a motor vehicle accident victim is searching for.

Incorporate LSI Keywords

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Keywords are conceptually related words that search engines use to better understand your content.

LSI keywords are not variations of your keywords. An example would be an article about Apple. For Google to understand that that article is about Apple the computer company rather than the food, it would look for conceptually related terms like “Mac,” “computer,” “iPhone,” and so on.

Incorporating LSI keywords is a great way to immediately improve the relevance of your content for a given term.

To get started, we recommend:

After you enter your keyword, you’ll get LSI keyword recommendations.

PRO TIP : If you don’t get results for the long-tail version of your keyword (Miami car accident lawyer), try it for “car accident lawyer” and “car accident.”

Below is a screenshot of “car accident.”

Create Content Topic Clusters

If done correctly, a content cluster helps you increase the authority of a page that you’re trying to rank for a given keyword.

For example, let’s say that you’re trying to rank for “Austin Car Accident Lawyer.”

You want to start by doing a great page on that topic.

Next, you want to think about all the related topics that you may have briefly addressed but can now expand on.

If the hub is “Austin car accident lawyer,” then supporting pages could be:

• Car Accidents FAQ
• Head-on Crashes
• Highway Crashes
• Hit-and-Run Crashes

Pro Tip 1 : Link from the the supporting pages back to the hub page.

Pro Tip 2 : Now that you have supporting pages, build links to those pages. The link equity will flow to those pages and then to the car accident page (which is what you’re trying to rank).

Improve Your Internal Links

When talking about internal linking, we’re discussing two different things.

Internal Linking for Users

First, there’s the normal internal linking you do to improve the user experience. Think Wikipedia. They link every time there’s a word and/or concept that expands or is related to the topic you’re reading about.

That’s the right way to link internally. I’ve found myself on Wikipedia for hours just by following the links.

The benefit of this approach is that it tends to increase dwell time on your site (meaning how long users stay on your site). A dwell time longer than your competitors is a positive SEO signal for Google.

Internal Linking for Rankings

Whether it’s wise to link internally to let’s say the homepage with exact match anchor is debatable.

Say you’re a Phoenix personal injury lawyer. The internal links would be from internal pages on your site back to the homepage using variations of the terms you’re trying to rank for.

For example, “Phoenix personal injury lawyer,” “personal injury lawyer in Phoenix,” etc.

Should you do it? While we have found this tactic to be effective, we encourage you to use it lightly.

For example, create a list of every keyword permutation of your main keyword (personal injury lawyer in Phoenix, accident attorneys in Phoenix, Phoenix personal injury attorney, etc.) and use each one no more than 2 – 3 times each.

From our experience, websites get diminishing returns when they overuse the same exact match anchors over and over.

Another approach is to use an 80/20 ratio of exact match keywords to branded/misc anchors.

PRO-TIP : When you link internally from a page to your homepage (or whatever page you’re trying to rank), try to surround the link with relevant content. For example, let’s say you’re a Tucson personal injury lawyer and you’re trying to rank the homepage for that term.

From the slip and fall page, you could have a paragraph about why someone should call your personal injury firm after an accident. And the H2 for that paragraph could be something like, “Why Call a Personal Injury Lawyer at BRAND firm After a Slip and Fall Accident”.

The H2 and surrounding text around “Tucson personal injury lawyer” creates a wall or relevancy around that link, thereby making the link more powerful.

Further Reading on Internal Linking

Matt Diggity on internal link-building

Neil Patel on internal link-building

Ryan Stewart on internal link-building

Tools to Improve Internal Linking :

Link Whisperer

Improve Your Content – Make it better for users

The average American reads at about a 7th to 8th grade level . Further, people don’t read online, they scan.

Therefore, you’ll need to create content that is both accessible and easy to scan.

Here a some best practices to improving readability.

• Focus on getting the reading level between Grade 9 – 10th.
• Bucket Brigades are: “phrases or words that add conversational value to your content and attract more and more people to your content.”
• The optimal length is between 50 – 60 words per line . If you go over that, you risk tiring out the reader.
• Remember, you want to make it as easy as possible for your site visitors to stay on your site.
• Internal Links ( covered above )

Add a Table of Contents

Adding a table of contents (TOC) results in several benefits to you and your users. First, it gives your users a clear roadmap of your article. It allows them to jump right to the section they’re interested in reading about.

How does a TOC benefit you? It allows you to scan your headers quickly and make sure that they flow in a logical way.

Tool : Easy Table of Contents plugin

3. Offsite SEO for Lawyers

Offsite SEO refers to strategies and tactics to improve your SEO that do not involve making changes to your website.

This includes link-building, citation building, social media engagement, and more.

Review Your Inbound Links Anchor Ratio

When building links to your homepage, you want to make sure you don’t over optimize your anchor text.

Here’s a good distribution to keep your backlink profile looking natural:

• Brand anchors refers to anchors that contain your brand name. In this category we also include miscellaneous (MISC) anchors and URL anchors (naked).
• Partial refers to anchors that include part of a keyword term in them. For example, if your target keyword is “Clearwater personal injury lawyer,” a partial match would be: “personal injury lawyer,” “Clearwater law office,” “BRAND + personal injury lawyers.”
• You want to be careful with exact match anchors. An exact match anchor refers to the specific term you’re trying to rank for like, “Clearwater personal injury lawyer,” or a permutation of that.

The safe play is build your anchors around your brand, and sparingly add partial and exact match anchors.

IMPORTANT : The ratios above apply to a homepage. For internal pages, you’re usually safe going much higher on exact and partial match.

Link to spreadsheet

• SEO Jet Anchor Text Ratio Guide
• How to Build the Proper Anchors Text Ratios
• Ahrefs Anchor Text Ratio Guide
• Matt Diggity’s Guide to Anchor Text Ratio

How to Determine Link Quality?

You can use several tools like Ahrefs, Majestic, and SEMRush to determine the quality of a link. But before using those tools, consider if the link is either topically relevant or geographically relevant (discussed in more detail below).

Also, natural media mentions (like the New York Times, CNN, Fox, etc) are always a good thing. In case you’re wondering, this does not include press releases.

Topical Relevance

If the link is topically relevant to your site, then it’s usually a “good” link. For example, a legal directory link will usually help or at least not hurt your rankings. With that said, some directories are better than others (the ones that rank and actually get traffic vs those that don’t).

Geographical Relevance

You’re a small business. Small business get links from local sites. As a law firm, you should be getting local links like sponsorships or from your local chamber of commerce.

Another example would be for a personal injury lawyer to reach out to local auto repair shops. They might accept a guest post from you regarding car accidents.

Find the Links That Helps Your Competition

To improve your rankings, you’ll want to figure out what links your competition has that you don’t. In the video below we explain how you can use Ahrefs’ link intersect tool to find the links helping your competitors.

Get Listed on Legal Directories

Legal directories provide powerful links for attorneys because they are the most relevant type of links you can acquire.

Think about it. What link could be more relevant for an attorney than a directory of attorneys?

Here are some of top site you wanted to get listed on:

• USNews – Lawyers Directory
• SuperLawyers
• Just Great Lawyers
• Courthouse Square

Additional Link Opportunities

Sponsorships

A great way to get local links to is to find organizations in your area looking for sponsors. To find them, you can use operators like:

• Houston intitle:sponsor
• Houston intitle:sponsorship

Just replace Houston with your city.

Also check out ZipSprout – they’ll find local opportunities for you.

Non-Legal Directories

Non-legal directories are a great way to get more exposure to your site. You will usually find these opportunities by researching your competitors. Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• crunchbase.com
• goodfirms.co
• topratedlocal.com

HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. In a nutshell, HARO is a portal through which you can receive requests from journalists looking for information and/or a quote regarding a particular topic.

To sign up, go to https://www.helpareporter.com and click on “I’m a source.”

When signing up for HARO, you’ll want to create custom alerts for words like “lawyer” or “attorney.”

• How to Get High Quality Backlinks in 2021
• HARO Link Building
• How to Get Backlinks and Press Using HARO – Ahrefs

Chamber of Commerce

Your local chambers are a great way to not only get local links, but to get involved in your community. To find chambers in your area, search for “CITY chamber of commerce.”

Most cities also have many other chambers: LGBTQ, Black, Asian, etc.

In large cities like Los Angeles, you’ll find chambers for the surrounding cities like Santa Monica, Hollywood, etc.

Pro Tip : Before signing up with a chamber, make sure their directory gets indexed by Google. Find a lawyer listed in their directory. When you’re on that page, type “site:” (without the quotes) before the URL. Is it indexed? If not, skip that chamber.

Press Releases

We don’t recommend using this as a link-building tactic. However, it’s a good idea to use them when you have something newsworthy like launching a new office. A few pointers regarding press releases:

• Don’t include exact match keywords (don’t link to your home page with “CITY personal injury lawyer” – where CITY is your location).
• Do link to your site only using your homepage URL
• Do include your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) info
• Don’t abuse press releases. It won’t help your rankings.

Infographics

Infographics (IG) are a great way to display complex information. You can find hundreds of infographic designers on UpWork .

Once you have your IG, embed it on a page and look for link-building opportunities. Try something like: “submit” “infographic.”

Source: Laird Hammons Laird Personal Injury Lawyers

• Submit Infographic Service on Fiverr
• 40 Infographic Submission Sites
• 21 Websites You Should Leverage to Promote Your Infographic

Guest Posting

As an attorney, you want to find relevant guest post opps to showcase your expertise. Here’s a list of legal blogs accepting guest posts .

If you want to invest considerably more time into this, check out this guide that covers outreach .

You can also use these search operators to find opportunities:

• Legal + “write for us”
• Legal + “become a contributor”
• Legal + “blog for us”
• Legal + “guest post”

Additionally, you can search for terms like “guest post provider” and “best guest post provider” to find done-for-you options.

• 10 Blogger Outreach Tools You Should Us Today
• PitchBox – Outreach Tool for Guest Posting
• How We Use Pitchbox For Link Outreach
• 200 Websites and Blogs that Accept Guest Posts
• 150+ Sites Accepting Guest Posts
• 700+ Guest Post Sites
• List of 300+ Sites Accepting Guest Posts

Scholarships

Whether scholarships are still a good idea is debatable. We can tell you that many schools no longer accept them and will refer you to a third-party scholarship clearing house. Here is one opinion on why you should avoid scholarships from Search Engine Journal .

For more information on launching a scholarship, check out How to Create and Run an Effective Scholarship Outreach Campaign from Moz.

Linkable Asset

Create an asset that other sites want to link to. This usually involves creating some form of data visualization.

For example, a criminal defense attorney could create an interactive map of the most dangerous cities in his/her state.

For more information, check this out on Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/blog/the-trust-formula/ .

Please note that this is an advanced technique that will most likely require a significant amount of your time.

Get more 1st-page Real Estate – Legal Directories, Local SEO, Google Ads

We see this mistake often. An attorney ranks great organically but is nowhere else to be found on the first page.

Ranking on Google’s first page is hard. Once you get there, maximize the opportunity by showing elsewhere on the page.

Here’s a breakdown of where you can appear on the first page as an attorney:

• Local Service Ads (LSA)
• Organic SEO
• Legal Directories: FindLaw , Justia , SuperLawyers
• Non-Legal Directories: Yelp

It’s powerful to be on Google’s first page. But it’s a lot more powerful to appear seven times on Google’s first page.

If you are going to get directory listings, we recommend you get a top placement in that directory. Being at the bottom of FindLaw’s first page won’t help much.

The biggest benefit you’ll receive from being listed several times on Google’s first page is the repetition factor when people are searching for an attorney.

Does it help?

We’ll put it this way. Have you ever been to a professional sports game and seen the same Coca-Cola poster 200 times. Next thing you know, you’re drinking a Coke.

Prospective clients who see you multiple times when searching for an attorney are more likely to call you than if they only see you once.

Check Your Lawyer SEO Rankings – Organic and Local

How are you doing in rankings?

Instead of depending on your marketing company for monthly reports, you can get your own search engine rankings.

To track your rankings, we recommend ProRankTracker (PRT). With this tool, you’ll be able to track both your Organic and Local SEO rankings. Best part, you’re getting the information directly from Google.

If you want more insight into how you’re doing on Local SEO, we recommend Local Falcon . After you sign up for an account, all you do is enter your business name, set the search radius, and enter your keyword.

So, if you’re an NYC personal injury lawyer, you’ll want to enter your firm name (as it appears on your GMB), enter a key term like “NYC personal injury lawyer,” and set a .5 mile radius or 1 mile radius (the denser your city, the lower your radius should be).

Don’t forget to also search for terms like “personal injury lawyer” and “personal injury lawyer near me.”

Improve Your Complete Online Presence – 3rd Party Sites

Make sure that your online presence reflects on your properly. As an attorney, you may have profiles on 3rd party sites without your knowledge.

We recommend that you Google your law firm name to see what comes up.

Update any old profiles with your current contact info and consider updating your pictures.

When you update your BIO on prominent 3rd party sites like Avvo, FindLaw, etc., make sure you include compelling reasons to call you, like experience and results.

Get Listed on Attorney Award Sites – National Trial Lawyers, etc.

This is an easy one. When you receive notification that you’ve been selected, ask them how much it costs to get listed.

PRO TIP : When you submit your bio, try to include links to different pages to get the most benefit from your listing.

Improve Your Local SEO

If you’re interested in local SEO, check out our Local SEO for Lawyers Guide .

If you want to check your local rankings, check out Local Falcon .

Bonus Resources – Learn SEO

Check out some of the top influencers in SEO. If you’re serious about learning SEO, check out the following:

Ryan Stewart

What we love about Ryan is that he tells it like it is and holds nothing back. If you want to learn advanced strategies, reading his blog is a must.

Check out :

• How to Optimize Your Blog Post for SEO
• 19 Link-Building Strategies that Work in 2021
• Step By Step Guide to Technical SEO

Matt Diggity

Like Ryan, Matt puts it all out there. We’re constantly impressed by his methodical approach to SEO.

• Anchor Text Optimization
• The Black Sheep – Why You’re Stuck on Page 2

Rand Fishkin – Moz

If you want to learn SEO, start with anything put out by Moz. This is where a lot of people we know started their SEO journey – with the Moz SEO for beginners guide and Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays.

• Moz SEO For Beginners
• The Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide

You could probably learn almost everything you need to know about SEO from Brian Dean. He’s established himself as one of the top SEO gurus out there. You will gain valuable insight from every article he writes.

• On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide
• Local SEO: The Definitive Guide

If you’re serious about SEO and don’t know about Neil Patel, you’re probably not that serious about SEO. Improve your SEO skills immediately by following Neil Patel’s blog. For more “Neil Knowledge” (he calls it that),

• How to increase your traffic using Google Search Console

Local SEO Resources

Check out these resources if you want to learn more about Local SEO.

• LawRank’s Local SEO For Lawyers
• Moz Local SEO Cheat Sheet
• BrightLocal’s Complete SEO Guide

Auditing Your Current SEO Campaign

Phone calls/contact forms.

The success of an SEO campaign ultimately depends on:

• Are you getting more calls than before you started the campaign?
• Are you making more money than before you started the campaign?

We’ll explain how to measure the first component.

To do so, you’ll need to install call tracking on your website. We recommend using CallRail .

CallRail allows you to track phone calls and forms sent through your site.

With CallRail, you’ll know how many relevant leads you received monthly.

We aren’t considering the “quality” of the lead, as that is a subjective measure. One firm’s trash is another’s treasure.

What you’ll want to know is how many calls are you getting monthly through your SEO campaign that are relevant to your practice area.

You can also implement call recording. Doing so allows you to listen to your intake team. Why? You need to make sure that your team is handling intakes the way you want them handled.

Tool(s) : CallRail to track calls and contact forms via your website.

Organic SEO Rankings

How do you rank? It’s important that you keep an eye on your organic rankings. We recommend ProRank Tracker .

When looking at your keywords, make sure that you’re focusing on the ones that actually bring business to your office.

For example, a divorce lawyer in Miami might want to track:

• Miami divorce lawyer
• Miami child custody lawyer
• Miami child support lawyer

Make sure that your SEO agency provides you a list of keywords and search volume per keyword. You don’t want to waste your time ranking for keywords that have no search volume.

Tool(s) : ProRank Tracker (or any other organic ranking tool)

How many links are being built monthly (quality over quantity)

There’s a lot of confusion over what counts as a link. When we say a “link,” what we really mean is a referring domain. We’ll explain.

Justia.com is a legal directory. When they link to you, it counts as one referring domain. However, because it’s a directory, Justia could link to you thousands of times. So you could have 1 referring domain and 2,000 links.

Google has publicly stated that they stop giving you credit for links at a certain point (we don’t know what that point is). In other words, the first link from Justia is what really matters. After the first one, you get diminishing returns.

So when you’re inspecting your SEO campaign, you should focus on how many new referring domains you’re getting, not how many links.

Want to know how many referring domains your project has? It’s easy. Head over to Ahrefs and copy and paste your URL in that box and hit the magnifying glass.

You’ll then get a report that looks like the image below. As you can see, this site has 161 referring domain and over 7k backlinks. The important number is the referring domains.

Tool(s) : Ahref

Is Your Site Traffic Growing?

There are two ways to look at your site traffic: Google Search Console (GSC) and SEMRush. We’ll show you how to look on GSC because it’s your site and you should have access.

After you login to GSC, click on performance on the left side. On the middle chart, you’ll see your traffic (the default is a 3-month period). Is it going up, down, flat?

Just to be clear, we’re only looking at your organic search traffic. If you want to see your traffic from all channels (paid ads, directories, etc.), you’ll want to use Google Analytics.

The “Total clicks” box is how many times users have clicked on your result in Google. The “Total impressions” refers to how many times your page has appeared in the results (independent of whether the user clicked on your result).

Are You Getting Content Monthly?

Ideally, your marketing team adds content monthly to your site.

While we don’t advocate content for the sake of content, they should have a game plan and you should be aware of what that game plan is.

How is the Quality of the Content?

When doing a content quality assessment, we suggest you start with your practice area pages. A few items to consider:

• Is the article long enough? Most pages ranking well are in the 1.5k+ word count range.
• Does the article fully cover the topic?
• Is the reading level appropriate for my target audience (usually 9th – 10th grade level)?
• Does the article have header tags (H tags) to break up the content?
• Is the article easy to scan?
• Does the article use images?
• Does the title tag have all the necessary components (CITY + practice area + lawyer)
• Is my article better than the people outranking me? (remember, you have to read these pages like a lay person, not a lawyer).

How is Your Local SEO?

You need to stay on top of your local SEO visibility. Using a tool like Local Falcon , you’ll want to target a 1/2 mile to 1 mile radius using different permutations of your main keyword.

Let’s say you’re a personal injury lawyer in Boston, MA.

You might want to check:

• Boston personal injury lawyer
• Personal injury lawyer
• Personal injury lawyer near me
• Best personal injury lawyer near me

Tool(s) : Local Falcon

Create SILOs for smaller locations near you

If you’re in a competitive city, consider making silos for nearby locations that might not be as competitive.

Example : Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer

You could try making a Burbank silo. How would that look? This is one possible structure:

• yoursite.com/burbank/ (this would be the “family law” page)
• yoursite.com/burbank/divorce-lawyer/
• yoursite.com/burbank/child-custody-lawyer/
• yoursite.com/burbank/child-support-lawyer/

SEO For Lawyers FAQ

Can you guarantee rankings?

No. If a company tells you they guarantee rankings, read the fine-print.

What they usually mean is that they will improve your current rankings. Most companies can do that.

What you probably mean when you ask that question is “Can you guarantee first page rankings?” There’s not one single reputable SEO for lawyers agency that will guarantee rankings.

Ask this instead : Can you show me samples of projects that you’ve ranked on the first page for terms like: “CITY divorce lawyer,” “CITY personal injury lawyer,” and “CITY criminal defense attorney.”

Can I call your current clients?

Reputable SEO agencies have no problem with you calling their existing clients.

With that said, you should only take this step if you are serious about signing with that agency.

Why is SEO for lawyers so expensive?

The real question you should consider is whether the return on investment (ROI) is there. Organic SEO may seem pricey in the beginning before your project gains traction. But once the project gains traction and you start receiving leads, then it should ideally pay for itself several times over.

How long does it take to rank?

We have ranked projects for highly competitive keywords in 3 months. However, it can sometimes take up to 18 months to rank. It really depends on:

• The level of competition in your market
• Your budget
• Your starting point

Why is my competitor outranking me?

SEO boils down to 3 things: Content, Links, and User Experience (UX).

When someone is outranking you, they have you beat on one if not all three of those areas.

I heard SEO doesn’t really work, is that true?

That is not true. We had a potential client say that to us. We asked him, “Who told you that SEO doesn’t work.” His answer: “One of my competitors.”

About Us | Law Firm SEO Services | Privacy Policy | SEO for Lawyers | Personal Injury Lawyer SEO

Get Your Free eBook Now

I agree to receive news and promotional material from this website and understand I can cancel at any time. Privacy Policy.

• Do Not Sell My Personal Info

•  ⋅ 

15+ Technical SEO Interview Questions For Your Next Hires 

Use these sample interview questions to verify the skills and experience of your technical SEO job applicants.

Technical SEO requires technical and analytical skills together with a good understanding of how Google and other search engines work.

A technical SEO must be familiar with the most popular CMS systems and know at least the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

In addition to that, a good technical SEO should know the fundamental rules of SEO and be able to identify if a website breaks these rules.

Finally, a technical SEO must be able to offer possible fixes to the problems identified on the website and be able to determine whether the fixes were implemented correctly.

But how can you verify that your next technical SEO hire has these skills and knowledge?

In this article, you’ll find 15 sample job interview questions that will help you decide whether the person you are interviewing is the right candidate for a technical SEO position.

Let’s get started!

1. How Do You Check Whether A URL Is Indexed By Google?

The site: command is the simplest way to quickly check if a given URL is in Google’s index.

Every technical SEO should know the site: command and, ideally, a bunch of other Google search operators that allow for filtering and narrowing search results.

In addition, you may also ask the candidate how they would check how many pages are indexed by Google and what the most accurate way of doing that is.

Here your ideal technical SEO hire should demonstrate familiarity with the Google Search Console Coverage report and indicate how it differs from the site: command.

2. How Do You Block A URL From Being Indexed?

With this question, you want to see whether your potential technical SEO hire actually knows the purpose of a no-index tag and does not confuse it with blocking a page in robots.txt.

They should know that robots.txt is for controlling and optimizing crawling while no-index tags are for keeping pages out of Google’s index.

In addition, you may also ask about the best ways to protect a page from being accessed by everyone, including curious people (i.e. protecting it with a password in addition to adding a no-index tag).

If the person says that you should block such a page in robots.txt, then it means they still have a lot of SEO homework to do.

3. What Are The Most Important SEO Ranking Factors, In Your Opinion?

Of course, there is no definitive answer to this question. But hearing the person’s perspective on Google ranking factors may tell you a lot about their knowledge & experience.

A good technical SEO specialist candidate will:

• Back up their answers with data or – better – data based on their own experience or SEO tests they performed.
• Be willing to show you their own websites and talk about the SEO strategies they used to grow the sites.
• Avoid absolute statements (e.g. these things are Google SEO rankings factors with this amount of weighing for every website).
• Understand the difference between correlation and causation.
• Not be afraid of saying “it depends” or “I don’t know” where it makes sense.

4. What SEO Myths Have You Had Enough Of?

Only a person with at least some knowledge and understanding of SEO will be able to answer that question.

A complete newbie in many cases will often present SEO myths as ultimate SEO truths without offering any of their own insights and commentary.

If you are looking for an experienced technical SEO expert, ask them to elaborate on their favorite SEO myths and how they deal with them on a daily basis.

5. What Is Your Favorite Website Crawler And Why?

Website crawlers are probably the most important tools for technical SEOs.

You want to make sure that your future technical SEO uses a bunch of different SEO crawlers (both desktop and cloud-based), knows how to use them efficiently, and is able to perform advanced SEO analyses with their help.

For example, everyone can plug the domain name into the crawler and start the crawl but only an experienced technical SEO expert will know:

• How to configure the crawl to check exactly what they want to analyze (e.g. check the PSI metrics in bulk for all pages).
• How to execute JavaScrip t to compare the rendered HTML with the source HTML.
• How to change the user agent if the crawl does not want to start.
• How to actually interpret the data the crawler presents.
• How to prioritize the issues the crawler highlights.

You want your next technical SEO specialist to be familiar with all or most of the most popular crawlers, such as Screaming Frog , Sitebulb , Deepcrawl , JetOctopus , etc.

6. How Do You Analyze Page Speed And Core Web Vitals?

Your potential technical SEO hire should use both the Google PageSpeed Insights tool ( the Google Lighthouse report ) and the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console to analyze the speed and performance of the site before drawing any conclusions or giving recommendations.

The point with this question is to check that the person:

• Really knows the difference between lab data (the data provided by Google Lighthouse) and field data (the data provided by the CrUX report) and knows which ones to prioritize (i.e. field data).
• Knows when it’s best to use the GSC Core Web Vitals report (i.e. to check pages in bulk) and the PSI tool (to get an overview of one specific page, usually the homepage).

Ideally, your candidate also knows other speed and performance tools, such as GTmetrix or WebPageTest , and knows how to use crawlers to analyze the lab performance of pages in bulk.

7. What Are Some Quick Technical SEO Wins?

In this question, you want your potential SEO hire to draw on their experience.

Even though there is no best answer here, you want to see that the person can really differentiate between low-impact, high-impact, low-effort, and high-effort technical SEO optimizations .

For example, it always makes a huge difference if you compress images on the website and convert them to JPEG or WEBP. Meanwhile, it may not really help a lot to rebuild the entire website (and use a ton of resources in the process) to get it from 92/100 score to 98/100 in PSI.

Sometimes a huge technical SEO win will be simply to get rid of that 10 MB image that loads on every page instead of asking developers to recode the site to save 0.1 s by better optimizing JavaScript.

8. A Site That’s Been Online 9 Months Is Getting Zero Traffic. Why?

Ask for the possible reasons that come to mind.

Sometimes the solutions to problems in SEO are simple – for example, the site has no organic traffic because a no-index tag has not been removed or simply GA is not working correctly.

Other times, they require a ton of technical and data analysis that goes well beyond checking the indexability of pages.

With this question, you want the person to demonstrate their ability to look for solutions, think critically, and be creative.

9. How Do You Check If Googlebot May Have Problems Accessing Site Content?

A good technical SEO expert must know something about JavaScript rendering and the potential problems that JavaScript-based websites may face.

Here you want the person to demonstrate:

• At least basic knowledge of the topic of SEO & JavaScript (i.e. their familiarity with Martin Splitt from Google).
• Their knowledge of tools that allow for comparing rendered HTML with source HTML , such as Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Rendertron , and – obviously – the URL Inspection tool in GSC.

10. What Example Errors May An XML Sitemap Have And How Would You Handle Them?

I see people focus too much on XML sitemaps with small websites (a couple of hundreds of URLs or less) and too little on that for huge sites (multi-million-page sites).

When it comes to XML sitemaps, you want your next technical SEO hire to show that they know:

• What XML errors can be classified as low-impact (e.g. using deprecated parameters) and high-impact (e.g. indicating non-indexable pages).
• When it is important to put a lot of focus on the XML sitemap (e.g. with huge sites that may have indexability and crawlability issues as opposed to small websites).
• How to use XML sitemaps to improve and optimize the crawl budget of the site.
• What pages should be included in the sitemap and how different CMS systems generate XML sitemaps.

11. How Do You Perform A Technical SEO Audit?

With the help of this question, you want to check if the person has their own SEO process for auditing a website.

Do they use a set of different tools to do that? Or do they rely on a fully automated audit where the tool (not the person) decides what issues the site has and what their priorities are?

At this point, you may also:

• Ask the person to show you the examples of technical SEO audits they have performed.
• Get them to explain how they approached particular issues.
• And have them talk about the results their recommendations brought (if they have been implemented).

12. You Discovered That A Website Has Hundreds Of Duplicate Pages. What Do You Do?

With this question, again, you want the person to demonstrate their critical thinking abilities and desire to look for solutions.

There is no right answer here but an experienced technical SEO specialist should mention the following in their answers:

• Checking the index status of these pages to make sure that these duplicates actually create a problem.
• Checking the user-declared and Google-selected canonicals for these pages (possibly with the new URL Inspection Tool API).
• Checking where these pages are in the internal linking structure of the website.

In addition, you may also ask the person when duplicate content is not an issue and how to check if the site actually has this problem.

If the person is saying that the site may get penalized for duplicate content, it means they have some catching up to do.

13. What Do You Use Google Search Console For? What’s Your Favorite Use Of That Tool?

Google Search Console , in most cases, should be the number one SEO tool for technical SEOs.

You want your future technical SEO hire to share with you how they use the tool and how it helps them to achieve their SEO goals.

There is no single correct answer to that question again but you probably want them to mention the following:

• The Coverage report and what its specific buckets are for.
• The Page Experience report and its limitations.
• The Crawl Stats report and how it can be used to analyze how Google crawls the website.
• The Security report and how you can use GSC to check if a site has been infected.
• Ways to use GSC to analyze internal linking.

14. How Do You Check If The Site Uses Structured Data And Whether It Is Valid?

Structured data can be a specialty itself within SEO but you still want your technical SEO to:

• Be familiar with tools , such as Schema Markup Validator and Google Rich Results Test and know the difference between them,
• Know how to use crawlers , such as Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to analyze structured data in bulk for many pages,
• Be familiar with SEO Chrome extensions like Detailed SEO that allow for quickly looking up what types of structured data are used on a particular page.

Here, you may also ask the person about the difference between structured data, rich results, and featured snippets.

People often confuse these.

15. What Are Your Favorite SEO Resources?

This is a totally open question but the more resources the person cites, the geekier they are.

An absolute must is that they are familiar with Google Search Central , read the Google SEO documentation, and watch the SEO office hours with John Mueller .

If you hire an SEO geek, you can be sure they will never miss any meaningful SEO news and will be happy to test and implement new strategies.

Bonus: Yes Or No Questions

Open questions are great for seeing how a person thinks and how deep their knowledge actually is.

However, yes and no questions may also help you check if a person updates their knowledge frequently and really knows this stuff.

Here are a few yes and no questions about technical SEO to ask your potential hire.

Ask them to justify their answers to get even more insight:

• Is structured data a Google ranking factor?
• Do errors in the Coverage report in GSC always indicate an error on your website?
• Can you use Google Search Console to analyze internal links on the website?
• Can Google penalize you for duplicate content?
• Is it possible for Google to treat a 302 redirect as 301?
• Can you inform Google about the new domain for your website in a different way than through a 301 redirect?
• Should you noindex category and tag pages?
• Should a non-existent page always return 404?
• Does Google always use the canonical URL you declared?
• Does Google always respect the nofollow attribute on links?

Final Thoughts On Interviewing Technical SEOs

If your prospective technical SEO hire managed to get through all of these questions and gave you satisfactory answers,  congratulations!

Chances are good that you have a pretty smart and experienced technical SEO wanting to work for you.

On the other hand, even if the candidate wasn’t able to answer all of your questions currently but has a willingness to learn and genuine interest in SEO, they may still make a brilliant technical SEO expert in some time – if you give them a chance.

More resources: 

• Technical SEO Is a Necessity, Not an Option
• Google’s Advice on How to Hire an SEO
• Advanced Technical SEO: A Complete Guide

Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock

Olga Zarr is an SEO consultant at SEOSLY. Olga Zarr is a technical SEO specialist and an SEO auditor with ...

Subscribe To Our Newsletter.

Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.

• SEO Scholars
• SEO Tech Developer
• SEO Alternative Investments
• SEO Leadership Institute
• How to Apply
• Law School Application Webinar Series
• Scholarships

Apply to SEO Law Catalyst

The 2024 Catalyst Application is now closed.

Application Qualifications 

To qualify you must meet the following requirements:

Program Timeline

SEO Law Catalyst 2024 Timeline:

• Mid January 2024: Program kickoff / LSAT Clinic begins
• Participants sit for the June LSAT
• Admissions Clinic begins
• Participants may re-take the August LSAT (if needed)
• Law School Virtual Tours begin
• October 2024: Mentorship Program begins
• December 2024: Catalyst Scholars must submit law school applications by end of this month

Application Components

Here’s what you need to have ready when you apply (all of the following sections must be completed before we can evaluate your candidacy):

• Resume (if needed, begin with SEO’s Resume Template )
• Unofficial Undergraduate and/or Graduate Transcript(s) 
• List of Top 5 Law Schools (to which you intend to apply)
• Short Statement (300-word limit)
• Register for a free LSAT Lab account
• Review these instructions on navigating LSAT Lab and sit for PrepTest 73.

Application Timeline

SEO Law Catalyst Application Timeline:

• Application Opens: Monday, October 23, 2023 12:00 PM EST
• Deadline: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 3:00 PM EST
• If invited to Second Round: applicants will be notified by email and will have seven (7) days to complete the short, asynchronous video interview.
• Semi-finalists Pool: applicants will be notified on a rolling basis by email if they have been selected to join the Semi-finalist Pool. All other applicants will be released.
• Final Decision: finalists will be selected by or before January 12, 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”)

We require a GPA minimum of 3.2 (though will consider compelling candidates with 3.0 GPA). There is no LSAT requirement.

Our primary requirement is that you intend to submit your law school applications by December 2024.

LSAT re-takers are welcome! All Catalyst Scholars are required to complete all components of the program, which includes the LSAT clinic. If you do not wish to participate in that portion of the program, you are not eligible for Catalyst. We encourage you to apply to our Fellowship program in the future.

The LSAT Clinic is geared towards maximizing your LSAT score for the June LSAT and Catalysts must sit for the June LSAT. If a Catalyst wants to retake the exam, we will continue to provide course support through the August LSAT.

You may include an unofficial transcript when submitting your application. If you attended more than one institution, please submit unofficial transcripts per institution.

We welcome applications from any students interested in matriculating into law school in Fall 2025. Our Catalyst Scholars have a wide variety of work and academic experience.

No specific law school required. Students are welcome to apply to any ABA-accredited law school for matriculation in Fall 2025. We will do the best to support and help you curate a list of schools that best fit your goals.

The Catalyst Program does not guarantee admission into any particular law school.

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

• Goldman Sachs
• Ken Griffin
• Hellman & Friedman
• Kirkland & Ellis LLP
• Marie-Josée & Henry R. Kravis
• Sidley Austin LLP
• Align Technology
• Hara H. Amdemariam
• Leslie Williams & James Attwood
• Joseph Bae & Janice Lee
• Frank Bisignano
• Bravo Family Foundation
• Charlesbank
• Clayton Dubilier & Rice
• Hythem T. El-Nazer
• Philippe Laffont
• Kenneth B. Mehlman
• Palladium Equity Partners, L.L.C.
• Joe & Susan Plumeri
• George R. Roberts
• Julian C. Salisbury
• Siris Capital Group
• Robert F. Smith
• Sun Capital Partners, Inc.
• TA Associates
• Tishman Speyer
• Vista Equity Partners
• Aeries Technology
• Air Products
• Alex Tahsili – Alkeon Capital Management
• Bloomberg Philanthropies
• Russell Carson
• Kathryn & Ken Chenault
• Michael & Germaine Choe
• Brian & Karen Conway
• Dell Technologies
• Suzanne & Matt Donohoe
• Mark Gallogly & Lise Strickler
• Global Infrastructure Partners
• Hess Foundation
• Hunter Point Capital
• Sonia & Paul Jones
• Nyssa & Chris Lee
• Nancy & Howard Marks
• Kammy Moalemzadeh
• Morgan Stanley
• Scott & Amie Nuttall
• Paulson Family Foundation
• Verdun S. Perry
• S&P Global
• Ed Tam & Tara Hart
• TPG Global, LLC
• Acquavella Family Foundation
• American Securities
• Bank of America
• The Baupost Group
• Lisa & Jeff Bewkes
• Gloria & Mark Bieler
• Andrea & Jim Burns
• Natalie & Billy Butcher
• Maya Chorengel
• John Civantos
• The Chase & Stephanie Coleman Foundation
• Duff & Phelps A Kroll Business
• Jimmy Dunne
• Edwin Gould Foundation Accelerator
• William E. Ford General Atlantic Foundation
• Garcia Hamilton & Associates L.P.
• GCM Grosvenor
• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
• The Meg & Bennett Goodman Family Foundation
• Donald Graham
• Carla A. Harris
• HPS Investment Partners, LLC
• Hudson Yards
• Johnson & Johnson
• JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• K1 Investment Management
• Kimberly Kravis & Jonathan Schulhof
• Marie-Josée Kravis
• The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation
• Lexington Partners
• Jennifer & Marc Lipschultz
• Mercedes-Benz USA
• Morgan Lewis
• National Land Tenure Company, LLC
• Michael & Maria Osheowitz
• RBC Capital Markets
• Siegel Family Endowment
• Silversmith Capital Partners
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
• Adam & Melanie Smith
• David & Amy Sorkin
• Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
• Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
• Angelo Gordon
• Apollo Global Management
• Vivek Bantwell
• Berkshire Global Advisors (Ted Gooden)
• BNP Paribas
• Bridgewater Associates
• Karen & Todd Builione
• Castle Oak Securities, L.P.
• William Cornog
• Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
• FX de Mallmann
• Diameter Capital Partners LP
• Eaton Vance
• James Esposito
• Dr. & Mrs. Bienvenido Fajardo
• Franklin Templeton Investments
• General Dynamics/Gulfstream Aerospace
• Golden Tree
• William A. Goodloe
• Bob, Debbie, and Jon Gottlieb
• Harman, on behalf of former CEO Dinesh Paliwal
• Infosys Limited
• K Kim LT Events
• KSL Capital Partners
• Latham & Watkins LLP
• Lindsay Goldberg
• Macquarie Capital
• Maybel Marte
• McKinsey & Company
• Mr. & Mrs. Henry McVey
• Nancy Peretsman & Bob Scully
• PGIM Investments
• PJT Park Hill
• Ropes & Gray LLP
• Kim & Ralph Rosenberg
• R.R. Donnelley
• Sullivan & Cromwell Foundation
• Thrive Capital
• Abernathy MacGregor
• Advent International
• American Express
• American Century
• Margaret Anadu
• Argand Partners
• Mark Baumgartner
• Berkshire Partners LLC
• Jose A. Briones
• Chartres Lodging Group, LLC
• Helen Cheng, Houlihan Lokey
• Citi Private Bank
• The Davis Companies
• Deutsche Bank
• Blair W. Effron
• David Eisman
• EOS Investors
• Irene Esteves
• Lauren & Peter Feld
• Todd Fisher
• Michelle and Brandon Freiman
• Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
• Friedman Family Foundation
• Guggenheim Investments
• Anthony Hass
• Carolyn C. Hastings
• Harold Hope
• Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
• Jones Lang LaSalle America
• Leonard & Judy Lauder
• Ros & Fran L’Esperance
• Marsh, Inc.
• MFS Fund Distributors, Inc
• Peter Oppenheimer
• Richard Parsons
• RRE Ventures
• Shearman & Sterling LLP
• State Street Corporation
• Stone Point
• W Cade Thompson
• Daniel and Kristen Williams
• Raj & Raj Agrawal
• BellCast Partners
• Charles Bendit
• ClearBridge Investments
• Credit Suisse
• Lorin Crenshaw
• Michael Curry
• Custo Gimose Family
• Five Rings LLC
• Harris Williams
• Morton Janklow
• Robert Korn
• Major Executive Search
• Robbin Mitchell & Jeff Scruggs
• Temi Omojola
• Partnership for New York City
• Tony Pasquariello
• General David Petraeus
• Pherwani Family Trust
• Daniel Pietrzak
• T. Rowe Price
• Drummond C. Bell
• Angelique Brunner
• Keith Burns & Kennisha Austin
• Eric Doppstadt
• Federated Hermes
• ghSMART&Co
• HarbourVest Partners, LLC
• Olivia John
• Diego Kantt
• Maryanne Lavan
• Anthony Lehman & Molly Brady
• Wesley LaPatner
• Patrick Marshall
• McAneny Family Gift Fund
• Arthur Mehlman
• Gina & Ernest Mensah
• Carlos A. Mercado
• Moelis & Company
• Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
• Jason Nogueira
• Keith Patterson
• Avinash Samudrala
• Joseph Savarimuthu
• Bonnie St. John & Allen Haines
• Alisa & Alastair Wood

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; 100 tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite 100 SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Recognition during live program and both Fireside Chats; Prime placement of full-page ad in program; Prime recognition in event materials; Newsletter, website, and social media recognition.

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; 50 tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite 50 SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Recognition during live program and both Fireside Chats; Full-page ad in program; Recognition in event materials; Newsletter, website, and social media recognition

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; 30 tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite 30 SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Recognition during live program and both Fireside Chats; Half-page ad in program; Recognition in event materials; Website recognition

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; 20 tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite 20 SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Recognition during live program; Quarter-page ad in program; Recognition in event materials; Website recognition

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; 10 tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite 10 SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Recognition during live program; Listing in program; Recognition in event materials; Website recognition

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; five tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite five SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Listing in program; Recognition in event materials; Website recognition

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; two tickets to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite two SEO alumni tickets to Fireside Chats; Listing in program; Recognition in event materials; Website recognition

Unlimited access to the Virtual Awards Dinner experience; one ticket to both Fireside Chats; Underwrite one SEO alumni ticket to Fireside Chats; Listing in program; Recognition in event materials; Website recognition

• Company Name *
• Contact Name *
• Contact Email *
• Contact Number
• Company Website *
• Provide a brief description about your company. *
• Availability to schedule a call? Please provide at least two date and time options. Include your time zone.
• How did you hear about us?
• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.