Keyword Question - Metro Suburb

[ajgrossman]

My question is about keyword selection for a small divorce law firm located outside of a major city.

My firm focuses only on family law matters, such as divorce, child support, child custody, and paternity.  Divorce cases generate the most revenue.  We are located outside of the Orlando, Florida metro area, in a small town about 15 miles west of Orlando.

My keyword research shows a significant amount of traffic for keywords including Orlando, such as Orlando Divorce Lawyer, Divorce Attorney Orlando, and Orlando Divorce Attorney.  For my location, Winter Garden, Florida, the search volume is reported as "0" using Moz's Keyword Difficulty tool.  When I use other tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, the reported volume for my physical location and surrounding cities, other than Orlando, shows a volume of "0."

We do get potential clients contacting us indicating that they found us via a Google search, and I know that we are ranking well in local search results.  That's the good news.  However, we are trying to increase the volume of potential clients contacting us, and it seems that the way to do that is to rank well for searches including the word "Orlando."

I know that ranking in the local results for Orlando is out of the question because my office is not physically located in Orlando.  However, it does not seem to make sense to target keywords for organic search including my location and the surrounding cities because the search volume appears to be next to nothing.

So my questions are as follows:

Even though the search terms with high traffic seem to be quite competitive and my office is not located in Orlando, should I still target keywords including the Orlando location?

How should a small business approach this strategy as far as keyword usage and organization of the website?  Should I have a city landing page for Orlando or should I target my main pages using keywords including "Orlando" and build city pages for the smaller, surrounding cities?

Thanks in advance for the help.

My website is located at http://www.thegrossmanlawoffice.com

[MiriamEllis]

Sounds like a great idea. I would, of course, put some unique static content on the page, as well, explaining what you do in Orlando, and then have a constantly refreshed section of lead-ins for your blog posts. I think that makes sense!

[ajgrossman]

Miriam,

Yes, I can write about Orlando cases and other activities in Orlando.  Would you recommend doing that on my blog?  If I did that, would it be best to have a city page for Orlando to link to from any blog posts that mention/target "orlando?"

[MiriamEllis]

Hi AJ,

It sounds like there is some potential here. Are these involvements in Orlando something you can creatively write about? If so, I think you've found a resource for highlighting a true association with this city.

[ajgrossman]

Thank you all for your responses so far.  What you all have provided so far is very helpful for me, so thank you.

Miriam,

My firm represents clients from Central Florida and we regularly appear for hearings, trials, and mediations at the main Orange County courthouse located in downtown Orlando.  We also appear at other courthouses in other areas around Orlando, such as Lake County courthouse, Osceola County courthouse, Brevard County courthouse, Seminole County courthouse, etc.

Wherever there is case filed, we appear.  So, in a sense, we travel to where our client's cases are handled.  Since our attorneys are licensed in Florida, we can represent anyone in the entire State in any State courthouse.

We are members of the Orange County bar association, located in downtown Orlando as well.

Does any of this information help?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi AJ,

I think of this as a double-whammy situation: you don't have an Orlando office and you're not a service area business that goes to Orlando to serve (like a plumber). If the business had either of these attributes, the solution would be easy. In the absence of this, my question would be to ask if the firm has any connection at all to Orlando. For example, a general practice doctor in the suburbs might:

• Be on the hospital staff in Orlando

• Give lectures in Orlando

• Attend conferences in Orlando

• Give clinics in Orlando.

• Sponsor something in Orlando, like a little league team, a women's shelter, etc.

Can the firm come up with some real world connections of these kinds that would provide things to write about/blog about?

If not, then there is no real connection between your firm and the major city, and the website has to reflect this. Obviously, you can state that you are 10 miles from Orlando or something along those lines, but that in and of itself is unlikely to earn extra visibility for the practice.

[Vizergy]

We see this exact 'issue' with hotels all of the time.  Start with 'near' terms: 'near Orlando' or 'greater Orlando area' you will get those faster - they will drive some traffic and you will increase your relevance for broader 'orlando' terms.  Do not do this to the detriment of your 'Winter Garden' terms.  I think "Winter Garden Law Firms near Orlando" or similar would be a good start.

Good luck

[SajeetNair]

On the Google places front -

You are absolutely right. Since you do not have a physical listing, you cannot rank in Google places. However all is not lost.

On the on page front -

Targeting keywords related to Orlando on your main static pages would not be ethical for the simple reason that you do not have a physical presence in Orlando. However I also understand your perspective of increasing your reach and targeting people from different Geo locations.

You will definitely need to create new pages for targeting geo specific keywords. Three types of pages need to be created -

• Primary Page - This page will talk about your services for a specific location
• Secondary Pages - The aim of these pages would be to support your primary page, for example how laws in orlando differ from other location, Case studies of cases in orlando etc
• Fresh Content - I noticed that you have a blog section, need to leverage this section by writing orlando specific content (can be a news, can be an article etc)
• Cross Promotion on various platforms - Once you have the on page side of things settled, focus on promoting the new sections via other channels that you might own (Facebook, Twitter etc)

The combination of all the above techniques should help you achieve a decent standing on the organic front. Unfortunately without a physical location, Google places will be a lost cause.

• Sajeet

[GardenBeet]

Yes target Orlando.  At the very least you will pick up some long tail search. I would target Orlando on the home page.

I would also set up pages for every single town/village/region that surrounds you. Google reporting is not 100% accurate - it is likely there are searches for obscure towns despite google reporting none. You may only be optimising a page for one or two searchs per 6 months but if you convert that customer surely it would be worth the investment (given legal fees are typically high)?

l