Both organic and paid search engine marketing are very popular, lucrative and competitive channels for law firms looking to attract more clients, including for estate planning legal services. A fundamental key to the success of your search engine marketing efforts is knowing the right keywords to target.
Below on this page, we’ll go over the top estate planning keywords that solo attorneys and law firms can benefit from in both SEO and PPC ad campaigns. These keywords are picked from a much larger list of search queries, selected to be the best in terms of generating new calls and inquiries from our experience in running both ads and performing search engine optimization to rank for these profitable searches.
The Best Estate Planning Keywords for SEO and PPC Ads
Below are the top 60+ estate planning keywords for attorneys and law firms that we found from Google’s Keyword Planner. To compile this list, we looked at more than 1,000 most common estate planning related keywords (sorted by monthly search volume) in the United States and filtered out irrelevant search terms as well as queries and phrases known to have lower conversion rates.
Of the one thousand keywords we exported, we calculated that this generates an average of over 523,000 searches every month in the United States. However, if you were looking for assurance that the list below is the best of them, these 60-plus search terms alone make up over 324,000 searches per month (or 61.97%) of the total search volume from the top one thousand keywords.
Focusing on these keywords means you’ll be putting your energy towards the searches that have the most volume and best potential return on investment and effort.
| Keyword | Avg. monthly searches | Competition | Avg. Top of Page Bid |
| power of attorney | 90500 | Medium | $2.66 |
| durable power of attorney | 33100 | Medium | $2.08 |
| medical power of attorney | 18100 | Medium | $1.67 |
| estate planning attorney | 14800 | Medium | $14.48 |
| probate lawyer | 14800 | Medium | $14.16 |
| estate attorneys near me | 14800 | Medium | $11.38 |
| probate attorney | 12100 | Medium | $16.42 |
| estate planning attorney near me | 9900 | Medium | $13.18 |
| estate lawyers near me | 9900 | Medium | $10.55 |
| estate planning lawyer | 8100 | Low | $14.78 |
| probate attorney near me | 6600 | Medium | $13.95 |
| probate lawyer near me | 5400 | Medium | $12.94 |
| will lawyer | 5400 | Medium | $8.98 |
| will attorney | 4400 | Medium | $9.24 |
| financial power of attorney | 4400 | Medium | $1.84 |
| health care power of attorney | 4400 | Medium | $1.96 |
| will attorney near me | 4400 | Medium | $9.16 |
| will lawyers near me | 4400 | Medium | $9.29 |
| general power of attorney | 3600 | Medium | $2.33 |
| trust attorney near me | 3600 | Medium | $11.57 |
| trust lawyer | 2900 | Low | $11.62 |
| durable power of attorney for health care | 2900 | Low | $2.01 |
| irs power of attorney | 2900 | Low | $17.12 |
| trust attorney | 2900 | Low | $12.58 |
| limited power of attorney | 2400 | Low | $1.58 |
| trust lawyers near me | 1900 | Medium | $11.78 |
| estate planning lawyer near me | 1900 | Medium | $12.92 |
| will and trust attorney | 1900 | Medium | $12.07 |
| special power of attorney | 1600 | Low | $2.07 |
| living trust attorney | 1600 | Medium | $11.97 |
| power of attorney lawyer | 1600 | High | $7.22 |
| lawyers that do wills near me | 1600 | Medium | $8.88 |
| wills and estate lawyers near me | 1300 | Medium | $12.45 |
| living trust attorney near me | 1300 | High | $11.74 |
| power of attorney notary | 1300 | Low | $2.76 |
| trust and estate attorney | 1300 | Medium | $13.93 |
| durable power of attorney for finances | 1300 | Medium | $2.24 |
| wills and trusts attorney near me | 1300 | Medium | $11.78 |
| wills and estates lawyer | 1000 | Medium | $11.43 |
| real estate power of attorney | 1000 | Medium | $2.70 |
| power of attorney lawyers near me | 1000 | Medium | $7.74 |
| asset protection attorney | 880 | Medium | $12.89 |
| trust and estate planning attorney near me | 880 | Medium | $12.75 |
| will and trust lawyer | 880 | Medium | $12.27 |
| intestate lawyer | 880 | Low | – |
| lawyers that do wills | 720 | Medium | $9.42 |
| lawyer for wills and trusts near me | 720 | Medium | $11.11 |
| asset protection lawyer | 590 | Low | $12.95 |
| living trust lawyer | 590 | Medium | $12.11 |
| power of attorney for property | 480 | Low | $4.62 |
| temporary power of attorney | 480 | Medium | $1.80 |
| wills and probate attorneys near me | 480 | Medium | $12.74 |
| best estate planning attorney near me | 480 | Medium | $12.43 |
| living trust lawyers near me | 480 | High | $11.68 |
| poa attorney | 480 | Medium | $6.56 |
| living will lawyer | 480 | Medium | $10.75 |
| lawyer for wills and trusts | 480 | Medium | $10.83 |
| wills and estates attorney | 480 | Medium | $11.74 |
| estate litigation attorney | 390 | Low | $15.50 |
| trust litigation attorney | 390 | Low | $24.52 |
| living will attorney | 390 | Medium | $9.32 |
| inheritance lawyers near me | 390 | High | $9.95 |
| best estate attorney near me | 390 | Medium | $11.43 |
| estate probate attorney | 390 | Low | $15.11 |
| trust and estates attorney near me | 390 | High | $12.00 |
| special needs trust attorney near me | 390 | Medium | $11.58 |
| last will and testament attorney | 320 | Medium | $9.18 |
| best probate attorney near me | 320 | High | $11.08 |
| last will and testament lawyers | 320 | Medium | $8.61 |
Many of the keywords shown above are highly similar or synonymous with other keywords in the table. Examples include “estate planning attorney near me” and “estate attorneys near me” or “probate attorney” and “probate lawyer”.
This is because different people will search for the same thing using different keywords and search terms. This varies on the individual, but also geographically. Based on which terms are more common in your market, you will want to optimize your organic and paid search campaigns to meet these differences and capture more conversions, leads and clients.
Keywords and Targeting for your Local Market
All of the keywords listed above are geographically generic. In other words, none of them contain names of states, cities or counties.
Many of the top estate planning keywords listed above can be combined with state names, cities and counties to focus on local markets. This is critical for both paid and organic search campaign optimization and is key for improving performance.
Use tools like Keyword Planner and Ahrefs to find the best local keywords for your law firm.
Estate Planning Keywords for PPC vs. SEO
Depending on your search engine marketing strategy, you may be using either pay-per-click (PPC) ads, search engine optimization (SEO) or a combination of both to attract new clients for your law firm.
The list above is ideal for both paid and organic strategies. This is because these keywords are geared toward a more transactional search intent, meaning that users searching for these keywords are more likely to call a lawyer or law office they find through their search.
However, with SEO you can expand your list of keywords to rank pages and content for more informational topics, such as “types of power of attorney” or “do I need a trust to avoid probate?”.
These searches won’t likely result in nearly as many phone calls and inquiries for new business as someone searching for “estate planning attorney” or “wills and estate lawyer boston”.
You may not want to spend advertising dollars bidding for these keywords and search terms for PPC ads though, as it could be challenging to recuperate your investment. However, with enough search traffic and the right call to actions, can still result in new leads and be worthwhile investing SEO efforts into ranking for such queries.
For attorneys and firms in highly competitive markets that are new and don’t have the budgets or marketing power to compete for expensive PPC keywords or transactional keywords for SEO, producing broader topical content for information queries rather than transactional keywords could be a better approach for them.
Looking for an Online Marketing Strategy that Fits your Law Firm?
Zahavian Legal Marketing helps attorneys and law firms sign up more cases in their primary practice areas every month with consistency and predictability. If you’re looking to attract more estate planning clients for your business, then we can help you develop a strategy and execute it to meet your firm’s needs.
Get in touch with us today to book a free consultation and find out if we’re the right fit for your business.
