If your law firm is not blogging, you are losing countless leads to lawyers with successful law firm blogs. Blogging improves your law firm’s visibility online.
Adding relevant, helpful content to your law firm’s website builds your reputation and authority. It also builds and strengthens your brand.
A successful law firm blog can get you recognized by other websites. Receiving backlinks on other websites increases your authority and ranking in online search results.
To reap the benefits of law firm blogging, you need to ensure your blog has the following eight elements.
1. Keep law firm blogs simple and easy to understand
You are writing for prospective clients. Blogs should take legal issues and break them down for the average layperson. You are not writing for other lawyers or answering a law school essay.
When creating your law firm blog articles, use simple language and short sentences. Do not write long paragraphs. Three to four-sentence paragraphs help the reader digest the content easily.
Blogs should only take a few minutes to read. The average length of a blog is between 1,200 to 1,800 words. Some blogs might be shorter or longer, depending on the topic. Unnecessary “fluff” can turn the reader—and prospective clients—away.
2. Use a mix of content to build your blog
Readers are interested in different types of content. A diverse range of content enhances your legal blog and your website.
You should consider including the following content in your law firm blog:
- Evergreen Content – Blogs that discuss legal topics that do not become stale or dated. Examples of evergreen content include blogs on statutes of limitations, how much a case is worth, and how long it takes to settle a case.
- News – Blogs discussing recent news related to an area of practice, such as local car accidents, changes in tax laws, etc.
- FAQs – Blogs with a list of frequently asked questions about a legal topic are premier content. Readers can obtain quick answers to specific questions.
- “How-to” Blogs – Blogs about what to do after a car accident or how to negotiate a settlement can increase your website traffic. Readers want to know what they need to do to resolve a legal issue.
- Answers to Questions – Blogs that answer a specific question, as opposed to a series of questions, may fall under evergreen topics, current news, or general legal questions.
- Related Topics – It is also a good idea to include blog content related to your area of practice. For example, personal injury lawyers may want to include blogs discussing Distracted Driving Awareness Month or tips for teaching a teen driver safe driving habits.
It is also good to include content to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your local markets. Discussing a local event or festival allows you to naturally use the names of cities, streets, and establishments in your blog.
When it comes to attorney SEO, building your blog requires publishing new content consistently. You need to publish frequently enough to keep people coming back to read your blogs.
You also need fresh, new content to increase your rankings in search engine results.
3. Use engaging titles and headlines for blogs
You need to grab the attention of a reader with an actionable, clear title. The title also needs to include your main keyword and should be no more than 70 to 80 characters. The title should make the reader want to click on the blog for more information.
For example, “How to Win A Personal Injury Case” may attract more readers than “Winning a Personal Injury Case.” Adding “How” lets the reader know you will give them actionable information they can use to win their case.
4. Don’t overstuff your blogs with keywords
Including keywords in your blog posts is essential for law firm SEO purposes. However, using your keyword too many times can hurt your Google ranking. Overstuffing keywords also reduces the readability of your blog.
Instead of using your main keyword too many times, use related words. For instance, if your keyword is drug possession, you can use related keywords such as drug crimes, drug paraphernalia, possession charges, and drug trafficking.
Using a tool like SEMRush or Keyword Tool can help you avoid keyword stuffing penalties.
While you want to keep SEO in mind when blogging, you need to put quality before SEO. Quality content improves ranking. It can also result in backlinks to your website or encourage people to share your content.
5. Use an outline to organize your thoughts
Every blog must have a purpose and answer a relevant question. Blogs that are difficult to follow may turn readers away.
Well-crafted blogs are organized. Use an outline to organize your thoughts before you begin writing your blog.
Create an outline using subheadings and bullet points to ensure that your blog flows in a logical direction. After creating an outline, write each section, and make sure that you stay on topic as you transition from one section to another.
6. Do not oversell yourself in your blogs
Repeatedly asking your reader to contact your law firm could cause some people to stop reading your blog. Readers want information. They want answers to their legal questions.
Linking to other pages on your website that explain why the reader should hire your law firm may be a better option.
In your blog, explaining the benefits of contacting an attorney and gently leading the reader to contact your office is better than giving harsh commands.
Avoid sounding too “bossy.” Instead, keep your tone helpful and pleasant.
7. Use graphics and images to break up your text
Make your blog visually interesting by using graphics and images. Graphics allow you to convey information in a different format. Your graphics might include FAQs or checklists.
Keep in mind that using the same graphics and images that every other law firm uses could lower your search engine rankings. Instead, invest in images and graphics for which you can purchase the copyright.
That way, no other law firms can use the image without your permission.
8. Consider how your blog appears on a computer, tablet, and smartphone
Readers access your blogs on a variety of electronic devices. You need to check to ensure that your font, graphics, and images are appealing and easy to read across various electronic devices.
You need to have sufficient white space between sentences and paragraphs to enhance the readability of your content. You should also consider the font color.
Black is generally the preferred color for blog text. You may use blue to identify hyperlinks within the content.
Promoting Your Law Firm’s Blog
If no one is reading your blog posts, they may not know how to find it.
Are you promoting your blog on your law firm’s home page? Do you use social media to promote your blog? Are you inviting people who visit your website to take advantage of the “free resources” you have on your website?
You need to think like a marketer instead of a blogger. Ensure that you include social sharing buttons for every post to encourage readers to share your blog on their social media sites.
Key Takeaways About Successful Law Firm Blogs
Successful law firm blogs are:
- Easy to read
- Visually appealing
- Filled with useful information
- Focused on answering questions
- Engaging and interesting
A successful blog compels readers to reach out to your law firm for more information.
Writing blogs is a great way to promote your law firm and its services. However, blogging takes time and skill. Attorneys are focused on providing quality legal services to clients. So, blogging may not be the best use of their time.
Instead of writing your own blog posts, you could hire a professional SEO content creator who understands how to optimize content for search engines like Google.
This would free up your time for other important tasks, such as client development and managing daily operations at the firm.
Hiring a professional blog writer will allow you to create quality content without sacrificing valuable attorney hours that could be spent serving clients.
For more information regarding our law firm SEO services or personal injury lawyer SEO campaign, contact us today.