How often should law firms write new content? The answer depends on their goals.
They should create informative content often if they want to get more leads or increase sales.
To improve their brand image and reputation, they should create in-depth, high-quality content more slowly (but still regularly).
Content marketing is one of the main pillars of modern marketing strategies.
To reach out to potential clients, law firms must produce high-quality content. This article offers six simple search engine optimization (SEO) content writing tips for law firms.
Writing Effective Content For Law Firm Clients
Content marketing has become increasingly important for law firms.
Lawyers manage complex legal situations daily, but many of their clients do not.
No matter a person’s circumstances, needing a lawyer will likely induce stress. Seeking a lawyer’s services can be a highly emotional experience, depending on the details of the situation.
As a result, people probably won’t choose the first lawyer they see; they will do the work and research the right lawyer for them.
The Decision-Making Process
Before deciding, potential clients need to feel like this lawyer is someone they can trust and rely on during a difficult time.
Building trust and authority is perhaps the most critical purpose of content marketing for law firms.
Law firms have the perfect opportunity to show off their skills and encourage potential clients to use their services through well-written content.
Blogs are one of the primary ways to deliver this information online.
The blog posts may decide whether an individual on the fence will make that call and hire the firm.
Therefore, the content must be fresh, authoritative, and relevant to the firm’s target audience. The proper selection of topics, accurate details, and natural, engaging writing can make all the difference.
A robust, quality content strategy can help the firm’s website ascend on search engine results pages (SERPs) and ideally begin pulling in more and higher-quality clients.
1. Write For Topics Over Keywords
Usually, the first concepts that come to mind when thinking about starting a piece of SEO content are keywords and keyword research.
All written SEO content needs to have a target keyword phrase. This is how clients find content organically when they search online.
But gone are the days when keywords were all needed to get a piece of content to rank on Google.
Today, we use keywords to tell Google what some of the ideas in our content are, but we do not write our content around keywords. That is not why they are there.
Google has gotten smarter with how it interprets queries, and so have people when it comes to evaluating the quality of the results they get.
Writing around SEO keywords is an institution from a previous age, and content that does this will stand out for all the wrong reasons.
Instead, law firm blog content should focus on actual topics that relate to the legal industry.
Writing for topics helps to match content to what potential clients are searching for more than keywords alone ever could.
When you write for topics over keywords, it can target multiple keyword phrases, not just one per blog post.
So, how is this done?
Law firms can take several approaches. Tools such as Answer the Public and Semrush’s topic research feature can help to generate content ideas based on key phrases.
Or you can search the topic you are writing about and review Google’s SERPs to see what is already ranking and how the content is presented. You can also check out what your competitors are writing about for inspiration.
These methods can guide you toward content that directly addresses clients’ questions. But then, it’ll be up to you to improve your law firm’s blog content.
How do you do that? By laser-focusing your topic research to the needs of your audience and then writing the post like a pro. Let’s dive into how you can accomplish this.
2. Define Client Personas
What’s the point of putting time and effort into writing a piece of content without directing it toward a specific audience?
SEO beginners might think their target audience is everyone on the internet, but only a select group of online users are looking for lawyer services.
To focus on creating a tailored target market – people who need to hire an attorney – we need to determine the different client personas. A client persona represents the types of people who would be the best clients for your law firm.
Client personas vary significantly between law firms, depending on the type of law. This is why you must look at the client personas specifically for your law firm.
You should already know your firm’s target client personas well. You know who your clients are and what their needs are.
By understanding who you are writing for, you will have a better chance of creating something relevant and valuable for prospective clients.
Start by asking yourself:
- What challenges are your clients going through to make them need legal services?
- What kind of people will run into these challenges in the first place?
- And what type of information do you think they would be searching for?
Questions like these are essential when defining client personas.
Determining Demographics
It would help if you also used Google Analytics. And if you utilize social media, you can also look into each platform’s insights.
These resources can help you determine the demographics of your web traffic and followers, which can also lead you closer to your target client personas.
The demographics you find might include:
- Age.
- Gender.
- Geographic location.
- Job title and salary.
- Education level.
- Family dynamic.
- Areas of interest.
3. Types Of Content To Create
SEO content often refers to the written word, but not always. Here are some significant types of SEO content:
Blog Posts
The content writing most people will already be familiar with is blog posts. Blog content can attract traffic to a website.
It’s a straightforward way of earning the trust of potential clients by simply communicating with them about a topic they care about.
Choose the keywords carefully and use internal links to point back to the website’s top-level pages, which would be your firm’s main legal service pages.
Blog posts allow a firm to expand upon those legal subjects by adding details, providing examples, or reflecting on recent developments in legal cases.
Location Pages
Law firms can also benefit from creating location pages that target certain cities or other geographical areas.
The firm’s location pages do not have to target every local municipality on the map.
Of course, key locations are essential, but remember that people may only travel a relatively short distance to access the services of a high-quality lawyer.
To set a geographical barrier, you should try to target your client personas in a city 10 to 20 miles circumference from your offices.
Audio & Visual Content
The written word is a handy SEO tool, but don’t forget audio and visuals. They’re not a new trend, but podcasts continue to grow in popularity.
If you want to stay on top of current content-stacking trends, you’ll want to bring up the idea of a podcast for your firm.
Creating podcasts based on existing written content and the firm’s specialized knowledge can add variety to your legal content.
Podcasts are relatively easy to produce since you don’t have to worry about perfecting any visual elements. You can hire a freelancer to edit them so the audio and transitions are consistent.
You can have some of your firm’s attorneys get on the air and discuss a legal subject. And create episodes highlighting topics people may want to know more about.
For example, have them explain the types of bankruptcies or personal injuries to educate the public. And over time, people will see the law firm as an authority in its particular area, which can drive leads.
Similarly, videos can cover the same information as a written or audio piece but provide the public with an engaging visual experience. This will also help potential clients build a relationship with your firm by putting a face to the name of your content.
People tend to retain visuals over text, so perhaps a lawyer can explain a concept using a chart or graph, which you integrate into the video. This can help people to understand an idea more fully.
4. Essential Qualities Of Great Content
When writing law firm content, you should know what’s needed to make the piece high-quality. So aside from the heavy SEO stuff, blog posts, service, and location pages must include the basics of effective writing.
Who will trust attorneys who confidently publish grammar mistakes on their websites?
Additionally, remember that while your firm might have a lot to say on various legal topics, potential clients probably won’t be able to digest too much information all at once.
Ensuring that the content is readable for your target audience is key to making it effective.
For example, if you want to discuss a complicated topic, try creating a blog series for it. That way, you can ensure your clients fully grasp the subject one piece at a time.
You should also ensure that any content you produce is accurate to the last detail since the public could construe it as legal advice and follow it to the letter. Google pays particular attention to any content that may affect a search user’s livelihood.
All content should end with a call to action that tells readers what to do next. Those can help the content convert more people into legitimate leads.
Remember that all legal content you create for your firm must have someone you can trust to edit the work. And it should be edited more than once, with multiple sets of eyes looking it over, so you don’t miss any simple mistakes.
The editor should be familiar with all the basics of a well-written piece and the elements that make the content SEO-friendly.
5. Promoting Your Content
Ideally, if you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll have potential clients finding your content organically when they look for legal information.
Of course, this is what you hope for when you publish any content, but it sometimes isn’t enough to post something and have that be the end of it.
Content often needs a nudge to be impactful. So, after creating a piece of content, the next step is to promote it.
For example, you can increase your website’s traffic by promoting blog posts across Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms.
Sharing new content on your social media channels is an easy way of putting it in front of an audience and ensuring you’ll continuously have something to post.
But social media isn’t the only place you want to share your content. One of the most fitting places to promote content is via email.
If your email list sends out the new content, it can help remind people that your firm is an excellent choice for legal aid.
6. Measuring Conversions
After you’ve created content for your law firm, you will want to measure if it’s working.
Generally, the goal of writing content is to bring in new clients. There are a few ways you can measure your content.
Tools such as Google Analytics are available to help you get accurate information regarding the impact of SEO content on sales.
You can also talk to your firm’s lawyers to check on the quality of their inbound leads since publishing the content.
Checking conversions provides vital information you can use for your future content strategy.
However, patience is integral to SEO content writing, so you might not immediately see results.
Everyone would like excellent results on the first try. But it might take time for your law firm to find footing when beginning its content strategy.
So, taking a few attempts might be stressful, but it will pay off when you do it right.
Final Takeaways
Law firms should remember that content is king. Never underestimate the power of well-written blog posts or uniquely crafted videos and podcasts.
By focusing on producing these types of content, you can gain access to a broader audience and hone in on the target client persona while building authority.
So, if you want to increase your web presence and improve your SERP rankings, these content marketing tips can help.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock
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