INTRODUCTION TO LEXICON LEGAL CONTENT
Welcome aboard. At Lexicon Legal Content, we provide high-quality and informative content regarding a variety of legal practice areas for law firms and law firm marketers throughout North America. Our clients depend on our legal expertise to ensure that the content they receive is legally accurate, reliable, compelling, and compliant with the Professional Rules of Conduct in their jurisdictions. As a member of our team, you have demonstrated your ability to create content that fits these parameters, and your legal knowledge and writing skills are an integral part of our success.
What is Content Marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
In the context of the legal profession, content marketing involves creating content that will provide potential clients with answers to questions that they may be asking online. Some basic examples of the topics (and titles) of content that we may create for clients include the following:
- 5 Things to Do after a Car Accident
- What are the Penalties for a 1st Time DUI in New York?
- Should I File for Bankruptcy?
- Why it is Important to Retain an Attorney During Divorce
Search Engine Optimization
While potential clients are our primary readers, it is important to understand that part of creating, sharing, and adding content to a site involves engaging in a process known as “search engine optimization,” or SEO. SEO is the process optimizing to rank highly when certain search terms are entered into search engines. For example, a personal injury practice in Chicago would likely want to optimize for the search phrase “Chicago car accident attorney” and a Denver family law practice would seek high rankings for “divorce lawyer in Denver.” In many cases, the content we create is part of a larger effort aimed at improving where our clients rank for specific search terms.
A Few Specific Points about SEO and Content
There are some issues regarding SEO and content that are important to understand in order to write effective content, including the following:
- Keyword stuffing, the practice of adding keywords at an unreasonably high rate, can result in a ranking penalty. Shoot for a keyword phrase density of 2-3 percent.
- Duplicate content, even if it is your own, will be ignored by search engines. While it is understandably tempting to copy and paste boilerplate legal or marketing language, it is critical to take the time to reword it into unique content.
- Search engines are getting smarter every day, and have made clear that they are rewarding relevant, informative, and fresh content. Your best bet is to use natural language rather than try and use awkward constructions or complex legal jargon in order to get certain phrases into your piece.
