Creating Effective Law Firm Content: A How-To Guide

Creating Effective Law Firm Content: A How-To Guide

No matter what type of law you practice, the content published on your website must be accurate, informative, and engaging while adhering to ethical guidelines and SEO best practices. If this seems like a lot to balance, you’re right. However, creating effective content for your legal website will not only attract many potential clients but can also establish your authority and convert visitors into leads. Here are some useful simple tips for creating compelling content for legal websites that will resonate with your readers.

Understand Your Audience

Before creating content, you should understand your target audience. Knowing who you are writing for will help tailor your content to their needs and preferences.

Identify Your Audience

Determine the demographics of your potential clients. Are they individuals or businesses? What legal issues are they facing? What legal concerns might they have? Understanding their needs and challenges will help you create relevant and valuable content.

Client Personas

Develop client personas to represent different segments of your audience. Visualizing who you are writing for and what kind of information they might seek can make your content more effective. A client persona can include demographic information like age, gender, location, occupation, income, and relationship status, as well as psychographic details like motivations, interests, pain points, and likes or dislikes. All of this will depend highly on the type of law you practice and the type of clients you serve.

Common Legal Issues

Identify common legal issues your audience faces. This could be anything from personal injury claims to business contract disputes. Addressing these topics will make your content more relevant and useful. It can be helpful to start by making a list of these general topics and then digging deeper into more specific topics under each one. Then, you can brainstorm titles for blogs or the focus of newsletters based on these particular topics or sub-topics.

Craft Engaging and Informative Law Firm Content

Creating content that is both engaging and informative is critical to attracting and retaining visitors to your legal website.

Clear and Concise Writing

Always keep your legal content clear and free of jargon. Avoid using complicated legal terms without a layperson’s explanation. Remember that your goal is to make the information accessible and understandable to a broad audience.

In-Depth Articles

Be sure you provide detailed information on legal topics. Comprehensive articles will help establish your authority and provide value to readers. However, keep your audience engaged by breaking the content into manageable sections with clear headings. Using bullet points and pictures or graphs can also help break up the text, making it easier to read.

Use Case Studies

Case studies are a powerful way to illustrate how legal principles apply in real-life situations. They provide practical examples that can help potential clients understand how you can help them and how specific laws might apply to their situations.

Client Testimonials

 Incorporate client testimonials and success stories. These add credibility and can help build trust with potential clients.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are a great way to address common concerns and queries. They provide quick and accessible information that can help guide visitors through their legal concerns.

Incorporate SEO Best Practices for Legal Websites

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for making your legal content discoverable and getting it to the top of the search results. Here are some SEO best practices to follow:

Keyword Research

Identify relevant keywords that potential clients might use when searching for legal services. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to determine high-volume, low-competition keywords that you will want to incorporate into your content.

On-Page SEO

Optimize your content for search engines by incorporating keywords naturally into your titles, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout all of the content. Keep your content well-structured by using H1, H2, and H3 tags.

High-Quality, Helpful Law Firm Content

Google prioritizes high-quality, authoritative content. Always focus on crafting informative, well-researched articles with the purpose of providing real value to your readers.

Internal Linking

Use internal links to connect related content on your website. This helps search engines understand the structure of your site and keeps visitors engaged. However, be sure to only link to credible, reliable websites.

Be Sure to Leverage Different Content Formats

Diversifying content formats can help engage a broader audience and improve the overall user experience.

  • Blog Posts – Regular blog posts on relevant legal topics can attract new visitors and keep your audience engaged. Blogs are also excellent for SEO, as they provide fresh content for search engines to index. It’s best to publish a blog at least once, if not two or three times per week, if feasible.
  • Videos – Video content is increasingly popular and can be particularly effective for explaining complex legal concepts. Consider creating video guides, interviews, or testimonials.
  • Infographics – Infographics are a visually appealing way to present information. They can simplify complex data and make it more engaging and digestible to an everyday audience.
  • E-books and Guides – Create and offer downloadable e-books or guides on specific legal topics. Doing so not only provides something of value to your potential clients, but it can also help with lead generation by capturing contact information in exchange for the download.
  • Podcasts – Podcasts are another popular and effective method to reach your audience. Discussing legal topics, interviewing various experts, or sharing client stories can position you as a thought leader in your field.

Monitor and Improve Content Performance

A laptop showing a pie chart and a rising line graph

You will want to regularly monitor your content’s performance and make improvements based on the data you find. If you want to see ongoing success, this is a necessary step.

  • Analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics to track the performance of your content. Monitor metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and conversion rates to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
  • User Feedback: Pay attention to user feedback and comments. While not all feedback you receive will be helpful, this can still provide valuable insights into how your content is being received and highlight areas for improvement.
  • A/B Testing: Experiment with different headlines, formats, and calls to action to see what resonates best with your audience. You might be surprised at how small changes can impact the reach of your content.
  • Regular Updates: Regularly update your content to ensure it remains accurate and relevant. This is particularly important for legal content, as laws and regulations can change. It’s also an essential piece of SEO.

Creating compelling content for legal websites requires a strategic approach that combines many factors, including:

  • Audience understanding
  • Engaging and informative writing
  • SEO best practices
  • Ethical considerations

By following these tips and tricks, you can create content that not only attracts and engages potential clients but also establishes your authority and credibility in the legal field. But don’t stop there. Be sure to regularly monitor and improve your content to ensure it continues to meet the needs of your audience and supports your business goals.

Having Trouble Creating and Maintaining Effective Law Firm Content for Your Website? Contact Lexicon Legal Content Today

If you’re like most attorneys or law firms, you already have a lot on your plate. You probably understand the value and importance of quality content on your website, but maybe you don’t have the time or the experience to give your content the attention it needs. This is where we come in.

At Lexicon Legal Content, we know what takes to create effective content that captures the attention of your potential clients. Our experienced attorney-led legal content writers are ready to take your website to the next level. To learn more, call our office or send us an email today.

Is There a Magic Number When It Comes to Law Firm Blog Posts?

If you’re regularly updating your law firm’s blog, you already know that blog posts help you connect with current and potential clients alike. You may wonder, however, if there’s a magic number, schedule, or time frame regarding how often and when you should be posting. Should you be slapping content up every day – even if you really don’t have much to say – or should you leave people wanting more by posting intermittently? Fortunately, it’s no longer a guessing game – there are some tried-and-true guidelines to help guide how often you should be updating your law firm’s blog. 

Continue reading “Is There a Magic Number When It Comes to Law Firm Blog Posts?”

What Is Content Readability and Who Defines It?

Most of us think something is readable if we enjoy it. We want a piece to have a beginning, middle, and end, preferably in that order. If it’s fictional, we want it to be about people we care about or like. Sometimes, it’s a book you just happen to come across or a title or a cover that drew you in, and you couldn’t leave till you finished the story. Sometimes, it’s something so powerful that you simply can’t let it go. However, these qualities aren’t the only kinds of readability.

When it comes to getting your law firm website to rank, content readability is an important factor. Search engines analyze readability and reward it. In other words, they rank (and put at the top of the SERPs) the articles that have the features the engine thinks will make a reader stick to the end. Aside from all the other things the contributed to readability, being current and up-to-date is one of the most important factors. Keeping your firm’s website current and up-to-date with content that people want to read will go a long way to keeping you high on that first results page.

Do We Know It When We See It?

One of the ways a search engine defines readability is by determining how long a reader stays in place before sliding on to the next result. It doesn’t just matter how many people click on your page; it matters how long they stay after they get there. There are ways to encourage them to stick around, such as with video and audio content and eye-catching graphics. Paying attention to these things takes more time than simply reading – or not reading – whatever copy you’ve offered. Still, words are usually far less expensive than sound, pictures, and graphics, so it is very much worth your time to offer the best and most readable content you can provide.

Key Readability Factors

Factors that Google will focus on when deciding the readability of your page include:

Sentence Length & Variety

You want short sentences but with some variation in their length and style. Avoid unnecessary or overly formal words. Additionally, it’s better not to crowd your text with words like “actually” and “usually,” which give you no value for the space. Avoid using too many adjectives and consider breaking up long, complicated sentences.

Structure & Style

Again, short sentences are vital. Each sentence should have a subject and a verb – preferably in that order. Make sure to include graphics and video here as well. They are supporting tools and hold your visitors. Avoid fussy fonts.

Paragraph Length and Formatting

Use short paragraphs made up of short sentences. Readable paragraphs are usually 5 or 6 lines long. Use a title and subtitles. Bullet points are your best friends, and you should always try to include at least one. Don’t forget to include keywords. You’ll want to put them in subtitles as well as in your paragraphs and try to repeat them without sounding like you’re just adding keywords.

Make It Work for You

All of these factors and more can make your website attractive and engaging to readers. You can contact us to help you provide the most readable copy for your website. We will even provide a free sample, marketing written expressly for you to help you decide how best to move forward with your legal content.

What to Post on Your Law Firm’s Blog

By now, you have likely heard of the way in which blogging can improve your law firm’s ability to reach clients who are searching for the services you offer. While starting a blog is fairly easy, maintaining it can be extremely time-consuming. Not only do you need to actually write and post the content, you also need to come up with subject to write about. While the law is voluminous, it is unlikely that people who are looking for you are searching for information about the difference between res judicata and collateral estoppel.

Here are some of the types of blogs that we generate for our clients.

Legal blog writersInformational Pieces

People who need legal advice or representation often start with a question. Some examples of questions that potential clients may ask include:

  • What are the Penalties for a first-time DUI?
  • Can I File a Lawsuit after a Slip and Fall?
  • Should I File for Bankruptcy?

Let these types of queries inform the topics you choose to write about. Keep in mind that while your titles can be in the form of a question, they do not have to be, and should try and include keywords for which your clients may be searching.

Firm News

Firm news is another source of material for your blog. If the rules in your jurisdiction permit it, use notable case results or victories to promote your firm. Also, discuss events like new hires, office moves, speaking engagements, event sponsorships, or community outreach.

News Stories Related to Your Practice Area

Finally, you should look to news stories that are relevant to your practice area. These stories could be local but need not be. For example, if you are a personal injury attorney, a multi-vehicle accident may provide a good opportunity to discuss the complexities of proving causation. Similarly, if your main area of practice is in criminal defense, blogging about publicized DUI checkpoints would be of interest to your potential clients and provide an opportunity to use keywords related to your practice.

Call Us Today to Learn More about out Legal Content Marketing Services

Maintaining a legal blog requires significant effort and research, and as a busy practicing attorney, your time is extremely valuable. The legal blog writers at Lexicon Legal Content are available to develop well-written, shareable, and compelling legal content that will help your potential clients find you online. To learn more, call us today at 314.691.8602 or contact us online.