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White-Labeling Law Firm Content: A Guide for Marketing Agencies

White-Labeling Law Firm Content: A Guide for Marketing Agencies

Posted on by David B. Arato

The Legal Content Conundrum

Let’s be real: when your agency lands a law firm client, the excitement of a new account can quickly turn into a content creation nightmare. As someone with a foot in both worlds – having graduated from law school but making a career in legal content marketing – I’ve seen this scenario play out countless times.

Your writers, brilliant as they may be with most of your clients, suddenly hit a wall. That blog post about personal injury claims uses outdated statutes of limitations. The family law practice page accidentally implies guaranteed outcomes. And that estate planning guide? It’s technically accurate but reads like it was written for law school professors, not actual humans seeking help. 

By the way, none of this is good – either for potential clients or SEO.

What began as a promising client relationship now has you scrambling to find specialized talent or spending late nights editing content you’re not entirely confident about.

But there’s a solution that more agencies are discovering: white-labeling legal content from specialists from niche content marketing agencies like Lexicon Legal Content.

Why Legal Content Requires Specialized Knowledge

A graphic explaining the benefits of white-labeling law firm content

Before diving into how white-labeling works, let’s acknowledge why legal content is uniquely challenging:

Compliance landmines are everywhere

While most states model their advertising rules on the ABA’s model rules. each state bar has specific regulations—what’s compliant in California might trigger ethics concerns in Florida. Getting it wrong doesn’t just mean unhappy clients; it potentially exposes your clients to regulatory issues. Some examples of content that may violate bar advertising rules include:

  • Referring to an attorney as an “expert” or specialist”
  • Using language that indicated a certain outcome was guaranteed or even likely
  • Calling a firm or a lawyer “the best” in a given location
  • Providing actionable legal advice
  • Making misleading statements about a lawyer’s services or ability

In many cases, a generalist content creator may not even know that these are issues in legal content marketing. For this reason,it’s advisable for marketing agencies to seek out specialist legal content marketers as white label partners.

Legal accuracy is critical

Unlike content about lifestyle products where creative liberties are expected, legal content must be precisely accurate. The difference between “may” and “will” isn’t semantic—it’s often the line between ethical marketing and a potential bar complaint.

Additionally, in the legal field, it’s extremely important that law firm content demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trust – with trust being the most important of these factors.  If a law firm’s content is inaccurate, it can lead to significant SEO penalties for the entire site.

The expertise paradox is real

Attorneys want content that demonstrates sophisticated legal knowledge while remaining accessible to potential clients who lack legal training. This balancing act requires deep subject matter expertise combined with strong marketing sensibilities.

In our work supporting other marketing agencies, we’ve found that a significant amount of general content created for law firms contains either technical inaccuracies or compliance issues that could create problems down the line.

White-Labeling: The Strategic Solution

White-labeling legal content allows your agency to deliver specialized expertise to your law firm clients without the overhead of building that expertise in-house. 

Here’s how it typically works:

  1. Your agency maintains the client relationship and strategy
  2. You partner with legal content specialists for creation
  3. The content is delivered under your agency’s brand
  4. Your client gets superior results without knowing multiple vendors are involved

For most agencies, this approach offers the best of both worlds: the ability to serve legal clients profitably without the risk and resource drain of developing legal expertise internally.

Pricing Models That Preserve Your Margins

One of the main concerns agencies have about white-labeling is profitability. How do you price specialized content while maintaining healthy margins?

In our experience, the most successful approach isn’t markup-based but value-based:

Bundle content with strategy and distribution. Rather than selling “blog posts” or “practice area pages,” sell comprehensive content marketing programs where specialized content is one component of your overall service.

Create tiered offerings with different content cadences. A basic package might include two specialized pieces monthly, while premium tiers offer weekly content. This allows you to scale the specialized component based on client budget.

Position legal specialization as a premium value-add. Agencies we work with typically achieve 35-50% margins on white-labeled legal content by properly positioning the specialized expertise as a premium offering worth paying for.

Making It Seamless: Integration with Your Workflow

The operational challenge of adding outside specialists to your workflow is valid. At Lexicon Legal Content, we’ve been white labeling our content creation services for more than a decade, and we’ve had clients ordering well over 1 million words per month. In other words, we know how to work with agencies at scale and are able to integrate into your existing workflow.

That said, over the years, we’ve developed some best practices that seem to work for agencies of any size:

  • Create standardized briefs that capture client needs. Develop a template that efficiently communicates the client’s practice areas, target audience, and strategic goals to your legal content partner.
  • Establish clear revision protocols. Lawyers can be picky clients. Develop SOPs for getting feedback and having your content partner implement them. 
  • Maintain a single point of contact. Assign someone from your team to manage the white-label relationship, ensuring consistency and protecting the client relationship.

One agency we support uses a simple Notion template to brief us on each project—capturing client information, strategic direction, and technical requirements in under 10 minutes of their team’s time.

Finding the Right While Label Legal Content Partner

Not all legal content providers are created equal. When evaluating potential partners, look for:

  • Legal credentials and experience. Ideally, content should be created or reviewed by individuals with legal training in relevant practice areas.
  • Marketing orientation. Pure legal knowledge isn’t enough—the content must drive business results through appropriate calls to action and conversion focus.
  • White-label experience. Partners should understand agency relationships and be committed to supporting your client relationships rather than trying to circumvent them.
  • Capacity alignment. Ensure your partner can scale with your needs as your legal client roster grows.

The Competitive Edge of Specialized Expertise

In an increasingly competitive agency landscape, specialized capabilities create meaningful differentiation. The ability to effectively serve law firm clients—who typically have larger marketing budgets and longer retention than many other industries—can transform your agency’s growth trajectory.

White-labeling legal content allows you to develop this specialization without the years of investment typically required to build it organically.

Frequently Asked Questions About White-Label Legal Content

General Questions

Q: What exactly is white-label legal content?

White-label legal content is specialized written material created by legal experts that marketing agencies can deliver to their law firm clients under their own brand. This content is legally accurate, compliant with bar advertising rules, and professionally written to attract potential clients while demonstrating the law firm’s expertise.

Q: How is white-label content different from outsourced content?

While both involve third-party creation, white-label content is specifically designed to appear as if it was created by your agency. The end client isn’t aware of our involvement, your agency maintains complete client ownership, and all materials carry your branding. Traditional outsourcing often involves the client knowing multiple vendors are involved.

Q: What types of legal content can be white-labeled?

We create all types of legal marketing content including practice area pages, blog posts, newsletters, case studies, attorney bios, FAQ pages, long-form guides, local service pages, press releases, and email campaigns. Any text-based content for law firm marketing can be white-labeled.

Quality and Expertise Concerns

Q: How do you ensure legal accuracy in your content?

Our content team includes former practicing attorneys across multiple practice areas who review all material for legal accuracy. We maintain current legal research resources and regularly update our knowledge of changing regulations in different jurisdictions.

Q: Will the content be unique for each client?

Absolutely. Each piece is custom-written based on your brief and the specific needs of the law firm client. We never use templates or recycled content. Every project starts with fresh research and is tailored to the firm’s practice areas, geographic location, and target audience.

Q: How do you handle different practice areas and jurisdictions?

Our team includes specialists in major practice areas including personal injury, family law, criminal defense, estate planning, immigration, and business law. We research jurisdiction-specific information for each project and maintain separate resources for different states’ legal requirements.

Process and Workflow

Q: What information do you need from our agency to get started?

Typically, we need basic information about the law firm client (location, practice areas, target audience), content goals, technical specifications (word count, keyword targets), and any firm-specific style preferences. Our standardized brief template makes this process quick and efficient.

Q: What’s the typical turnaround time for content?

Standard turnaround for most projects is 3 business days. Rush services are available for an additional fee, with 24-48 hour delivery possible for most projects. Larger content initiatives can be scheduled with staged delivery dates.

Q: How are revisions handled?

We offer unimited revisions. We work directly with your agency team to implement any requested changes. If the law firm client has feedback, you communicate that to us, maintaining your position as the relationship owner.

Business Considerations

Q: How much does white-label legal content cost?

Pricing varies based on content type, complexity, and volume. We offer both per-project pricing and monthly retainer options with volume discounts. Most agencies find our pricing allows for healthy margins while delivering premium value to their clients. Contact us for a custom quote.

Q: What if we need to scale up quickly?

Our team is structured to handle volume fluctuations. We’ve supported agencies through rapid growth phases, creating over 1 million words monthly for our largest partners. With advance notice, we can expand capacity to meet most volume needs.

Q: Is there a minimum commitment or contract period?

We offer both contract-free project-based work and discounted retainer agreements. There’s no minimum commitment required to begin working with us, though volume discounts apply for ongoing relationships.

Q: How do agencies typically position this service to their clients?

Most successful agencies position specialized legal content as part of a comprehensive marketing program rather than as a standalone product. This approach preserves margins and emphasizes the value of expertise beyond simple content creation.

Getting Started

Q: How quickly can we begin working together?

We can typically onboard new agency partners within 24 hours. After an initial discovery call to understand your needs, we’ll provide our agency partner documentation, brief templates, and communication protocols. Most agencies can submit their first project within hours of initial contact.

Q: Do you have case studies from other agencies you’ve supported?

Yes, we have numerous case studies showing how agencies have successfully incorporated our services into their offerings. While we maintain confidentiality about specific white-label relationships, we can share anonymized results and success metrics.

Q: How do we get started?

Contact us at 877-486-8123 or info@lexiconlegalcontent.com to schedule an initial consultation. We’ll discuss your agency’s specific needs and create a customized solution for your law firm clients.

Looking to White-Label Your Law Firm Content? Contact Us Today

Looking to white-label your law firm content? Our team of legal content specialists can deliver the expertise your agency needs. Contact us today to learn how we can help you serve your law firm clients better.

About the Author: David Arato, JD, is the founder of Lexicon Legal Content, a specialized agency supporting both law firms and marketing agencies with expertise-driven content. His team includes former practicing attorneys across multiple practice areas who now exclusively create marketing content for the legal industry.

Attorney Website Content: What It Is and Why You Need It

Posted on by David B. Arato

Law firms tend to be in the slow lane when adopting modern marketing trends. The legal industry is understandably conservative, and that risk-averse stance is indeed reflected in content marketing successes and failures. What makes for stand-out, high-ranking attorney website content is often outside the comfort zone of most attorney brands. Safe, salesy content is regularly chosen over true thought leadership that converts readers not just into clients but into superfans who help expand your reach. Lexicon Legal Content can help!

Website Content for Law Firms: The Basics

Before we get started, let’s define some terms. “Content” refers to anything your law firm creates simply to offer value to your target market—articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, ebooks, printables, etc. “Website content” specifically refers to both blog articles and fixed pages on your law firm’s website that aim to educate, entertain, or otherwise help readers.

What Makes Law Firm Content Marketing Effective?

Stellar law firm website content builds relationships and creates trust with the audience. As Google says, “Focus on people-first content.” What does that mean? It means you are writing an article, creating a video, or designing an infographic with the primary purpose of giving something genuinely helpful to your target market, not with the goal of using a certain keyword phrase, hitting a certain word count, or boosting an SEO term that’s currently underperforming in your analytics. Of course, at Lexicon Legal Content, we are experts at finding creative ways to marry these two concepts, but good writing is non-negotiable.

Let’s break down what makes the difference between safe and high-performing law firm website content:

Creating Human-to-Human Connections

The best content marketing speaks directly to your audience in a relatable and authentic manner—it’s transparent. By adopting a conversational tone and using storytelling techniques, for example, you can create human-to-human connections that resonate with your target audience. This personal touch helps potential clients feel like you “get” them.

Give, Give, Give, Give, Ask

Too much law firm website content focuses on promoting rather than giving. However, the most effective content marketing takes a different approach. The right balance is to give 10 or more times before asking for something like a follow, visit to a contact page, or signing up for a newsletter. By consistently delivering high-quality content that educates, informs, and engages AND then asks for something, you build credibility that converts.

Avoid Creating Search Engine-First Content

In Google’s own words, you should focus on creating people-first content to be successful with Google Search rather than search engine-first content made primarily to gain search engine rankings.

When Lexicon Legal Content crafts content we strike the necessary balance between writing for humans while implementing SEO best practices. What we don’t do is look at your content as a keyword delivery system.

By providing thoughtful, relevant information, you not only improve your search engine rankings but also maximize what truly makes content marketing effective—the fact that it gives value that drives trust, loyalty, and authority.

How Does High-Quality Website Content Get Law Firms More Clients?

In today’s digital age, potential clients are increasingly turning to the internet to find legal representation. But how exactly does exceptional website content translate into new clients for law firms? Let’s explore the powerful connection between content quality and client acquisition.

Dominating the SERPs

The search engine results pages (SERPs) are the search engines’ results to a user query. In other words, it’s what you get back when you conduct a search.

Attorney website content screenshot

By optimizing your website content with strategic keywords, the right balance of internal and external links, and truly brilliant writing, you increase your chances of appearing higher in SERPs. As you would guess, the higher you rank for relevant search terms, the more visible your firm becomes, leading to increased website traffic and more clients. Very few people scroll past the first few listings in an online search, so if you want to get clients online, you need great content.

Better Content Builds Trust

By providing clear, accessible explanations of complex legal concepts – from the nuances of employment discrimination to the steps involved in estate planning – you position your firm as a helpful resource that transforms overwhelming legal challenges into manageable processes. This educational approach helps potential clients feel more confident in reaching out for professional assistance, as they recognize both your expertise and your commitment to helping them understand their legal situation before they even schedule their first consultation.

Quality Content Gets People to Reach Out

Great content doesn’t just inform – it motivates readers to take the next step. Well-crafted content drives potential clients to reach out by highlighting time-sensitive legal matters, statutes of limitations, and the benefits of early legal intervention, helping readers understand why they shouldn’t delay seeking legal help. Strategic placement of contact information, consultation offers, and clear calls to action throughout your content makes it easy for readers to reach out when they’re ready. Each piece should include natural transition points that guide readers toward taking action. Remember that different readers prefer different methods of contact, so your content should highlight various ways to connect – whether through phone calls, contact forms, email, or live chat. This variety of options makes it comfortable for every potential client to reach out in their preferred way.

Authoritative Link Building

Quality content naturally attracts links from other reputable websites, which search engines interpret as votes of confidence in your expertise. When other legal resources, news outlets, or industry publications reference your content, it strengthens your firm’s digital authority.

Crafting Law Firm Website Content That Ranks

Creating content that ranks requires a strategic approach. This is where Lexicon Legal Content excels—we weave the nuts and bolts of SEO with the finesse of good writing. Here are a few key elements to consider:

Create Unicorns

Law Firm Content Unicorn wth Disco Balll

In the world of SEO and content marketing, a “unicorn” is your break-out blog post that goes viral and generates a significant amount of traffic. It’s not uncommon for a unicorn to bring in as much as 70-80 percent of a law firm’s traffic.

How do you create a unicorn if you don’t already have one? What is the one blog post that only you could write? For example, if you are an immigration lawyer, but you are also someone who was granted citizenship through a VAWA petition, your unicorn blog post might be an insider’s guide to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) from the dual perspective of both an attorney and a survivor. Once you find the niche, then pour all of your story, experience, and knowledge into the post.

Be Aware that Your Law Firm Website is Held to a Higher Standard

YMYL is an SEO term meaning “Your Money or Your Life.” It refers to website content that can deeply affect the course of your life. As attorneys, understanding the YMYL philosophy is particularly important because legal issues can indeed be life and death.

Google holds YMYL content to a higher standard of excellence. If a gossip column publishes something inaccurate, the ranking penalty will be less significant than if an attorney did the same thing. Google pays close attention to the quality and credibility of YMYL legal content, so demonstrating your expertise becomes even more critical.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)

A graohic explaining E-E-A-T for law firm content

E-E-A-T is Google’s guideline for what differentiates a poor blog post from a superstar. E-E-A-T is a primary factor in deciding whether to rank one article over another. E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

At Lexicon Legal Content, every law firm blog post we create is judged by our attorney editors on how much E-E-A-T it demonstrates. This can include information about your legal background, work history, previous cases, testimonials, or accolades you’ve earned to establish credibility and trust. Additionally, citing credible sources, referencing case studies and specific statutes, and providing valuable insights further enhance your law firm’s authority.

No Keyword Stuffing

Keyword usage must be natural and organic. “Keyword stuffing” refers to over-using a certain SEO-friendly phrase to the point that your article is awkward to read. It’s right up there with Blackhat SEO techniques, like leaving spammy blog comments that link back to your law firm’s website. Keyword manipulation makes your content less reader-friendly, which destroys the pure intent of offering readers helpful information. It also results in penalties from search engines. Yes, be strategic about putting a blog post together, but ensure your article remains reader-friendly.

Your Trusted Source for Stellar Law Firm Website Content

Let us worry about getting your law firm website content on page one while you focus on your clients. Lexicon Legal Content is a well-established, attorney-owned content marketing agency dedicated to helping hundreds of law firms around the country turn their websites into lead-generating machines. Contact us to discuss how we can help you grow your firm’s online reach today.

Legal Content Strategy Tips: Creating Compelling Content that Maintains Professional Standards

Posted on by David B. Arato

The challenge of creating legal content sits at a critical intersection: engaging potential clients while upholding the highest professional standards. As law firms increasingly recognize the importance of digital presence, many find themselves caught between these competing demands. The result often manifests as content that either reads like a legal brief, alienating potential clients, or oversimplifies complex legal concepts in a way that undermines the firm’s expertise.

What Issues Do Law Firms Face in Content Marketing?

Most growing  law firms understand the necessity of maintaining an active online presence. Yet the reality of content creation poses significant challenges for practicing attorneys. Some of these challenges include:

  • Time constraints make regular publishing difficult
  • Concerns about accuracy and compliance
  • Staying on top of current SEO best practices
  • Creating content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T)

The pressure to maintain SEO visibility while adhering to professional standards creates a burden that often results in inconsistent publishing schedules or compromised quality.

Consistently Create Excellent Content

Professional excellence in law firm content requires more than just legal  accuracy. While precise legal information forms the foundation of any piece, effective content must bridge the gap between legal expertise and client needs and understanding. This means developing content that demonstrates deep knowledge while remaining accessible to potential clients who may be encountering complicated legal concepts for the first time.

Consider the typical client’s journey: They rarely begin with sophisticated legal questions. Instead, they search for answers to pressing personal or business problems that happen to have legal implications. Effective content meets them at this point of need, gradually introducing legal concepts within the context of their situation.

The Art of Accessible Legal Writing

Creating accessible legal content doesn’t mean oversimplifying complex concepts. Rather, it requires a careful approach that layers information effectively. The best legal content begins with the client’s perspective, acknowledges their concerns, and then guides them through increasingly sophisticated understanding of their legal situation.

This approach appears in content that weaves together practical insights with legal expertise. For instance, a piece about business formation might begin with common entrepreneurial concerns before exploring how different legal structures address these issues. By anchoring legal concepts in real-world applications, the content becomes both more engaging and more valuable to readers.

Strategic Content Development

A comprehensive legal content strategy needs to address multiple objectives simultaneously. The foundation begins with core practice area pages that establish expertise and authority. These pages should offer deep insights into your firm’s approach while anticipating and addressing client questions and concerns. 

Building on this foundation, develop interconnected blog content that creates natural topic clusters around your main practice areas. This approach serves both SEO purposes and user experience by providing multiple entry points for potential clients while establishing deep expertise in specific areas of law.

To AI or Not AI: The Evolution of Legal Content Creation

The emergence of AI tools has introduced new possibilities in legal content creation, but also new considerations. While AI can enhance research and content development processes, it requires careful implementation to maintain professional standards. The trick is understanding how to leverage these tools while ensuring human expertise guides the final output.

Professional legal writers who understand both content creation and legal requirements can effectively navigate this landscape, using AI to enhance rather than replace human expertise. This balanced approach allows firms to maintain consistent, high-quality content production while ensuring every piece meets professional standards.

Implementing Professional Content Standards

Creating effective legal content requires a systematic approach that begins with careful planning. 

Each piece should align with firm objectives while meeting strict quality standards. This means establishing clear guidelines for style, tone, and compliance, along with implementing robust review processes that ensure accuracy without creating bottlenecks in publication.

The most successful content strategies incorporate regular performance review and optimization. This means tracking not just basic metrics like page views and time on site, but understanding how content contributes to client acquisition and firm growth. This data should inform ongoing content development, creating a cycle of continuous improvement.

Contact Us for Professional Legal Content Creation

Law firms increasingly recognize that effective content creation requires specialized expertise. Just as clients seek legal counsel for their specific needs, firms benefit from partnering with content specialists who understand both legal writing and digital content strategy. This approach ensures consistent, high-quality content that serves both marketing objectives and professional standards.

Professional legal content writers bring more than just writing skills to the table. We offer a deep understanding of how to create content that resonates with potential clients while maintaining the professional standards that law firms require. This expertise allows firms to focus on their practice while maintaining a strong and effective online presence.

Looking to elevate your firm’s content strategy? Let’s discuss how our team of specialized legal content writers can help create engaging, compliant content that drives results while upholding your firm’s professional standards. Contact our Lexicon Legal Content today.

How Targeting Long-Tail Keywords Can Help Smaller Law Firms Get More Clients

Posted on by David B. Arato

Trying to compete for cases as a small or mid-size law firm can feel like David fighting Goliath. The largest law firms in any given market seem to have endless marketing budgets. You’ll see them everywhere – on TV, on billboards, and (most relevant to this article) at the top of the search results for highly competitive search terms. On the other hand, smaller firms often struggle to get noticed despite their skill and ability.


Fortunately, there is a way for solos and mid-size firms to compete: targeting long-tail keywords in their content marketing. What is a long-tail keyword phrase, you ask? They are longer keyword phrases that are much more specific to what a consumer is looking for and are much more likely to convert into clients. 

Competing for Vanity Search Terms is Time-Consuming and Expensive

Vanity search terms are those terms that have a high monthly search volume – but typically a low conversion rate. In the legal field, these search terms typically follow this format: [City] + [Practice Area] + [Lawyer/Attorney]. Some specific examples of vanity search terms include:

  • Denver Car Accident Lawyer
  • Chicago Divorce Attorney
  • Los Angeles Bankruptcy Lawyer
  • Miami Truck Lawyer

Ranking for these search terms is extremely different, especially in competitive markets like major cities. The firms doing it are likely spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on marketing, including content creation, obtaining backlinks, and technical SEO. As a result, it may not be worth it for smaller firms to even try to rank for these terms. 

Long-Tail Keywords are Usually High-Intent Searches

While it’s certainly nice to show up at the top of the results for terms like this, the fact is that these terms often generate low-value traffic (more on that later). The fact is that people who are searching for “car accident lawyer” are likely much further from making a hiring decision than say, a person searching for “what to look for in a car accident lawyer” or “how to find a car accident lawyer near me.” 

Long-Tail Search Terms are Much Less Competitive

The good news for law firms with smaller marketing budgets is that long-tail keywords are much less competitive, meaning they are easier to rank for. While large firms may be able to dominate the top of the search results for high-volume search terms, they often overlook opportunities involving long-tail terms, giving smaller firms an opportunity to outrank larger competitors.

For example, terms like “how to find the best personal injury lawyer near me” or “what to look for when hiring a divorce attorney in Chicago” have far fewer competitors vying for that prime real estate on the first page of Google. These are the types of queries that signal a user is seriously considering hiring legal counsel and is further along in the decision-making process.

How to Target Long-Tail Keywords with Content Marketing

Now that we’ve established how focusing on long-tail keywords can help smaller law firms compete, the next step is putting that strategy into action through content marketing. 

Keyword Research

The foundation of any successful long-tail keyword strategy is in-depth keyword research. Look beyond the high-volume, competitive terms and uncover the specific phrases your potential clients are searching for. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs can help you identify relevant long-tail opportunities based on search volume, competition, and relevance.

Create Informative, Specific Content

Once you’ve identified the most promising long-tail keywords, create content that thoroughly addresses those topics. This could include:

The key is to provide genuinely helpful information that answers the user’s query in detail. Avoid thin, keyword-stuffed content – focus on quality over quantity.

Optimize for Search Engines

Proper on-page SEO is critical for ranking well for long-tail terms. Ensure your content features the target keyword prominently in the title, headers, URL, and throughout the body. Use related keywords and LSI terms to reinforce topical relevance. Schema markup, alt text, and other technical optimizations can also boost your visibility.

Build Authority and Links

Search engines also reward websites that demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness on a given topic. Promote your long-tail content through social media, outreach for backlinks, and guest posting opportunities. Over time, this will help your pages rank higher and reach more of your ideal clients.

Track, Test, and Iterate

Continuously monitor the performance of your long-tail content and make refinements based on the data. Which topics resonate most with your audience? Where are there opportunities to create additional content around related queries? Stay agile and responsive to keep improving your results.

Need Help with Your Law Firm Content Marketing? Call Us Today

Establishing an actionable content strategy and regularly creating well-performing law firm content requires a significant amount of time and expertise. At Lexicon Legal Content, our skilled team creates accurate, compliant, and optimized content for law firms throughout North America.  To learn more about how we can help you get more clients through law firm content marketing, contact us today!

Creating Effective Law Firm Content: A How-To Guide

Posted on by David B. Arato

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.

Google Update Impacts Legal Content Marketing

Posted on by David B. Arato

Google recently updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines, which will likely impact your law firm’s content marketing strategies. These guidelines help raters assess page quality. The focus is now on E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness). Your law firm’s website must demonstrate these qualities in its content.

In 2024, Google added “experience” to E-A-T, reacting to AI-generated content like ChatGPT. For legal content and SEO, staying updated and collaborating with an SEO-savvy legal content provider who understands E-A-T and YMYL is crucial. Working with professionals pays off.

Google Update Impacts

The Shift in Direction

Google has shifted focus from YMYL topics like News, current events, Civics, government, and Law to assessing specific content categories for potential harm. According to the quality rater guidelines, content gets labeled YMYL when it poses a high risk of causing damage to readers or others affected. Pages are classified as YMYL if they could significantly impact health, safety, or financial stability due to dangerous topics or unreliable information. Law firm websites must have high-quality content to avoid search engine penalties, as well-written YMYL pages have better chances of ranking well.

EAT, YMYL, and Lawyers

When it comes to legal content, it’s not a stretch to say that inaccurate information can prove harmful to readers and society at large, which makes focusing your efforts on Google’s updated guidelines paramount for law firms and other companies in the legal services space. To begin, the information you share can be actionable, which means it has the potential to guide readers’ behaviors and, thus, has the ability to do harm or cause significant impact – if the content is not carefully considered, accurate, and clearly written.  

Google advises that – even when minor inaccuracies could lead to harm – YMYL is likely applicable. Further, if the topic isn’t one that most people would be comfortable seeking guidance from friends or family, it’s more likely to fall into the YMYL categories. Legal content very likely checks both of these boxes. Finally, the more closely your content identifies with YMYL, which is gauged on a spectrum, the more important E-A-T becomes. 

A High-Quality Focus on E-A-T

Google considers a variety of factors when it determines the quality of the content of a page:

  • The topic and purpose of the page guide the necessary level of E-A-T, amount and quality of main content (MC), and level of information about the MC’s creators. When it comes to YMYL topics, a higher standard for all three is required. 
  • Some factors that can make a page low quality – regardless of its purpose or topic – include having a mixed or mildly negative reputation regarding the website or the content creator or having a shocking or otherwise exaggerated title. 
  • Any type of website can have pages that are identified as low quality, including government and academic websites, and low-quality pages can be about virtually any topic. 

The pages on YMYL topics require more careful scrutiny in terms of factors that are indicative of low quality, and it’s important to note that even one low-quality attribute can push an entire page into a low-quality rating.

The Topic and the Purpose of the Page

The necessary level of E-A-T, as defined by Google, is driven by the page’s topic and purpose. Whatever kind of law you practice, your pages are almost certainly intended to inform readers about important legal matters that could lead to significant actions and profound effects. As such, the very topics of your pages – because the information has the potential to cause harm – are likely to place them squarely in the exacting sights of quality raters, who are required to evaluate the topic when determining page quality. 

A Lack of E-A-T

Google has tweaked its definition of what it means when a page lacks the necessary E-A-T to bypass a low-quality finding by adding a bullet point that states the following – Informational [main content] on YMYL topics is mildly inaccurate or misleading.

Other common examples of pages that are ranked as low quality due to a lack of necessary E-A-T include:

  • The MC’s creator doesn’t have the necessary expertise in the topic at hand
  • The site – although it may be authoritative – is not an authoritative source for the topic at hand (a legal website that offers medical advice, for example). 
  • The MC itself does not inspire trust.

While some pages need no formal expertise to write, it’s critical for the purposes of YMYL topics, which makes it critical for your law firm’s website content. The idea is to highlight the level of legal experience, insight, and skill you have achieved and to ensure that this colors your content. If a page you publish lacks the E-A-T necessary to support its purpose, which is to inform readers on a topic that has the potential to have a significant impact, other factors, such as reputation, cannot save the page from a low rating.  

Do No Harm

Google’s quality raters are trained to recognize that even the most authoritative and generally helpful websites can include pages with harmful MC that are deserving of the lowest ratings. As such, they are called to carefully evaluate each page in terms of its own merits and challenges. Before moving on to any other page quality characteristics, quality raters are required to first check for the following:

  • Untrustworthiness
  • Deception
  • Spam
  • Harmfulness

In its quest to update and upgrade search quality ratings, Google also put out a clear overview of the process involved in the search quality evaluator guidelines. As a provider of legal information, providing informative, well-constructed, compelling YMYL pages is key, which makes focusing on the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the legal content at hand instrumental to offering readers the information they are looking for while remaining in Google’s good graces.

FAQs

What is E-A-T, and why is it essential for legal content?

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Google uses these factors to judge the quality and reliability of information. It’s important because it can impact readers’ lives, finances, or safety.

How can a law firm demonstrate expertise in its content?

Law firms demonstrate expertise by providing detailed legal knowledge, case studies, and practical legal advice highlighting their attorneys’ qualifications and experience.

What gives legal content authority?

Legal content gains authority through credentials like memberships in legal associations, awards, recognitions, and years of experience. This assures readers that the information comes from a credible source.

How can trust in legal content be maintained?

Trust in legal content is maintained by ensuring accuracy, transparency, and reliability. Avoid sensationalized or misleading information, clearly cite sources, and present balanced and factual information.

Why is YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) important in legal content?

YMYL topics, including legal matters, can significantly impact a person’s finances, health, or safety. To protect users, Google requires such content to be accurate, trustworthy, and high-quality.

What pitfalls should be avoided in legal content marketing?

Avoid providing inaccurate or outdated information, lacking precise citations or sources, using overly promotional language, and neglecting to update content regularly to meet current standards.

Final Word

Law firms must create high-quality legal content that adheres to Google’s E-A-T guidelines. Focusing on expertise, authority, and trustworthiness can enhance their online visibility and establish them as dependable sources of legal information.

California Bar Issues Guidance for Lawyers Using AI

Posted on by David B. Arato
Table of Contents

Generative AI, such as Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (previously called “Bard”), are capable of performing tasks that were once thought solely to be in the province of human ability. It can analyze and categorize data and even create human-sounding content in the form of text. As such, generative AI has clear applications in the practice of law and legal marketing. Some of the more obvious uses include document review, contract analysis, and even handling basic client communications.

As lawyers and other professionals have started looking for ways to leverage Generative AI to do their jobs more efficiently, many observers have sounded alarm bells about ethical and professional issues about how it is used.

In fact, some of the early adopters of Generative AI in the legal profession have been subject to sanctions, as the technology is known to “hallucinate” facts. In the case of two New York lawyers, ChatGPT made up case law out of thin air and then doubled down on its existence when asked to verify the cases it cited. Ultimately, the attorneys were each fined $5,000 and ordered to reach out to the judges about the fake cases mentioned. Perhaps worse, their names were splashed all over the national media – from Forbes to CNN – for using ChatGPT and not fact-checking its output.

A year and a few months into generative AI entering the mainstream, state bars are starting to develop guidance and rules regarding how lawyers use it. Given the concerns and uncertainties regarding the use of AI in the legal profession, this guidance is particularly valuable in helping attorneys leverage the efficiency of AI while upholding ethical duties. Recently, California issued guidance that lawyers across the United States can benefit from. I discuss some of the highlights in the material below.

The California Bar Guidance

As part of its guidance, the California Bar takes the position that AI is like any other technology that attorneys may leverage in their day-to-day professional activities. From the guidance:

Like any technology, generative AI must be used in a manner that conforms to a lawyer’s professional responsibility obligations, including those set forth in the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act.

The guidance they provide demonstrates ways that lawyers can use AI consistently with their professional responsibility obligations. Some of the obligations they address are discussed in the material below.

Duty of Confidentiality

The California Bar cautions that the use of AI can have implications related to the disclosure of confidential information. The guidance points out that many generative AI models use inputs to train the AI further and the information that users upload may be shared with third parties. In addition, the models may lack adequate security for attorneys to input confidential information.

For this reason, the Bar advises that lawyers should not input any confidential information without first confirming the model they are using has sufficient confidentiality and security protections. Furthermore, the Bar advises lawyers to consult with IT professionals 

to confirm that an AI model adheres to security protocols and also carefully review the Terms of Use or other provisions.

Duties of Competence and Diligence

The use of generative AI also can raise issues related to the duties of competence and diligence. In light of the fact that these models can produce false or misleading information, the California Bar advises that lawyers must:

  • Ensure competent use of the technology and apply diligence and prudence with respect to facts and law
  • Understand to a reasonable degree how the technology works and its limitations
  • Carefully scrutinize outputs for accuracy and bias

In addition, the Bar cautions that overreliance on AI is inconsistent with the active practice of law and application of trained judgment by an attorney. Furthermore, the guidance advises that an attorney’s professional judgment cannot be delegated to AI.

Duty to Supervise Lawyers and Non-lawyers, Responsibilities of Subordinate Lawyers

The Bar advises that supervisory and managerial attorneys should establish clear policies regarding the use of generative AI. In addition, they should make reasonable efforts to ensure that the firm adopts measures that provide reasonable assurance that its lawyers’ and non-lawyers’ conduct complies with professional obligations when using generative AI. This includes training on how to use AI and the ethical implications of using AI.

Using AI Can Also Have Implications for Law Firm Marketing

At Lexicon Legal Content, our sole focus is on generating keyword-rich content that helps law firms connect with their clients. While the California Bar’s guidance does not mention it directly, using generative AI to create marketing materials like social media or blog posts may also have implications related to the rules of professional conduct.

Under California Rule 7.1, a lawyer may not make a false statement about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services, and a statement is false or misleading if it contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law. Importantly, this is analogous to ABA Model Rule 7.1, which many states have adopted. In addition, under Model Rule 7.2, a lawyer should not call themselves a specialist or expert in any area of law unless they have been certified by an appropriate authority of the state or the District of Columbia or a U.S. Territory or that has been accredited by the American Bar Association.

These professional duties related to advertising make it critical to review any AI output a law firm intends to use in its marketing efforts. At Lexicon Legal Content, we are staffed by experienced legal professionals, including law school graduates and licensed attorneys, who understand these rules and ensure that all of the content we create – whether AI-assisted or not – is in compliance with advertising regulations in our clients’ states.

What’s the Point of Law Firm Blogging, Anyway?

Posted on by David B. Arato

If you have done research on how to market a law firm online – or any business, for that matter – you’ve undoubtedly come across articles advising you to create content and blog regularly. While it is certainly true that this is good advice, the reality is that many of these articles don’t address the why of blogging. 

If you are just creating content, throwing it at the proverbial wall, and seeing what sticks, it’s not going to provide the results you want.  Understanding why you are blogging is important to doing it well, creating content that your potential clients want to read, and also determining what resources you should devote to it. 

If you are just starting out and have time on your hands, learning how to blog may be a good investment. On the other hand, if you’ve got a busy practice or don’t have the desire to learn all the ins and outs of proper blogging, it’s probably best to outsource your content creation efforts to professional legal content writers.

Let’s explore some of the reasons it’s so important for law firms to maintain an active blog as part of their digital marketing efforts – and how to do it well.

Table of Contents

Establishing Yourself and Your Firm as a Thought Leader

Writing authoritative content on legal topics related to your practice area allows you to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. If you are the go-to source of information in a given practice area or sub-area, it can significantly bolster your online presence and increase traffic to your site. More traffic coupled with an optimized website can translate into new clients, referrals from other firms, and more professional opportunities. Creating new, engaging, and novel content may lead to speaking engagements, media appearances, or other publicity that can grow your practice exponentially.

Targeting Long-Tail Keywords

Blogging is a great opportunity to target long-tail keywords –  longer keyword phrases that have lower search volume, are less competitive to rank for, and more likely to convert. Here’s a visual representation of what long  long-tail keywords are published by Ahrefs:

So, if you’re optimizing your practice area pages for search terms like “Chicago car accident attorney,” you can use your blog to go after long-tail terms like:

  • What should I do after a car accident?
  • Do I need a lawyer after a car crash?
  • How much is my car wreck case worth?
  • Car crash FAQs
  • How to deal with the insurance company after a car accident?

If you can match your blog titles to specific questions that your potential clients are searching for on Google, there is a good chance that you’ll appear near the top of the search results, driving more traffic – and paying clients – to your site.

One of the more technical – and overlooked – benefits of law firm blogging is attracting backlinks.  Backlinks are links to your site from other sites, and they are also often referred to as “inbound” or “incoming links. Here’s a visual representation:

The reason you want to attract backlinks is that they are one of the most important ranking factors used by Google. You can think of them as a vote of confidence for your website. The more backlinks you have from other sites, the better your website should rank for important keywords. 

Importantly, not all backlinks are the same. Sites from high-quality, popular, and authoritative sites are “worth” more than links from low-quality, low-traffic, and spammy sites. For example, you are going to get a lot more value from a link from cnbc.com than you would from someone’s personal travel blog.

You can attract backlinks to your site by creating high-quality, engaging, and authoritative blog content that others want to link to. 

Creating Good Content and Managing a Law Firm Blog Takes Time – or Money

As is the case with many things, it’s much easier to talk about blogging than it is to actually do it.  Creating content alone takes long enough, but that’s only a small part of what it takes to actively maintain and optimize a legal blog that generates new business.

Topic Ideation

First of all, you need to figure out what to write  about. Remember to focus on things that matter to your potential clients, not what matters to other lawyers or judges. While you may be super-interested in practice tips and new developments in the law, the reality is that your clients aren’t. 

For example, if you practice in family law, your potential clients are likely concerned about issues like whether they are going to be able to keep their kids or how child custody is decided. Similarly, if you practice in personal injury law, they are most concerned about things like how much their cases are worth or how long it will take to get compensation.

If you are having trouble coming up with blog topic ideas, think about the conversations you have with your clients. What questions do you hear again and again? Shameless plug: you can also turn to Lexicon Legal Content’s free AI Blog Topic Generator for ideas.

Content Creation

Now that you know what to write about, it’s time to sit down and write some content. Remember to write for your readers – not other lawyers and judges. This means avoiding legalese and making the content easy to read. Use informative headers, bulleted lists, and other visual elements that make the content easy to scan.

Optimize Your Content for Search Engines

Once you have your ideas on the page, you need to optimize your content for search engines. If you are targeting particular keywords (and you should be), you should make sure that keyword appears at a density of between 2-3 percent. 

Use appropriate header tags so that search engines are easily able to crawl your content. For example, make sure your title is formatted as H1, subheadings as H2, sub-subheadings as H3, and so on. Additionally, be sure to include links to authoritative external resources and internal links to other pages on your site. Finally, be sure to include a call to action that lets your reader know how to contact you.

Post Your Content on Your Site (and Optimize Your Post)

Now that you’ve got your blog post written and optimized, you should post it on your site. To do this, go to the back end of your website (your Dashboard, if you are using WordPress), and create a new post. Copy and paste your content into the appropriate area, and make sure the spacing between paragraphs and headers is correct – going between Word or Google Docs and WordPress can result in formatting issues.

Next, you should find and add an image to your post. You can find images on sites like pixabay or istock. Add an appropriate image to your site, and then add an alt-attribute to that image. An alt-attribute is text that is displayed if the image can’t be loaded or your site is accessed by someone who is visually impaired and using a screen reader. 

You should also categorize and tag your post in order to help both people and search engines find your content. Categories are a way to create a hierarchical organization of your content, and tags are a way to group content on similar topics together.

Promote Your Post

Now that you’ve got a live blog post, it’s time to promote it. You can do this is a variety of ways, including sharing your post on social media or sending it out to your email list of former, current, or potential clients. In addition, you can always ask your colleagues to share your post on their social media accounts for even more exposure.

Regularly creating and posting blog content takes a significant amount of time. Fortunately, if you are a busy practicing lawyer, you can outsource the entire process to the legal professionals at Lexicon Legal Content. As an attorney-led team, we understand the need for legal accuracy in law firm marketing materials. In addition, we’ve got the SEO chops to create high-ranking content that drives new business.

Why Lawyers Need a Strong Content Marketing Strategy

Posted on by David B. Arato

As an attorney, you have a lot of useful legal knowledge in your head. While you use this knowledge to help your clients daily, you could also leverage it to produce useful content that would bring more prospects to your door.

For example, if you don’t already have a law blog, you’re missing out on the many benefits of legal content marketing. Only about a third of all law firms have a blog on their website that they post regularly to, giving them the upper hand.

An effective digital marketing strategy includes content marketing. Compelling content ranks well on Google and provides potential customers with information about their legal issues. No matter the size of your practice, you have the potential to rank at the top of Google and other search engines with consistent, effective legal content.

Law school may not have prepared you or other legal professionals for legal blog writing or drafting website content, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t crucial to the success of your practice.

What is Legal Content Marketing?

Whether you like it or not, traditional methods of marketing your law practice are becoming less effective and more obsolete by the minute. Taking its place is legal content marketing.

Legal content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on generating and distributing relevant, valuable, and consistent content. Content marketing aims to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable consumer action.

Effective legal content marketing involves the distribution of relevant, timely, and valuable legal content, including:

  • Blogs
  • Website content
  • Newsletters
  • White papers
  • Social media posts
  • Emails
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Well researched web pages that explain legal concepts
  • Practice area pages
  • Other tools and mediums

These pieces of legal content don’t directly promote the law firm but rather stimulate some type of interest in the firm’s services. Content marketing is essential for today’s digital landscape, as consumers have become increasingly numb to typical advertising tactics.

Cultivating Relationships with Prospective Legal Clients

When legal content marketing is done correctly, it conveys expertise and value to current and potential clients and shows that you value them.

The consistent use of a well-planned law practice content marketing strategy lays the groundwork for and cultivates relationships with your prospective and existing clients. Your readers are more likely to hire you when they need legal counsel if they think of you as a:

  • Valuable source of advice and guidance
  • Partner who wants to help them solve their problems and achieve success

The Benefits of Legal Content Marketing

Content marketing can benefit your legal practice in several ways. An effective content marketing strategy will not only address legal issues but can also:

Enhance Online Visibility

You will attract more prospects and website visitors with an effective marketing strategy, especially when society is frequently searching for legal solutions to their pain points. Providing valuable, educational, and informative content about topics that interest your audience and potential clients will enhance your online visibility through your website or social media accounts.

Create More Leads

Not only does proper content marketing highlight your law firm online, but it also generates more solid leads. Educating others interested in what you have to offer builds trust and helps them feel more comfortable becoming a client. Developing relationships with prospective clients will inevitably bring more quality leads.

Boost Loyalty

Client loyalty is crucial in legal marketing and business because the more loyal your clients are, the more repeat business you will get—either from repeat clients or others they have referred to you. Offering informative content can help them start to build trust with your brand and see you as a thought leader.

Increase Authority

Developing quality, helpful content is a key ingredient to improving online authority and becoming a thought leader in your legal niche. Not only does content help you build trust with current and potential legal clients, but it can also position your law firm as the most authoritative source on a particular topic.

Streamline Meetings

The initial consultation and first few meetings with a prospective legal client are bound to be full of many questions. Giving potential legal clients informative content at every stage of their legal journey will help them find answers to questions they may have before even becoming a part of your audience.

Return on Investment

Content marketing is also excellent because it’s known to be cost-efficient as long as you are willing to learn and shift the practice as needed. There are also a lot of great legal writers out there who can write content for you. Putting together content can be a cost-efficient tactic that garners a great ROI, unlike online ads, where you’ll always have to keep spending money.

Putting Content Marketing to Work for You

Content marketing can be used to attract leads, highlight your legal services when a potential client is ready to research potential attorneys to hire, and sign legal clients. To be an effective content marketer, you must concentrate on delivering the appropriate content at each stage of the sales cycle, beginning with awareness all the way through hiring. It might sound like a complicated process; however, thinking of it this way helps simplify it.

Focus on Different Aspects of Your Legal Clients Journeys

However, the problem many content marketers have with effectively using different types of content is when they focus on only a single portion of the client journey. Instead, they pigeonhole themselves into creating every piece of content to boost awareness or generate conversions.

Unfortunately, this lopsided strategy won’t be effective because it fails to get the attention of the average person and prospective clients at each part of their journey.

But why do marketers make this mistake?

There are many possible reasons, including the following:

  • Lack of knowledge regarding how to optimize their content for each area of the sales cycle
  • Not understanding what makes content valuable to the client
  • Limited availability of resources or experience to create content

These shortfalls lead marketers to drop the ball with their content efforts.

Compelling Content Marketing in Each Stage of the Sales Cycle

Too many law firms approach sales on an ad hoc basis, which means the ball can be dropped, and sales opportunities will be missed. With a planned content marketing strategy, you will avoid this mistake.

Awareness Stage

During the first stage of the sales process, concentrate your content on your audience’s top concerns. Address their common concerns, challenges, and questions, as this provides you with the best chance of engaging with them. At this stage, your content should be educational, how-to advice. Selling should be reserved for the consideration and closing phases.

The best content for the awareness stage includes legal blog posts, articles, interactive tools, e-books, infographics, viral content, videos, and newsletters.

For instance:

  • A personal injury lawyer publishes a legal blog post about maximizing injury compensation.
  • A family attorney offers an e-book on considerations for divorcing couples with children.
  • A business attorney sends a newsletter focused on new business laws that small businesses should be aware of.

Consideration Stage

The consideration stage should transition to feature a cross between helpful information and marketing. This content aims to educate the audience about what to look for when seeking legal help and how lawyers can address their legal needs. Your content at this stage should always be on what your business offers.

Practical content ideas at the consideration stage include:

  • Case studies
  • How-to articles
  • How-to videos
  • Checklists
  • Worksheets
  • Interviews
  • Webinars

For example:

  • A family or business attorney posts a guide entitled “Three Ways to Handle the Family Business in a Divorce” that details the various options for what to do with a business owned by both spouses when divorcing.
  • A car accident lawyer conducts and publishes case studies about “The Biggest Mistakes Most Injured Victims Make When They Hire a Personal Injury Attorney.”
  • A business attorney offers a checklist on how to incorporate a small business.

Closing Stage

Content marketing plays an essential role when a prospective client is close to making a hiring decision. At this stage, it’s okay to concentrate on selling your services. But remember to continue to drive home why you are the best attorney for their needs and wants.

Shift the focus to your expertise, skills, and the differentiating benefits of what you have to offer.

The best content for this stage usually includes:

  • Case studies
  • User-generated content
  • A client’s guide
  • Informative videos
  • Research report
  • Email marketing, including a newsletter
  • Social ads

For instance:

  • A personal injury firm creates a research report proving that injured parties that hire a personal injury firm more often than not garner higher compensation for their damages.
  • A business law practice generates short videos showcasing the variety of its work across various business industries to show its capabilities and diverse expertise.
  • A family law firm encourages clients to contribute testimonials about its compassionate attorneys and top-notch legal service in court.

Steps to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy

Identify your audience

Creating content for a specific audience involves clearly understanding their challenges, priorities, and preferences. If what you have to share doesn’t provide value or interest them in some way, you will lose them before you even have them. Sometimes, crafting profiles of your desired audience members and prospects is a good idea before starting a content marketing strategy.

Select the Right Formats

When identifying what content format to start with, think about the stage of the sales cycle you are aiming for and what formats will help you showcase your value best. The right formats will vary depending on the type of law you practice and your potential audience; for some, the right content will be a legal blog post; for others, perhaps a checklist.

Ensure Quality Content

Always keep in mind that your audience will judge your marketing content on its quality, as they should. Considering this, choose the right person, internal or external, to create your content.

Perhaps you want to write your own content or feel another attorney at your firm would be better suited for the job. Or maybe you don’t feel you have the time or expertise to create your own content and want to outsource it to legal content marketing experts. You can work closely with a legal content writer, law blog writers, and your marketing department to write clean copy on a timely basis.

Furthermore, suppose you don’t outsource the job to someone else. In that case, you should strongly consider hiring a professional proofreader to review anything before it is published or sent to your audience. Editing is essential, and your reputation depends on it.

Determine Your Content Distribution

How will you distribute your law content to your audience and current and prospective clients? Will you post content on your website, email it to your list of contacts, or print it for a specific event?

Begin by thinking about “where” you know your audience will likely direct their attention, and then select formats that make sense.

For instance:

  • An article might make sense to distribute with an email
  • A graphic checklist or worksheet can be posted on your social media accounts, which will allow them to be easily shared and create more marketing opportunities for you
  • A helpful guide is a good follow-up after meeting with a prospective client

Choose a Sustainable Schedule

Once you can identify your target readership and the best formats for each sales cycle stage, create a short-term, between three and six months plan. It’s far too easy to develop an overly ambitious content marketing plan, especially when you are first starting out. Your motivation may exceed the realities of your time constraints.

However, it’s critical to consider your budget and resources so that the content plan you design is realistic. Track the time it takes you to create each piece of content so that you can build that time into your schedule. Even if you choose to outsource your content creation, you will need to account for the time it takes to take care of related tasks, such as providing topic ideas or reviewing the content they give back to you.

Adhere to Content Marketing Best Practices

Compelling content is clearly written and won’t use any jargon that only you and your legal colleagues will know. Ensure your content also includes detailed how-to advice. Often, a short, relevant, actionable piece of content is best.

SEO Considerations for Content Marketing

When done correctly, quality legal content marketing makes it easy for ideal prospects to find your law firm. However, you can significantly boost your efforts with search engine optimization (SEO).

Essential best SEO practices include the following:

Remember that keywords are the foundation of SEO efforts. These all-important words or phrases are the terms a likely prospect uses in a search engine when searching for a company, product, or service—including legal services.

Incorporate the appropriate keywords into your content, and you will attract more traffic. The best keywords are:

  • Plain language: Language your target audience uses to detail their difficulties and needs
  • Relevant: Keywords should reflect the expertise, products, and representation you provide
  • Specific: Combine your focus, legal industry expertise, prospective client needs, and other relevant details

SEO isn’t new and has evolved, so the results shown to your potential clients depend partially on your content’s quality, relevance, and if it matches its headline.

Tips for Legal Writing Keyword Use

Using the right legal content keywords throughout your legal writing and marketing content is imperative if you want it to rank and get seen by prospective clients. Here are some helpful guidelines when utilizing keywords:

  • Concentrate on one or two keywords per piece of content. Avoid “keyword stuffing.” You can do this by writing about what matters to your prospects, not just writing to be able to use keywords. Most search engines like Google will see right through your efforts if you don’t, and your content rank much lower.
  • Use your keywords in the title of your content; this way, it’s clear what the content is about.
  • Use keywords throughout the entire piece of content, but be sure to incorporate them naturally.
  • Stay on topic by providing quality content with advice related to a headline so that it will perform best.

 Putting it All Together

Whether you practice family law, criminal law, criminal defense, civil litigation, immigration law, intellectual property law, or other practice areas in the legal field, a content marketing strategy is essential in today’s competitive landscape. Building and executing your legal content marketing approach is a significant endeavor that won’t happen overnight.

However, legal professionals can get help crafting technical content and legal blog writing from legal blog writers, legal content writers, and other marketing experts with proven experience. They can also start by focusing on one area at a time, such as a legal blog or social media posts. The point is to get started somewhere and see where it takes you.