The vast majority of lawyers and law firms know that they need to consistently add new content to their website. Google algorithms show preference to websites that are continuously adding new content and updating existing content. With that being said, it is critical that you create great legal blogs as part of your content marketing strategy.
But strong legal blogs are much more than just inserting keywords at random throughout the piece. Here are some of the most important takeaways you need to know if you want to create high quality legal blogs for your law firm’s website.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of utilizing specific techniques in order to help your law firm’s website rank higher in search engine rankings. There are many different elements to a strong SEO strategy. But content marketing is arguably the most important. Your content marketing strategies are going to be what draw your ideal clients in and help drive them through their customer journey.
But when we’re talking about creating great legal blogs, you need to make sure that you are writing to specific keywords. In-depth keyword research is going to be your best bet if you want to write content that will be seen by potential or current clients, peers, and the public.
Most importantly, you need to write content that your readers will care about. If you are a personal injury law firm, instead of focusing your content about the specific laws and regulations, you might instead write to blog topics that your potential client is searching for, such as:
- How much is my personal injury claim worth?
- What are non-economic damages?
- Who is at-fault for causing my car accident?
- How does insurance work after a car accident?
- Personal injury laws that affect your civil claim
- When to call a personal injury lawyer
These are just a couple of examples of topics you might write to that your readers are searching for online. Implementing your keyword research and content marketing strategies in this way will increase the likelihood that your blogs will be selected by Google’s algorithm to be displayed in your potential client search results when searching for a specific keyword (i.e. your blog topic).
Technical Elements of a Great Legal Blog
Before we get into the actual content aspect of your legal blog, it is important to consider the technical elements of a strong legal blog. These technical elements are a component of on-page SEO which can go a long way in helping your blog rank. You will want to be sure that your content is broken up into different subheaders. Your H1 should be the title of your blog. The following subsections should be H2s, H3s, and H4s, depending on the topic that you are writing to.
By breaking up your content into these subheaders, you are telling google more about what each section is about. Google’s algorithm is at the point where it is almost able to read content the same way a human would. The more information you can give them about your content through subheaders, the more likely they are to understand your content. This means they can push it up higher in the rankings for specific search queries.
Another benefit of subheaders is the ability for your readers to scan the article easily. These are good ways to tell readers what geographical location you are providing services to, what your firm’s UVP is, how you can serve their needs, and your legal experience throughout the blog without coming across as being two salesy.
Linking Strategies
Another thing you will need to take into consideration is your linking. You should be using a combination of internal and external linking strategies. For example, in your closing call-to-action, you will want to be sure to include your law firm’s name, with a link back to your law firm website’s homepage. You might also want to include a link to your contact page so that potential clients can easily fill out your contact form and reach you.
Then, you can use your blogs to drive traffic and leads to the landing pages on your site by linking to those landing pages in your new legal blogs. For example, if you are a criminal defense law firm writing a page on driver intervention programs for individuals who have been charged with a DUI, you might include a link back to your most important DUI lawyer page so that potential readers can find more information about how your firm can help them avoid a conviction.
While internal linking is extremely important, it is also important to include external links. There is much debate in the digital marketing industry about how many external links you should have on a blog post. Some experts will argue that you should have as many external links as possible while still able to read naturally. But others have presented compelling evidence that shows that only a couple of external links are necessary to help your legal blogs rank. To be safe, make sure to include a minimum of two to three external links before publishing your legal blog posts.
Writing With Your Ideal Client in Mind
More important than the technical elements of a great legal blog, is the actual content itself. When you are writing content for a great legal blog, you need to ditch the old mindset of writing for specific keywords. When you know your subjects, you should be able to write to specific keywords naturally without even trying. All you have to do is make sure that you are answering the specific questions or addressing all the necessary subject matter posed in the beginning of your blog.
You need to include all the different elements that your readers would want to know in regards to that topic. This is called writing for search intent. If you are unsure of where to start, you can begin by writing out a list of all of the different details a person wants to know about a specific blog type, and go from there.
Every practice area and legal subject matter will have a number of different topics that need to be covered. Your blogs are the perfect place to go into further detail about these topics, address your potential client’s questions, drive traffic and leads to your site, and boost your law firm’s website rankings when done properly.
