As a lawyer, you want clients to feel like they can turn to you for advice, guidance, and support. While your website showcases your practice areas, it doesn’t always provide the space you need to flesh out what you’re capable of in the courtroom.
A legal blog provides the platform you need to get down to the nitty-gritty of what you do and how you can help your clients.
How do you start a blog that attracts potential clients and gives your law practice an edge over others? In this article, we’ll explore everything you need to know to kickstart a powerhouse law blog.
Let’s get started!
Put Yourself in the Shoes of Your Ideal Client
People will always connect with lawyers through the referrals of friends and family. After all, if you won a case for a client, who’s to say their friend or relative can’t expect the same results with you?
But with 37% of consumers using online searches to find lawyers nowadays, search engine optimization (SEO) will continue to close in on traditional, word-of-mouth marketing.
You might already implement SEO strategies for your website. By incorporating a blog, you can optimize your website even more. Producing fresh, quality content is the best practice for performing well on search engine results pages (SERPs). So, where should you begin with this?
Think of your ideal client and what they would search for online. Your audience needs legal advice. They’re seeking answers and solutions, and they don’t want to sift through fluff and keyword-stuffed content to find what they’re looking for.
Of course, keywords will signal to search engines when your blog content is relevant. But the main objective of your blog should focus on creating useful content that will educate your audience and persuade them to reach out to you for more information.
Keep in mind that you may have several “ideal” clients to write content for. We’ll explore why in our next point.
Answer Common & Challenging Questions
When you’re in the planning stages of your legal blog, brainstorm content ideas based on the common types of questions you get asked as a lawyer. You can certainly answer generalized questions that apply to your law firm as a whole, such as: “Why should you hire a lawyer?” or “How should you prepare for a meeting with a lawyer?” These are good places to start, but you should hone in on the specific questions each type of client will have.
For example, a personal injury victim will probably ask different questions than someone facing criminal charges. Someone going through a divorce will likely have different goals than someone looking to avoid jail time or probation.
Here are some examples of specific kinds of questions a blog post can answer:
- What should I do immediately after I’ve been in a car accident?
- Does my state have no-fault divorces?
- What are the DWI/DUI laws in my state?
- What should I do if I’m being sued for…?
During the planning stages, describe each ideal client and list out a series of questions they are likely to ask you. We’ll explore how to provide answers and address your readers next.
Write for the General Public
How long should your blog posts be? While word count isn’t the end-all-be-all to ranking on SERPs, it does play a role in how your content performs.
Long-form content (content that’s 2,000+ words in length) performs best nowadays. You can devote entire blog posts to explaining legal processes in detail. But remember: Your ideal client may have time-sensitive situations.
Valuable information and tangible, immediate solutions are in the best interests of your audience. You want your readers to pick up the phone and call you. You don’t want them to click away from your website if they can’t find the answers they’re looking for.
Remember: Quality trumps quantity in the world of search engine optimization today. Creating short-form content still performs well if the quality of the information and the writing is good.
Also remember that the majority of your readers aren’t going to be law experts. Keep your language as simple as possible. Don’t overload your audience with complicated legal jargon and courtroom speech.
If it helps, write how you would speak with a client face-to-face. Because of semantic search, using natural language can actually help your ranking and improve your content’s quality in the eyes of Google. By speaking naturally in your blog posts, your clients will also be able to relate to you and get a feel for your personality.
As your blog gets up and running, how do you keep your readers engaged and tuned in? We’ll explore that next.
Educate Your Audience & Stay Current
It can be challenging trying to navigate your writing around complex legal processes. Break up what you need to say in a series of blog posts. Again, answering specific questions in shorter blog posts can help with this－all while beefing up your blog and optimizing for the freshness component of SEO.
Anytime you use a legal term, explain what it means. You can also devote blog posts to explaining these terms in detail.
When new laws take effect, or new legal breakthroughs occur in your state or somewhere in the country, share this information with your readers. By keeping your audience in the loop, you can build community around your brand and instill trust in your readers.
Build Trust & Empower Your Practice with a Legal Blog
Are you looking to strengthen your law firm in 2020? There’s no better tool in your marketing arsenal than a blog.
If you’re ready to build your law firm’s online presence and demonstrate your authority in your local area, learn more about how we can help you start a powerful, results-driven legal blog.
