The potential benefits of a well-executed legal blog are immeasurable. Aside from giving your organic SEO a hefty boost by filling your blog pages with keyword-rich links, a legal blog will also build your reputation as a legal authority. Although these benefits alone are enough to jump on the legal blog bandwagon, consider that a well-written, often-updated legal blog can also boost the reputation of individual attorneys, create a solid, high-quality legal persona, increase your connections within the legal realm and increase the likelihood of receiving positive press mentions. In order to ensure your blog accomplishes all these things—and more—keep the following tips in mind when creating and maintaining your blog.
Post on a Regular Schedule
If you jumped wholeheartedly into the idea of a blog, but have found the reality to be a rarely-updated blog page, then you may actually being doing more harm than good. When a potential client clicks onto your legal blog site and finds it hasn’t been updated in three months, they may leave with a very unfavorable overall impression of your law firm. The assumption may be that if you don’t take the time to update your blog, that perhaps you are either overbooked—in which case a client will look elsewhere for an attorney—or are simply a procrastinator who doesn’t take the time to tend to necessary tasks. Neither of these assumptions would be beneficial to inspiring trust or gaining new clients. Aside from the negative impression a potential client will garner from a neglected blog site, there’s no SEO benefit to infrequent updates. Google must be fed regular content in order to place a high value on your law firm’s website and blog.
Remember That Online Copywriting is Different to Offline Print
Online readers, as we all probably know by now, behave in a completely different manner than offline readers. Online content is often viewed as somehow less valuable that reading a newspaper, magazine or book. This could be simply because it is free—and sometimes “free” translates into a perception of lower quality. Because of this, and because most all of us are always pressed for time in our busy world, readers are much more likely to skim-read your blog copy, and less likely to actually read to the end of an entire article—especially if there are included links. Remember as you write to use short sentences, and keep your calls to action early on in the copy rather than at the end where they may well be overlooked.
Be a Guest Post Blog Contributor
One of the easiest and best ways to build a following for your own legal blog is to contribute to other legal blogs, writing on your specialization area. Guest posts are great in that they give you inbound links to your own website, while also gaining attention for you own firm’s blog. Many blog experts advise that you have a high-quality blog written, or at least outlined, before contacting other legal arenas and offering your expertise. Remember that others treat their blogs as a business, just as you do. Whether you are writing your own blog, or guest blogging, remember that a blog is, in essence, a conversation. Don’t post and consider your job done, rather take the time to read and respond to comments from readers—even the negative one!
Encourage Visitors to Come Back Often
Make it as easy as possible for your potential clients to return to your blog by allowing them to subscribe, offering to e-mail them when a reply is made to their comments, or encouraging them to sign up for your legal firm’s newsletter. In other words, go the extra mile—or two or five or ten—in order to ensure that your casual browser becomes a repeat visitor, and ultimately a satisfied client.
Is Your Attorney Blog Easy to Find?
It should go without saying that you should be promoting your blog through your legal website, on your home page, and on every subsequent page. If you do e-marketing, make sure you include links to relevant posts on your blog. Mention your blog on the social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter often—after all, if your blog is difficult to find, what is the point?
Use Great Headlines and Lists
Every headline or title of your blog needs to be stellar. Your blog headline is the “hook” which grabs people’s attention (or not) and must be both short enough to fit into a tweet, exciting enough to grab people’s attention, and explanatory enough to give people the incentive to read the entire blog. It is definitely worth the time spent to ensure your headline is the very best it can be. People tend to respond well to lists, especially “Top Ten Tips For…..,” “15 Ways to….,” or the “Twelve Best….” Lists tend to be more easily scanned, and can condense lots of information in a relatively small amount of space.
Offer Your Readers High-Quality and Value
Your legal blog articles must be valuable, useful, and informative. Many times legal blogs in particular are written by experts on the subject who are afraid of offering solid advice for fear the reader will simply take the advice and skip hiring the lawyer. Don’t be frightened of being honestly useful. You, as the attorney, are still the expert, you are simply showcasing your area of expertise and knowledge and educating your future clients. Even those readers who don’t end up as your client may still share your content or link—when the rewards to your firm are so great, it’s never a bad idea to offer high-quality, information.
Finally, although you may truly be the most knowledgeable person in your field, keep the legalese to a minimum and don’t talk down to your readers. Web readers may be pressed for time, but they are hardly stupid, so never come across as though you are speaking to them from your pedestal way on high. Your legal blog can be an incredible asset to your law firm, so take the time to make it something you are truly proud of.
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