With legal blogging for business development all the rage, it’s important for lawyers to remember that the goal of the blog is twofold: educate (the public) and encourage (new clients to call). Many lawyers, and those who write content on their behalf, are so concerned about ‘building content’ or/and ‘increasing SEO’ that they dismiss quality — in both the content and the on-page search engine optimization.
Content quality cannot be overlooked for obvious reasons (namely, your State Bar, which frowns upon inaccurate or misleading content). Quality on-page optimization is one of the easiest ways to rank for keywords in search engines. Of course, we do not suggest that you law firm sacrifices readability and appearance for the sake of optimization, as this will affect your potential client’s experience and if they aren’t encouraged to call you after reading your blog, what’s the point of blogging? Or paying someone else to do it?
Read on for the top 10 factors that your law firm should consider when writing content and constructing an optimized layout for your legal blog.
1. Meta Content
Title & Description – Provide intriguing and accurate descriptions of your what your blog post is about! This will not only help your rankings in search engines but will help increase actual click-throughs from the search engine results pages.
2. Optimized URLs
The goal? To help search engines identify what your legal content / page is really about.
Avoid:
website.com?p=123
Shoot for:
website.com/practice-area
website.com/blog-post/blog-title
3. No Duplicate Content
While it might be easier to copy and paste that other law firm’s practice area content, Google doesn’t appreciate it. Duplicate content is quickly penalized leading by search engines. Duplicate content “can” rank, but it is not a good strategy because it doesn’t tend to last long. Make sure that your content writing company isn’t providing you with the same content its providing a dozen (or more) other law firms. In order to show up in search rankings, your law firm website’s content needs to be unique and accurate. Reach out to our skilled attorney legal article writers to learn more.
4. Content on Pages
We say this a lot in our blog because it’s true: Content is King! Google, et al love [unique, key word friendly] content. It’s simple, really… The more quality content you have on your page, the more keywords the search engines can associate with your content.
5. Use Rich Snippets
Along with quality, fresh content, Google appreciates ‘rich snippets.’
Rich snippets include:
- Law Firm Reviews / Client Testimonials – (1-5 stars)
- Pictures (article author)
- Video thumbnails and music
6. Allow Comments
If your blog offers a comment option, considering leaving it on. While you might get a few ‘crazies’ you will also encourage a dialogue (read: more content) among future clients. This opens the door to potential ethical traps, so be sure that you have proper disclaimers, etc… in place.
7. Update Website Performance
In the world of constantly changing SEO tactics, make sure your website stays ‘fresh.’ If you have not updated your law firm’s website in a year or more, you are probably losing out on search engine visibility and potential new business. Use plugins that help with caching to decrease wait times for visitors. Optimize your CSS. Compress images. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive in design. Reduce the use of javascript wherever possible.
8. Create Sitemaps for Your Website
Sitemaps can help search engines crawl your law firm’s website. Additionally, you (or your web marketing firm) can submit your sitemap to Google through Webmaster Tools. Don’t forget to include pictures and videos in your website’s sitemap.
9. Put Practice Areas on the Homepage
This helps share authority between pages and trickles down the authority of your homepage to your other pages.
10. Interlink pages
Share related content across posts and pages. Offering related and popular content on your website can work to increase the number of page views per visitor.
And of course, make sure the content that you are posting on your website is ethical. We can’t state this enough, but we know too many lawyers / law firms who have hired inexpensive, uninformed legal content writers and have been on the receiving end of a State Bar’s wrath for promoting inaccurate, misleading, or solicitous (without proper disclaimers) content. At WebPresence, Esq., our attorney-writers are skilled in the area in which they are writing, enabling our clients to feel confident and secure about the content they are sharing.
For more information on customized legal blogging, reach out to WebPresence, Esq. today at 310.906.0935.
