For lawyers who are interested in capitalizing on the fact that prospective clients use the internet to find an attorney, search engine optimization, or SEO, is key. The goal of search engine optimization is to get your website to the top of the search engines for your target keywords; a process that takes time, a savvy understanding of what really works, and a consistent effort.
Among those efforts is content marketing optimization, or CMO. CMO is the practice of creating fresh, relevant content for search engines to pick up (generally through the use of a blog). SEO and CMO go hand-in-hand. If your web marketing team tells you otherwise, be very wary.
Read on for 4 tips to capitalize on your CMO and increase your SEO.
#1 – The Right Words
Consider writing your content with your target market in mind. How would that person (i.e. a non-lawyer small business owner wanting to avoid discriminatory behavior) search for answers? By asking a question? Only typing in key words? You must know your target audience well in order to answer these questions.
#2 – Make Your Content Shareable
The more people ‘like’, retweet, and/or share your content, the more Google likes it. Google (and every search engine) ideally wants to deliver the best user-experience. That starts with providing answers to questions / action lists / etc… See above.
In other words, you need to create content worth sharing. Poorly written articles stuffed with key words (your law firm name, the words your marketing team has identified as ‘hot’ for you) will not the kind of attention you — and Google — are looking for. Our attorney-writers create valuable, accurate, ethically-sound content for our clients that provide the type of high-quality information Google and potential clients / referral sources are looking for. This information often takes the form of infographics, step-by-step guides, and how-tos.
#3 – Encourage Engagement
In terms of SEO, the more you can get people to interact with your content, the better. For maximum CMO, you need engagement. Does your blog have social buttons on each blog post that encourages readers to share it, tweet it, or email it? Is your website linked to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ profiles? The goal is to make your content easy to share and your website and various social networks interactive. By not updating these accounts, you are not letting Google know you have hot, relevant content for the search engine giant to rank.
#4 – Provide Comprehensive Content
In other words, that 300 word post that doesn’t really explain much of anything will not make the impact you are looking (or paying!) for. Provide your readers and prospective clients / referral sources / members of the media with well thought out, thorough content. Yes, you may have to spend more time on each article, or pay more for it, but it will be money well spent.
SEO vs CMO
SEO involves taking direct action and using specific search engine optimization tools to get your site ranked. CMO is requires well-written, sharable content that indirectly tells Google to rank your site higher. Together they create a comprehensive, effective web marketing plan.
For more information on how to create valuable legal content, or to discuss your legal writing needs with one of our attorney-writers, contact WebPresence, Esq. today.
