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Most law firms utilizing SEO best practices and content creation are looking to generate more clients and develop business. If you want to produce high-quality legal content to attract leads, you need to understand web writing basics.
While the development and design of a law firm’s website are crucial to its success, it is a steady stream of quality content that is more likely to draw in potential clients. Understanding law firm website writing involves defining a target audience, determining relevant content, conducting keyword research, and writing compelling and varied blogs and web pages. With the correct content equation, law firms can expect increased website traffic and improved lead generation.
Define Your Target Audience
In most instances, law firms are writing directly to prospective clients. Occasionally, a law firm may direct content to other law firms or legal professionals in a networking fashion. Before any content creation begins, it is crucial to define a target audience.
To start defining your audience, consider creating client personas. Map out exactly the type of people you are looking to reach. Consider factors like age, gender, financial situation, geographic location, education level, family, and legal matters. Once you understand just who you want to target, you can start thinking about what types of content they may be interested in reading before reaching out to you for help.
Determine Desirable Content
Once you have defined your target audience, you can determine what they want to learn about on your website. Ultimately, you want your content to direct them to your contact information to inquire about your legal services. Consider the path they will need to take to get to that information.
Think about clients you have helped in the past. What were some of the questions they had in common? Can you identify themes in their cases that could be present in future clients? Is there any breaking news in practice areas you are targeting that could boost traffic to your site? Once you consider those questions, you will better understand what types of content and topics your website visitors will likely want to see.
Examples of common forms of content you will find on law firm websites include blog posts, practice area pages, and audio and video content.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are among the most common type of content for law firm websites. Not only are they proven to bring more traffic to a website, but they also help earn the trust of potential clients by providing detailed information on relevant topics.
Remember to choose keywords for your blog posts carefully. You want to link back to your best pages—which should be your firm’s main legal service pages. Use blogging as a way to expand on your practice area pages and provide current information on relevant legal cases. You can also use blogs to highlight essential milestones at your law firm and share what is to come.
Practice Area Pages
Practice area pages are just what they sound like—web pages dedicated to the areas of law in which you practice. If you are looking to reach clients who have been involved in car accidents, medical malpractice, or nursing home abuse, develop dedicated pages on those subjects. Break down common statistics, discuss the different types of claims and potential compensation, and discuss why hiring a lawyer could be beneficial. Practice areas vary by firm, but the goal is always to reach potential clients.
While you will want to consider your keywords on practice area pages, remember that you will also benefit from organically developing keywords in your text by answering common search queries on any given practice area page. If you do not know where to start with practice area pages, consider frequently asked questions, recent headlines, and other topics potential clients in that area of legal need would want to know.
Audio & Visual Content
While written content has significant SEO value when done properly, law firms should not avoid or neglect visual content. Examples of visual content include infographics and charts, podcasts, and videos.
Podcasts are particularly popular right now and are fairly easy to produce. Coming up with podcast topics is similar to creating blogs. Consider what potential clients may want to learn about and how you can make the topic interesting.
In terms of videos, consider highlighting practice areas, attorneys, and testimonials. There are a number of videography firms that specialize in law firm content production. You can also use videos to embellish long-form content. Practice area pages with attractive, attention-grabbing videos are more likely to be click on and browsed than web pages with walls of text.
Conduct Keyword Research
When you think about web writing basics for your law firm, your mind might jump to keywords and SEO optimization. Keywords are a component of all the quality content on your website. It is essential to understand how to conduct keyword research and effectively use those phrases in your content.
No matter the tools you use to conduct keyword research, remember that the process is often trial and error. Even the most advanced keyword tools can not always accurately predict search volume impressions. If you are struggling to determine what your clients want to see, consider surveying website visitors or social media followers to understand better what keywords you should be targeting.
The keywords you choose need to be relevant to the services you provide, have steady traffic levels, and be achievable in terms of competition. When it comes to creating keyword lists, consider the following categories:
- Commercial intent. Commercial intent refers to more general practice area keywords people might search for, like “car accident lawyer.”
- Research intent. Research intent is more specific and may offer blog topic ideas, like “causes of distracted driving.”
- Localized intent. Localized intent focuses on specific areas your firm is interested in targeting, like “crashes in Jacksonville, Florida.”
Once you have a solid list of keywords for a practice area your law firm is looking to boost clientele, map out content targeting that area. Consider adding or revamping your practice area page and creating a blog schedule on relevant topics. You can track your keyword usage tools like Semrush or Ahrefs—which are two of the most popular keyword research tools. If you find your keywords are not ranking as you expected and are not seeing adequate results, take a look at what your competitors are doing and consider making changes to your list.
Write Effective Content
While attorneys manage complex legal situations on a daily basis, most clients do not. Pursuing a legal matter is likely to be a highly emotional experience, so potential clients need to feel like the lawyer they choose is someone they can trust during this stressful time.
The content lawyers publish has the potential to show off their skills as well as encourage potential clients to reach out for help. When constructed effectively, content can be compassionate and informative. Law firm website content needs to be natural and engaging, with relevant and accurate information that answers some of the most common questions lawyer-seeking individuals have.
While there may be instances where you are developing content for other lawyers, remember that it’s most likely you are looking to reach potential clients. If that is the case, you do not want your content to be in legalese format. Legal documents often have complex formatting and use very specific language that your typical client will not understand outright. Use a writing style that your audience will enjoy and be able to digest and scan quickly.
Avoid Unethical Language
Attorneys and law firms have a strict code of ethics they must follow. This is especially true when it comes to marketing. Content on a law firm’s website cannot misrepresent the attorney or mislead potential clients.
It is important to note that states have different guidelines and regulations regarding legal professionals’ wording. As such, unethical language can change depending on where a law firm is located.
Overall, law firms should not use words like “best,” “expert,” or “specialist” in written, visual, or audio content. Phrasing should never sound like a promise or guarantee. In most instances, however, lawyers can mention awards and accolades to highlight their firms’ successes. That information may be included in a blog or on a biography page.
How Law Quill Can Help Law Firms With Website Content
Optimized content is an effective way for law firm websites to boost webpage rankings, increase visitor traffic, and connect with potential clients needing legal services. Web writing basics, however, are not always as “basic” as they seem. If you are in need of professional content for your law firm, Law Quill can help – this is what we do – this is our jam.
We are here to help and would welcome the opportunity to visit with you for free regarding your law firm website’s content, and how we can take these tasks off your plate! Schedule a free visit with us by scheduling a quick phone or zoom call at your convenience on our calendar today. You can also email us at support@lawquill.com.
