Content is ultimately what your end-users are going to digest. Keyword strategy and infrastructure are foundational to great law firm SEO, but the long-term fuel for success is largely your content.
Infrastructure & keyword planning without content is inert. Content without the foundational elements can languish in obscurity.
May The Best Content Win
If two websites are built with equal quality and fundamental metrics, the website with the better content is going to win over the long term.
The legal profession is a tricky area when it comes to content. You’re a lawyer, and you either bill hourly, work on a retainer or are charging a percentage. You’re busy. You graduated law school, so you can obviously write, but you’re experienced at writing to a legal audience, not your target market.
However, you know you need high quality content and a certain quantity of great articles and informative website pages, but who can write this content? Can just anyone pick up their laptop and spin up an article about a legal issue?
Important: Content Compliance
State-by-state compliance with advertising and marketing regulations may vary. Bar associations are in many cases still trying to change their policies and procedures for advertising regulations that were made in the days of TV, billboard and phone book ads, not the age of websites and social media.
Fortunately, content covering legal topics is something you can cover in your site’s disclaimers. You may be required to label all web communication as an advertisement in your disclaimer, and you can take your own extra measures to ensure that the content on your site does not constitute legal advice or establish an attorney-client relationship.
This gives you a little wiggle room when it comes to getting a writer or writers to produce your content. I write law firm SEO and marketing articles all the time, but I don’t have a JD. On occasion, if it’s on a niche enough topic that was requested by a client, we may text or email a few questions back and forth, but for the most part, I don’t need to bother the attorneys.
I strive to make sure my company is as minimally invasive on my clients’ time as possible. By selecting someone with experience and a track record of creating successful content that has generated substantive leads and high dollar cases for clients, you can have peace of mind that you’re investing in a proven law firm marketing agency.
Elements of High Performance Law Firm SEO Content
Great law firm SEO and marketing content does a few things very well.
First, it understands the end-user’s motivations. For the most part, people have a problem and need help. They’re motivated by relief, versus opportunity. The content will be designed entirely around answering this person’s questions, alleviating their concerns and helping to educate them on any important issues.
Secondly, it has to be authoritative. This may be a no-brainer, but a 200-word article isn’t authoritative. Different people have minimum word, count standards, but I recommend beating most people’s recommended minimum word counts. After all, do the best at anything do the minimum required? The occasional 2,000 word article can be a powerhouse performer, even if most of your articles are 600 words.
Third, it must be easy to read and digest. The language needs to be easy for the end-user to understand (too much legalese can turn people off), and walls of text visually make people feel like reading the article is going to be a chore. I personally recommend breaking articles into more brief sections, where someone could skim the headings of each section and walk away with the high points of the entire article.
Ultimately, the article must be designed to convert the qualified visitor into a lead. Clear calls to action on sidebar content and in text within the article are critical. If you don’t know what next steps you want them to make, or you exclude calls to action or conversion opportunities entirely, you’re putting a burden on the end-user when it comes to connecting with you. Contact forms, call now buttons and paragraph text with clickable links are a must. Without these, the articles are useless.
Over time, content becomes a collection of assets for your firm. Their accrued time value can accumulate, and it continues to enhance your authority in Google’s eyes as a subject matter on your practice areas. Google doesn’t know your reputation in the legal community. If you are creating the best content on the best infrastructure, chances are Google is going to reward you with a position near or at the top of your local market.
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Next Chapter: SEO strategies for Low Volume vs High Volume Legal Practice Areas