A Step By Step Guide To Starting A Legal Blog
Part 1 – Why Have A Blog On Your Law Firm’s Website?
Most people are now aware of content marketing and the part that an engaging, regularly updated blog plays in a business’s overall content strategy. But do you truly understand the value of having a blog? Because if you don’t, you are missing out on all the rewards of your blogging efforts. And it is an effort. Trying to encourage already swamped fee earners to spend a couple of hours a week writing an article is a big ask. Especially if they can see no clear link between the time they invest into creating valuable content and the ability to reach their targeted billing hours and enhance their professional reputation.
A blog on your law firm’s website provides numerous ways to connect with your existing clients and potential ones.
Giving your law firm a voice
A carefully planned blog gives your law firm a voice. Law touches peoples lives in different ways; whether in relation to marriage or divorce, migrating to another country, to starting a business. It is about people; even if you are working on a multi-national M&A deal, your work impacts on the employment and retirement (in the form of shares) of many souls.
Given that your profession impacts on people’s lives in such a profound way, it is invaluable to invest in providing an opinion on significant issues. For example, many family lawyers wrote articles regarding the Supreme Court decision in Owens v Owens. Why? Because most people were appalled that in 2018 a person could be forced to remain in a marriage against their will. The legal profession has played a huge part in forcing the government to take steps to overhaul divorce law in England and Wales. By having a blog on your website, you can have a voice on legal issues that matter to your clients and to society at large.
Having something to say on social media
Everyone knows that to succeed in business today, a strong social media presence is crucial. However, to run an effective, long-term social media strategy, you need to have something useful to say. Publishing a weekly or bi-monthly blog gives your law firm an opportunity to post on social media, offering something valuable to your clients.
Giving Google a helping hand
We have written a great deal on what Google is looking for content wise in 2019. When it comes to having a solid ranking on Google, the priority must always be your service pages – they need to be 800-1000 words long and contain the long-tail keywords likely to be searched for by people looking for the particular service you are offering. Once you have got this right, you need to focus on using your blog to rank for search terms that are not so easy to cover in individual service pages. For example, if your legal practice specialises in advising property developers, you will have service pages on ‘site acquisition’, ‘option agreements’, and ‘property development agreements’. However, it is unlikely you will devote a page to overage. This is where a well-researched, insightful blog comes into play. By publishing a blog on overages, you are providing landowners with valuable information on an area of property development which can provide highly lucrative returns. If you include a few keywords and phrases naturally (never try and stuff them in), and make it relevant and authoritative, search algorithms will promote your web pages. Therefore, when someone searches for the term ‘overage’, they should come across your blog and then, if you have added internal links and a call to action, be enticed to view the rest of your website, and ultimately, pick up the phone.
New content, better SEO
Adding new content to your website, consistently, is one of the best things you can do for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The more frequently you update your website with fresh, original content, the more often your website will be indexed. This gives you the opportunity to achieve higher rankings.
Furthermore, the more content you publish on a particular area of law, the more people will trust what you say. This leads you to becoming an authority in that sector.
You should treat your website like a shop window. Change it, freshen it up, add new displays (in the form of content) to reflect the changing seasons and what is happening in the world.
Next week, we will discuss how to create your law firm’s tone of voice. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding creating a regular blog, please give us a call on 01691 839661.
The Legal Copywriting Company is dedicated to helping law firms and barristers achieve their marketing goals by creating engaging, SEO friendly content for their website and marketing materials and managing their social media. To find out more, please fill in our contact form or email corinne@thelegalcopywritingcompany.co.uk or phone 01691 839661.