Law Firm Website Content that Converts: Empowering Top Law Firms to Drive Billable Hours
Imagine you’re a busy law firm partner with a higher caseload than a skyscraper. You know you need a killer website to attract new clients, but who has the time to create all that content? You’re already billing 60 hours a week, and the last thing you want to do is spend your precious time writing blog posts or tweaking web pages.
How can you create effective law firm website content that drives billable hours without sacrificing your already limited time?
Don’t worry! There are methods to improve law firm website content utilized by top law firms, and this article will explore some of the best ones. We’ll reveal the top law firm's techniques and strategies to create website content in clear and concise language.
Why Good Content Matters for Lawyer Websites
When visitors navigate your law firm's website, they seek more than just legal expertise. They yearn for reassurance, insight into your firm's values, and a demonstration of your commitment to their needs.
Good law firm website content is the fuel that drives organic discovery. Search engines prioritize relevance, quality, and engagement. Well-crafted content writing for law firms, infused with strategic keywords and optimized for search engine visibility, propels your site to the top of search results, ensuring potential clients find you when they need you most. Additionally, a well-designed law firm website enhances user experience, making it easier for visitors to navigate and engage with your services, ultimately influencing their decision-making process.
Top 10 Strategies for Quality Legal Website Content
Lawyers cannot expect success in organic search engine results with substandard legal website content. If your content is filled with meaningless jargon that is hard to read and understand or written by an AI bot, it will fail to gain traction with search engine crawlers. Nor will it convince human website visitors to contact your law firm.
Below are strategies for creating content that is high-quality for your lawyer's website.
1. Know Your Target Audience
Your ideal clients are a narrow portion of your local community researching their legal problems and searching for information on legal services. In some cases, your website audience may not be your actual clients; they could be family members, friends, or close contacts seeking representation for someone else.
To create successful law firm websites, you need to understand your audience. Conduct thorough research to understand their demographics, interests, characteristics, and legal needs.
Are they individuals or businesses? What age group do they belong to? Are they tech-savvy or more traditional in their approach? Understanding these factors will shape your website content's tone, language, and presentation.
2. Get Your Law Firm Website SEO Optimized
Before you start adding pages and pages of long-form practice area pages, blog posts, press releases, and FAQ pages, your law firm website should be SEO optimized. Your website should:
- Load quickly;
- Navigate intuitively;
- Fully utilize SEO tools like title tags, header tags, and meta descriptions;
- Have pages that link to other pages;
- Work well for any device (desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone).
Suppose you are not a digital marketing expert. In that case, an attorney SEO agency can help you review your website structure and either implement improvements and upgrades or build a new website that is adequately optimized for adding content.
3. Design an Effective Content Strategy
Your KPIs are how you measure your progress towards reaching your SMART goals. Achieving measurable success in law firm marketing is difficult without establishing KPIs. Your KPIs could be a mix of things provided in your website analytics and things that you manually check:
- Rankings on search engine results pages
- Number of outbound/inbound links
- Organic click-through-rate (CTR)
- Average session duration.
— Choose the Types of Content
Your strategy should list out the types of content you will be posting, including:
- Practice area pages
- FAQ pages
- Press releases
- About us / Meet the Team pages
- Case results / Case studies / Case outcomes
- Blog posts
- Client testimonials and reviews.
— Choose Publishing Channels
Your law firm website is the obvious place for publishing your content. Still, you should not make the mistake of only publishing content on your website. You may also publish content on:
- Social media channels
- Youtube
- Lawyers.com
- Hg.org
- Avvo.com
- Medium.com
If you publish your law firm website content on other websites and directories, you can add valuable backlinks to your website. This can bolster your website's domain authority and generate traffic.
If you publish on a third-party website, it's possible that you could rank in search engines multiple times for a targeted keyword. For long-tail search keywords where potential clients are searching a longer search term, you can establish yourself as an authority on a legal subject when your potential clients find multiple websites where you are addressing a legal issue.
4. Analyze Your Competition
Discovering your competitors is simple: type your top keywords into Google and note the domains of your main competitors. There are several search engine optimization competitive analysis tools available besides Google:
You may think you know your main local competitors, but they might not be your primary SEO rivals. For example, as a solo personal injury attorney in Miami trying to rank for “Miami personal injury lawyer,” your competition is the big firms on Page 1 of Google. Using Google Analytics can help you identify your true SEO competitors and refine your strategy to target more achievable search terms.
Meanwhile, a very successful solo attorney down the road, who you consider a competitor, handles the same types of cases as your personal injury law firm. This attorney maintains a steady stream of fresh clients through a constantly updated accident and injury blog. Instead of targeting broad “Miami” SEO terms, they focus their SEO efforts on localized neighborhoods like Hialeah, Pembroke Pines, and Miramar. This attorney is not your direct SEO competition, but their strategy may be more cost-effective and successful, generating more than enough cases to stay busy.
5. Find the Right Keywords and Topics
You are probably familiar with keywords, the phrases people type into search engines when looking for legal information. You can use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs for keyword research for your local market - or have a content marketing agency do this research.
Keywords can vary widely, as your website audience may be looking for:
- Lawyers that handle a specific type of law (personal injury, immigration law, bankruptcy, estate planning, etc.)
- Information about laws specific to a city, county, or state
- News coverage of an actual event, such as a major traffic accident on a local freeway, a recent arrest, and a criminal charge.
You should perform keyword and topic research, but do not assume that ranking for popular keywords will get you more traffic. Keywords with low keyword difficulty scores may be the most effective if you can quickly rank them organically with lawyer website content or on your blog.
6. Craft a Detailed Content Plan
Developing a content plan is essential for effective law firm website development. Begin by conducting keyword research to identify relevant topics that align with your law firm's practice areas and legal services. Utilize tools like Trello, Monday.com, ClickUp, Google Sheets, or Excel to create and manage your content calendar.
Action Plan:
- Brainstorm Topics: Identify topics for each content category through keyword research.
- Set Deadlines: Establish deadlines for law firm websites creation and publication.
- Assign Tasks: Delegate tasks to team members or outsourced writers.
- Review and Edit: Implement a review process to ensure high-quality content.
- Publish and Monitor: Schedule content on your calendar and monitor its performance regularly.
7. Develop a Content Production Process
With your content plan in place, it's time to refine your system and create an editorial calendar for content creation process. Your legal content writing should include:
- Content List: Plan the content for the upcoming month, such as 3 new practice area pages, 2 new service area pages, 6 blog posts, an updated “Meet the Team” page adding newly hired attorneys, and an updated “Case Results” page reflecting 2 new settlements.
- Content Briefs: Create detailed briefs for writers, including competition to review, desired word counts, keywords, and headers to ensure high quality content.
- Publishing Calendar: Use a productivity app to schedule content tasks for writers, ensuring a steady flow of content creation.
- Editorial Review: Have the assigned editor review and make initial edits to the written law firm websites before the attorney's review.
- Attorney Review: The designated attorney should review the final draft for approval and additional edits.
- Timely Publishing: Publish the approved content within one business day to keep your website current and engaging for website visitors and prospective clients.
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8. Keep Up with Regular Content Analysis
Legal content marketing has evolved greatly in the last 20 years. When Google issues a major algorithm change, marketing priorities can change, sometimes very quickly. You should regularly analyze your content (and other law firms) for validation purposes and adjust your website content focus and strategy as necessary.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool to analyze your content's performance using your website's Google Analytics data. You can create performance reports, evaluate key performance indicators, and compare a recent time period (such as the last month) to the time preceding it:
In the queries section, you can analyze which queries received the least and most impressions (viewed in search results but not clicked on) and actual clicks. You can select which queries you want to strengthen by updating your content here.
Other Tools Like Ahrefs or Semrush
Third-party SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can help you check backlinks, understand your marketing opportunities, and generate keyword ideas with a few clicks.
9. Integrate Calls to Action
When creating content for a legal website you have to take a strategic approach to guide site visitors through the client's decision making process. And the way to do it is by integrating clear and compelling calls to action (or CTAs) to encourage prospective clients to take action.
CTAs can be incorporated as simple buttons, such as "Contact Us" or "Get In Touch," or as links to contact forms within the article itself. These CTAs should also be optimized for mobile devices to ensure accessibility and ease of use.
10. Focus on E-E-A-T Principles
Creating quality legal website content involves focusing on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T). These elements ensure that your content is valuable and reliable for your target audience, enhancing your law firm's credibility. By highlighting your experience and expertise in legal services, you establish your authority in the field, making your content more authoritative. Trust is built through transparent communication, client testimonials, and showcasing your successful case outcomes.
- Experience: Demonstrating years of practice and case studies.
- Expertise: Highlighting specialized knowledge in specific legal areas.
- Authoritativeness: Establishing authority through credentials and recognitions.
- Trust: Building trust with client reviews and clear contact information.
Integrating E-E-A-T into your website's content can significantly boost your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Search engines favor content that demonstrates these factors, improving your site's rankings. A successful law firm website that employs E-E-A-T principles attracts more visitors, builds credibility, and effectively converts leads by addressing the needs and concerns of your target audience.
Main Objectives of Law Firm Website Content
The main objectives of law firm content writing are to improve search engine rankings, increase brand awareness, and convert more prospects into clients. Furthermore, law firm web content helps visitors determine if you fit their needs and addresses frequently asked questions.
Objective #1: Improve Search Engine Rankings
Your law firm's website content is written for both the human eyes of your target audience - prospective clients who will visit your website while researching their legal issues - and for search engine crawlers.
But the content on a law firm’s website is also written for a second audience, Google’s Spider crawler, the program/algorithm that electronically tracks your website and indexes the content for Google.
Although Google officially does not “penalize” duplicate website content, it will filter pages with identical content.
Objective #2: Increase Brand Awareness
Potential clients will be more likely to contact your legal practice if they know who you are. Lawyers can promote brand awareness and web presence by establishing their position as subject matter experts in their area of practice and their law practice as the go-to firm for legal representation.
Some law firms hesitate to invest in brand awareness because it does not immediately translate into cases. It is also one of the more challenging marketing objectives to measure, although not impossible. Client surveys and social media engagement are two ways to measure brand awareness campaigns.
Working with a law firm digital marketing strategist allows attorneys to maximize the value of their law firm's website content and increase brand awareness in conjunction with accomplishing other marketing objectives.
Objective #3: Convert More Prospects into Clients
The content on your website (and the content published on other websites that's attributed to you or your law firm) is an extension of you. For your content to help you convert prospective clients into retained clients, your content should reflect the high quality of service you provide.
You should have enough content on your website that clients can stay as long as they need to learn about your law firm and research their legal matters. On top of that, if your content strategy builds trust with potential clients, they'll have confidence in your skills and abilities before you even sit down with them.
Outlining your objectives allows you to create high-quality, useful information that will allow your target audience to find you and then lead them to fill out a contact form or pick up the phone and call you.
Objective #4: Help Visitors Determine Whether Your Firm Is a Fit For Their Needs and Address FAQs
While you never want to discourage people from calling you, you want the leads contacting you to be qualified. Your firm website content should explain to your potential clients or audience the types of cases you handle. It should be educational.
You can use long-form content to present a great deal of information to your audience. For example, a defense lawyer could use long-form criminal defense lawyer website content to explain common defenses to specific crimes.
Long-form content is intended to be read (vs. just skimmed) and meant to be useful. Law firms often use practice area pages as long-form content and include comprehensive FAQs.
Types of Content Law Firms Should Have on Their Website
Law firms must have a variety of website content to attract and engage potential clients. Each type of content discussed below has a specific purpose and helps establish a law firm's authority.
- Practice area pages: Law firms should have dedicated pages for each practice area they specialize in. These pages should provide comprehensive information about the cases you handle. Incorporate compelling content like infographics and law firm videos to make the pages more engaging and shareable.
- Service area pages: If your law firm serves multiple cities or regions, consider creating separate service area pages. These pages should address the specific legal issues and needs of each location, including relevant information about local laws and regulations. Ensure the content on these pages is unique and not duplicated from other parts of your website.
- Case studies showcase real-life examples of the firm's successful legal representation and client success stories. Highlight challenges, strategies, and outcomes while ensuring client permission and anonymity. Use engaging formats like written narratives, video testimonials, or infographics to present these stories. Demonstrating effective legal assistance can attract and reassure potential clients.
- Contact page: Create a dedicated page with your phone number, email address, contact hours, and contact forms for inquiries. Clearly explain any consultation fees or free consultation policies. This ensures potential clients can easily reach out to your firm.
- About Us page: The About Us page provides an opportunity to introduce the law firm and its team members to potential clients. Include the firm's history, values, mission, and notable achievements. Regularly update this content to reflect staff changes or significant updates. Use internal links to connect to relevant pages.
- Blog posts: Maintain an active blog on your personal injury law firm's website to regularly publish new educational content. Implement content marketing strategies, such as the Cluster-Pillar Model. This model involves creating pillar pages that cover broad topics related to cluster pages that delve into more specific, related topics.
Who Should Write Legal Website Content and How to Simplify the Process
Many lawyers are skilled writers, but they shouldn't assume they're the best candidates for legal content writing. It's also unnecessary for lawyers to review, edit, and proofread every piece of content themselves. Simplify the content production process by outsourcing to specialized writers who understand the legal industry and law firm website design. Avoid hiring "cheap" ghostwriters or relying on AI content bots. Instead, choose experienced writers knowledgeable in legal content strategy who can accurately explain your case handling and legal processes. While some law firms hire full-time content writers, many prefer contracting writers through digital marketing services.
Start Developing Your Law Firm Website Content Today!
Throughout this article, we have explored how top law firms create website content that captivates visitors, converts them into clients, and establishes their expertise. From informative practice area pages and engaging blog articles to real-life case studies and testimonials, these elements build credibility and visibility.
Now, it's time to take action. Start developing website content for your law firm today and unlock growth potential. Whether revamping your law firm's existing website or building one from scratch, focus on clarity, relatability, and addressing your target audience's needs.
To further enhance your digital marketing efforts and maximize the impact of your website content, partner with a trusted agency specializing in law firm growth. We recommend reaching out to Grow Law Firm, a leading digital marketing agency with a proven track record in helping law firms achieve their business goals. Our website development, law firm SEO services, and content marketing can propel your firm's online presence to new heights.
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