Law firms and lawyers experience several benefits by writing engaging and compelling blogs, including public relations, thought leadership, reputation management, marketing, and business development.
However, before jumping into legal blogging, learning what makes a quality blog is essential before jumping into legal blogging.
You can find copious amounts of legal content online. To be effective in this crowded space, you must learn how to write in a manner that stands out from your competition and that provides potential customers value.
If you are ready to get started, use the tips here to create a blog people will want to read.
1. Determine the Types of Blog Posts You Will Write
When you start a blog, you must determine the types of posts you will create.
For example, in the home improvement sector, how-to posts are widespread; however, legal matters aren’t how-to material. Instead, it is best to stick to the following types of blog posts, which will have the most impact:
- Timely topics: Blogging about current news or events is one option. However, if you choose this option, you must create and publish the posts almost immediately, or they may become “old news.”
- Evergreen topics: Many lawyers don’t think about evergreen topics; however, they are a must for any legal blog. Usually, these address things that are likely to stay the same. You can answer your clients’ questions, post information about laws, and write about other legal matters your readers may want to know about.
Once you are ready to create a blog, there are a few more tips to keep in mind.
2. Always Determine the Purpose
Every time you create a new blog post, you need to know its purpose. The same applies to your blog overall.
Before trying to write anything, determine the goal. For example, will your blog inform your readers about a specific topic? Do you want to drive more traffic to a landing page? Once you know this, you can work backward.
Get to know what you want to accomplish with your blog, and work from that point.
3. Know What Your Audience Wants to Read
It’s OK to use your blog to talk about what is happening in your firm occasionally; however, it’s wise to remember whom you are writing for or who will read your content. Your audience has likely come to your blog searching for legal information, legislation or case updates, and checklists for more complex legal processes.
It’s wise to create personas to know who your target audience is. From this point, you can begin building out their interests and what they are interested in reading. Once you have this information, you can start creating blog posts.
4. Write Content for Your Readers and the Search Engines
Creating content for readers is an excellent first step. You need to ensure people can find your blog and content. Search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. This bridge can help you get there.
When your blogs are more visible in search results, they are more likely to gain attention and attract more potential clients.
Use the right keywords (without keyword stuffing), create engaging meta descriptions, and use plain, easy-to-read language.
5. Write Content on What You Know
Does your law firm specialize in a specific practice of law? If so, it’s best to focus your blogs on this.
You should write about things you have experience with or are an expert in. Writing about things you can prove to be an expert in will help connect to your readers is true whether it is business law, divorce law, personal injury law, or something else.
Writing about what you know (and what you do) will help show that you are an authority and thought leader in the area. Over time, it will increase your credibility, and clients will be more loyal.
You may want to expand your blog and attempt to write on other topics about the law; however, your audience will see through this. Eventually, it will only cause you to lose their trust and interest in what you say.
6. Leverage Evidence
Leveraging evidence is something all lawyers should be comfortable doing. Quality, useful blogs will have vital research to back them up. They will also include citations.
Google favors content that includes multiple citations and links. When you take time to research your topic, you will have more credible information and increase the likelihood that it will rank well in search engines.
It’s also possible to set up Google Alerts, for free, on specific topics in your industry. By looking through these each day, if there is “breaking news,” you will be on top of it and able to use it to strengthen your next blog.
7. Find a New Way to Cover an Old Topic
As you conduct research, you will find plenty of posts with the same type of information you want to write on. You need to avoid joining in on this “herd content.” Herd content refers to content that is covered repeatedly, the same way, just because it’s trending.
While writing about trending topics is brilliant, you must take a new approach. Figure out how you can add a unique perspective to the information.
You should never simply replicate what others have said (especially if you see it multiple times).
8. Offer Some Type of Help
Offering help may seem like common sense when creating a blog. However, many legal blogs don’t do this.
If someone searches for something online, they are probably looking for answers to a question or help with a specific situation.
It’s your job to answer these questions and offer solutions.
9. Don’t Make Blog Length Your Primary Focus
If you research and look for information about the best length for blog posts, you will likely find that many experts state that 2,000 words are the ideal length. While this may be true, you should not overly focus on meeting this number.
According to research, you must focus on what you need to do without fluff or filler. Focusing on cutting out the fluff-or filler- means that if you have a blog with just 500 words, that’s fine. Sometimes, you will have blogs on more complex topics that exceed 3,000 words. That’s fine too. You need to write your law firm blogs for whatever length it is to get your point across. Sometimes this will be more words, and sometimes it will be less.
10. Avoid Writing Walls of Endless Text
Regardless of the length of your content, you need to format the blog so that it is a manageable wall of text. To do this, you can add bullet points, headings, images, and more.
Keep your paragraphs limited to just a few sentences, and keep your bullet points short.
A new standard in quality and compelling content is keeping it visually exciting and using several media formats.
Helpful Guidelines for Creating Quality and Effective Legal Blog Posts
The information above gives you good tips to get started with a legal blog. However, you may find a few more guidelines helpful as you begin to blog. Some of the information to keep in mind as you create content for your blog includes the following:
- Focus on a single topic when writing a blog.
- Don’t offer legal advice. Instead, remain general and only give opinions if it is in your firm’s best interest.
- State things as you would if you were to be quoted by the media while writing your blog
- Create blogs that range in length from 800 to 2,000 words. Today, long-form content has gained more credibility based on Google algorithms, which will also help support your legal firm’s SEO efforts.
- Use lists and bullets as much as you can.
- Avoid using too much legalese (avoid it entirely if you can). Most readers will need help understanding this. Use layman’s terms or if you use legal terms that aren’t widely known, explain them.
Besides the guidelines above, you must create a compelling title. Create an actionable title that uses keywords selected for the blog. Keep things simple and concise. These tips will help ensure that it has an impact.
Creating a Blog for Your Legal Practice That Generates Results
Do you want to create a blog for your legal practice? If so, start with the tips and information found here.
Beyond these tips, rely on the professionals at The Legal Marketing Company to help you create a blog that provides the results you want and need.
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