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Is Your Website Guilty of “Content Negligence”?

Seeking the advice of a legal expert involves a great deal of research. Your firm’s website is often the first place a potential client visits before committing to your legal representation. Of course, not all consumers understand legal jargon as well as a professional does, so it is important to publish website content that appeals to clients in a simple and straightforward way.

Most importantly, this content should be fully optimized to help generate leads and get your website ranking at a competitive level. The thought of executing a content marketing strategy may seem too difficult for some – especially attorneys who are publishing and maintaining their own website content while balancing a heavy workload.

The truth is, publishing quality legal content is only as difficult as you make it.

Follow these 5 basic content writing tips to help boost your legal website’s local rankings and reach your target audience effectively.

1. Know your Audience

A good way to generate website leads is by targeting common client inquiries. Blog posts are an opportunity to flesh this information out. They also allow you to showcase your knowledge and legal capability on a particular topic. Research popular topics within your field of law and provide your own insight. Including statistics and links to other trusted legal experts helps increase this credibility. The goal is to find your niche and engage.

Legal content can be confusing to people who are not familiar with it. For this reason, it is important to keep in mind that simplicity encourages curiosity. A reader will be less inclined to pursue your services if they have absolutely no idea what they are reading. However, by painting a clear and easily understandable picture for them (while still providing valuable information), you can increase your chances of generating client leads.

2. A Headline Goes a Long Way

A content headline is usually what convinces a reader to engage an article, before even glancing at the content itself. A strong, alluring headline increases your chances of converting your reader.

Constructing a quality headline doesn’t have to be a chore. There are many tools available online to help you create a headline that attracts the attention of your target audience. For instance, this Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer allows you to determine if/how your headline is achieving an emotional connection with your audience. EMV is important when creating a headline your readers can relate to.

Here’s an example of how the EMV Analyzer tool works for you:

3. Keywords Increase Exposure

Keywords are the bread and butter of content writing. If you are not incorporating target words and phrases into your writing, there’s no way your potential clients can find you. Keywords are, essentially, what helps rank your content In a sea of online legal content, make sure yours stands out by optimizing it correctly rather than excessively.

What do I mean by “excessive”? For someone who does not know the ins and outs of online content marketing, keyword usage may be a bit tricky. The trick is to avoid flooding your content with the same keyword in an unnatural way – this is considered “keyword stuffing” and Google can penalize you for doing this. Penalties can result in a loss of potential leads–leads that will most likely be redirected to local competitors. Instead, use variations of your target keyword phrase for more natural-sounding content.

Longtail Keywords

To vary your keyword usage, you can incorporate longtail keywords into your content. These are longer target phrases that provide a more refined search.

So, instead of limiting your content keywords to “legal services”, you can also utilize a phrase like “legal services in Pembroke Pines, fl”. Longtail keywords do not draw as much traffic as using a more broad keyword would. However, these phrases have the potential to attract high-quality leads and conversions, which will ultimately increase your search rankings. Essentially, longtail keywords are useful when concentrating on a more local demographic. Clients searching for local legal services will be more inclined to include their city in their search rather than simply search for “legal services”.

Be sure to include your target keyword or phrase in the headline for optimization and to convey a more concise message. For example, if you are writing a blog about divorce laws in the state of Florida, your headline could read something like:

Comply with Florida Divorce Laws Using this Legal Checklist

4. Remain Consistent with Your Posts

When committing to writing your own content online, the consistency of your posts is crucial to keeping your audience’s attention. If you can establish yourself as a trusted source for all things legal, you can direct a solid amount of traffic to your website and potentially increase leads in the process. The trick lies in long-term commitment. While you may not see your website grow in traffic overnight, keeping up with your content writing schedule is the first step to building that platform.

Search engines do not favor a website that is not updated regularly, so you could be hurting your marketing efforts by engaging, and then abandoning, your posts. If you need help keeping track of your content, you can use an online content marketing calendar to stay organized.You can also recruit the help of an online marketing professional who can create and manage a content plan for you.

Where you’re publishing weekly blog posts or a monthly legal newsletter, remain in the face of your target audience by being consistent.

5. Incorporate Images

Visuals carry power — 60,000 times more power, to be exact. Incorporating images into your content can help your audience process information faster and drives your point in a more engaging way. Visuals also help your audience retain information longer than flooding them with text.

One way to simplify an extensive legal process for your audience is to create an infographic. An infographic can make your practice stand out and boost your web traffic. Piktochart allows you to create your own infographics.

If you’re not infographic savvy, Clicc Media Inc can create these infographics for you.

Is Your Law Firm Reaping the Benefits of Content Marketing?

A solid content marketing plan has the power to improve your website’s overall performance and generate quality client leads. Many lawyers are missing out on these major advantages simply because:

The truth is, these 5 basic tools can help you write legal content that your audience will want to read through and share. However, keep in mind that content marketing is only a portion of your firm’s marketing potential. There are several other factors that come into play when constructing a marketing plan that works for your legal website.

At Clicc Media Inc, we customize marketing and SEO plans for lawyers that concentrate on areas of potential growth. By focusing on what works best for your firm’s website, our optimized features can help increase your site traffic and conversions. If you are interested in implementing a customized online marketing plan for your firm, contact us to schedule a 1-on-1 consultation with our team.