4 Critical Reasons Your Law Firm’s Blog is Important
*Article updated 9/11/24
On a law firm’s website, “Practice Pages” you can only tell so much about you without overwhelming your visitors. You don’t want these pages to be too text-heavy, because visitors are likely skimming quickly to see if your practice is right for them and their needs. Instead of trying to cram all that important information into a practice page, your law firm’s blog can be used creatively instead.
An Attorney’s Blog Is Essential to SEO and Website Traffic
As an attorney, your blog can help fill the gap of detailed topics that your practice pages can’t. For instance, if you’re a criminal defense lawyer you likely have a practice page for DUI. However, your DUI practice page probably doesn’t address nuanced DUI subtopics, changes in laws and specific questions people tend to search. That’s where your blog can can be of critical assistance to someone searching for help.
Let’s take a look at a few reasons why blogging as a law firm is so important, as well as some simple tips to get you started with your own attorney blog.
#1 – You Can Provide Value to Visitors
When people are searching online for legal content, they are likely in a vulnerable position and/or have a number of questions surrounding a certain legal topic. You can be there to provide the support they need when they are in this discovery stage.
By writing blogs that answer your audience’s questions, you are offering them valuable content they can use to go forward with their cases and determine whether or not they need to hire a lawyer. If you thoroughly answer the questions and prove your knowledge to your visitors, they just may hire you for their next case.
#2 – You Can Bring in More Traffic
Wix states that businesses that have blogs get 55% more traffic than websites that don’t. In addition, the same article states that “56% of marketers say that blogging is effective and 10% say that a blog has the biggest return on investment of all marketing strategies.“
High quality, unique and personalized content is one of the biggest contributing factors to ranking well on Google. If you write an amazing post that clearly answers a searcher’s question, you have the chance of ranking on page 1 and bringing in more leads to your website. This is an organic inbound marketing tactic that law firm SEO companies have known for years.
#3 – You Can Demonstrate Your Expertise
When visitors go to your website, they may not be convinced that you are the lawyer they want to hire. Saying you’re great at your job isn’t enough – you have to prove it. By producing high quality blog content, you can do just that.
Demonstrate your expertise by thoroughly answering your visitor’s questions. Illustrate that you know exactly what you are talking about, and show that you have experience in your field. By proving that you are an authority on certain legal matters, you’re cultivating trust with your audience and convincing them that you are indeed the right person for the job.
#4 – You Can Earn Backlinks
Backlink building is crucial for your search engine optimization strategy. Google will trust your site more, and rank it higher, if you have other credible websites linking to your page. You can increase your chances of garnering these coveted backlinks by putting out valuable content on your blog. This is sometimes called “link bait” or creating a “linkable asset”.
You can write blog posts that are highly informational and promote them on your social media sites, and/or reach out to credible sites for possible backlinking opportunities. Remember: The higher you rank on Google, the more likely visitors are to see your site and possibly end up hiring you. In 2021 Search Engine Journal reported that a result on page one of Google receives 32% of click-throughs, so it should always be your goal to rank well.
In 2024, a traffic stop involving NFL player Tyreek Hill prompted this article in USA Today. Within this article, a blog post from Wargul, Sarna & Ness was cited & linked to naturally because it covered the relevant topic. A piece of the website authority from USA Today traveled to the law firm’s article with that link to their blog post – like a goose that laid the golden egg.
Using Social Media to Distribute Your Law Firm’s Blogs
Once you’ve accumulated an inventory of articles on your blog, you can now share these on your social media channels to be viewed and shared by your followers. We’ve found that the most effective social media channels for attorneys are currently Facebook and LinkedIn. Although this will likely change some day, Facebook helps communicate with your consumer-based audience and people connected to you, and LinkedIn helps communicate to your professional connections and legal network.
Each serves a different purpose but both help keep you at the top of people’s mind when they need to make a referral or hire you for a case. Additionally, if something comes up in the news you may now have a blog to share that is relevant to current events.
Conclusion – Your Blog is a Direct Line to New Leads
After reading the article above, it should be apparent why blogging for your law firm is critically important. If not you can think of it this way – blogging is like making an investment with the goal of a future return. You can make that investment with your personal time, or money through hiring a content writer. Blog content can answer questions, provide information, and showcase your knowledge and experience. Additionally, content leads to backlinks, backlinks lead to authority, and authority leads to rankings & visibility.
Getting Started with Blog Writing for Lawyers
Now that you know the value of law firm blogging, you can begin writing posts that are going to attract your audience and generate more business for you. You can create the content in house or hire legal blog writers to do it for you. The latter will likely be the better option, since writing is their profession and they know all the best writing, marketing and SEO practices to follow to ensure your blog succeeds. Having worked with a number of legal writers, Everest Legal Marketing works with tried and true legal content writers who create compelling, original content for our clients as part of their overall law firm SEO strategy.
The number one thing to keep in mind is that you’re creating these blog posts to serve your audience. Any benefits that spring from that goal are going to be the icing on the cake. By putting your audience first, you’re going to create higher quality content, and have much more of a chance of capturing their business.
President & Founder – Everest Legal Marketing, LLC
Doug Bradley is the Founder and CEO of Everest Legal Marketing. Doug has over a decade of experience specifically in legal marketing, and foremost with expertise in Search Engine Optimization for law firms. Doug has been quoted on numerous websites, co-hosted many MCLE sessions, and has advised law firms of all sizes on the topic of effective marketing and ethical SEO strategies.
