10 content marketing best practices for lawyers & law firms

The key to a successful law firm website is great content marketing. When generating and producing informative content, it’s important to follow best practices for optimal effectiveness. Doing so will serve to bring in an ongoing pipeline of new clients and provide consistency for a dynamic, lead-generating representation of your firm, 24/7.

Here’s how to get it done.

Law Firm Content Marketing Best Practices

1. 1. Use language that’s easy to understand

The legalese that lawyers and law firms use every day isn’t necessarily website appropriate. The general public isn’t familiar with the complicated vocabulary of the law and can be “put off” quickly if they don’t understand the language or get the answers they are looking for on your blog or other website pages.

You can insert hyperlinks to the particular state or federal laws within the content if you’d like to provide added value and reference material. The primary goal of your law firm’s website is to give potential clients the answers they need in a way that is not intimidating. This will make them feel comfortable and know they can communicate the facts of a case with you easily.

 

1. 1. Provide blog content on a frequent basis

With the enormous amount of information flying around on the internet, it can be difficult to get noticed. Search engine rankings are directly affected by quality and consistency. How often do you publish a blog about your services? This content marketing tool can be a huge booster for the flow of traffic to your website.

Post blogs about your practice areas (the best website driver!) on a frequent basis that are infused with keywords and make sure that you are utilizing your metadata to your best advantage. You need to be relevant to get found.

 

1. 1. Be strategic with your formatting

Your law firm website content not only needs to be easy to understand and relevant — it also needs to be as easy as possible to scan and glean the appropriate information. Guidelines on formatting for scannability include:

1. 1. • Provide enough white space — 5-line paragraphs at the most, and usually less
      • Use graphics/images/videos to break up long sequences of text
      • Use bold headlines and sub-headlines frequently
      • Intersperse pages and blog posts with bulleted information
      • Use bold fonts and (easily readable) colors in the text for emphasis
      • Be creative and differentiate the posts/pages on your site with infographics/videos/photos, etc.

The proper presentation of the information on the page makes a big impact on keeping potential clients on the page long enough for them to get the answers they need — and then propel them to contact you.

 

1. 1. Provide additional resources

Offer valuable information in addition to your pages and blogs. Short eBooks that branch out from the information on your practice pages or blogs can help viewers understand their legal situation better. For efficiency purposes, eBooks or other downloadable information can also be a collation of content from broad legal areas such as Family Law (Divorce, Child Custody Laws, Child Support, and Alimony) together in a neat package.

 

1. 1. Cater to mobile users

As a society, in general, becomes increasingly mobile, it behooves lawyers and law firms to ensure their website is mobile-friendly. It’s about responsiveness and accessibility. If your website isn’t set up to be mobile-friendly, you should have it redesigned as soon as possible. Slow or confusing websites increase your bounce rate exponentially.

 

1. 1. Include a FAQs page on your website

Having answers to frequently asked questions will help streamline your operations and give potential clients the basic parameters of how the business is run. Do you offer free consultations? Do you specialize in a certain area of the law? Do you have more than one location? Including these FAQs will assist in raising your percentage of quality leads.

 

1. 1. Make it easy for people to take action

Place contact forms on each page detailing your practice areas and include hyperlinks and persuasive language in your blogs. Providing this “next step” option is definitely a high priority in best practices for content for law firm website content.

Potential clients seeking legal help are often stressed and emotional. They may have a hard time making a decision. If you make it easy for people to take action, your reach, across various practice areas, will expand.

 

1. 1. Be available and engage in comments

Whether you receive comments on your website or on social media, having a plan in place and a person (or persons) assigned to respond to comments is just good customer service. This support can engender trust and build the reputation of your firm as one of compassion and care.

If the conversation gets too personal or dives into great detail, take the conversation offline or at least to DMs. Engaging with comments is also a good lead generator.

 

1. 1. Provide disclaimers when needed

Content for lawyer websites should be informative, easy to read and understand, and produced with SEO in mind. Sometimes, it is necessary to provide disclaimers. Don’t be hesitant to do this throughout the website. Viewers need clarity, but your firm also needs protection.

 

1. 1. Follow an inverted pyramid writing style

One of the biggest jobs of the content on your site is to grab their attention right from the start — and convince them to continue reading. If you follow the inverted pyramid writing style, you are much more likely to keep them on the page and subsequently propel them to take action and contact you for an appointment.

If you take too long to get to the point, giving expansive legal explanations or other narratives, they may leave the page and never come back. This is more important than ever as attention spans are getting leaner, and leaner.

 

Start generating leads

Using these best practices in content for law firm websites will drive traffic to your pages and keep them there. It is also a powerful way to generate quality leads 24/7. When was the last time you performed a comprehensive review of your website content? Do you see areas that are lacking or lackluster? Time to get it up to speed.

 

Other law firm and content marketing articles:

Blogging Statistics: The Importance of Blogging to Company Success

8 Types of Content Creation Tools You Need in Your Marketing Toolkit

7 Reasons Why Your Company Should Consider Outsourcing Your Content Marketing