Are you consistently writing personal injury SEO content for your website but not seeing many new clients? The information you are providing may be of great value, but it may not be getting the attention it deserves.
With so much similar content available and reader attention being so fleeting, personal injury law firms not only have to write quality content, but they also have to write it in such a way that it appeals to readers who are looking for a reason to stop scrolling.
Getting and keeping readers’ attention is part strategy and part art. Understanding reader behavior and presenting content that meets expectations and makes the experience comfortable (and perhaps even pleasant!) moves readers along the path toward becoming clients.
- Content Presentation Can be More Important to the Reader than the Information Shared
- Why Having a Plan for Content Creation Improves Your Chances of Getting Clients
- Chasing Clients Away with SEO Content for Personal Injury that is Poorly Edited or Out of Date
- Writing Personal Injury SEO Content that Converts Your Ideal Clients
Content Presentation Can be More Important to the Reader than the Information Shared
Merely conveying information is not enough. There are just too many similar options that appear in search results. Personal injury SEO content needs to anticipate the behavior of the targeted readers. There are three jobs content has to do if it is going to be effective in acquiring clients.
First, content has to get the reader’s attention. Then, it has to engage the reader sufficiently to motivate continued interaction with the content. Finally, the content must persuade the reader to contact the affiliated law firm.
The following are important considerations for improving a reader’s experience with law firm content.
Write a Good Headline
Getting a reader to stop scrolling and click on your content is the all-important first step toward client acquisition. Those first few words a reader sees when viewing search results must generate enough interest to get the reader to stop and click. Therefore, writing a great headline is crucial.
The best headlines use relevant keywords to convey what a reader can expect from the content and include attractive or powerful language that piques the reader’s curiosity. As a general rule, headlines should be concise and to the point.
A good blog headline for a Houston personal injury law firm writing about the steps to take after a car accident might be any of the following:
- Injured In A Car Accident In Houston? Here’s What You Need To Do Now
- What To Do If You Were Injured In A Car Accident In Houston
- 7 Steps You Should Take After A Houston Car Accident
- How To Protect Your Rights After A Car Accident In Houston
- Mistakes to Avoid If You Were In A Houston Car Accident
- Why You Need To See A Doctor After A Car Accident in Houston
Enhance Content Readability
Once a reader gets on a law firm’s website, the content needs to keep them there. The average amount of time spent on a website is less than a minute, which is not usually enough time to finish reading most content.
So, when writing personal injury SEO content, how can you keep a reader’s attention?
- Make sure the body of the content provides the information promised by the headline.
- Start with an outline so the content is organized and flows logically.
- Present information in short, concise sentences and try to keep paragraphs from three to six lines of text.
- Incorporate real experience and helpful examples where appropriate.
- Make the information easy to scan using headers, bullet points, and bold text to highlight important points.
- Include links to other relevant content on your website so readers can easily find additional information that may be of interest.
Tell the Reader What to Do Next
Writing personal injury content is about providing valuable information to potential clients and advertising the services of a law firm. SEO content for a personal injury law firm needs to include a motivating call to action (CTA) that persuades readers to contact the law firm.
Calls to action in legal content should convey the benefit a reader will receive by contacting a law firm. Incentives to encourage action could include offering a free consultation or providing a link to testimonials from other satisfied clients. Creating a sense of urgency by referencing a limited period for taking action – such as a statute of limitations – can also help inspire readers toward becoming clients.
Calls to action should include action-inducing language like the following:
- Call now
- Schedule today
- Get started
- Contact
- Learn more
- Don’t wait
Why Having a Plan for Content Creation Improves Your Chances of Getting Clients
Law firms attract clients by establishing themselves as legal authorities within their practice areas and gaining the trust of persons who read their content. Having a strategy for creating content helps a law firm establish topical authority with search engines which in turn helps to establish the law firm’s authority with potential clients.
When Google is trying to determine the most appropriate response to an inquiry concerning personal injury, the search engine looks for indications of a law firm’s authority on the particular topic. A law firm that has comprehensively covered a topic with content on its website will rank higher in search results for having topical authority. A law firm that ranks higher in search results will be seen by more potential clients. When more potential clients interact with a law firm’s website, it is an indication of the site’s value to Google.
Chasing Clients Away with SEO Content for Personal Injury that is Poorly Edited or Out of Date
As mentioned earlier, clients have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting a personal injury attorney. An easy way for a potential client to eliminate a law firm from contention is by finding spelling or other grammatical errors in the content or by reading information that is no longer current.
With so much editing software available, there really are no excuses for sloppy editing. First impressions can be easily made and hard to overcome. An extremely competent law firm that has not paid adequate attention to detail when presenting content on its website is doing itself a grave injustice and likely losing business.
Similarly, lawyers are expected to be experts (though they can’t say so) in knowing the most current laws applicable to their practice areas and need to stay on top of any changes. If law firms are not regularly updating their content, it detracts from their authority and credibility.
The goal is always to write content that will remain as ‘evergreen’ as possible. Evergreen content contains information that does not change frequently and needs updating only rarely, if ever. Content giving general or practical information may not need updating, whereas content about a specific law or a developing legal situation may need to be reviewed more frequently.
Practical Tip: When updating previously published content it is only appropriate to change the publication date (according to Google) if significant changes were made. If only a few facts were changed or links added, it is best to add a note indicating when the information was updated but leave the original publication date as is.
Writing Personal Injury SEO Content that Converts Your Ideal Clients
Why does SEO for personal injury attorneys matter? According to the SEO tool suite Ahrefs, of the billions of pieces of content published every day, over 95% never get any organic traffic. As more and more content is published, less and less of it has a chance to be seen. Standing out will only get more difficult unless you publish the kind of content that appeals to both search engines and readers.
At Blue Seven Content, we write content that gets results. We work with law firms and legal marketing agencies writing thoroughly researched, strategically optimized, and uniquely original personal injury content that takes a reader from their problem to the law firm with the solution. Call 843-580-3158 to find out how Blue Seven Content can improve your content marketing.
Written by Mari Gaines, JD – Legal Content Writer
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