Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Sources For Legal Content: How To Find And Cite Credible Content

Writing legal content is primarily about presenting information that people are looking for, and citing sources for legal content is crucial. It should be specific, thorough, and, above all else, accurate. 

In a world where there is so much information available on every imaginable subject, providing accurate information that people learn they can rely on encourages the building of trust and a strong foundation for long-term business relationships. 

If you are writing legal content as a well-known expert in legal circles your byline may be enough to give credibility to your content. But for most legal writers – who may, in fact, know their subject forward and backward – there is a more recognized authority saying the same thing which adds credibility to a writer’s content.

At Blue Seven Content we stress using only quality sources to support our legal content. Our writers stay up to date on the most current and reliable sources for the jurisdictions we write in so our content is always thoroughly researched, fresh, and accurate. 

  1. Why You Should Use Sources in Your Legal Content
  2. Why it’s Important to Cite Credible Sources
  3. How to Identify and Select Credible Sources
  4. How Many Sources Should You Use?
  5. The Best Way to Cite Your Sources
  6. Would You Like Blue Seven to Handle Your Legal Content?

Why You Should Use Sources in Your Legal Content

Citing sources for the points made in legal content not only legitimizes the content, it also gives proper credit to the originators of the ideas being discussed. Plagiarism is something no writer wants to be accused of and making sure to give credit where it is due keeps everyone happy.  

Providing convenient links for readers to get greater detail further enhances their experience and makes it more likely they will engage with the content for a longer period. 

Why it’s Important to Cite Credible Sources

Citing the sources where you got your information is only part of the equation. You need to vet your sources before linking to them and make sure that people who click through are landing on a source that they will either recognize as being an authority or believe produces information that can be trusted. 

Credible sources are likely to have more staying power so you can be assured that links to their websites or content will continue to be maintained and users won’t have the frustrating experience of ending up with an error message. 

How to Identify and Select Credible Sources

Sources that produce information considered to be more objective and less self-serving are credible sources to cite in legal content. Generally, information found on government (.gov) or educational (.edu) domains is credible. 

At one time the .org domain indicated a charitable organization and thus greater credibility but that is not necessarily the case anymore. Some credible sources may use domain names specific to their industry such as .media for news reporting. 

And even though .com sites tend to be commercial, sometimes the manufacturer of a product is the best authority for information about the industry that uses it. 

For any source that you find and are considering using, you want to keep these things in mind as you evaluate its credibility.

  • Is the source original? Is the source you want to use the original presenter of the information or is it a document that cites the original source? Using original sources or sources closer to the original are considered more accurate and leave less additional searching for someone who clicks a link in your content. 
  • Is the source current? Most people are going to be more persuaded if the source you are citing is not very old. Acceptable ages for sources can depend on the subject matter. For legal content, relevance often depends on the latest news and changes in the laws, so sources that are the most recent are considered the most reliable.
  • Is the source well known and generally accepted? The more widely recognized your source is the more easily it will be accepted as an authority for the point you are making. 
  • Is the source relevant? Does the source you are using talk specifically about the point you are making or is it more generally about the subject matter and doesn’t have the level of detail that the reader is looking for when they click the link.  
  • Is the source freely accessible to those who may click on its link and want to learn more? It can be frustrating to click a link and not be able to read the information without signing up or making some kind of agreement in order to view the source content. Attention spans are short. People expect fast and easy and are quick to move on.
  • Is the source easy to navigate and free of grammatical errors? If a source seems unprofessional or it’s hard to find what you are looking for, look for a different option. Credible sources should be properly edited and the information should be simple to access. 
Focus on credible sources, not backwood bloggers.

How Many Sources Should You Use?

The general rule is that any time you use words, ideas, or data that are not your own you need to credit the source of your information. The exception is when the information you are using is so widely known as to be of common knowledge to the audience you are writing for. If you are not completely sure the information is common knowledge it’s best to cite your source.  

With content creation, you have to think about the balance between sourcing your information when appropriate and including so much information that you have links in every sentence. Reader experience is a key aspect of having your content read. A few well-placed links throughout the content won’t tend to distract a reader the way 4 or 5 links in a single paragraph might. 

The exact number of sources to use in any piece of content will depend on the subject matter and how in-depth the writing needs to be. A good rule of thumb is to cite the most credible source for each idea you are writing about. 

The Best Way to Cite Your Sources

When citing sources within legal content you will select certain phrases or parts of a sentence and link those words to your source. You want to be strategic with this and not just use some random words in your link. 

The words or phrases you highlight as your link are called the anchor text. Anchor text is not only a handy way for readers to link to additional information, it also has SEO implications. Search engines use anchor text to learn what content is about and to associate similar topics.

 Anchor Text Best Practices

General best practices when selecting anchor text include:

  • Try to include the topic of the source you are linking to in your anchor text. The more closely related search engines believe linked content to be, the higher the content can rank for search queries relating to the topic. 
  • Use as few words as possible. There is no right or wrong here but keeping anchor text concise while giving readers enough information to know where the link takes them is the objective.
  • Make sure the anchor text chosen flows naturally within the context of the topic being discussed. Don’t include superfluous words just to establish a greater connection to the source. 
  • Vary the words used for anchor text throughout your content even if all sources are discussing the same topic. Detecting the same anchor text used over and over can lead search engines to conclude you are over-optimizing and result in lower rankings in search results. 

When it comes to finding credible sources and citing them in a way that properly optimizes the content for search engines, it just takes practice. You get better at it the more you do it.

Would You Like Blue Seven to Handle Your Legal Content?

The legal content writers at Blue Seven Content combine legal knowledge with digital marketing skills to produce engaging legal content that is authoritative and ranks well. 

Blue Seven can help with all your legal content needs including the following key types of content for law firm websites:

  • landing pages
  • practice area pages
  • blog posts
  • practice area FAQ pages

Our company founders work with all potential new clients to make sure we can provide the quality legal content our clients have come to expect and we take pride in producing. To learn how Blue Seven Content can help bring you together with the clients that need your services, call 843-580-3158 or reach out to us here for a free consultation. 

Written by Mari Gaines, JD – Legal Content Writer

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Why We’re Better Than the Top Legal Marketing Companies

Few industries are as competitive online as the legal industry. Law firms spend up to fifteen percent of their revenue on marketing, which means the more a law firm brings in, the more they are going to spend on marketing. It is surprising how many law firms are losing money on marketing by going with the wrong legal marketing companies.

But when you spend all your time in court or with clients, it can be difficult to tell when the marketing company you have selected to drive leads to your law firm is going to produce the most favorable results.

It is no secret that digital marketing and search engine optimization efforts are not an overnight solution. On the contrary, a strong marketing strategy is built to withstand and in preparation of trends and algorithm updates, which can stretch over a period of months and years.

Many law firms looking for their greatest return on investment will choose top marketing companies to handle their content marketing efforts. But you might be surprised to find that you aren’t seeing the leads you thought you would by now.

There are some key reasons why these legal marketing companies are making it on top. And it is not because they are producing the best content. Here’s why Blue Seven Content is the best place for the top law firms across the country to get their legal content.

We Are Not a Content Mill

Some of the top legal marketing companies in the country are rapidly shifting to a content mill model of web content production. This is exactly the style of content that you want to avoid in the legal industry. Major marketing companies will take on more clients than they can reasonably handle. And rather than spend the money on in-house writers, they will instead contract that work out to freelance writers working with content mill agencies.

The problem is not with the freelance writers. Freelance writers, especially those who focus primarily on legal writing, are some of the top contributors in the industry. But content mills are known for producing mass amounts of poor-quality content. The last thing you need as a competitive law firm is content that does not read well or translate into leads.

Blue Seven is better than the top legal marketing companies because we are not a content mill. That model is not for us, or our clients. We do not focus on producing massive amounts of content that will not convert. We take the time to carefully craft every single page. Our best practices have been proven time and again to boost law firm rankings and steal the top spots of lawyers working with top legal marketing companies.

Specialized Focus on Content Marketing

One of the biggest issues with top legal marketing companies is that they stretch themselves too thin. Most people know that digital marketing as a whole is an extremely involved process. Between search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, content marketing, social media management, on page SEO efforts, and link building, making sure that your law firm is prepared for success online takes more than just high-quality content.

But even the best legal marketing companies cannot do it all. There is a reason why many of the top legal marketing companies in the country have a high client turnover rate. They will tell you that their clients were not in it for the long-haul, or that they did not understand that search engine optimization and digital marketing takes time.

While this may be true, Blue Seven Content is able to maintain our client list and keep our law firms ranking by hyper-focusing on legal writing for law firms. Our ability to work with some of the top legal marketing companies, who may be lacking in the content marketing department, make us the obvious choice when you are looking for the best legal writing in the country.

Content Marketing Trendsetters of the Legal Marketing Industry

The reason why many legal marketing efforts are successful is because they follow trends. The way a webpage is designed, the verbiage used, the way that the content is written, the specific vocabulary chosen, the placement of images and text, and other important SEO efforts will all change over time and with the needs of readers.

But Blue Seven Content does not follow trends. We set them. Our writers are constantly trying new and inventive ways of getting across to readers so they convert. It is only when our competitors see how successful our pages are that they begin implementing the same types of techniques and trends that we have created within our writing. Skip the middleman and call Blue Seven when your law firm needs high-quality legal content.

Get Our Legal Content Marketing Experts Working for You

Top legal marketing companies are not successful on their own. The best writers for law firms nationwide are experts who have a niche-specialty in legal writing. Our legal writers at Blue Seven Content have dedicated their careers to creating and following marketing trends that allow them to customize legal content and drive leads to some of the most competitive law firms across the country.

When you are ready to take your law firm to the next level with your content marketing strategy, go straight to the source of premier legal writing in the U.S. Contact Blue Seven Content for a free consultation with our company’s founders. Fill out our quick contact form or call our office at 843-580-3158 to get started.

Written by Dianna Mason – Legal Content Writer

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Why Client Communication Matters for Legal Marketing Companies

Why does communication with legal marketing companies matter?

Suppose you’re looking for the best legal content writers to take your law firm’s website to the next level. You type into Google various search terms that you think will work – best legal marketing companies, top marketing agencies for law firms, how to write a law firm blog post, and so on.

You make a list of five companies that you see pop up over and over and start dialing.

Ring, ring, ring.

Robotic but “supposed to be realistic” voice answers – “Thank you for calling Generic Legal Marketing Company. Please leave a brief message about how we can help you, along with your contact information. We’ll be in touch soon.”

If I called during someone’s business hours and that was the message I received, I would certainly hang up and go to the next person on my list.

The truth is that we love connection, no matter what industry we’re in. Over the last year, I’ve learned the value of speaking to every potential client that calls our phone number or makes contact through the website.

A Story of Miscommunication and the Results

I like to talk to prospective clients. I actually enjoy the conversations, whether over the phone or through Zoom. I think establishing a personal connection is important. Every client speaks to either myself or Blue Seven co-founder Victoria Lozano.

We recently spoke to Adam (name changed for the story). Adam has a solo firm in California, just outside of a major market. His website has languished over the last two years, and he’s had trouble with the legal marketing agencies who were supposed to be there to help him.

Adam started out with a fairly large and well-known legal marketing company. If we named it here, you’d know the name. However, they were so big that they’d become slow, at least when it came to adjusting his website the way he wanted to. When Adam would call this company, he’d rarely get through to someone who could make the changes he wanted. He was shelling over an ungodly amount of money to them each month to do basically nothing. He wasn’t getting new content. He was getting the magical “SEO spa treatment.”

I call bullshit.

So, Adam reached out to another company, one I’d never heard of. Their pitch sounded good, and they were less expensive, but that’s about as good as it got. Adam says that they, too, said they were doing some SEO “stuff” each month, but he never saw new content and his rankings plummeted.

Adam says that every time he called this other company, he always ended up speaking to someone didn’t speak English all that well and could never address his needs.

Overall, Adam had gone from making a few hundred thousand dollars from online leads each year to a number we won’t even mention here.

Blue Seven Content Values Client Communication

Adam got ahold of Blue Seven last month and spoke directly to me. We talked for an hour about his experiences and about what we do. Honestly, I think this was the first in-depth conversation he’d ever had about actual legal content, keywords, and the challenges of ranking in his market. We agreed on a test page (something I insist on for every new client), and he loved it. We’re now finishing all of his website pages, and I really think we’ll see some changes in a few months for his firm. Adam understands the need for communication with legal marketing companies, and we’re proud he’s chosen us.

I thought that speaking to clients was normal. Now I know better. Two months ago, a rather large firm out of Cali called our business number and discussed his needs and asked when he could get in touch with a “sales” person to get further into how we could help. He thought I was the receptionist.

Once I told him I was the co-owner of Blue Seven, he was shocked. He said it made him much happier that he was talking directly with someone who knew what they were doing, and he knew he wouldn’t be pushed from person to person before a partnership could be made. We set up a Zoom with his business partner and mine for the next day, and we’ve been working with them ever since.

Conversations create long-term clients.

Let Blue Seven Help With Your Law Firm Content

At Blue Seven Content, we know that communication with legal marketing companies matters. We truly believe we have the best legal content writers who can enhance your law firm’s website pages quickly. As we mentioned above, we always start out with a paid test page to make sure we’re a good fit with potential clients. To this day, everyone we’ve done a test page for has continued the relationship.

Our law firm content writers can help with a range of content issues, including providing:

You can contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. When you contact Blue Seven, you will be connected directly with the company’s founders.

Written by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

3 Things You Must Know Before You Write Great Legal Content

Having great legal content must be a big part of a law firm’s overall marketing strategy. It must be educational and entertaining enough to hold the attention of the audience it is intended to reach. The end objective of legal content is to provide enough value to readers so that they are persuaded to take the next step toward becoming clients.

Beyond a basic ability to write, there are three skill areas that must be combined in just the right proportions to create legal content that will get the results a law firm is looking for.

1. Law and Legal Process

Much of legal content is directed toward helping people understand their rights and obligations in various legal situations. It just makes sense that if you are going to be good at explaining something to someone else you have got to have a decent understanding of it yourself.

Attorneys who write their own legal content are obviously going to be very proficient in their knowledge of what they are writing about. They may even be a little too proficient to the extent they are focused primarily on the subject matter of their content – perhaps to the exclusion of the necessary marketing components.

Understanding how to research legal subjects is a huge benefit for legal content writers.

I find it quite helpful for writing legal content that I have a JD and did practice law for a short period many years ago. But a JD is not necessary to become a good legal content writer. What is necessary is a sincere interest in the law and legal matters, a willingness to learn, and the ability to research and write about a topic.

2. Digital Marketing

Business advertising has moved to the internet in a big way. Advertising on the internet requires some skills that more traditional methods of advertising do not require.

  • You have to know who your audience is – who do you want to read your content?
  • You have to figure out how to get your content in front of your audience.
  • You have to know how to increase the likelihood that your content will get the attention of the people you want to read it.
  • You have to be able to hold reader attention long enough to get them to take the action you want them to take.

What this means is that you have to understand the concept of search engine optimization (SEO) and using keywords and key phrases. You have to know which keywords to use, when to use them and when not to use them.

You have to know what it means to target a particular audience and to write your content so it speaks to those people.

You have to engage your reader visually. Content must be presented in a way that is visually appealing to a reader. It must be organized so that it is capable of providing basic information from a quick skim.

3. Copywriting

Copywriting is “selling with words.” Copywriting is the ability to persuade the reader to do something. In the case of legal content, the copy must be written so that when the reader gets to the end of the article they are willing to call the phone number or click through to a law firm contact page and schedule a consultation.

Copywriters are interesting people. It’s not just writing, it’s writing with a purpose.

Copywriting emphasizes being able to connect with your reader and make them feel something. People who need to hire a lawyer or law firm have a problem they need help with. Good legal content connects with people who have a specific legal problem and then shows them the solution and why a particular law firm is the most capable of providing that solution.

Putting the Pieces Together

The main goal of legal content is to sell a lawyer or law firm to a prospective client. Legal content needs to hook readers who are looking to solve a particular legal problem and then build a bridge back to the law firm that can help them.

Research shows that people make most decisions based on emotion and then justify those decisions intellectually. So while having the technical aspects of legal content correct is very important, being able to write so that you capture something intangible within people is the difference that makes the difference.

There is extreme competition among law firms offering similar services to rank high in search results and get the attention of the people needing their services. If you want to be in the game, you have got to know what you are doing with your advertising.

At Blue Seven Content, we come from varied backgrounds. Some of us have worked in the legal profession. Some of us are really into technology. Some of us have marketing experience. But what we all have in common is a passion for creating great legal content that keeps our clients happy and our services in demand.

If you want legal content that both convinces and persuades, Blue Seven can help you with any of the following:

Find out how you can improve your law firm marketing with strategic, well-written legal content by contacting us here for a free planning session or calling 843-580-3158.

Written by Mari Gaines, JD – Legal Content Writer

Blue Seven Content news and awards

Blue Seven Content Partners With webLegal: The Law Firm Marketing Power Couple

Law firm marketing is essential, and we’ve made no secret that Blue Seven Content is focused exclusively on providing the best legal content writers in the business. We do this by seeking out the writers who already have proven writing skills then provide them with our legal content writing guides and an interactive training session. Blue Seven also has monthly writer meetings. We know that there isn’t a single legal marketing agency out there that does any of this.

But we also know that business partnerships are essential. Because we only provide the written content that law firms need, we’ve partnered with webLegal so law firms have even more options available to them. Formerly known as WebsLaw, webLegal provides a range of services that help ensure a law firm’s brand shine online.

Logo for Blue Seven Content

Our Law Firm Marketing Partnership is Ongoing

webLegal has been around for quite a while. They have had ongoing relationships with law firms throughout the United States for the better part of a decade. Blue Seven Content founders, Allen Watson and Victoria Lozano, both started their legal writing careers at webLegal.

As Allen and Victoria moved forward on their own paths, it was always inevitable that they’d end up working with webLegal in one way or another. The partnership is stronger than ever, as both companies work hand-in-hand with one another with dozens of clients each month.

What Services Come With This Partnership?

Blue Seven provides great legal content for law firms throughout the US. On any given day, our writers are hard at work on:

webLegal can bring you the whole package when it comes to helping law firms land prospective leads that turn into quality clients. webLegal focuses on:

  • Creative development
  • Law firm digital strategy
  • Organic digital marketing
  • Local SEO
  • Paid digital solutions
  • PPC for law firms
  • Google Ads for law firms
  • Law firm video production

When a law firm needs to ramp up its digital marketing, a call to webLegal and Blue Seven Content will completely change the ballgame.

Contact Our Teams to Get The Law Firm Marketing Results You Need

If you are wondering what your next steps should be to get your law firm’s online presence rolling in the right direction, Blue Seven Content and webLegal are ready to help. You can reach out to either of our teams to get started.

Whether you only need written content for your existing webpage or are looking to start or revamp your entire law firm website, you can count on the Blue Seven Content and webLegal partnership for help.

Written by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Legal Content: 5 Reasons Good Attorneys Are Bad At It

Everyone can write legal content, especially lawyers…right?

Sure, lawyers can write … Good legal writing is well researched and persuasive.

And legal content is writing … Good legal content is well researched and persuasive.

So why don’t most lawyers write good legal content?

Legal writing is written for an audience of lawyers or others familiar with the law. Legal writing applies existing law to specific facts and attempts to persuade a decision-maker to rule a certain way based on a factual analysis. 

Legal content is intended to educate an audience of non-lawyers about the law and available legal solutions. Legal content reveals how the law generally applies in given situations and attempts to persuade a person to make the decision to hire an attorney or law firm.

While traditional legal writing and legal content writing share many similarities, they are designed to influence distinctly different audiences and are intended to produce different results. 

1. Legal Content is about Marketing

Why do most lawyers and law firm websites have blogs?  And why is it important to keep fresh content posted regularly? Legal content is law firm advertising. Much of law firm advertising has moved online where the competition for attention is fierce and the rules of the game change rapidly.

Legal content needs to be a precision blend of education, inspiration, and motivation that will move potential clients into action. Content needs to give readers the information that they are looking for while creating the feeling that the writer has the solution they are looking for. 

Good legal content must be infused with benefits for the reader. Better legal content takes the reader on a journey that they can relate to. Great legal content rides in on a white horse and gives the reader exactly what is desired.

Knowledge of digital marketing practices is essential to creating legal content that will perform well and attract new clients.

2. Legal Content Needs Style

A judge is going to have to read a legal brief no matter how uninteresting it appears. A potential client has no such obligation when it comes to legal content.

Any content needs to be formatted to get the attention of the targeted reader. The content of a law firm’s webpage needs to be presented so that it attracts the reader and then holds the reader’s attention. 

Legal content needs to be organized so that the major points jump out when skimmed to let the reader know that a deeper dive into the content is warranted – it requires a visual appeal that legal writing does not.

  • Keeping paragraphs short helps break up chunks of text that are intimidating to readers. 
  • Bullet points call attention to listed items. 
  • Bold and italicized text creates emphasis and draws attention.  

This content is viewed on social media. You need to be aware of how your content displays on various social media platforms. If your content is hard to read or doesn’t display well, people will move on. 

3. Legal Content Must Connect with the Intended Audience

Unlike legal writing, legal content writing does not have a captive audience. The words on your law firm’s website need to be written so that it attracts the attention of the people who need your legal services. Knowing who these people are and what is important to them is critical to getting your message where it can do the most good for both you and your potential clients.

Determining how to get your content to connect with the people who most need to see it is part science and part art. Your content has to earn the trust of your audience and instill the confidence that your law firm is the best option for getting to the solution they seek. 

You must explain what is involved in a particular legal problem and then demonstrate how you can solve it in a way that makes clients more likely to click your link and provide you with their contact information. 

Your content needs to make readers feel good. People remember the things that make them feel. And people choose the things that make them feel good.

Legal content writers have to be able to connect with the right audience.

4. Legal Content Needs an Optimization Strategy

How will your potential clients find your content? Google search, of course. And how will Google decide to show your content to your potential clients? Google will take the search criteria and scan the web for the content that best matches the search inquiry. 

Legal content needs to anticipate the words that people will use in their searches and strategically incorporate them into the content. Keywords and phrases must be included so that Google knows that your content is what the searcher is looking for. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of getting content to appear higher in the search results that are displayed to the searcher. The higher your content appears in the search results, the more likely your content will be seen and read – giving you the best opportunity to land new clients.

5. This Writing Requires a Fresh Perspective

If you want to stay ahead of your competition you have to keep a consistent flow of quality content in front of your potential clients. That requires a lot of new ideas about subjects you’ve written on many times. 

You have to find new ways to present similar information so that your audience believes they are receiving additional value from your content every time they read a new piece.

After a while, you may run out of ideas and your content will lose impact.

Trying to write about the law in ways that are fresh and engaging can be a challenge even for those of us who specialize in legal content writing. But it’s all we do, we’ve had a lot of practice at it and we have fun doing it.

Would You Counsel a Client to DIY When You Know You Can Help?

There are many legal situations people find themselves in that do not require the services of an attorney. But the lack of knowledge and experience in dealing with the legal system puts most people at an extreme disadvantage when trying to resolve legal matters. The knowledge and expertise you offer helps people achieve a much better result faster than would be possible without using your services.  

Producing good legal writing is an important part of your law firm’s marketing efforts and requires proficiency in digital marketing practices. Some attorneys are really into marketing and enjoy creating their own content. But there are many who don’t want to take on law firm marketing in addition to representing clients. So they leave content creation to those of us who specialize in legal content writing and marketing.

At Blue Seven Content, we aspire to write excellent legal content – every piece, every time. Our team creates engaging, original content that is thoroughly researched and optimized to get you results. 

We prefer to establish long-term relationships with our law firm clients because it allows us to get to know our firms and the clients they serve and enables us to write compelling content that performs well. Blue Seven Content can create any of the following tailored to meet your firm’s specific needs.

Your clients want to work with you because you’re among the best at what you do. Don’t let bad legal writing keep you apart. To find out how Blue Seven can transform your law firm’s website, contact us here for a free strategy session or call us at 843-580-3158. 

Written by Mari Gaines, JD – Legal Content Writer

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Legal Content Writing: Most Attorneys Don’t Understand Keywords or SEO

When it comes to legal content writing providers, phone calls or video chats with clients usually go one of two ways:

  1. Everyone gets along and is on the same page. Maybe a few laughs are shared.
  2. Attorneys or legal marketers at a law firm do not understand SEO. Things can get uncomfortable.

When I was a baby law firm content writer, I just assumed everyone understood why there were certain things worded the way they were. What I’ve learned is that lawyers have other things on their minds. They’re understandably busy, and most have very little time to focus on what goes onto their website. This can be a problem when they read the content and get frustrated by what’s there.

Here, I want to look at a few of the main areas of contention I’ve encountered when producing content for attorneys over the last few years.

(I’ve made slight changes to details here to obscure who I may or may not be talking about)

Geographic Focus For The Law Firm Practice Area Pages

I had a conversation with a personal injury attorney out of Myrtle Beach the other day. It got heated at first because they couldn’t understand why I was creating pages for the cities surrounding Myrtle Beach. In particular, this set of pages was for Conway, a crowded city very close to Myrtle (and the seat of the county).

Aside from the fact that we’d already agreed on a strategy to target the cities around Myrtle, I had to explain again why we were doing so. Let me give you a brief rundown of how the conversation started:

  • Attorney: “My office is in Myrtle Beach. My pages should focus on Myrtle.”
  • Me: “We have already made your main “pillar” pages focused on Myrtle. Now, we’re working to target other areas where clients could come from.”
  • Attorney: “The Myrtle Beach pages should be good enough.”
  • Me: “But you said you wanted to draw clients from all of the other major cities around Myrtle.”
  • Attorney: “Yes, I did say that. But why are you turning me into a ‘Conway personal injury lawyer.’”

You see what’s happening here. My plan, which I had discussed with this attorney, was to create satellite pages that closely mirrored the pillar pages but focused on the other major cities around Myrtle Beach. On some pages, it would be “Conway personal injury lawyer” or “Conway car accident attorney.” On other pages, it would be “North Myrtle Beach personal injury lawyer” or “North Myrtle Beach car accident attorney.”

I took some time to explain the search behavior of the people we were targeting – the prospective clients in these individual cities who are typing into Google or another search engine for help.

Yes, the algorithms are pretty smart, and individuals in those other cities may very well have landed on his page without these satellite pages, but that’s no guarantee. By having a multi-location strategy implemented, his bases would be covered.

We got past the issues, and I carried on with my strategy.

Problems With The Way Service Areas Are Labeled

“I didn’t go to law school to be an ‘Uber accident attorney,’” an attorney said to me condescendingly. “I handle personal injury law cases, and that’s all people need to know.”

Right, no kidding. I also didn’t just decide to make that your keyword for no reason. I understand that you handle “only personal injury law.” As an experienced legal content writer, I also know that is not how your clients are finding you. People are very specific when it comes to what they lookup on Google and other search engines. Instead of popping onto the internet to look up a personal injury lawyer near them, they’ll type in what actually happened:

  • San Francisco dog bite lawyer
  • San Francisco SFMTA attorney
  • San Francisco Uber accident lawyer

I’ve had more than one conversation with attorneys about this type of keyword usage. Another conversation I had was an attorney practically yelling, “There is no such thing as a New York City child custody attorney.”

My colleagues and I asked the attorney, “Do you want to take cases revolving around child custody out of New York City?”

When the attorney answered “yes,” we had to spend 20 minutes explaining that a “New York City family law attorney” keyword phrase just isn’t going to work for every single page.

Every overreaching practice area has smaller areas that need to be targeted. In the case mentioned above, we knew that Uber accidents were fairly prevalent and that not many other firms in the area had pages specifically geared towards Uber accidents. An “Uber accident attorney” page for this attorney would have been fantastic.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. This attorney wanted to remain only a “personal injury lawyer.” We were allowed to mention causes of injuries within the personal injury page, but we couldn’t get specific with his keywords on individual pages.

Will it work? Probably not, but we tried.

Working Through The Issues To Craft The Best Legal Content Writing

There has to be a good working relationship between legal content writers and the attorney or the law firm marketing coordinator. As creators of law firm content, the team at Blue Seven has a responsibility to make sure the attorney understands what we’re doing and why. We have to clearly communicate our goals as well as give a basic lesson on SEO and how the search algorithms work.

Our team can help law firms handle a range of content issues, including providing the best legal content writing for:

You can contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. When you contact Blue Seven, you will be connected directly with the company’s founders.

Written by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Developing a Law Firm Practice Area Page Strategy Over Time (Service Area Pages)

It is crucial to take time when developing a law firm practice area page strategy. At Blue Seven Content, regularly liken practice area pages for law firms as “product descriptions.” These pages let your prospective clients know what you do and whether or not you can help them with their problems or pain points.

We want to be very clear – practice area pages are not for other lawyers. These pages are for the everyday person in your geographic area. They have to be written in a way that clearly and concisely explains the topic and how you can help.

When you are developing a strategy for your law firm practice area pages, it can be overwhelming. Newer law firms need to get their website going quickly. The practice area page strategy for a new law firm is going to look different than the ongoing practice area page development for an established firm. Here, we want to briefly describe the process of developing law firm service area pages over time as your firm continues to grow and understand your prospective clients.

Why You Need More Practice Area Pages for Your Law Firm

When a law firm first starts out, there is not going to be an extensive layout of the website. You need something online quickly to be ready for your opening, so you may have a home page, basic practice area pages, an “about us” page, a blog area, and a “contact us” page.

When it comes to practice area pages for a new website, these pages may not be very expensive to begin with. It could be the case that you have a 500-to-550-word page for every major practice area that your law firm covers. For example, if you have a family law firm, your practice area pages may consist of a:

  • Family law overview page
  • Divorce page
  • Child custody page
  • Property division page
  • Alimony page
  • Child support page
  • Protective orders page

For a personal injury page, you’ll likely want to cover the basics right off the bat with a:

  • Personal injury overview page
  • Car accident page
  • Truck accident page
  • Slip and fall accident page
  • Premises liability page
  • Product liability page

However, a law firm website is not a one-and-done proposition. Your website has to grow organically. Google and other search engine algorithms are looking for continual, evergreen content. You can accomplish this by providing blogs for the website, updating existing practice area pages, and adding new practice area pages.

Over time, you’re going to want to do a few things when it comes to your law firm’s practice area pages:

  • You can turn your main practice area pages into longer-form pages.
  • You can add new legal practice area pages altogether.

Getting Granular on Your Practice Areas

Your basic practice area pages may be enough to get your law firm up and running and to get a few clients in the door, but this is not going to be enough in the long run. Pretty quickly, you need to start thinking about adding more content to your website. Your law firm practice area page strategy will be crucial here.

If you are an established law firm, you cannot let your law firm practice area pages become stagnant. If you can’t remember the last time you added any service area pages or when you updated your existing practice area pages, it is time to start thinking about some changes.

One way to add new law firm service page content is to get more granular on the topics that your firm focuses on. On the personal injury list above, we mentioned a basic car accident page for the firm. However, the “car accident” page can become your umbrella page to cover all types of vehicle accidents and vehicle accident topics.

We want you to think about the topics that you can add under car accidents:

  • Pedestrian accident page
  • Bicycle accident page
  • Motorcycle accident page
  • DUI accident page
  • Head-on collision page
  • Rear-end collision page
  • T-bone accident page
  • Rollover collision page
  • Construction accident page
  • …and more
Start out with broader practice area pages, then funnel them down to specific areas related to the overall topic.

This works for all types of law firms – family law, personal injury, criminal defense, estate law, IP and patent law firms, and more. For example, suppose you are a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco and have a “San Francisco DUI Defense Attorney” practice area page. You can use that as your umbrella page to cover various types of searches that people in your area may look up if they are facing a DUI charge:

  • DUI penalties
  • Driver’s license issues
  • Defenses to DUIs
  • Ignition interlock explanation
  • The DUI charge timeframe
  • …etc.

As you add more and more topics related to your particular practice areas, you are building authority for your law firm’s website. So long as your law firm service area pages are well written and contain good information optimized for SEO, you are building a database that the search engines will reward.

General Pages for Other Geographic Areas Around You

When most people start a law firm, they begin in one particular geographic area. Usually, this focuses around a city or perhaps a county. As such, your website content needs to reflect that geographic area. For SEO purposes, it is crucial for you to include geographic terms to your practice area information on your website.

For example, you are not going to perform very well in local searches if your entire practice area page for personal injury just says, “personal injury attorney.” Instead, you need to have your geographic area attached to some of these practice areas. If you are a Myrtle Beach law firm, you want the page to say “Myrtle Beach car accident attorney” in the correct areas of the page and in the headings (variations of this geo keyword phrase also need to be throughout the text).

But, let’s be honest – a Myrtle Beach car accident lawyer is going to want to target clients outside of just the city limits of Myrtle Beach. Over time, it would be wise to create practice area pages for other geographic areas. These new pages will, of course, have similar information, but they cannot be duplicated.

You have to pinpoint multiple geographic areas for your law firm to target, and they all need different pages.

For example, Myrtle Beach is located in Horry County. It would be wise for a personal injury law firm to create the same types of practice area pages that they have for Myrtle Beach for other areas. These will be separate pages, but they will also be original and new. Search engine algorithms will heavily penalize your law firm’s website if you simply copy and paste and swap out the geographic keyword phrases. You would be surprised at how many law firms do just that.

A Myrtle Beach law firm may have multiple geographic areas that they want to target:

  • North Myrtle Beach
  • Surfside Beach
  • Conway
  • Loris
  • Aynor
  • Murrells Inlet
  • Garden City
  • Socastee
  • Horry County
  • Georgetown County
  • Brunswick County
  • …and more

When you begin thinking about your particular geographic area, you need to think about your county and the surrounding counties. You also have to consider all of the cities around your location. Additionally, you need to consider the unincorporated areas that everybody knows about and has a name for that may not be an actual municipality. Many individuals in those areas are likely to type in the unincorporated name in a search engine to look for legal help. In that list above of geographic areas around Myrtle Beach, a few of those places are actually unincorporated areas that everybody knows and that have large enough populations where having separate pages for them could be a good idea.

Turn Your Original Pages Into Long-Form Practice Area Pages

We mentioned turning your original practice area pages into longer-form practice area pages. After you write your original pages, that does not mean that you will never return to them. On the contrary, there are various reasons why you should continuously return to your practice area pages to make changes.

First, if you have any data or statistics on your practice area pages, you are going to want to look at updating the data or stats every year or so. Your readers will be turned off if they come onto your page and see car accident stats from 2016. That just indicates that you are not paying attention.

More and more, we have discovered that Google’s algorithm is rewarding longer-form pages. These longer posts are likely to be seen as more authoritative, but that does not mean that you can just throw in more words. Your existing pages have to be examined, and you have to add content that flows with what is already there. In some cases, you may decide to scrap your original page altogether and rewrite a 1,500- or 2,000-word page (using the same URL). A 2,000-word vehicle accident page for your geographic area that is original, researched, and optimized is going to get more traction than a 500-to-550-word practice area page. You can use these longer pages as the backbone of your law firm’s website.

Blue Seven Content Can Help With Your Law Firm Practice Area Page Strategy

There are many ways that you can go about developing practice area pages for your law firm’s website. You could hire a huge legal marketing company to handle your entire website, but there are pitfalls to that approach. At Blue Seven Content, we are not going to try to handle every need for your website. Our goal is to provide well-written, researched, and optimized content for your pages.

Together, we can approach your law firm practice area page strategy in one of two ways:

  1. We can write all of your law firm practice area pages for you. Blue Seven works with some of the best legal content writers in the industry, and we know how to put together a practice area page that will stand out above the rest for your firm and your geographic area.
  2. We can help you write your law firm practice area pages yourself. Blue Seven has developed a practice area page writing guide that you can purchase for $149. For an additional $99, you get a one-hour phone consultation for a lead content writer to go over the guide and our writing process.

When you need the best law firm content for your web pages, you can contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. We are ready to help you with every aspect of developing a content strategy for your website, from practice area pages to law firm blogs, to law firm FAQ pages to law firm landing pages. We’re standing by.

Written by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

What Makes A Law Firm Blog Post Compelling?

If you’re taking the time to write a law firm blog post for your website, it’s because you want to provide information that people are looking for and bring them to your site. If people like the information you are providing and are in need of your services, you want them to retain you.

But how do you distinguish your legal content from all the other attorneys and law firms that are also creating content for their websites?

Legal content that is compelling grabs the interest of your readers and holds their attention. Readers cannot resist continuing to engage with the content because it is giving them what they want to know all the while convincing them that you are the right firm to solve their legal problem.

Writing a compelling legal blog post is that perfect combination of legal concept, art, and marketing.  It’s taking the information that you want to convey and presenting it in a way that is attractive and persuasive to your readers.

So how do you go about creating a compelling legal blog post?

Law firm blogs posts take time to plan

Know Where You’re Going

Let’s face it, if you don’t know what you want to say, your message is not going to be clear to your readers, and they won’t hesitate to look elsewhere. A little preparation can improve your blog content and actually make it easier to write.

  • Choose your topic – What do your potential clients want to know? What questions or concerns have often come up with past clients? Are there legal issues specific to your community? What about community events?
  • Do some research – Is this area of law changing? Has it been in the news lately? Can you share some little-known aspects?
  • Create an outline – Jotting down a working title and a few major points you want to cover helps to keep you organized and less likely to get off task.

Get Your Readers’ Attention

As your audience scrolls through the results of their look-up, what is going to get them to stop and click on your legal blog post? How will your content stand out so that it gets the click?

  • Know who your audience is – Who are you trying to reach? What is their specific problem? What would you say to them that you know would get their attention?
  • Write a great headline – Making your headline a question is a good way to get people to read it. Questions create curiosity, and that gets attention. Or use the old stand-bys, ‘how to’ or ‘what to do if.’ Your readers are looking for information that will help them make a decision.

Keep Your Readers’ Attention

Once you have a reader’s attention, you must act quickly to keep it, or with the swipe of a finger, away it goes. When your blog post opens and your readers’ eyes hit that first sentence or two, you have to hook them in to continue reading. You may want to let them know immediately what they can expect if they continue reading. What is the solution you are offering?

  • Create an introduction – Can you share a relatable story about your topic – personal or something in the news – to further connect with your reader before launching into the nuts and bolts of your post?
  • Make it easy to read – You want your content to convey your message to both those who skim and those who will read more in-depth. Don’t discount the importance of visual appeal with your content. Use sub-heads to break your content into several consumable chunks. Keep your paragraphs short. Keep your sentences short. Keep your grammar simple. Use bullet points.

What about SEO for a Law Firm Blog Post?

You can’t just ignore it. Even if you don’t really understand it and you’re not all that interested in learning about it.

Presumably, you are writing your blog post so people who have a problem you can solve will read it. How are they going to find you? They will do a Google search. And what does Google do? Google will do its best to match what the searcher types in with some content on the web. So you need to have some language in your post that is going to match the search criteria of the audience you are trying to reach.

The language a searcher uses becomes the keywords that you want your content to match. And the more precisely you match the search query, the more likely your content will be pulled from the herd and placed closer to the top of the search results list.

Law firms can’t ignore basic SEO when writing legal blog posts

So, think about it. What might somebody be looking for when you want them to find you? Are you generally a ‘personal injury attorney in Chicago’? Are you more specifically a ‘Schaumburg wrongful death lawyer’?  People often search by location + specific problem they have + your profession.

If you’re writing about ‘wrongful death,’ use it a few times throughout your post so search engines know your post is a good fit for someone searching for information about wrongful death. Don’t be afraid to use similar words interchangeably – like ‘attorney’ and ‘lawyer.’

It’s really best not to try to be all things to all people in one blog post. Niche down your topic so it addresses a specific aspect of your practice and then incorporate the keywords that relate to that subject.

A word of caution about keywords:

  • Ultimately, it is great content, not keywords, that wins the day. Don’t forget to use keywords when you have an opportunity to do so. But don’t litter your content unnecessarily and distract from its value.

Use internal links

Inserting a phrase such as ‘Manhattan child support attorney’ into your content (assuming it’s relevant) gives you the perfect opportunity to link your law firm blog post to the area of practice page on your website that talks about that area of your practice.

The more your readers feel like you can help them, the better your chances are of having them contact you. You want to make it convenient and easy for them to get more information from you and not need to look elsewhere. Two or three internal links can take your readers to other places on your website that provide them with more information and a way to contact you.

At the End of Your Law Firm Blog Post, Let Your Readers Know What They Should do Next

It’s called a ‘call to action’ – CTA.

At the end of your post, you want to let your readers know what you would like them to do next. This is the final paragraph or two of your post. Write a few sentences to summarize the information in your post and why an attorney is the best way to solve the problem you discussed. Then write a few more sentences about why you or your law firm is the best choice among available choices.

Providing something of value to your readers without obligation can be a good way to get them to remember and contact you. Offering a free consultation is a good way to make contact with new clients. Ask readers to contact you to take advantage of your offer and provide a link and phone number for easy access.

Proofread and Edit Before You Publish

Clean, concise content that uses terms that are well understood by most people is going to attract more readers and keep them reading. Taking the time to read (out loud can be helpful) your content and remove what isn’t really necessary can make your writing more impactful. Hemingway Editor is a very useful free editing tool that points out issues in your writing that you may not be aware of and may want to change. Grammarly also has a free tool, and the newest version of Microsoft Word has a decent built-in editor.

A Final Tip About Law Firm Blog Posts…

There are only so many hours in any day. Yes, you want your legal content to be compelling. But you don’t have hours and hours to make it perfect. Give yourself a window of time to write your law firm post. Proof it. Edit it. Publish it. And let it go. The more you do, the better you’ll get. And if, after a while, you decide that content writing isn’t where you want to focus, Blue 7 Content has you covered.

At Blue 7 Content, we write compelling legal content. It’s all we do. We do it a lot. We do it well. Our content is always original, well researched, and search engine optimized. We write to order, or we can provide our own creative expertise. The content we create includes any of the following:

We know your time is valuable and you prefer to focus on what you do best. So let us help you be better by focusing on what we do best. You can contact us here to book a free strategy session and learn how Blue 7 Content can get you great results with great content. Call us at 843-580-3158.

Written by Mari Gaines, JD – Legal Content Writer

Blue Seven Content Uncategorized

Blue Seven Content Doesn’t Try to be One of the Big Legal Marketing Agencies

Legal marketing is a hard industry to break into. There are so many legal marketing agencies out there that most new companies are knocked out of existence within a year or two. That’s why you see the usual names at the top of any list of “Top Legal Marketing Agencies.” That’s also why you see so many companies change their strategy, re-brand, then come back again with a new plan.

Blue Seven Content doesn’t want to be a big legal marketing firm. We don’t try to be, and we never will.

You see, we saw a problem in this industry and started Blue Seven Content to tackle the issue. We want to provide the best legal content for law firm’s websites. That’s it. Nothing else.

What the Big Dogs Focus On

If you go to one of the major legal marketing firm’s websites and look at the upper menus of the page, you’ll see what types of services they offer. Without many variations, you’re likely to find a mix of the following:

  • Law firm SEO
  • Attorney website design
  • Pay per click services
  • Facebook / social media marketing
  • Chatbots for attorneys
  • YouTube advertising for lawyers
  • Website video production for law firms
  • Google Ads services

Somewhere in the mix, you’ll probably see “legal content writing,” though there are some agencies that put this service in some hidden realm that’s difficult to find.

Legal content writing is regularly seen as an afterthought, while the major efforts go into the other services mentioned. We aren’t saying that those other things aren’t important, but they’re nearly useless without quality written content on the law firm’s website.

Why We Focus on Providing the Best Legal Content

At this point it sounds so cliché – “Content is King.”

However, that has always been the case. That hasn’t changed. Yes, now video and audio content is important, but the written content on a webpage is still of vital importance.

We focus on written content for law firms only. We do this because we don’t want to over-extend ourselves. If we started delving into other areas of legal marketing, we’d dilute our powers. That’s not something we’re willing to do. We found a need, and we built Blue Seven Content around that need.

And it’s worked. We’re so booked out with work that we’ve spent a significant portion of time in 2021 training new writers to handle the demand.

Law firms and legal marketing agencies recognize that we know what we’re doing. They know we can provide the content they need.

We work with the best legal content writers

The Irony – We Work With Big Legal Marketing Firms

We certainly aren’t hostile to the big dawgs in the legal marketing field. We’ve found that the leaders of these companies noticed the same problems about quality content that we did. Most of these agencies have in-house legal content writers, but not a bunch. When they get large orders from new clients, this can leave them in a bind. Most legal marketing agencies also have a select group of freelance writers they work with to handle the overflow, but that can be hit or miss.

Freelancers are just that – free to do whatever they want. They may be available. They may not. They may provide quality work. They may not.

That is where we come in.

Blue Seven Content is the “scale up” that these larger legal marketing firms need. They know that we only do content, and they know we do it well. Companies know that we have an extensive onboarding and writer training process, and our pricing is transparent.

Around half of Blue Seven’s clients are legal marketing firms. Most of those firms are well-known names that our readers would instantly recognize (we can’t put the names here for obvious NDA/privacy reasons). We help keep these companies from spending time and resources on hiring and training new writers.

The Best Legal Content Writers for Your Law Firm or Legal Marketing Agency

If you are in a position where you think you need legal content writers but aren’t sure where to start, we have an idea.  

Call our team. Our initial meetings with clients are literally the most low-pressure conversations you’ll have. We just want to get to know you and your process. We’ll discuss what we can offer. Maybe we’ll work out a way to move forward. Some of the legal content writing that we provide includes:

You can contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. When you call, email, or fill out the contact form on the website, you will be put into direct contact with Blue Seven’s founders. We’re a small company, and we like to interact directly with clients.

Written by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content