Blue Seven Content law firm content

Creating Authoritative Law Firm Website Content That Everyone Can Read

Law firm website content is important, even as AI has crept into the digital marketing space. Human legal writers, by and large, are still much better at developing the voice of a law firm than any machine. However, it’s easy to get bogged down in complicated legal jargon, and it’s easy to craft a page that just “looks” unappealing.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

“If I do what you’re asking me to do, it’ll be dumbing down the material.”

That’s what an attorney told me once as I was coaching him through the process of crafting the content on his webpage. At the time, I didn’t have the exact data that I’m going to share with you today, but I had been a public school teacher. I understand the importance of being able to communicate with your audience.

One thing I know for certain is this – complex legal terms, long sentences, and bulky paragraphs are a non-starter for law firm websites.

For the purposes of law firm website content, you can’t write as “lawyers.” You aren’t at a law conference, and you aren’t going head-to-head with opposing counsel. You’re trying to talk to someone who needs your help, and the best law firm content writers will help you connect more deeply with prospective clients.

Why Clear Legal Writing Matters

Clear writing matters before a prospective client ever calls your firm. In the 2023 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, 28% of U.S. adults ages 16 to 65 scored at Level 1 or below in literacy, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This measures performance on reading tasks, rather than counting people who cannot read.

At Level 1, readers can understand short texts and find clearly identified information. NCES’s proficiency descriptions help explain why straightforward wording and organization matter. A page full of unfamiliar legal terms and dense paragraphs asks more of the reader.

Those national results cannot tell you what an individual client understands. Start with the questions your readers need answered: What does this term mean? How does the process work? What should I do next? Use familiar words, explain necessary legal terms, and keep important qualifications alongside the rule they limit.

Blue Seven Content graphic comparing “Prior to signing the agreement” with “Before you sign the agreement.”

Before publishing, ask someone unfamiliar with the topic to explain the page’s main point and next step in their own words. Federal plain-language guidance recommends writing for your audience and testing whether the content communicates clearly. Keep the legal meaning intact while making the explanation easier to follow.

You Can Create Legal Content Everyone Can Read

  • Use everyday words. There is no need to use anything other than simple English when you are creating your law firm website content. At Blue Seven Content, we’ve previously discussed why using complex legal terms is a bad idea.
  • Explain legal terms if you have to use them. If you find that using a legal term is absolutely necessary, then you should properly explain it to your readers using plain English.
  • Shorter sentences. Your sentences should generally be short and to the point. If you find yourself creating multiple complex sentences, go back and think about how you can shorten them. Reading your post out loud really helps catch these longer sentences.
  • Shorter paragraphs. Big and long paragraphs or an immediate turn-off to a reader. In fact, your reader is very likely to either hit the back button or skip over long paragraphs altogether. Seriously, if you find yourself using more than three sentences in a paragraph, ask yourself why and if the additional sentences are necessary.
  • Bullet points all the way. We love using bullet points because our readers love having bullet points. We’re willing to bet that regardless of what type of information you are looking for, you scroll right to the bullet points to get the gist of the post. Your law firm’s prospective clients do the same thing.
  • A clear CTA. Regardless of the type of information you are creating for your law firm website, every page should have a clear call-to-action for the reader. They need a sentence or two pushing them in the direction you need them to go, which is to call your law firm or fill out a contact form.

Your Prospective Clients Should Not Feel Shamed – They Should Feel Welcomed

Any person reading your webpage should never feel ashamed for not understanding what your page says. Regardless of what type of practice areas you handle, the reality is that most people only need your services if they are at a particularly low point in their lives. They’re already going through something tremendous, and they just want some help. Your law firm’s website should convey to the reader that you can help them and that they will not feel any shame when they call you.

We should take the concept of knowing your prospective clients/audience a little deeper. How much do you know about the literacy and education levels of your specific geographic area? Are you in an area where literacy is fairly high, average, or below average? When crafting your pages, you should always have this thought in the back of your mind – “Will the person who needs to read this be able to understand everything on the page?”

Now, this doesn’t mean they have to understand every aspect of their case or the law surrounding what they need. That’s your job to explain when they come to you for a free consultation and after they’re your client.

But they should understand the content on your page.

Law Firm Content Complexity Based on Practice Areas

Another factor to consider when creating content for lawyer websites is practice areas. There are certainly cases where the reading level of the page should be elevated. For example, law firms that cater to specific types of professionals or businesses, such as doctors, academics, inventors, investors, and other “white collar” professionals may need to examine how to get their writing closer to a college level. These are individuals and organizations who won’t need a seventh- or eighth-grade reading level to understand their issue.

However, just because you handle higher-level issues doesn’t mean you should fill the page with legal terms and compound sentences. After all, consider that almost everyone, regardless of their education level, will skim through a page. You still want your desired audience to understand the page, find the information they need, and call you for help.

Blue Seven Content Takes Complex Law Firm Website Content and Turns it Into Conversion Material

A team at Blue Seven Content understands the need to craft law firm website content that is readable by a wide audience. In fact, many of our writers have a background in education. We all have stories of being young teachers walking into the classroom full of what we think is high-level pedagogical understanding only to realize we know nothing about communicating with our audience. We learned the hard way, and we want to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes. If you have any questions about how to craft the following, we are here to help:

You can contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. Our team is ready to talk to you today.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

Outbound Links on a Law Firm’s Website – The Eternal Debate

We had a client that runs a fairly reputable law firm in Florida. We started working with him in late 2019, and it was an interesting experience. He was a great guy to work with, but he already had a major legal marketing firm handling his law firm’s website (I’ll leave the name out, but trust me, you’ve heard of them). That’s no problem – the team at Blue Seven Content doesn’t handle anything other than content, so we regularly work with other agencies.

This client loved the work we provided. We wrote about three blogs that he and his law firm partner checked and green-lit. However, when they turned the blogs over to the marketing firm to publish on the website, the marketing firm sent them back. Their problem was our inclusion of a few outbound links within the content. They proceeded to convince my client that the links had to be removed and that we should simplify the blog to contain only general knowledge on the page so we didn’t have to cite anything.

This, of course, made me laugh out loud. First of all, there was nothing overly complicated about the information we included. If I recall, it was statistics related to pedestrian and bicycle accidents for their geographic area. For another blog, I think we included a link to a new law that was passed that affected the practice area. This type of data wasn’t going to confuse the reader, but it was relevant.

Using outbound links on your law firm website

If you’re an attorney, the terms internal links, external links, and outbound links may not have too much relevance. However, they all have a purpose. The links that my client’s marketing agency was having a problem with were external outbound links.

At Blue Seven Content, we strive to provide our clients with law firm practice area pages and law firm blog posts that are original, researched, and optimized. Part of that is ensuring that the data and statistics we include are actually researched and cited. We cite our sources, like most people do, by hyperlinking them into the page. This creates an external outbound link.

We cite our sources because we know that anyone can make up data and statistics and throw them onto a page. That’s not how we operate. Our writing team is filled with former teachers and college professors who understand research, citing, and producing quality work. We’ve graded enough papers to know what is acceptable and not acceptable.

Using made-up data is not acceptable, and neither is leaving out citations.  

Why did the marketing firm take out our outbound links?

Ultimately, we removed the outbound links and provided proper citations for the material at the end of the posts we sent over. Their sole arguments were that the links had no SEO benefit and that the links draw readers away from the law firm’s website. However, I did put up my arguments for why we used outbound links and why I believed they should remain on the page:

  • Outbound links to reputable sources create authority for your law firm’s website. So many law firm websites seem to come up with data and statistics out of thin air. We want to make sure that readers know we are providing them quality data.
  • We don’t believe readers will be drawn away from law firm websites if a quality source is provided. In fact, we think it will help “hook” the client. If a prospective client clicks one of our outbound links, then they are engaged and are genuinely looking at the topic. They are going to return to your page if they need your help because you are the one who gave them the quality information. If the reader doesn’t come back after reading an outbound link, they probably didn’t need your help. Let’s face it – not every reader is a potential client, but we want to hook the ones that are.

Using quality sources for outbound links

When we use outbound links for our content, we are fastidious about the sources we use. We secure outbound links to our pages and blogs from:

  • Websites that are considered “high authority.” This generally refers to websites that end with .org, .gov., and .edu. In general, these pages will be filled with trustworthy, quality content.
  • News websites, though we tread lightly. In the highly polarized political climate we live in, we have to be careful when linking to news agencies. We really only use news sources when crafting law firm blog posts related to relevant and timely stories that tie back to the firm’s practice areas.

We also choose the “anchor text” for the outbound links carefully. The anchor text refers to the highlighted words that are clickable and direct the reader to the source. Which words we use as the anchor text will vary depending on the goal of the post, but we try to make the link fit seamlessly into the paragraph and sentence.

Blue Seven Content – crafting your law firm’s website pages from scratch

At Blue Seven Content, we are sticking with outbound links. We understand their purpose, and we think they add value to the page and the overall website. If your law firm or agency has any questions or needs help with any of the following, we are here:

Please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. We’re off to a busy start to 2021, and we have a few spaces left for content at the end of March and the end of April.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

Lawyer Morphs into a Cat – Finding the Humor in a Technological Snafu

Most of us have had some sort of technological issue over this last year with our work. This is particularly true for those who maybe hadn’t used video conferencing much before COVID-19 changed the way we do everything. For most of us, issues like someone being on mute or not being able to connect are a simple annoyance. However, there have been some rather humorous snafus over the last year. One of these happened yesterday.

By now, most of you have seen the virtual courtroom appearance in Texas that turned an attorney into a cat. Of course, he wasn’t really a cat, but he certainly did look like one.

“I’m here live, I’m not a cat,” said Presidio County Attorney Rod Ponton.

Yes, Mr. Ponton, you were there, and we thank you for the levity you’ve provided a nation that needs a laugh right now.

The issue was with Zoom’s filters. For those who may not use Zoom on a regular basis, stumbling into these filters can wreak havoc. Thankfully, Attorney Ponton had the patient 394th Judicial District Court Judge Roy Ferguson to help him walk through the process.

Ponton was eventually forced to use his secretary’s computer, but the hearing was able to proceed. “If I could make everyone laugh at my expense, I’m happy to do that,” Ponton said after the hearing was over. “It’s an example of what can happen in our computer connected world.”

Judge Ferguson even saw the humor in the situation and tweeted about it afterward.

Keeping up with trends and news to get traffic to your site

The second tweet by Judge Roy Ferguson actually brings up a good point.

The legal profession has been pushed to the brink over the last year. The COVID-19 pandemic led to complete court closures, significant delays, and a total makeover concerning how lawyers interact with clients. But, the justice system has continued to function. Law firms and attorneys have evolved.

Over the last year, many law firms that we’ve worked with at Blue Seven Content have asked us how to remain up-to-date, not just with how they handle technology, but with their website’s content. The good news is that our team had a game plan in place for law firms, particularly for those who had a website but neglected to do much with it after initially hitting the publish button.

Our team of legal writers likes to keep our client’s websites fresh with blog content that incorporates top news stories that relate to the firm’s practice areas. There are many ways that this can work. First and foremost, we always check the client’s geographic area for news stories that we can incorporate into a blog. We also track national news coverage for stories that can be used to relate the client’s practice areas.

Some examples of how we do this include:

  • Taking a local accident caused by a defective tool and related it back to the firm’s product liability practice.
  • Incorporating changes to state independent contractor laws into blog posts for our workers’ compensation injury attorneys.
  • Celebrating successful anti-discrimination laws and executive orders in blog posts related to firms’ employment law practice area.  

Our team specializes in taking relevant news stories from a client’s geographic location (or national if there’s a relevant story) and crafting a blog that will incorporate practice area keywords for SEO. These blogs keep a law firm’s website up-to-date with evergreen content that Google loves to see. Our goal isn’t to promise that every blog will generate dozens of clients. However, a blog strategy does bring value to your page in numerous ways. The regular flow of content is good for Google and other search engines so they see your page is not dead. The influx of blogs that incorporate keywords for your practice area is helpful, and blogs also give you a chance to build internal links. All of this can translate to more traffic, more leads, and more client conversions.

Blue Seven Content wants to help your law firm stay up-to-date

The team at Blue Seven Content has a plan, but we need you to give us the green light. We know how to keep your law firm blogs flowing with quality content. We’ll incorporate relevant news stories and statistics, and we’ll have the pages ready to publish when you get them from us. Aside from blog posts, we also work extensively with firms to create all of the following:

If you need help crafting content for your law firm, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

How Does Your Law Firm Present Itself? Are You Welcoming Everyone?

Blue Seven Content’s Inclusivity Series – Part I

You want clients to feel comfortable coming to your law firm for help. Right? Sure, some practice areas have more specific audiences than others, but the fact remains that you need to be approachable. Unfortunately, many law firm websites seem to assume that their readers or prospective clients will be comfortable with them. That’s not the case.

I’ve spoken to many people over the last few years about what they look for when they are choosing a law firm. After all, picking a law firm isn’t something that most people do on a regular basis. Usually, there is a specific reason a person needs legal assistance:

  • They’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence
  • There has been a death in the family
  • They are going through a divorce or custody battle
  • They are facing criminal charges

The responses I’ve received from people who are looking for a quality law firm may surprise you.

This goes beyond qualifications and experience

I’ve written for hundreds of law firms, and common themes that attorneys want me to convey in their law firm landing pages, law firm service area pages, and law firm blog posts include some variation of:

  • We have extensive experience
  • Our attorneys are qualified
  • We have handled many cases like this

Right. I get it. You want to let your prospective clients know that you are indeed capable of handling the case and that you’re good at what you do. One thing I can promise you is this – your reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other sites are going to do more than you touting yourself on your website. Alas, I understand why it’s important to establish authority. I’m not here to argue that you shouldn’t. 

I am here to say that nearly every single firm I’ve worked with has missed some important aspects when it comes to connecting with prospective clients. 

People want to be “seen” by their attorney

I’m going to say something that many people are going to balk at – something that is bound to be controversial. 

Straight white men (or white couples) with moderate to high incomes have a much easier time finding an attorney than others do.

I’ve gone out of my way to speak to people of color, single women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and those with a lower income about what they find important when looking for an attorney. Their responses surprised me at the time. However, in retrospect, it makes complete sense. 

Nearly every person I spoke to had a hard time finding an attorney that they thought would “see” or accept them. When they browsed websites looking for an attorney, sometimes during times of profound grief and sorrow, they couldn’t find any attorneys who went out of their way to acknowledge their communities. 

  • The black woman I spoke to searched and searched until she found a firm that had a black attorney on staff. 
  • The young bisexual woman I talked to was desperately searching for an estate attorney to help her after her mother’s cancer diagnosis – her search was in vain.
  • The gay male who was searching for a divorce lawyer to help him through the difficult separation process – in the South – had to look four counties over. 

How can a law firm create an inclusive image?

At Blue Seven Content, we aren’t saying that a law firm needs to go on an affirmative action hiring spree (though firms should always strive for inclusivity when hiring their talent). What we are saying is that your website is your image to the community. Use it as a platform to show that you are there to help prospective clients regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic level, etc. 

There are various ways that you can do this. Some things you can accomplish fairly quickly, but other inclusivity tactics take longer to implement. 

Law firm blog posts

Nearly every law firm posts blogs on their website. If your firm doesn’t, you really need to consider posting regular blogs. At Blue Seven Content, we work with law firms to craft researched blogs specifically to inform their audience while also drawing traffic to their website. 

A law firm’s blog can also be a space to highlight your firm’s inclusivity. There is nothing wrong with addressing these issues head-on:

  • Make a post about the racial unrest going on in the country, how it is affecting your community, and how your firm is taking a stance. 
  • Craft a blog post about how you see the struggles the LGBTQ+ community has experienced and that you are there to help clients regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. 
  • Post about the challenges and prejudices that single women face, and let them know that you are available to make things easier, regardless of your practice area.
  • Make sure that lower-income clients know they are welcome (free consultations, contingency fees, reduced rates, and payment plans can all be highlighted).

A larger strategy for your law firm

The most successful law firms I’ve worked with have all been active members of their communities. They’ve been involved with local schools and fundraisers. They’ve helped after natural disasters and local food shortages. 

I’d like law firms to also start highlighting their work on social justice issues. If your law firm begins working on (or is already working on) social justice issues, this should be highlighted in your blog and other areas on your website so that prospective clients can see it. You want your readers to feel like they can call you or walk in your door and not face any judgment, no matter what they look like, how much money they have, or who they love. 

Blue Seven Content is ready to help

The team at Blue Seven Content is ready to step in to help you today. We’re a mixed bunch ourselves, and we understand what it takes to help your firm build an image that you can be proud of. Our team is ready to help you craft content for your website, including:

Throughout the first half of this year, we are going to tackle issues that other legal marketing firms tend to avoid – we’re going all in to discuss how your law firm will benefit from inclusivity, even if it means ruffling sensitive feathers. Our inclusivity series begins now. If you need help crafting content for your law firm, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

How to Choose Between Blogs or Social Media for Your Law Firm

The age of the internet has made marketing both easier and harder. For the individual person trying to get their business off the ground, it is easy to start your own brand via social media. However, if you are looking for sustainable traffic to your site so that it works for you instead of you working for it, blogs are the way to go. 

Why Social Media Posts Don’t Work 

Social Media is great because it allows you to curate your own content and create brand specific messaging. However, it can feel like a second full time job because the most effective way to use social media is to post constantly, consistently, and daily. People can spend up to $4000-$7000 to maintain social media accounts. Is that the wisest way to use your marketing budget?  

Having an Instagram account for a clothing store is different than having one for your law firm. They are two different industries with different needs and audiences.  The legal field is more about reputation and outcome that can’t be expressed in a 30 second video or a picture post. Stop the chaos of trying to find cool new ways to talk about justice and let our professional writers at Blue Seven Content help. 

How Clients Choose Legal Help 

People search for legal help when they are in a situation, not beforehand. People look for four attributes in an attorney or law firm: 

  • reputation 
  • experience 
  • outcome
  • personality 

How can you best display these 4 attributes in a professional manner? Blogs. Our writers at Blue Seven Content know how to write well-researched and original content about your legal practice areas specific to your location. We are specifically tailored to your needs because we consult with you. We discuss your focus areas, location, audience, and long-term goals. Unlike an Instagram post, no one “likes” a blog post. However, we know that building a business is a marathon and not a sprint. Blogs can maintain the longevity of your business with consistent posting and original content ensuring search engine optimization. 

How Blogs Help Your Law Firm

Blogs are short, impactful pieces of writing that act as little windows into your legal world giving readers access to your brand, reputation, experience, and successes. A reader looking for legal answers may stumble across your blog and realize that hiring you as an attorney is the best option for their success. Having a well-written, researched, and original blog can transform the reader to a client. It can also improve your search-ability on search engines. 

Blogs for a Law Firm are a Better Bang for your Buck 

Social Media can cost around $4-7,000/month depending on varying factors like which social media site, amount of posts, hiring managers, content specialists, etc. To start your business foundation of blogs and pages we have one-time order packages starting at $475. 

The biggest difference between blogging and social media is that blogs help search engines find your page as people search for terms related to your content; thus, it helps the site work for you unlike social media where you have to continuously create content. Blogs show your readers that you are up-to-date in the legal field, interactive with your community, experienced, personable, and able to communicate. Blogs may not give you that instant flare of gratification, but you have to focus on creating new content daily. Blogs can be written and posted at minimum one time a week and you still see results. 

If you are ready to start focusing on your real business and over trying to find new things to post daily, our professional SEO writers at Blue Seven Content are here for you. Our team is ready to help you with a variety of services, including:

With daily consulting, we are ready to hear how we can create a plan for you to create a sustainable site that works for you so you can work on your legal career. If you need help crafting quality content for your law firm’s website, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

The Echo Chamber of Law Firm SEO

Welcome to the complex world of law firm marketing. As you begin figuring out how to write your law firm landing pages, law firm practice area pages, and law firm blog posts, how many of you have heard phrases similar to this?

  • You have to use the exact keyword phrases exactly this amount of times.
  • You must have exactly this amount of internal and external links.
  • You must use exactly this phrasing in your heading.
  • Your meta description has to say exactly this.
  • …and on, and on, and on…

Okay, maybe law firm marketing isn’t miserable, but it can be intimidating. This is particularly true when you start reading or listening to others tell you “exactly” what you need to do. Well, let me offer a different take than you are likely to hear right away – none of these “exact” SEO tactics are going to work if you have garbage content.

High-quality written content is the most overlooked aspect of law firm marketing. SEO experts and legal marketing companies often fail to stress the importance of the actual content on the pages.

High-quality content is necessary for your law firm’s website

Google is smart. Like, really smart.

Google is constantly changing the way that its algorithms analyze websites, particularly when it comes to finding pages with quality content and putting those pages in front of reader’s eyes. There is a reason that you always see SEO experts discussing the most recent changes about how Google handles search engine optimization. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you see updates about Google algorithms from SEO experts each week.

How can you, as an attorney or law firm content provider, keep up with every one of these changes?

The short answer is – you can’t. Unless you study SEO tactics on a daily basis, there’s no way you can be expected to keep up with all of the relevant changes that could affect a law firm’s website rankings.

However, there is one continual fact that has remained true for as long as SEO has even been a thing – quality content is essential.

As Google and other search engines continue to improve the way they interpret law firm website pages, they will continue to be able to spot pages with “good” and “bad” content. If you have written for law firms, or if you are an attorney, then you have most certainly seen poorly written law firm website pages. I’d link a few examples in here, but calling people out online isn’t my style. I have been known, though, to use a chat bot or two to let a law firm know about a glaringly obvious mistake on their page.

NOTHING will get a prospective client to click the back button faster than an incoherent page. Readers want a clean and professional law firm page. They want to page to address their current needs, give them some information on the topic, and tell them how to get a hold of the attorney.

The page should be written by someone who has a firm grasp of the English language, including any local colloquialisms. A law firm page should contain relevant research and links to reputable outside sources (this is a topic of debate, but I will always err on the side of linking to appropriate research).

At Blue Seven Content, we have previously discussed how law firm marketing companies often use less-than-skilled writers to produce content for their law firm clients. That is not okay.

Contact Blue Seven Content for help with your law firm marketing today

You need quality content on your law firm’s website. You also likely don’t have much time to produce the content needed to draw prospective clients in. At Blue Seven Content, we focus exclusively on law firm content – not your webpage design, not pop-ups or chat bots, not your social media pages. We handle written content only, which enables us to do what needs to be done to ensure you are passing a good image into the internet universe.  

At Blue Seven Content, our qualified team of legal writers has experience creating the following:

We are the first to acknowledge that we aren’t the cheapest option out there. You can probably get a blog written for your law firm for $5 or $10 if you head over to Fiverr, but will you be getting a page that is worthy of your law firm? Blue Seven Content is here when you want the sand-heated Turkish coffee style of content, not the McDonalds instant brew coffee content. If you need help crafting quality content for your law firm’s website, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

Does Your Law Firm Marketing Company Use Good Legal Content Writers?

Law firms have plenty of choices when it comes to online marketing. Options range from giant legal marketing companies to small, boutique companies and everything in between. Law firm marketing is one of the most competitive digital marketing fields out there. There are plenty of pros and cons to working with marketing agencies for your website, but one thing we want to ask is – who is writing the actual content? Who, after you get past the beautiful, fully functional webpage, is crafting the words that your prospective clients will be reading?

Are good legal content writers behind your website?

When you use a marketing firm for your law firm’s website, you are probably getting a wonderful team of designers and back-end developers to make your page look sleek and function perfectly. However, the person writing your practice area pages and blog posts may have just finished writing the latest “10 Ten Pop Singers of December” blog post for a run-of-the-mill click-bait website.

At Blue Seven Content, we want to discuss some of the pitfalls of relying solely on a marketing firm to handle your law firm practice area pages, law firm landing pages, and law firm blog posts.

You Want Professional Legal Writers for Your Law Firm’s Content

There is a good chance you aren’t aware of how much content writers or copywriters actually make per word. The truth is that there is a wide range of what the going rate it. On the lower end – and we mean the lower end – you will see rates as low as .02 to .04 cents per word. One thing that we can guarantee is that finding a skilled writer to accept that rate is rare.

In all honesty, you are not going to get quality writing from a native-English speaker until you get past the .10 cents per word range, and that’s still in the questionable range.

If you are unsure about what I’m saying here, take a trip to Google and look up the going rate for a copywriter or SEO writer. Head over to Reddit read the discussions.

Now, do you want to take a guess about how much a marketing agency is paying writers?

Well, I can tell you from experience it is on the lower end of the spectrum. After all, they have other people to pay – the project manager, an SEO “expert,” the actual people putting the website together, and the person who owns the company.

  • Note – I started my journey in the legal field with several legal marketing agencies. I worked my rear off and learned as much as I could. Disclaimer – I still produce content for these agencies, often in partnership with Blue Seven Content.
  • There are definitely some law firm marketing agencies that DO pay their writers a fair amount of money per word. Just not many.

Remember when we said that the law firm marketing field was competitive? Well, competitiveness means that there are plenty of companies going up against one another for your business, which can drive down the rates they charge your law firm.

Lower rates for your law firm should always be a good thing, right?

Well, that’s like saying that the cheapest attorney is the best attorney. We know that’s not likely true. An online marketing firm has plenty of people to pay along the chain of getting your website to look and function well. The writer producing your content is just one of those people. The less the marketing firm gets paid to produce your page, the less they pay the writer. I can promise you that most quality writers will not even think about writing a law firm landing page or law firm practice area page for less than .12 cents per word, and that’s pushing it. That is especially true when it comes to native-English speakers.

We also want to discuss online marketing firms that don’t focus specifically on law firms. This can get precarious. Often, these agencies have no writers who have written content for law firms. They will either use writers who specialize in other fields and hope for the best, or they’ll bring in a freelancer. Unfortunately, the pay in these situations is also going to be on the lower end of the per-word spectrum.

Your Law Firm Marketing Company Will Use the Content You Tell Them to Use

You may think that you can’t provide your own content or find a good legal content writer to produce content for your law firm if you’re using a marketing agency. That’s likely not true. If you have a blog or practice area page, you want to use on your page. The agency will put it up for you. At Blue Seven Content, we’ve produced content for law firms that are already working with legal marketing agencies. Yes, some of the agencies push back. Some get downright snippy, usually because the content we produce is simply better.

Work With Blue Seven Content Today

You need good legal content writers. At Blue Seven Content, our focus is on producing quality SEO content for law firms. We specialize in developing:

We focus exclusively on law firm website content – that’s it. We don’t have anyone else to fork over money to other than our writers. Our team is small, and we like it that way. In fact, it wouldn’t take much time for us to arrange a phone call with the very person who would be working on your content. We want our law firm partners to be comfortable with the person writing the content for their firm. Whether you are currently working with a law firm marketing agency or not, we are here to discuss your options. Our team takes the time to get to know your practice areas and the socioeconomic and demographic data for your specific location so we can tailor your content appropriately. Please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

Attorneys – How Do You Discuss Your Rates On Your Law Firm Landing Pages or Law Firm Practice Area Pages?

Lawyers, let’s talk about money. No, really. Let’s have a discussion about how you discuss money on your law firm landing pages and law firm practice area pages.

The reality in this country is that, while the stock market may be doing well, most people in this country do not see their wealth reflected in Wall Street. There is a significant gap between upper-income brackets and lower-income earners in this country. This can have a profound effect on how you should reach out to clients. Particularly, awareness of the socioeconomic status of your community and prospective clients should factor into how you discuss your attorney fees on your law firm practice area pages and law firm landing pages.

The money discussion on your law firm landing pages and law firm practice area pages

When I work with clients, I’m sometimes met with resistance when trying to incorporate a discussion, even just a sentence or two, about rates. Some clients want to avoid this discussion altogether and would rather get the prospective client in the door for a consultation before they even talk about how much they charge. I think, in many cases, this is going to be a bad idea and a waste of everybody’s time.

I like to encourage attorneys to make some kind of mention of their rates on their page. More than ever, I found myself recommending that this information be put towards the top of law firm landing pages or law firm practice area pages, particularly for personal injury law, criminal law, family law, and estate law.

This can be done fairly simply. As an example of how I approach writing about rates with certain practice area pages for clients, you may see me include lines like:

  • At Blue Seven Law, we take Kalamazoo personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that our clients will not have to pay any upfront or out-of-pocket costs for their case and will only owe legal fees after we secure the compensation they deserve.
  • At Blue Seven Law, we offer affordable rates for those facing serious criminal charges in Phoenix because we believe that everyone deserves adequate legal representation in court.
  • At Blue Seven Law, our Jacksonville family law attorneys offer their services at reasonable rates so that you can afford to have a skilled and qualified advocate by your side.

Of course, there are various ways to say the same things, but you see that we can accomplish the rate discussion without discussing exact dollar amounts while also getting in some SEO keywords.

On that note, there are certain practice areas where people expect that they will be paying a sizable premium for the service. In this vein, I’m thinking about copyright and patent law, corporate labor law defense, and various other niche practice areas. In those cases, it may not make sense to discuss your rates until after you have your prospective client in the door.

A rate discussion gives the client some confidence

If we’re honest with one another, the perception of the general public is that attorneys are out to make a ton of money at the expense of their clients. Of course, outlandishly fictional TV shows and movies have perpetuated the stereotype, but that’s what we’re left dealing with. When you mention your rates, even with just a sentence or two within your law firm practice area pages or law firm landing pages, you are letting the client know upfront that they may actually be able to afford your assistance. When your clients read your pages, you want them to gain a sense of comfort. Along with a quick discussion on rates, I always suggest that these pages be written in simple English (no complex legal terms), smaller sentences, smaller paragraphs, and bullet points when possible.

I also strongly encourage you to use various types of governmental and research data before you write to gain an understanding of the socioeconomic and demographic patterns in your area. You need to know your audience so that you can tone your practice area pages and landing pages towards them. At Blue Seven Content, our qualified team of legal writers has experience creating the following:

If you need help crafting quality content for your law firm’s website, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

Are Your Law Firm Landing Pages and Practice Area Pages Full of Confusing Legal Terms?

You went to law school. The people reading your website didn’t.

That may be a generalization, but it’s probably true. The target audience of your law firm’s website is prospective clients. In most cases, this will include those without a law degree. That means you shouldn’t be filling your law firm website’s landing pages and practice area pages with complex legal terminology.

What kind of words are complicated?

After three years of law school (or four, who’s counting?), your brain is wired to read and understand complicated words and confusing sentences. However, the average reader certainly isn’t likely to understand complex legal terms. Some of these include:

  • Spoilation
  • Actus reus
  • Additur
  • Remittitur
  • Habeas corpus
  • In loco parentis
  • Intestate
  • Mens rea
  • Certiorari
  • Demurrer
  • Malfeasance
  • Fiduciary
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

There are certainly other words that your prospective clients will likely not understand. You’ve probably thought of some while reading this. You also know that attorneys tend to craft particularly complex sentences when writing briefs.

Guess what?

Complicated words and sentences are going to hurt your law firm’s online presence.

Making your content informative and readable

The goal of every page on your law firm’s website is to convert a reader into a potential client. You want the reader to get to your page, find the information they need, and call you for help with their issue. This is true for your:

At Blue Seven Content, we understand that the target audience of each law firm is slightly different. Every firm needs to understand the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of their area. All content on a law firm website needs to be readable. In general, this means less of a focus on legal terms and more of a focus on laymen’s terms. Take the complex and make it digestible by a person who needs your help.

When your prospective clients click on one of your law firm’s webpages, they are there because they searched for something online and were led to your page. In short order, your page needs to get their attention and contain the information they need and can understand. This usually means plain English, shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, and bullet-point lists.

Work with Blue Seven Content today

Lawyers, paralegals, and legal assistants are busy. You have clients to help and cases to work on. Rarely do legal professionals have the time to dedicate to building quality content for their websites. It’s not surprising that we see so many law firm websites with barebones practice area pages that will never rank on Google. That can be detrimental to their online presence. In many cases, law firms turn their content production over to a large marketing company who is going to spend their money on brilliant looking webpages and skimp on the actual content.

At Blue Seven Content, law firm content is what we do. When you are ready to come up with a content plan for your law firm’s website, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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

Blue Seven Content law firm content

Your Law Firm Website Content Focus For 2021

We have almost made it to 2021!

I know we’re all ready to get 2020 in the rearview. This has been, without a doubt, one of the strangest and most difficult years any of us has been through. There’s no need to recap the chaos in depth. We know there’s been a pandemic. We know there’s been continued police misconduct and racial unrest. If you haven’t noticed, we’ve also been going through a never-ending election that really should have been over a month ago (yet somehow isn’t).

At Blue Seven Content, we’ve been talking to law firms about what they want to accomplish this year. The first thing lawyers and paralegals say is that they’re ready to put 2020 in the dust. Once we commiserate a little bit, they eventually talk about how excited they are to get 2021 started on the right foot.

Copyright Allen Watson

What are law firms looking to change?

Some law firms are using the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 to completely re-do their online presence. We’ve talked to some firms that have barebones practice area pages and no blog presence. For them, they want to come out of the gate strong. One of the strategies we’re helping clients with is coming up with a new set of keyword-focused practice area pages that can put them on the map in their geographic area. At the same time, we want to start helping them with a blog plan that complements their pages and meets their budgetary requirements. Blogs are one of the best ways to keep that “evergreen” content presence that Google loves so much.

Other clients already have a good set of practice area pages but are thinking about expanding into new areas. Blue Seven Content is going to help some clients create geo-specific pages for their practice areas. When we do this, we will take a deep dive into the socioeconomic and demographic data for their target area so we can tailor their law firm pages (and blogs) towards their desired market.

Regardless of where a law firm is at with their online marketing, there is likely a way to make some improvements. We strongly recommend that every law firm take a look at their website and ask – “Is this really what we want?”

If your answer is “Yes,” then that’s great!

However, if you think there is some area of your webpage that could use improvement, Blue Seven Content is ready to help. Our team has extensive experience handling:

Work with Blue Seven Content

At Blue Seven Content, we focus exclusively on content for your law firm’s website. We aren’t the designers. We aren’t the coders. We create content that is original, researched, and optimized. Our team members are all college-educated, native English speakers. We know how to connect with an audience and will tone every one of your pages and blog posts to your audience. If you have a 2021 plan for your law firm’s website, please reach out to us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.

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