A substantial number of people dealing with legal issues turn to the Internet to look for the right attorney to take on their case. This means your law firm’s popularity, credibility, and visibility online have a substantial impact on how successful your law firm may be.
Although blogs for law firms may seem like something you do not have time for, the truth is that having a comprehensive blog with valuable information for prospective clients can not only help generate business but also improve your law firm’s website search engine rankings and help build authority online.
If you hope to get your lawyer blogs and law firm practice area or landing page ranking, it is important to understand the essential ranking factors. Some of these can be handled by your digital marketing company. For example, having high-quality backlinks, fast page loading speed, and core web vitals are crucial. However, none of these ranking factors will matter if your web content leaves much to be desired. In December 2022, Google released an algorithm update that focused on ranking content that more adequately meets user’s needs. The most notable include E-E-A-T and YMYL.
What Is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T is an acronym that stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Although E-E-A-T is not technically a Google ranking factor, Google and other search engines are more likely to rank pages with strong E-E-A-T. Here is a rundown of how you can utilize these factors to improve user trust, build authority, and create content that converts traffic into leads:
Experience
The content on your law firm blogs should always be high-quality and provide users with the information and subject matter they are looking for. Your blogs should be written in a way that users understand your law firm has first-hand experience in this area of law. One way you can do this is by highlighting your law firm’s case results, awards, and accolades in handling legal issues similar to what your potential clients have experienced.
Expertise
Google is more likely to boost your lawyer blogs in the rankings if users can see that you have the credentials and qualifications to provide the knowledgeable and reliable information they are looking for. Lawyers providing valuable information about their practice areas through blogging is a prime example of topical expertise in action online.
Authoritativeness
Authoritativeness describes your online reputation in the legal community. If your law firm or attorneys are widely recognized as being respected and knowledgeable in their subject matter, the pages accredited to them are more likely to perform well in search engine rankings.
Having a reputable SEO content provider that devotes their efforts toward legal content writing may be the best way to put your law firm on the map. Then, your competitors will help boost your website’s authority by linking back to your content because it provides value to web users. This will help set your law practice up as a leader in the legal marketing industry.
Trustworthiness
Your blogs and web pages absolutely will not rank if they are not deemed trustworthy. Google Quality Raters will consider the factual accuracy of a page and whether trusted sources have been cited, such as legal statutes and government (.gov) pages when determining whether a blog, landing page, or practice area page is trustworthy enough to rank in the top three search results.
What Is YMYL?
YMYL refers to “Your Money or Your Life.” These are topics that could have a significant impact on the reader in some way. For example, information about local car accidents in the news may not be useful to most readers. However, a blog post about how to report a car accident or obtain copies of a crash report would be. The more YMYL content on your site, the better your rankings will be.
Blogs for law firms in 2024 – Start planning today.
What High-Quality Legal Blogs Cover
Most lawyers do not have time to create their own blogs. You are likely not a professional writer – you are a legal representative who needs to devote as much of your attention as possible to your client’s cases. Having a legal content writer craft compelling blogs on your behalf is the answer. Legal writers and content consultants can not only write content that ranks but also offer suggestions on what topics you should cover on your law firm blog.
What to Do’s and How To’s
When you are trying to decide what to blog about, consider what your target audience is searching for. Most often, they are searching for long-tail phrases and keywords that focus on What to Do’s and How To’s. Some examples could include:
How to Deal With the Insurance Company After a Car Accident
What to Do if Police Try to Question You Without a Lawyer
How to Avoid Probate
What to Do if A Client Breaches a Contract
How to Appeal a Denied Social Security Disability Claim
Why Potential Clients Need an Attorney
People dealing with legal issues almost always think about trying to navigate their case without a lawyer. They envision lawyers as being expensive, greedy, and maybe even conceited. Writing blogs about why your readers can benefit from a lawyer will challenge these preconceived notions while boosting traffic and leads to your site.
What to Expect Articles
Many people who truly need a lawyer are hesitant to reach out for help. When you write what you expect articles on your law firm blog, you can help prepare potential clients for what’s to come.
This can give them the confidence boost they need to fill out your contact form or contact your law office directly to schedule a free or confidential consultation and discuss their specific needs. You can even write blogs that focus on what to expect from your attorney fees when costs are holding would-be clients back from contacting your office for help.
Comprehensive Guides
Writing comprehensive guides is another way to build authoritativeness and trustworthiness online. Even someone dealing with a legal issue likely has little to no understanding of the intricacies of the laws and which statutes are going to impact their case. Although these guides should be comprehensive, they should also be written in a way that helps readers easily understand the laws and feel confident that you truly understand what they are going through.
Updates to State and Federal Laws
One of the best ways to blog on your law firm’s website is by writing content that describes updates to state and federal laws affecting your potential clients. For example, in 2023, Florida made major changes to its personal injury statute of limitations and contributory negligence laws. When you notify your readers of these changes, it can help set you apart from your competitors and ensure your readers understand that law changes could have a profound impact on their case.
Thorough FAQs
Frequently asked questions blogs are some of the most untapped and underutilized resources you can offer to your readers. Not only do FAQs give web users answers to questions they may be too intimidated to ask, but Google has an entire section on Page 1 of the SERPs devoted to “People Also Ask,” where your law firm blog could rank as a featured snippet.
The Buzz Around ChatGPT and Why You Should NEVER Use AI to Write Lawyer Blog Content
When you do not have time to write compelling law firm blogs for your website, it may be tempting to turn to AI and ChatGPT to generate these blogs for you. However, we strongly discourage any law firm from utilizing AI products in any way, shape, or form. While many in the digital marketing community have embraced ChatGPT, our team at Blue Seven Content has no preconceived notions about how ChatGPT and other AI programs work or how AI content will impact your law firm’s rankings.
When you use these programs to ask specific queries or write content for a specific target keyword or longtail phrase, it will generate nearly the same response every time it is asked. This is problematic when other law firms across the country are also asking ChatGPT to write the same types of content. Not only will your content be unoriginal, but in many cases, it will plagiarize existing content online, which will have a devastating impact on your rankings.
Furthermore, ChatGPT and other AI models are not always accurate. In fact, at this point in time, they are not updated regularly enough to give accurate information or answers to your readers. For example, when laws are changed, if the AI model has not been updated to reflect these changes, you run the risk of creating content that is factually inaccurate, which would seriously harm your authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
When you do not have time to write content for your law firm website, do not turn to these artificial intelligence programs. Instead, work with a professional legal content writer who will do thorough research and already has an in-depth understanding of the information users are looking for to craft compelling and original content for your lawyer blog.
Connect With Our Wordsmiths at Blue Seven Content Today
Our expert legal content writers at Blue Seven have extensive knowledge and experience writing high-quality SEO content for law firms and law firm websites. Whether you need to build out your practice area pages, are interested in focusing on niche landing pages, or are ready to focus on your law firm’s blog, our wordsmiths know how to write content that is sure to rank.
When you are ready to improve your existing web pages or craft evergreen blog content, connect with our digital content marketing professionals at Blue Seven Content. Complete our confidential contact form or call us to get started as soon as today.
Written by Dianna Mason – Legal and Construction Content Writer
Law firms are beginning to explore what the search generative experience (SGE) means for them. Surely, most law firm marketing directors or partners have spoken to their marketing agencies, and there may be some internal panic.
At Blue Seven Content, we only generate written content for law firm websites, so SGE has the potential to significantly affect our business. In fact, if SGE and ChatGPT play out how many in the industry think, we won’t have a business at all.
But I don’t think it’s as bad as people think. So far, as I’ve delved into SGE responses for law firms and law-related queries, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how it’s working.
When it comes to the SGE results, it doesn’t currently seem like Google is trying to make waves. I typed in “medical malpractice attorney Charleston SC,” after I geocoded my location to Charleston. First, I got the usual SERP results, but there was also a “generate AI response” option for me to press:
When I clicked the AI button, it seemed like it pulled a list of medical malpractice attorneys in the area, and it appeared to reward reviews from various sources (uh oh, back come the directories?). However, what doesn’t seem to play a role in this generative response (yet) are the PPC or organic results you’d usually find on the SERP. They give these as 4- or 5-pack for each search:
At the bottom of the SGE response, there were a few prompts for related follow-up questions, presumably what people typically ask around the same time they are looking for a medical malpractice lawyer:
How long do you have to sue for medical malpractice in South Carolina?
What is the statute for medical malpractice in South Carolina?
What are the limits for malpractice in SC
These types of responses are the norm for SGE when you type in the usual keywords that would bring you to a law firm practice area page. It does not yet give you an automatic generative response – you have to choose to click it.
We should really pay attention to the follow-up queries on the bottom of these responses. These are the type of long-tail keywords that lead to responses we already write answers for, but this gives us an idea of what Google (and readers) want to see.
These types of queries are harder for SGE to even make a coherent response for. What are they going to do – describe what a car accident or family law attorney is? No, I think these queries will remain relevant to the traditional SERP results.
However, the long-tail keyword queries are a different story.
The Law Firm Long-Tail Keywords
I’ve predicted that Google would keep legal queries YMYL, but that may not actually be the case. Of course, this is all still experimental, so I may be proven right. I could just as easily be proven wrong.
So, I decided to delve into general queries such as “steps to take after a slip and fall accident” or “when should I call a lawyer after a car accident.”
I’ve found that these types of searches generate an automatic SGE response. For these queries, we’re getting a response you could expect to find on ChatGPT, except Google can draw from, well, Google. This AI can access the internet.
When you type in these types of searches, the SGE does give you a response, and it does show a 3-pack (4-pack if you scroll right) of pages where it draws its answer from. Usually, these are law firms, but there are other sources, depending on your question.
My immediate questions, and ones that people smarter and with more experience than me are tackling, are:
What makes a page “good” for SGE to draw from?
How do we best optimize for SGE?
I geocoded myself to Charleston, SC, again and typed “steps for a medical malpractice case in Charleston.” I got the SGE answer straight away, above the fold:
You can see a small photo of, supposedly, where the information used to generate the response comes from. Again, I want to know what makes these the “best” pages to use for an SGE response.
Again, we get the same follow-up prompts on the bottom that we got when we looked up the “medical malpractice attorney Charleston SC.”
Below the SGE, we go right into what we’re used to seeing on the SERP, but not sponsored ads. It goes right into the organic search results (my content writer’s heart sings when ads aren’t first), but I also know that so many searchers won’t go beyond the SGE response.
Something funny happened when I typed, “when should you call a lawyer after a construction accident.” I got the sponsored results first, and THEN I got the SGE response in the middle of the page, finally followed by the organic results:
I’m sure these results will be replicated the more I play with SGE queries. Again, Google is experimenting with all of this, and they will try to figure out what works best for the average user AND for them. Google is not going to throw away revenue, so having the sponsored results show up first shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Do We Already Know How to do This?
As I think about law firms and search generative experience exploration, I was curious as to how this would work when I entered the keywords that Blue Seven Content usually ranks well for anyway. First, I typed in “law firm practice area pages”:
We already ranked second in organic for this keyword (on most days), and we show up in the SGE as well. Look what happens when I expand the SGE result:
When I expand it out, Blue Seven ranks number one in the SGE response. Now, the results don’t show the meta description that we have for that page, but that’s not surprising. Google has a way of looking at your meta and ignoring it anyway, so there’s that.
I did the same with “law firm FAQ pages” because we’re frequently number one with that search. Here’s the result:
Here, we show up number one in organic SERP and number one and two in the SGE response:
We Still Have ChatGPT to Deal With
As I’ve noted multiple times before, ChatGPT is a “threat” to us legal content writers. Not legal marketing agencies, though. Legal marketing agencies that handle all of a law firm’s online marketing will always be around, and they’ll adapt. No, it’s the content writers who have to worry.
But do we?
Okay, maybe some legal content writers have to worry. The ones who can’t produce content better than ChatGPT are certainly on the chopping block. But that was always going to be the case. What I think will happen, as I’ve said before, is that ChatGPT has had its sugar rush. It’s given the industry a high (or a bad trip, depending on what your role is).
But as I’ve toyed around with Google’s SGE, I’ve seen that good content matters. Google is meeting AI in a way that (1) provides simple answers that users are looking for and (2) seeks to maintain the main revenue driver for the platform – ads.
For now, SGE results are generally pulling answers from well-ranking organic content that already answers, or closely answers, the search query. Could SGE end up pulling content that someone generated with ChatGPT and published? Yes, of course. But not if that content isn’t better than what’s already out there.
Currently, ChatGPT has many flaws. Phantom court cases and rulings. Massive plagiarism. Predictable writing that reeks of AI. Zero human touch.
And, of course, there’s the issue of what happens to content online when ChatGPT gains access to the internet (it’ll happen eventually) and begins learning new stuff based on content people have generated using ChatGPT. It’s a self-feeding loop with little new input from actual humans.
Content degradation is waiting to happen.
Was there content degradation with human legal content writers consistently regurgitating each other? Of course there was. This is why I’ve said I’m grateful to ChatGPT for snapping us (at least Blue Seven) out of any comfort zone we may have fallen into.
We have to constantly improve. We have to be better content creators, thinkers, researchers, and writers. Writers have to be better than the silver bullet LLMs that many (lazy) marketers think will be their golden ticket.
With my intro research into SGE responses to legal queries, I’m positive that quality, human-written content will reign supreme. Humans can and should use the tools available at their disposal, much like SEOs use Ahrefs, Semrush, and Clearscope. They should use tools like editors use, including Copyscape, Grammarly, or Hemingway. These technological advancements didn’t kill the SEO or the editor, and those who are good at their craft don’t completely rely on the tools. Because they are tools used to build the larger product – a good piece of writing.
Law Firms and Search Generative Experience (SGE) – My Take for Now
I think SGE will seek to answer basic queries with assistance from results that already rank. Perhaps this will go to paid results eventually, but Google is drawing from organic results for now. Ranking in SGE will be more competitive because it’s taking from 3 or 4 organic sources now, then the rest of the SERP responses appear.
Who knows what this will look like in six months or a year, but I don’t think it’s the death of the legal content writer. I think it’s the beginning of a new search experience, and we have to adapt. What we’re adapting to is still up in the air. How will law firms respond to search generative experience? Stand by, we’ll be back for more.
Written by Allen Watson – Founder and CEO of Blue Seven Content
(UPDATED FEB 2023) WRITTEN BY ALLEN WATSON: FOUNDER & CEO OF BLUE SEVEN CONTENT
ChatGPT and legal marketing – AI is about to completely upend the legal marketing field.
Okay, not really. But that’s what a bunch of people are about to tell you. Perhaps you’ve already heard that your law firm practice area pages and blog posts no longer need to be written by a human. Maybe someone has raved about how much money you’ll be able to save by not having to pay for content anymore. Since November, all people can talk about is ChatGPT.
Let me be clear – ChatGPT is far more advanced than any other AI that’s come out, at least publicly. In fact, it can create content that’s better than some of the drivel I’ve seen on law firm websites. But I don’t think it’s a legal marketing killer, and I think law firms and legal marketing agencies need to do their research before declaring victory over human writers.
If you’ve been anywhere on social media recently, you’ve seen people raving (or ranting) about ChatGPT.
But what the hell is it?
ChatGPT was created by OpenAI, which is a research lab focused on advancing artificial intelligence technologies. The organization was founded in 2015 by various individuals, including Elon Musk. However, Musk resigned from the board of OpenAI in 2018.
ChatGPT was released in beta version to the public on November 30, 2022, and amassed more than a million users less than a week after its launch. ChatGPT uses a large artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI, called GPT-3.5 language technology. This system has been trained by using a massive amount of text data from various sources.
You need to understand ChatGPT and how it affects your field.
The current way to use ChatGPT is sort of like a chatbot, where a user will input a question or prompt into a search bar and watch as ChatGPT responds with what it believes to be the appropriate information for the prompt or question. Perhaps the best part of ChatGPT is that you can get it to respond in pretty much any form you want. You can have it craft a five-paragraph essay, or you can command it to give the answer or response as a poem.
Want to dig further? Tell ChatGPT to craft a response to a question or prompt in iambic pentameter or in the speaking style of William Shatner. It can do it.
I asked it to write me a love story between Luke Skywalker and Yoda. It did it, and it convinced me that was the true story behind the whole saga.
This AI system responds really well to the prompts imputed. You can get very specific and creative. I do strongly suggest you go try it out. It’s honestly great for entertainment. You’ll also see the potential for this tech to disrupt everything.
Responses to ChatGPT
To say the response to ChatGPT has been resounding and immediate is an understatement. Educators have proclaimed that the essay is dead because there will be no way to know what’s student-written and what’s generated by ChatGPT. Teachers say there is no way they’ll be able to assign take-home tests.
Some have questioned whether ChatGPT will make lawyers obsolete, as it may be able to create arguments and draft legal documents. Imagine a courtroom where all you do is wait for AI to tell you the outcome of the case because it’s already read every possible law and court case.
The Washington Post has said that Google (and other search engines) face a major threat because of ChatGPT. The argument is that ChatGPT could spell disaster for Google by providing better answers to the queries that we typically ask Google.
Google crawls and indexes billions of web pages. It then ranks this content in order of the most relevant answers (most of the time). When you perform a search, you get a list of links to click through, typically beginning with ads related to your search and then moving on to the organic links related to your search. This, my friends, is where SEO wizards have made their bones.
When individuals type in a question on ChatGPT, they are presented with a single answer based on the AI search and synthesis of the information already online. The idea is that now, instead of you having to click through the most relevant links to find the information you need, ChatGPT will handle the hard part for you and give you THE answer. The definitive answer.
Of course, there have been significant discussions about what comes next for the internet. Web 3.0 is typically seen as the next phase, even though there is little consensus about what this means or what it looks like. We’ve discussed the metaverse as being the key component in a Web 3.0 world, and ChatGPT and other AI technologies could aid that shift.
How Could ChatGPT Disrupt Legal Marketing?
Legal marketing SEO agencies make a living off of helping law firms rank toward the top of search engines for specific queries. The industry, quite frankly, isn’t ready to handle a world where SEO isn’t a thing.
All I can do is approach ChatGPT from the angle of a content writer that understands and uses SEO but focuses on providing content that readers need/want to see.
What I Found When Using ChatGPT (Legal Content Writer Explorations)
I’ve been creating legal marketing content for years. I’ve written thousands of law firm practice area pages and blog posts, and I’ve supervised writers who have written tens of thousands. So, it was only natural for me to begin by prompting ChatGPT with topics that frequently crop up when crafting a page.
I asked, “What types of compensation are available for a car accident in California?” and it gave me a solid answer, one that you’d typically see on a law firm’s website.
I asked, “Is there a cap on damages available for a successful personal injury claim in Michigan?” and ChatGPT gave me a convincing answer.
I asked, “What are the most common injuries caused by a moped accident?” and the AI provided an indisputable list of injuries.
Finally, I asked, “What are the four elements of negligence for a personal injury claim?” and the AI gave me exactly what you’d expect to see on a law firm’s website.
Each one of these responses came back with data organized in a way that we would typically see on a law firm web page. There was a brief explanation, a bullet list or a number list of some sort, and often a little conclusion to wrap it up. I could certainly envision a legal content writer crafting a law firm practice area page or blog post, inputting their H2s into the ChatGPT prompt, and then copy and pasting the answer to their page.
After these basic queries, which would essentially be sections of a longer page for a law firm, I decided to get more specific with the requests. I asked ChatGPT to write a 500-word law firm practice area page targeting those who need a Chicago car accident attorney.
You know what?
The page wasn’t bad. It was surface-level, but it certainly provided enough information to maybe convince someone that they’d need an attorney if they’ve been injured in a crash.
But it was certainly not the type of page that I would create. I do see the value of using ChatGPT and other types of AI tools for coming up with ideas for a page. This is a tool, not a replacement. At least not yet.
Blue Seven Content founder Allen Watson discusses ChatGPT with Conrad Saam and John Reed.
The Issues With ChatGPT for Legal Content Writing
Just because I said the responses given by ChatGPT were convincing and organized does not mean that they were without issues. In fact, everything that I put into the prompt would never pass muster at Blue Seven Content, and it certainly wouldn’t fly on a law firm’s website.
Plagiarism is a problem
The most glaring issue that cropped up was plagiarism. This is the biggest sin when it comes to writing website content, no matter the industry. If a law firm content writer plagiarizes content from either themselves or from other sources, this is going to hurt the web page. Google’s algorithms know how to spot copied content, and they can penalize a page or even an entire website for it.
The prompt on car accident compensation in California came back as 33% plagiarized.
The query about moped injuries came back as 23% plagiarized.
My question about the four elements of negligence came back 19% plagiarized.
A prompt asking how burn injuries are classified was returned as 17% plagiarized.
Not once did I ask it a “typical” legal question and get a response that was less than 15% plagiarized. This challenge is not insurmountable if you have the ability to detect plagiarism and have a competent editor (even then, all you’re doing is wordplay without originality). Right now, ChatGPT is not capable of original thought. It has to provide answers using information already available.
Also, remember that 500-word practice area page I told ChatGPT to write? Well, it came back 34% plagiarized. Sources it drew from ranged from other law firm websites to the Daily Mail. If you’re a veteran legal content writer, you already know to avoid citing competitive law firms and sources that lack credibility.
Jan 2023 Update – I wanted to know how ChatGPT has evolved, if at all, since it’s release. I asked it to craft a law firm page for fairly simple prompts. I received answers that were less than 10% plagiarized and was fairly impressed. However, I then asked the AI to write a page that required a slightly more technical response, but still fairly basic for a law firm website. There was more than 20% plagiarism.
Bottom line so far – ChatGPT simply cannot help but provide plagiarized answers for anything more than a VERY basic prompt.
Incorrect information
Incorrect information is the last thing a law firm needs on its website. One of the biggest problems with ChatGPT is the lack of sourcing, and the fact that you have to 100% know the material in order to detect incorrect responses.
I asked ChatGPT, “Is there a cap on damages available for a successful personal injury claim in Michigan?”
If you know anything about these caps, then you know they typically apply to non-economic damages for medical malpractice claims, which is the case in Michigan. However, ChatGPT responded that there was a cap for ALL non-economic damages in Michigan.
ChatGPT presents incorrect information as if it’s fact and in a pretty convincing way. With this tech, you can’t see that there may be other answers the same way you can when you perform a Google search. Nor does it provide room for nuance of the law or the geographic area of the law you are searching.
The AI tech behind ChatGPT isn’t at a level where it can detect incorrect information, or at least where it can analyze and synthesize information correctly. Somewhere, the AI read that Michigan had a non-economic damage cap, and it had no clue that the information was incorrect. We can look directly at a tweet from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI:
ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness.
it's a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. it’s a preview of progress; we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.
I asked ChatGPT, “What are the exceptions to California’s medical malpractice statute of limitations?” The response I got was lacking in substance.
The AI response failed to properly explain the exception for minors who sustain injuries due to a medical error. It didn’t highlight that there is a difference depending on the age of the minor when the injury occurred. ChatGPT failed to mention the exceptions to California’s medical malpractice statute of limitations for foreign objects left behind in a person’s body after a procedure.
These are just a few of the mistakes I found during a cursory review. I can only imagine the issues that would arise for slightly more complex queries.
It cannot can cite sources
I initially thought ChatGPT wasn’t able to cite sources, but it can. When you write your prompt, you can tell the AI to use and cite reputable sources and it will do so. However, I caution anyone doing this, because we don’t currently know how ChatGPT decides what is “reputable.” Conrad Saam, my friend and president of Mockingbird Marketing, has said that the program has given him Wikipedia as a “reputable” source. While Wikipedia is generally accurate, there’s a snowball’s chance in hell I’ll be citing it on a law firm practice area page, FAQ page, or blog post.
We also don’t want to pull information from John Doe’s hobby blog. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll use those sources as a starting point, but we have to verify the information and cite using trusted sources.
I’m still of the opinion that, no matter what citations ChatGPT provides, there needs to be a human fact-checker. This is particularly true for those of us who write content that demands a certain degree of accuracy. This, in my opinion, would lead to the most time-consuming part of preparing a page for publishing. If you are going to cite data or statistics, then you need to be able to source the information through a hyperlink on the web page. Anyone relying on ChatGPT to craft legal content will have to have an editor go back and (1) go to the source provided by the AI (2) verify the information, and (3) hyperlink the external sources into the content.
All of this is beginning to sound like work writers already do when they create a new law firm website page from scratch, and it’s likely to take nearly as long. If not longer. Content writers often loathe having to go in and adjust or correct other people’s work. It’s typically easier to simply make a new page.
Very surface-level content
The information returned through ChatGPT is fairly surface level, at least for the purposes of law firm website content. Even if we can get passed the plagiarism issue with good editing, the pages ChatGPT provides are equivalent to what I’d expect from someone who has never written this type of content before. It’s fluffy and lacks nuanced research.
No current information to pull from
Right now, ChatGPT relies on information only up to a certain point in 2021. The AI does not use current data or any real-time information. This will be a problem if you want to use current data and statistics or any new laws on your law firm’s website. Additionally, if you need to craft a blog post about current changes or updates to your particular field of law, ChatGPT will have no way to do this.
Ramping up ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence programs to allow for real-time updates will be a massive undertaking. This requires enormous computing power, something that will take some time to build.
I recently read “The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything” by Matthew Ball, and one possible solution to this problem could be on our tables and in our pockets – our devices. Almost everyone has a computing device (or four or five of them), and the reality is that they remain dormant much of the time.
If a larger system had the ability to tap into these devices for their computing power, this could allow for the systems needed to control a real-time AI program (as well as potentially power a metaverse immersive environment). It’s essentially crowd-sourcing computer power.
This comes with a whole slew of privacy and legal questions that many of us are certainly not ready to think about, which highlights some of the issues that AI developers will have to overcome.
Where does new information come from if everyone stops posting new content?
Maybe this is just my limitations on what I am able to understand about ChatGPT’s capabilities and AI in general, but if this type of technology is used to create new content, where will the AI be able to draw from and learn from in the future?
I envision a future where, if this type of artificial intelligence becomes common, we see AI copying other AI responses. Somewhere, AI systems need to intake new information from human sources in order to stay relevant.
Possible legal or legislative issues
There will inevitably be legal issues that arise. The courts and lawmakers will step in to address these issues, but that could take a while. For example, will anyone face liability if ChatGPT or another AI gives incorrect information that then causes harm to others? Imagine a WebMD controlled by AI. Will people listen to the advice given by the AI, or will they find a way to verify what they’ve been told?
What if it’s determined that anything written with AI must be labeled as being “machine-generated,” much like the requirement on most platforms that certain posts have to be labeled as ads? Will your legal clients trust you if they see your website is created by AI?
None of the ChatGPT legal marketing issues are insurmountable
ChatGPT is currently in beta form, and we’re all the test subjects. The more prompts we put into the system, the more it will learn. Developers will continue to tweak the code to determine what works best, and the AI will learn as it goes.
The system will get better at understanding why incorrect information is, in fact, incorrect. It will learn that it needs to take existing information and craft it in a way that doesn’t plagiarize others. Coders can help the AI recognize what an authoritative source looks like, and they can show it how to use anchor text to hyperlink. Hell, the AI can probably teach itself how to do that.
Will AI be a tool to use when crafting legal content, or is this going take over?
Microsoft and Google – The Battle Brewing
Microsoft recently announced they were investing $10 billion into OpenAI, and there is strong speculation they’ll integrate ChatGPT into their Office tools. This is the third, but largest, round of investment the tech giant has made into the AI company. Microsoft has clearly seen the value of artificial intelligence, and they’re always working to reinvent the company and stay ahead of the curve.
As of February 2023, it seems that Microsoft is beginning to use ChatGPT through their search engine Bing and browser Edge. This is still in limited testing, but it seems that users will be able to conduct a search but that half of the results page will incorporate the chatbot. This could be a huge push for the search engine that’s so long been eating Google’s dust for breakfast in the search world. It could be a paradigm shift for the world of search.
Google is nervous. Google called in the big dogs, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to help guide them through this credible threat to the company’s main source of revenue (search engine results and ads). Unfortunately for Google, their first foray into the competition with Bard AI was a flop. The search engine giant’s demo of the AI and their search engine resulted in an inaccurate response, and this response led to Google losing more than $100 billion in valuation in one day.
Until we see how the battles between Google, Microsoft, and other major companies end, we’ll have to keep adjusting strategies. As a legal content writer or SEO company for legal marketing, this is something you’ll need to keep an eye on over the next few months and into 2024.
Legal marketing companies and law firms may actually need to start focusing on Bing much more than they’ve done in the past. Let’s be honest – Google has driven SEO over the last two decades. That supremacy is threatened right now.
Embrace Technological Advances Instead of Dismissing Them
It may seem like I’m against AI. I’m not. In fact, I want to embrace it. ChatGPT and legal marketing aren’t avoidable.
There’s never been a time when rejecting new technologies has worked out for anyone in the long run. Horse and carriage operators vehemently hated the concept of a motorized vehicle, and many people doubted whether cars would actually become mainstream. For years, people doubted that computers could ever revolutionize the way individuals went about their daily lives. Even the benefits of the internet weren’t fully understood for quite a while. In fact, many scoffed at the idea of online shopping and “social media.”
Here we are, looking at what could represent another major shift in the way we approach “knowledge.” We have a choice – both as a society and as individuals. We can reject the technology and deny its ability to shape our lives, or we can embrace this type of AI and figure out how to make it work best for us.
No matter what choice we make, the end result will be the same. There is no putting a genie back in the box. ChatGPT is already far more advanced than any other type of AI chat we’ve seen, and it’s still in a rudimentary form. For those of us in the legal marketing sphere, the idea of ChatGPT can be terrifying if we don’t understand what it means for us.
Maybe ChatGPT or another AI program will eventually address the shortcomings I mentioned above. Why would any legal marketer want to be behind on the trend because they wanted to “protect” their industry? Protectionism only delays the inevitable.
We don’t need protection from tech – we need to work with it. We have to embrace the possibility inevitability of change. We can use this to be better.
There are 10 types of pages that you need on your law firm website to remain effective and competitive in today’s legal services market. When the internet was young, having a few well-made pages was enough to prove your credibility as a firm. Now, having only a few pages puts doubt in a visitor’s mind if they manage to find your site at all.
The top search engine in the world is Google. For your law firm’s website to position itself as a credible source of information and authority, there are certain pages you must have.
1. Your Homepage: The Traffic Controller of Your Website
Your homepage serves as a directory of your firm, attorneys, and services. Just as traffic controllers direct motorists through intersections, your homepage directs visitors to the information they need.
A website is designed to convert visitors into clients. The average user is not sitting at their desk dutifully researching legal help. It is far more likely they are simultaneously scrolling on their mobile phones, watching Netflix, and browsing their social media pages. Your homepage must be able to provide enough easy-to-digest information that is relevant to the user to capture their attention.
71% multitask by watching television and using social media
63% of employees use their mobile phones while working
54% of adults simultaneously watch TV and online shop
Since mobile phones became a part of every household, the adult attention span has decreased by 25%. Today, the average human has an attention span of only 8.25 seconds. To prevent visitors from jumping off your homepage, i.e., avoid a low bounce rate, it must load quickly and clearly show your page links.
2. Practice Area Pages: A Detailed Menu of Your Services
Practice area pages tell visitors what services you offer. The average person knows very little about the legal world. Your practice area pages define how your firm can help potential clients.
Picture trying a new restaurant. You may have an idea of the cuisine you are in the mood for but not the dish you’d like to try. You peruse the menu, read the descriptions, and see if an option jumps out.
Your practice area pages do the same for potential clients. Users who visit your site have an idea of the services they want but need to scan your page for decision-making details.
3. Sub-Practice Area Pages: Increase Your SEO and Focus Your Pages
Sub-practice area pages give your site more opportunities to earn higher rankings on Google and focus on the services you offer. For example, suppose you are a personal injury lawyer. You create practice pages that best reflect the largest percentage of your business, including general personal injury, car accident claims, and slip and fall injuries.
Over time, you notice the firm’s case load has not increased. The phone isn’t ringing. A quick Google search later, and you find yourself in “no man’s land” on the fourth page.
How can you get your phone to ring?
Create pages that focus on your services. In addition to “Car Accident Attorney,” produce “Truck Accident Lawyer” and “Motorcycle Accident Attorney.” Instead of having only a “Slip and Fall Lawyer” page, turn it into a sub-category of a premises liability page. Then add sub-practice area pages like “Negligent Security” for “Occupational Falls.”
Whether you have a personal injury practice or a criminal defense law firm, sub-pages can expand on your services and increase your Google rankings. The latest search engine optimization (SEO) algorithm from Google depends on the following factors:
Keywords and keyword phrases that appear organically in the text
Strategic use of headers to make a page easier to scan for pertinent information
Relevant internal and external links that will increase your site’s authority in the field
Continuous fresh content that can be frequently indexed
Using sub-practice area pages to dive deeper into your legal services creates more opportunities to utilize the above SEO elements.
4 and 5. “About Us” Law Firm Website Pages: Why Choose Us and Our Team
Who are you and why should we care?
Today’s legal market is highly competitive. If you have successfully kept a visitor on your site long enough to see your list of services, they’ll likely want to get a feel of who you are as a firm before requesting a consultation. It’s okay to have law firm website pages that talk about you.
Why Choose Us?
While practice area pages are essential to connecting prospects with the services you provide, demonstrating how your firm differs from the competition is critical to converting visitors into clients.
A “Why Choose Us” page can highlight your firm’s best attributes and showcases your awards and recognitions. Consider what makes your legal practice unique.
Do you offer boutique-style service? Are you family-owned?
Think about the significant honors your firm has achieved.
Have members on your legal team been recognized by Super Lawyers or AV Preeminent? Does your firm have a long history in the area? Have you won cases that effectively helped create or change a law?
Meet Our Team
Potential clients want to know who will represent their case.
Will they advocate for my best interests? How long have they practiced? What is their education? What have they accomplished as attorneys?
Having a page dedicated to attorney biographies or profiles increases your legal team’s credibility and your law firm website’s authority. Prospects may be impressed with your firm and its achievements. However, seeing professional pictures of your team members and reading about their individual experiences can help visitors connect to your team. It is also critical to increasing your visitors-to-clients conversion rate.
6. Review Page: Testimonials from Clients
What do your clients think of you? What do they think of your services?
Potential clients are looking up your reviews on Google and LinkedIn. Help your firm’s credibility by putting testimonials from past clients on your site. Create a dedicated page that showcases how your firm has helped people and what prospective clients can expect from retaining your services.
According to data collected from Statista, website visitors expect a significant number of reviews when evaluating products and services:
Prospective clients expect an average of 112 reviews per product or service
62% of visitors read reviews before choosing a service
The most important factor when evaluating a business is its overall star rating
Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for a review from past clients. Your firm has cultivated a valuable attorney-client relationship. Make writing a testimonial a great way to button up the end of your journey together.
Reviews and testimonials give your law firm online validation and increase credibility in the eyes of prospective clients.
7. Results Page: Can You Win My Case?
Potential clients want to see what your firm has done for other people in similar circumstances.
What kind of success have you had in your field? Do you have any high-dollar settlements? Have you defended any high-profile cases?
Confidentiality is essential in the legal world. When describing a case, use vague references and focus on the facts. If your settlement involves a high number, but your client is bound by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), it is ok to say as much on your page.
Prospective clients want to know that they will be represented by a winning law firm. Seek out permission to disclose as many verdicts and settlements as possible.
8. Blog and News Source: Why It’s Crucial to Have Continuously Fresh Content
Google’s search engines are constantly looking for new information. You can build an amazing law firm website with all the bells and whistles. However, if you do not update or add to your site on a continuous basis, it will be in danger of becoming obsolete.
Consider a classroom full of students. A teacher will view students who frequently participate in class as smart and hard-working. The student who never raises their hand but shows up every day may be just as bright but will not receive the same recognition.
Your website works similarly. Having a blog or a page dedicated to news about the firm is an excellent vehicle for continuously adding fresh content.
9. FAQs Page: A Must Have for Google’s New Snippets Function
Since 2014, Google Snippet has grown exponentially in the world of SEO. Today, a snippet is often the first content a visitor may read about your site.
What is Google Snippet?
Google snippets are short pieces of information that appear at the top of a search query. When a user poses a question or topic on the search engine, Google will extract some data or text to show as a snippet underneath the link to a website. Creating a well-written or rich snippet is an excellent and often overlooked method of increasing your search engine rankings.
Why Are Questions Important for Google Snippets?
Google never releases its exact algorithms to create higher search engine rankings. Instead, experts painstakingly study search results and theorize what works and what does not.
Recently, it was noted by several SEO experts that featured Google snippets often lead with a question. The questions are featured as headers before the snippet. In many cases, the questions are featured as H2 and H3 tags.
Presents multiple opportunities for a featured Google snippet
Quickly answers common questions to capture a visitor’s attention
By putting the questions in header form, they are more likely to increase your search engine rankings and serve as a rich snippet. FAQs are excellent ways to increase the amount of law firm website pages you have, thereby increasing your credibility (if the pages are well-written).
10. Contact Us Page: Request a Consultation with Us Today
Every page on your law firm’s website should have a call to action (CTA) that links to your Contact Us page. When a potential client has decided to reach out to your firm for a consultation, having a mobile-friendly link to call your firm or fill out a Consult Request Form is one of the most important features of any website.
Without a clear CTA link, a prospect may move on to the next law firm’s website. Generally, visitors are media-multitasking when on your website, i.e., switching between apps on their mobile devices while on their tablet or watching TV. Telling a visitor what action to take next, e.g., click here, call now, substantially increases your visitor-to-client conversion rate.
Blue Seven Content is Ready to Enhance Your Law Firm Website Pages
Content is king in the world of Google and other search engines. Carefully crafting well-researched, quality law firm website pages is as important, if not more so, than the format and design of your website.
At Blue Seven Content, we have years of experience creating SEO-rich content specific for law firms. Our dedicated team of writers all have bachelor’s degrees or higher. Many have pursued careers in the legal field.
After years of school and service to clients, you deserve time to focus on your law firm. Let our experts work for you. We’ll keep the phone ringing.
Contact Founders Allen Watson and Victoria Lozano today by phone or email to learn more about our tailor-made legal content pages.
You need law firm blog topics. Like it or not, blogs are an essential part of search engine optimization and rankings. The reasoning behind it is simple: more content shows Google, Yahoo, and Bing that your site is updated and relevant.
Although the creation of blogs to improve search engine optimization is standard practice, it is far from simple. Each step that goes into blog creation is just as important as the next. Tone of writing, style, legibility, grammar, and so much more work in unison to improve rankings for millions of law firms across the country.
Yet the component that hangs most people up is not the writing itself but the construction and formulation of law firm blog topics. This is difficult for many as there are many cogs working around a blog topic. It may be the targeted audience or even how relevant something is in the news today. Regardless, it is always important to consult the best legal content writers from a law firm SEO firm such as Blue Seven Content.
Setting proper goals is the very first step in formulating law firm blog topics. The best law firm content has a clear set of goals that have been used to formulate the topic in question. Doing so gives you a rough outline of the “why” and the “how.” Why are you writing about this topic? How do you execute your goals with this topic? A strong blog is one that successfully answers these questions in its writing.
Are you trying to:
Drive-up clicks to your website with your content?
Get new clients in cases for your legal team to take on?
Build a better reputation amongst law firms in your area?
Become one of the leading law firms in blog production?
Fill a niche that has yet to be filled?
Capitalize on a recent news event?
Setting specific yet attainable goals is the primary driving force behind quality legal SEO content. By setting these goals, the topic that you choose will have a greater chance of fulfilling your expectations.
Law firms should always keep a list of blog topic ideas.
2. Determine Your Target Scope and Range
Law firm SEO is a complex industry. You have a broad range of topics to choose from that must balance the needs of both the market and the capabilities of your law firm. While some firms may aim for automobile accidents in general, others may try to go for motorcycle accidents specifically. This can be for any reason but is usually done with a certain degree of intention.
If there have been an abnormal amount of motorcycle accidents in Phoenix, Arizona for example, A local law firm may find it useful to specifically aim for motorcycle accidents. This can be especially useful if other firms in the area have not yet identified this niche, making the chance of increasing rankings and driving up clicks all the more probable.
On the other hand, it may be the case that smaller cities and less populated geographical areas do not have a lot of firms tackling blogs to stay relevant. A firm in this scenario may find it more useful to cast a wide net and become one of the leading law firm content producers in the area. The reasoning behind the importance of the scope and range of your topics is that this strategy has led to many law firms becoming the most sought after in their respective communities. A healthy amount of market research is always the best path to understanding your market.
3. Conduct Research into the Timing of Your Blog Topic
It may seem easy to just write about whatever pops into your mind. However, this is rarely the best option. More and more firms are finding it worthwhile to target their topics according to events such as a certain season, holiday, or news event. The timing of a specific topic can be critical to the blog’s success.
Some firms failed to produce content during certain times of the year. Whether it be fatigue or overambition, there seems to be an ebb and flow in the production of content. You may be able to use this to your advantage. For example, immediately after Memorial Day may be a good time to publish one about how your firm can help after a drunk driving accident. This is just one example of a technique that can be used by law firms to improve the probability of getting a service request from a customer.
4. Identify the Target Audience
Identifying the target audience that you would like to market to is essential when deciding which law blog topics you are going to utilize. Audiences are extremely important to law firm SEO producers as they completely determine which topic is most likely to be used.
For example, communities that have a high number of blue-collar workers in industrial and manufacturing environments may benefit more from tackling worker’s compensation content head-on. A rural, Southern California firm may take it a step further and produce content aimed toward agricultural workers that are suffering from heat stroke during the summertime. A stellar firm will take this even further and translate its blog into Spanish to reach that critical population. Law firm websites and their content must be optimized to increase traffic by identifying the target audience.
5. Know the Facts
Before diving headfirst into law firm SEO content, a healthy amount of research and investigation into the facts of the matter should be conducted. Thorough fact-checking and a deep understanding of causation, correlation, and impact will make your communication of the topic reliable and educational. With this step, content can be more informative and less jam-packed with filler material. Knowing the ins and outs of the topic will give you the information you need to craft a proper blog.
How a Legal Content Firm Can Take Your Webpage to the Next Level
These five steps for formulating law firm blog topics are applicable to every law firm in the country. The audience, fact-checking, timing, goals, scope, and range are all crucial pieces to the puzzle of creating a worthwhile blog topic. As more and more firms pick up on the importance of creating a living, breathing website through law firm SEO content, it becomes ever more critical to make sure yours is quality.
Taking your content to the next level by translating it into Spanish for a Hispanic audience, discovering the abnormal amount of motorcycle accidents in your city, and deciding to produce over party-ridden holidays are all examples of high-quality content strategies that lead to further reach and revenue. To learn more about the very best law firm content strategies, please reach out to the best legal SEO copywriters in the business at Blue Seven Content or by calling (843) 580-3158.
If you aren’t continuously updating your law firm website content, you’re going to fall in the search engine rankings. That is, if you’re even ranking at all. Small law firms and solo practitioners – I’m talking to you.
At Blue Seven Content, we work with a range of client types – small law firms, big law firms, small legal marketing agencies, and massive legal marketing agencies. We get a front-row seat to some of the best and some of the worst legal marketing strategies. One of the biggest mistakes we see with smaller firms and solo practitioners is a misunderstanding of the importance of regular content on their websites.
Regular Content and the Search Engines
You would be surprised at how many law firm websites we go to that have not had any content updates for years. One of the first things that we do is click over to the blog section of a website, if the website even has a blog section. Sometimes, the last blog posts are from 2019 or 2020. This is unfortunate because blogs are one of the easiest ways to keep a website “fresh.” If your website content could all be certified “Pre-Covid,” you’ve got a problem.
Your law firm website can become stagnant. This matters when it comes to the search engines, particularly Google. Search engines are going to crawl your website on a regular basis, and these algorithms reward websites that continually refresh and update. There are various ways to add fresh content to your web pages. This can include going into existing pages and improving them, adding new practice area pages (maybe for different locations or by niching down), and having regular blog posts.
The longer your website sits stagnant, the harder it will be to regain any kind of control in the rankings. Your website will drop from page 1 to page 2, and then to pages 3 and 4, and then into oblivion. By the time many law firms and solo practitioners come to the realization that they need to add fresh content to their pages, they have put themselves in a position where it is going to take a significant amount of time to get back to where they want to pay.
Don’t let your website fall into search engine oblivion because you refuse to add new content.
The easiest way to stay on top of the content game is to never leave the game at all. Create some type of content plan that adds fresh material each month at least.
What Regular Content Tells Your Readers
All too often, we get caught up on what Google and the other search engines want to see. However, if you are not creating your website with the reader in mind, you are doing yourself a disservice. The entire goal of creating your law firm website is to get new clients. The last thing you want is for the reader to be turned off as soon as they hit your site. They will smash the back button and go on to the next law firm on the search engine list.
If your website it is written in complex legalese, poorly formatted, or is just slow and bulky, you are probably losing clients. Additionally, you may be surprised at how many prospective clients can tell if your site has not been updated. Remember when we mentioned that we go to the blog section of a website to see when it was last updated? Your readers may do this as well.
If you have an engaging website, including a blog that is updated weekly or monthly, this tells your readers that you, as a law firm or a solo practitioner, are on top of things. It sends a signal that you are engaged with your practice area and your community.
Be like Tom Hanks. Start typing your law firm website content.
The Start and Stop Method Doesn’t Work for Law Firm Website Content
Blue Seven Content has worked with a significant number of smaller law firms. However, one common theme that comes up over and over is starting a content plan and then the law firm or attorney deciding that it is not working within a month or two and hanging up the towel.
Good content strategies, and any type of SEO strategy, take time. There is no such thing as immediate results. In fact, if anyone ever tells you that you will rank number one for something within a week or two, they’re selling you snake oil and likely doing detriment to your long-term website rankings.
Starting a content plan and then stopping after a few months, and then starting again once you realize you messed up by stopping, is not the way to go about handling your website. We strongly encourage law firms to set aside a monthly budget for legal content and stick with it. Let the results happen over time organically.
At Blue Seven Content, we help come up with new law firm website content and refresh existing content every day. This includes examining and creating:
We are ready to have a conversation about your website. You can contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158. You will immediately be put through to a real person, most likely the person writing this blog, Blue Seven CEO Allen Watson. Let’s have a chat.
Written by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content
The Know-Like-Trust (KTL) factor is a common concept in marketing, and matters for law firm websites. It is based on the simple premise that people are generally more inclined to conduct business with companies they know, like, and trust. When incorporated into your law firm content, it can mean more qualified leads, high conversion ratings, and overall increases in profits.
At Blue Seven Content, we only work with the best legal content writers, who are well-versed in the most successful law firm marketing strategies. Find out how they use the KLT factor to help law firm websites gain more clients.
Why the Know-Like-Trust (KTL) Factor is Important for Law Firm Websites
Considering the fierce competition among businesses and the number of outlets available for reaching potential clients, marketing efforts matter now more than ever. According to Northwestern University, the number one marketing school in the country, identifying a target audience, utilizing customer insights, and effectively positioning your brand form the foundation for a successful campaign.
With any company, establishing yourself as an expert in your field and developing a relationship with prospective clients is a top priority. This is particularly true for law firms. People seek legal help for pressing, often highly sensitive matters. These can impact their personal lives, their relationships with others, their reputation in the community, and their overall sense of financial security. How does the know-like-trust principle factor into the equation and why is it so important for law firm websites?
It concentrates marketing efforts to those most likely to benefit from your services;
It conveys empathy and understanding of the legal issues people face;
It establishes you as an expert in the field;
It encourages a sense of community and instills confidence in your abilities.
Combined, these qualities translate into more qualified leads, greater conversion rates, and ultimately, increased revenue.
Incorporating Know-Like-Trust (KLT) Into Your Law Firm Website Marketing Strategy
People seek out legal advice and services when they are dealing with complex and often private or sensitive legal matters, such as criminal charges, divorce, contracts or other business dealings, immigration issues, and personal injuries. Naturally, they want to work with legal professionals that they feel they know, like, and trust.
As a result, the Know-Like-Trust (KLT) factor is a key consideration when creating landing pages, blog posts, and other types of law firm website content. The following explains more about the KLT factor and how our legal content writers incorporate it as part of a successful law firm content marketing strategy:
Know
The first step is to identify the varied needs of your target audience. Use the best legal content writers to create custom SEO legal content geared toward addressing those needs. Post regularly on social media websites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, sharing links to your website and content. Consider targeted ad campaigns as well, offer to do guest posts on legal industry websites, create YouTube videos, and explore other options, such as community seminars or teaching non-credit classes, for reaching potential clients.
Like
Once you identify ways of reaching your target audience, work on developing a relationship with them. Share information about your law firm, individual attorneys, paralegals, and other staff members, and provide glimpses into your daily routine, personal life, hobbies, and other activities. Share professional acknowledgments or special honors you have received, charitable works your law firm performs in the community, and any social or legal issues you advocate.
Trust
After targeting and engaging your audience, establish yourself as an expert in the legal field and someone who can be counted on to provide solutions to the often complex legal problems people face. Compelling, well-researched, and targeted SEO legal content plays a key role in building trust. Use it to share general information and insights on how the law applies in different situations. Provide answers to commonly asked questions, explain what to expect when visiting your office, highlight top case results, and provide links to client reviews/testimonials.
Establishing trust can be done by providing well-written, relevant content on a law firm’s website.
The Best Law Firm Content Relies on the Know-Like-Trust Factor
Considering the fierce competition in the legal field, having a strong marketing strategy is a requirement. According to the National Law Review, strong website content sets the stage for all other marketing efforts. It positions you as an authority, attracts qualified leads to your website, and helps in increasing your revenue by converting them into paying clients.
At Blue Seven, we employ the best legal content writers in the industry. Our team relies on the know-like-trust factor and other highly effective marketing concepts, such as law firm marketing funnels, in creating the types of content law firm websites need to generate profits. This includes:
Landing pages: Geographically targeted, practice area-specific landing pages help to ensure relevance in search results and increase rankings. They emphasize the need for legal help, highlight areas of expertise, and detail the practical ways in which you serve your clients.
Blog posts: Perfect for sharing on social media, blog posts play a major role in law firm marketing, increasing visibility and helping potential clients get to know you better. These can address general legal issues or more specific problems. They can also be geo-targeted to reflect current news in your community.
Downloadable guides: These establish your authority in the legal field and create value for law firm website visitors. By requiring an email or other contact information prior to downloading, these are a great way for your law firm to get qualified leads.
FAQ pages: Pages focused on answering frequently asked questions build trust and establish you as an authority. They should provide answers to legal questions that attract and appeal to both broad and specific audiences.
Attorney profile pages: By highlighting personal interests and professional accomplishments, attorney profile pages help prospective clients get to know you better and build trust.
Looking for the Best Law Firm Content Writers? Contact Blue Seven Today
Law firm websites face fierce competition. Having a sound content marketing strategy is key to attracting visitors and converting them into clients. At Blue Seven Content, our team employs marketing concepts proven to be successful, such as the Know-Like-Trust factor, to increase search rankings, page views, and conversion ratings.
Looking for the best law firm content writers? Reach out and call or contact Blue Seven online to request a consultation today. We offer flexible packages and prices to meet the budgets and content needs for law firm websites of all sizes.
Written By Kim Zackowski – Legal Content Writer
Kimberly Zackowski is an experienced freelance writer/journalist from Myrtle Beach, SC. With her background as a paralegal, she creates website content for law firms throughout the country. Connect with Kim on LinkedIn or follow her on Instagram @coastalcontentwriter.
Law firm marketing funnels identify the path people take on their way to becoming prospective clients. The best law firm content is geared to each stage of this sales funnel for lawyers. It starts out broadly in raising brand awareness and then narrows to address specific needs. The final stage encourages action, converting website visitors into qualified leads. Find out more about the role law firm marketing funnels play in developing a successful content strategy and funnel models the best legal content writers use in helping you achieve your goals.
According to the American Bar Association (ABA), of the close to half a million law firms in the United States, nearly 90 percent have a website. This translates into more than 350,000 teams of attorneys, all competing for prospective clients. To stand out from the crowd, you need a strong content strategy.
This is where marketing comes in. The goal is not just to create content that puts your law firm’s name in front of as many people as possible. Instead, marketing efforts focus on creating a buyer persona and identifying key actions throughout the conversion process. A marketing funnel plays an important role in this process, clarifying goals and informing content strategy.
Law Firm Marketing Funnels: The AIDA Model
Marketing funnels have been around for over a hundred years and are highly effective in law firm marketing. The funnel begins at the top (the widest part) where you aim at attracting a targeted audience. It narrows as you focus your efforts on informing and engaging readers. The final step is converting them into prospective clients.
The first marketing funnel was the AIDA model, created in the late 1800s by U.S. sales and advertising pioneer Elias. St. Elmo Lewis. Highly regarded among the best legal content writers, it continues to inform and influence content strategy today. AIDA stands for:
Attention – Capture the attention of your audience and raise brand awareness by engaging on social media and gearing content toward increasing search engine rankings.
Interest – Once you have your target audience’s attention, use content to pique their interests. Provide details about your firm, practice areas, and the services you provide.
Desire – Create desire by showing empathy with your target audience, addressing their concerns, and elaborating on pressing legal issues they face.
Action – Emphasize the value your law firm offers and encourage readers to take action, either through a phone call or submitting online forms.
The AIDA Model, though it’s been around a while, still explains consumer behavior.
How To Customize Law Firm Content For Marketing Funnels
The AIDA model is just one type of marketing funnel. Another model popular among marketing professionals goes under the acronym ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu. Named for each specific area of the funnel, it provides an efficient and effective strategy for creating the best law firm content. The following details what each abbreviation stands for and the types of content best geared to that particular stage of the marketing funnel:
Top of the funnel (ToFu)
The focus is on capturing attention and increasing brand awareness. The best law firm content to achieve this goal includes:
Landing pages: These help to increase ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs). Create a page for each location, each area of law you practice, and the different types of cases you handle. Being thorough could pay off and trigger a Featured Snippet. This attracts further attention, increases brand awareness, and helps establish you as an authority.
About us pages: Create a page providing details about when your firm was established, the types of cases you handle, and notable awards or professional affiliations. Include one for each attorney who works at your office. List their education, background, professional achievements, and brief information on hobbies or their personal life.
Reviews/Top Case Results: Share positive reviews from other clients and top results from cases you have handled.
Blog posts: Post frequently on topics that cover specific areas of law, address common concerns, and highlight local news or events. Share links to these posts on your LinkedIn or other social media pages.
Videos: Script videos on a variety of topics and share on YouTube, TikTok, or other social media sites to gain followers.
Landing pages, infographics, videos, and more will all get visitors to your website towards the end goal – becoming clients.
Middle of the funnel (MoFu)
This is where you focus on deepening your client’s interests in your law firm and addressing specific issues and concerns they have. Common types of content for middle of the funnel marketing includes:
FAQ pages: Answer questions about the law, specific types of cases, and why someone might need an attorney.
Blog posts: Continue to post blogs regularly and cover more specific information. As an example, a personal injury attorney might want to elaborate on different causes of accidents, common types of injuries, and damages available in a claim.
White papers: Create in-depth reports on complex cases and provide opinions on trending legal topics relevant to your practice area.
Infographics: These offer a quick way to share facts and figures with your readers.
Bottom of the funnel (BoFu)
This is where you focus on converting website visitors into clients. Content for this stage of the marketing funnel includes:
Blog posts: These should reiterate the need for an attorney, detail important matters to discuss, and outline what to bring to a consultation.
Downloadable guides: Create long-form articles and booklets that provide in-depth information on relevant topics. Makes these available as free downloads in exchange for an email address or other contact information.
Contact page: This should summarize your services, emphasize the importance of getting legal help, and reiterate the value your law firm offers. Include your contact information and an online form.
Calls to action (CTA): These encourage the reader to contact your law firm and request a consultation. Include them in other content and make them visible on each website page.
Law Firm Marketing Funnel – Tips for 2024
Leveraging AI in Law Firm Content Creation
You can use AI to your advantage, particularly when looking at how users are engaging with your page. If you download your recent keyword data from Google Console. Input the keywords into ChatGPT and ask about search intent. Are your readers using informational or transactional keywords to land on your website? You can determine where your focus should be on your marketing funnel, or at least you can see how the funnel has worked for your audience so far.
If readers are looking for information that shows they need a lawyer right now, you can beef up the areas of your website that focus on the bottom of the funnel – the calls to action and focus on contacting a lawyer.
However, if you notice there are other keywords that focus at the top of the funnel, maybe someone who has just been in a car accident and is asking if they should call their insurance carrier, you can adjust your overall marketing strategy. This is helping you gain a reader’s trust, guiding them towards using your services later on.
Understanding Google’s E.E.A.T. for Law Firms
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or E.E.A.T., should always remain at the forefront of your marketing efforts. As AI and SGE content floods the internet, now is the time to beef up your law firm’s website authority. Focusing on E.E.A.T. for law firms with content at each level of the marketing funnel is a must.
Integrating Video and Multimedia for Better Engagement
We like videos and other types of media for a few reasons. The way we view content has changed so much over the last two decades. We’re in a faster-paced world where you have to capture readers’ attention quickly (thanks TikTok and Instagram).
Videos can help capture an audience that’s used to interacting with multimedia instead of mostly words on a webpage. As you pull readers down the law firm marketing tunnel, you want to make sure there’s sufficient video and multimedia content to catch the readers who need it.
If you haven’t made videos for your law firm before, that’s okay. There are several reputable marketing agencies that specialize in law firm video production and who understand how this fits into your client acquisition funnel.
Blue Seven Content Helps Law Firms Reach Their Marketing Goals
If you want the best content for your law firm marketing funnel, you’re in the right place already. The professional legal writers at Blue Seven not only understand the sales funnel for lawyers and how it works but also how to cater the content to your specific needs. At Blue Seven, we create compelling, custom content to engage readers at each stage of their journey to becoming clients. To discuss a content strategy, call or contact us online and request a free consultation today.
Written By Kim Zackowski – Legal Content Writer
Kimberly Zackowski is an experienced freelance writer/journalist from Myrtle Beach, SC. With her background as a paralegal, she creates website content for law firms throughout the country. Connect with Kim on LinkedIn or follow her on Instagram @coastalcontentwriter.
Updated by Allen Watson – CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Seven Content
You want the best content law firm website content, but how do you get it? Do you turn to your attorneys, paralegals, or legal assistants?
Maybe.
Do you find an all-in-one legal marketing agency?
Perhaps.
Those are options, but probably not your best ones. When you’re searching for the best legal content writers, there are seven essential steps you can take to ensure you’re on the right path.
1. Quality: Rise to a Higher Standard for the Best Law Firm Content
Quality is key. However, all too often, we see that content on law firm websites is sub-par quality. Now, you do not need to have college reading levels on your website, but you do need to have content that is well-written.
What we have discovered is that everybody thinks they are a writer. After all, anyone can type out some words on a keyboard and make them appear on a screen. That does not mean, however, that the writing is any good. You have to be honest with yourself and your abilities. Some people are great orators. Some people are great researchers. This does not necessarily mean that they are great writers. Writing is a skill that some people have, and some people don’t have.
Great writing skills are not the only ingredient for quality content. You also have to understand how these pages should be formatted. You need to find a writer who understands how to use headings appropriately and how to craft a clear message with shorter paragraphs, short sentences, and bullet points.
Importantly, you have to find a legal content writer who understands keywords and how to implement them into your content without seemingly forcing them down a reader’s throat.
Finding the best legal content writing quality is tough, but not impossible.
2. Pricing: Don’t Reach for Rock Bottom Pricing
Go to Upwork and type in “law firm content writer.” I dare you. You’ll see plenty of people looking for exactly what you are looking for – someone to craft the content for their particular website. If you have never used a website like Upwork, then what you do not know is that every post is going to get hundreds of applications from individuals all vying to become the lowest bidder. Yes, I am sure you would get very excited to pay $10 for a 1,000-word blog post for your law firm. At those rates, you could create pages and blog posts for your entire website for a few hundred dollars.
What I know is that you’re likely going to be very disappointed with the work that you get if you chase the lowest rates.
Perhaps you are a legal professional. Maybe you are a legal marketing agency looking for writers right now. You are a professional, and the only way for you to maintain your professional reputation is to work with other professionals. Writing is a profession, and you have to treat it as such when looking for the best legal content providers.
Search around for the best pricing options, yes, but the lowest price is almost never going to be your best option. Time and time again, we have worked with clients who went with the lower-priced option only to discover that it was a complete disaster. We have been asked to redo other writers’ work more time than we can count, and it pains me. It pains me because I know the client has already paid for content once and is now having to pay us for content again.
By the way, we usually just scrap the old content and create fresh content anew in these situations.
3. Experience: Use Experienced Legal Content Writers
It does not matter what field you are in or what kind of services you need; experience matters. I say this (Allen) as a person who had absolutely no legal content writing experience when I first started in this field. I was swimming without floaties. But I learned. I also know this only worked because I was already an experienced writer. But even then, it took me a significant amount of time to really understand how to write quality legal content. When I go back and look at the first law firm practice area pages I wrote, I cringe. They were just not that great. However, they were better than some of the content that I still see getting put up on law firm websites, so that’s saying something.
You want to find a team of content writers who have experience handling law firm practice area pages, law firm blog posts, law firm landing pages, and any other type of content that you need.
4. Communication: Do Your Legal Writers Communicate Regularly
Have you ever worked with an employee or contractor who just could not communicate well? It can quickly become a nightmare, particularly when you have deadlines and a need for your content right away.
When you are working with legal content writers, we understand that this is usually through a contract or freelance writing situation. Since these individuals are not actual employees, you cannot dictate when or how they complete their work. The only thing you can really do is give them a deadline and ask for the work to be done by then.
However, just because a person is a freelancer does not mean that they shouldn’t communicate regularly. The best law firm content writers in the business stay in regular contact with their point person. You want a content writer who asks you more questions, not less. You want a writer who will let you know if there are any issues coming up with deadlines.
Good communication skills between clients and writers are perhaps one of the most important parts of this whole relationship.
5. Ability to Meet Deadlines: Is the Content Turned in On Time
Deadlines are important. If they weren’t, then there wouldn’t be any deadline, I suppose. Everything has a deadline, and one of the most important skills law firm content writers learn very early is that deadlines need to be met.
Yes, there are times when emergencies arise. However, this should not be the norm. If a content writer experiences an emergency, they should communicate this to their client as soon as possible. What we have found is that early communication typically means that arrangements can be made. Clients appreciate it when you let them know what is going on so that they can adjust. Usually, the client extends the deadline, but that may not be possible. If the writer communicates early enough, the client can find someone else to handle the work. There is nothing worse than a client finding out the day before the deadline or the day of the deadline that the work will not be complete. This can really put clients in a bind.
If you are ever working with a legal content writer who consistently fails to meet deadlines, this is a problem, and you should probably look somewhere else for another writer.
You need a law firm content writer who consistently meets deadlines.
6. Willingness to Accept Feedback: How do Your Writers Handle Feedback?
No two clients are exactly alike. It does not matter how long we have been in the legal writing business, we know that every time we sign a new law firm or agency on board that we will have to adjust to their specific formatting and styles.
One of the first things that we tell clients is that before we officially start working with one another, we would like to do a few test pages (paid of course – NEVER ask a writer to work for free). These test pages give the client and us a good idea about whether or not this will be a good working relationship moving forward. The client can give us feedback about their expectations, and we can adjust moving forward with future content.
Additionally, there will never be a case when a client gets perfect content 100% of the time. While you should expect your legal content writer to produce content that is almost always error-free, there will be mistakes that go through. Even if the law firm content writer uses Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, or another type of editing software, mistakes happen. The important thing to determine is how a writer responds to feedback and moves forward.
7. Rewrites: How Much Will Rewrites Cost Your Law Firm?
Rewrites do happen, though not often. When you begin working with a legal content writer, ask them how much they charge for rewrites. At Blue Seven Content, we have a few policies regarding rewrites.
If we make a mistake, we do not charge for a rewrite. Sometimes, spelling or grammar errors slip through the cracks. Of course, we would not charge to fix this. In other cases, we misinterpret what the client wanted and provide a piece of content that just does not work. Again, if we are the ones who misunderstood what the client needed, we will do the rewrite for free.
If a client fails to properly communicate their expectations, or if they change their mind and decide that they want something else after we finish, then a rewrite will be full price. We own it if we make a mistake, so we expect our clients to own it if they make a mistake.
Get Started With the Best Law Firm Content Today
Finding the right fit for your law firm is tough. It’s like forming a partnership, and that involves trust. We always encourage clients to start with a trial run, perhaps a few pages, to see if they’ve found the best legal content writer for their needs. If you’re interested finding the best law firm website content services, we are ready to get to work. We handle:
To reach out to Allen or Victoria about getting started with Blue Seven Content, you can schedule 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
Every so often, a blog writer spends hours banging their head against their computer monitor searching for good law firm blog post ideas. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to publish relevant topics that provide readers with exciting and engaging content. However, we at Blue Seven Content have found a few ways to maintain a steady stream of quality law firm blog posts for our clients.
Look at What Others are Doing
We were all taught in 5th Grade English that plagiarism is wrong and copying someone else’s work would land you in big trouble. However, effective legal advocates identify and utilize tested cases, arguments, citations, and strategies to serve their client’s interests. Blog writing is similar, but with a few caveats.
No, this post is NOT encouraging you to copy/paste someone else’s writing and pass it off as your own. Unlike in law, plagiarizing blog content can cause many issues, including copyright strikes, legal action, and search engines diminishing traffic to your website. Oh yes, many search engine algorithms can identify and flag blogs and web pages that consistently plagiarize other sites to decrease their overall ranking when users utilize their search engine.
Instead, blog writers can look to other blogs for ideas and create their own work based on their unique specifications. In addition, many popular legal databases and legal news sites do an outstanding job of keeping readers informed in nearly every practice area. Although directly using this content is highly discouraged, using these resources as a jumping off point for ideas, can help clear writer’s block.
Talk to Your Colleagues
If you are the designated blogger at your firm and you are looking for new law firm blog post ideas, tap your best resource: an attorney. Many practitioners keep updated on relevant topics that impact the areas of the law they practice. Whether it is a notable appellate court case poised to change a substantive issue relevant to your client base or a new bill making its way through your state’s legislature, there is bound to be someone at your firm keeping tabs on these developments.
Scan the News
At Blue Seven Content, we work very hard to line up our clients practice area pages with news and updates from their specific area. If the client focuses heavily on commercial truck accident litigation and there was a recent crash in their area caused by a negligent trucking company, we have a blog.
A good starting point is Google or other major search engines. If your client wants a work injury page for their Charlotte law firm, type “Charlotte work injury” into the search engine and click the “news” tab at the top of the page. Check to see if there are any new current stories related to the topic.
This strategy works for most practice areas, though you may not find a “hot news story.” You can check and see if there are any new laws that would affect the client’s legal practice. Sometimes, you may have to pull out to the state or national level to get a current story, and that is okay. Blogs are meant to be timely, and they could help the law firm website pick up current traffic surrounding the news story.
No matter what you do, make sure you only use and link to credible sources for your blogs. If you link to less-than-credible sources, other law firms, or sites like Nolo, you’re going to hurt your blogs more than help them.
Stick to the most up-to-date news, data, and statistics for your law firm blog posts
Listservs, Listservs, and More Listservs
One of the best inexpensive resources for many attorneys is access to a listserv. Sure, we all have found ourselves spending hours a day unsubscribing to mailing lists because that 20% off coupon for bath towels has clogged up our inbox for far too long. However, listservs provide invaluable insight into new laws, cases, and regulations that impact various areas of law.
Further, some listservs encourage engagement among subscribers allowing attorneys and legal experts to converse about updates in law and technical questions not readily available through traditional research methods. Many bar associations have accessible mailing lists for subscribers, and there are numerous legal news websites, legal search engines, and advocacy groups updating subscribers with lots of content. Listservs are your friend—trust us.
Blue Seven Content Has Good Law Firm Blog Post Ideas
Our blog post writers at Blue Seven Content have vast experience researching and publishing blog posts to provide readers with relevant and engaging content and help boost traffic to your law firm’s website. Do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 843-580-3158.
