Tips for Lawyers Who Write for the Web

Writing and Editing:

Think like a journalist - Start with what you want the reader to know. Then add more detail. If you go into great detail, keep the main page short and link to the details. That’s the beauty of the web!

Edit to keep it short - Write, edit, then edit more. It’s hard to read text on a screen, so help your visitors – cut what’s not necessary.

Proofread - Have someone check what you wrote. Too often, only one person reads what’s published and errors are missed.

People first - It’s tempting to cram your page full of search engine keywords. Don’t. Write naturally. If you’re targeting keywords, make sure they’re included when you edit your page, but don’t overdo it. Attorney, I will tell you, no one likes to read a page crammed with keywords.  It sounds stilted and awkward, right, lawyer?

Get rid of the marketing language - Write like you talk to clients and co-workers, not like it’s a commercial on TV. No one wants to read that kind of writing.

Keep it professional - You’re a lawyer. People don’t expect you to be funny. They want you to be competent and professional. Keep your writing that way.

Presentation:

Make it easy to scan – Bolded text can help people find what they need quickly. People scan first and read second – if they read at all.

Lists are great – They’re easy to scan and read.

Short sentences are great, too.

Build credibility – People jump into your site without knowing anything about you. Build credibility with a high-quality design, clean, modern graphics and photos.

What to Write About:

Sometimes, Go In-Depth – It doesn’t hurt to write some long articles every now and then. You can only provide so much value with a short article. After all, people expect you to be an expert, so show it. While about 2/3 of the articles on your site can be short, make about 1/3 of them longer. People who read longer articles are truly vested in what you have to say and may be more likely to hire you. In-depth articles are harder to create, so you also won’t have as much competition as you do with shorter articles.

What Do You See? – You’re in a unique position to see things your clients don’t. What’s happening with legislation that could affect them, for example? Or what are trends that could affect what you do for them? Post articles about these. If you still need tips, take a look at Eight Law Firm Blog Post Ideas

More on Law Firm Blogging  - What to Blog About (or: How to Keep Blogging) - You can do it! It’s not as difficult as you think. Even if you’re a single attorney with a practice you’ve just started, a blog is a fast and quick way to demonstrate your expertise and get more clients. Also read: Six Law Firm Blogging Tips That Get Results and Eight Law Firm Blog Post Ideas.

8 Ways to Meet Your Professional Goals Using Social Media - Nice tips. The best advice is what we say to all our clients, too – show your expertise! But you don’t need to be posting on other sites to show you’re an expert. Create a blog on your own law firm website and use it to demonstrate that you know your practices and your typical clients. Publish articles online then tweet about them and promote them socially.

More about how important it is to be an expert (and seen as one, too): Expanding Your Practice: Be the Expert Remember, when thinking of hiring a lawyer, prospective clients are asking, “Has this attorney helped people (or companies) like me in situations like mine?” If you speak to that question, you’ll get the client. There are many ways to do that – with a blog, with customer testimonials, with well-conceived attorney biographies and with information about your typical clients and cases. We can help you incorporate all of that into a new website. Get a quote for you new site now.

Time for a Profitability Tune-Up - You know this already, but your law firm is a business. If you’re not analyzing your business often – pricing, expenses, practices – you’re missing opportunities. This article includes good advice to help your firm stay on track.

Bye-Bye Big Firm - Many attorneys are leaving large firms for small ones where they can provide a personal touch to clients, focus on building their own unique practices and the ability to specialize in what interests them. Learn more about the changing landscape of the legal business.

Finally, if you’re not a fan of Twitter, it’s time to get on the bandwagon (it took us a while too): Twitter Turns 6: From 140 Characters to 140 Million Users

Get Ready

If your public speaking skills could use some improvement or even if you’ve never done any public speaking before,  join Toastmasters. Toastmasters exists to help people to become better public speakers. Find a Toastmasters club near you and go visit the club. Toastmasters clubs welcome visitors and you don’t have to speak when you visit. Find a club that meets on a day and time that is convenient for you and then join that club. Toastmasters is a great place to practice speaking before booking speaking engagements.

Write a Speech

Service clubs book speakers who present speeches on subjects of benefit to their members. Service clubs want to help their members reach their personal and professional goals. They do not want you to sell to them, they want you to provide useful information. For example, you could write a speech about writing a will or taking a case to small claims court. You are there to demonstrate your expertise so you don’t have to be a sales person or try to sell the members, instead, be giving of your knowledge on legal subjects. Speaking at service clubs will allow you to meet many people and network with them. This will lead to new clients.

Book Speaking Engagements

The best way to book speaking engagements with service clubs is by email. You can find club contact email addresses on the club’s website. You can then email each type of service club, such as Rotary or Kiwanis, a customized email. State how your presentation will benefit the club’s members and how it relates to the club’s motto or mission. For example, the Rotary motto is “Service Above Self” so mention how your presentation relates to this motto.

Speaking at service clubs is a great way to get new clients. If you are not already comfortable with public speaking, get comfortable and then get out and speak.

Clicking for Clients – Current Connecticut rules about attorney marketing and professional conduct haven’t kept up with technology. This story states that, “Connecticut’s statewide bar counsel, proposed a revision…that would allow lawyers and law firms to make use of online services that recruit clients”.  About time, we say.

Winning the Content Marketing Race – Excellent article about how to market your services with great content. Also includes helpful tips about how to figure out what to post and when.

Now Is The Time To Take Your Local Business Mobile - According to recent surveys, half of all cell phone users have a smartphone. They’re using them to find local businesses all the time, including lawyers and law firms. Google has even created a project called “Go Mo” to encourage businesses to create mobile-friendly sites.

Rush Limbaugh’s Sorry Approach to Corporate Communications - We all make mistakes. It’s how you handle them that counts. We can even learn from other peoples’ mistakes. Learn the three rules of an effective apology. Watch FedEx apologize for a courier throwing a computer monitor. They do it right.

Two short articles from Attorney@Work:

Online Marketing Strategies for Small Budgets - We wholeheartedly agree with one of the main points of this article: “A careful selection of a dozen key words that best capture what you’re about, woven throughout your website content, is step one to help people find you.” If you create a website with us, you’ll be able to update your site anytime, so it’s easy to add important keywords to your site all the time. Search engines also love fresh content.

Building a Referal Network from the Ground Up - How do you market yourself offline? This article has some good points.

1. Write headlines that grab attention and target keywords - People love lists so headlines such as “Eight Skills Your Denver Immigration Lawyer Must Have” will attract more visitors to your website. Depending on your law firm practice and if you work in one geographic location, you may want to include your location in these headlines like we did in this example.
2. Target keyword phrases in your blog content - Choose a keyword phrase to target with each blog post you write. For example, for your blog post titled “Eight Skills Your Denver Immigration Lawyer Must Have”, you could choose to target the keyword phrase “Denver Immigration Lawyer”. When writing your blog post content, you will want to include this keyword phrase at least five times and up to ten times. This will help your blog post to come up higher in search engine rankings when someone searches for “Denver Immigration Lawyer”.
3. Link to your blog posts from social media websites - Be sure to link to all of your blog posts from social media websites such as Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Linking to your blog post from social media websites will ensure that the search engines such as Google will find your new blog post right away.
4. Write for your readers and the search engines - You must write content that has value to visitors of your website. Try to write naturally as if you were writing to a friend. Provide information that people looking to hire an attorney are looking for. As you write, try to fit in your targeted keyword phrase but make it sound natural. You do not want your blog post to sound like it was only written to try to get better search engine placement.
5. Link to other pages on your website in your blog posts - When you mention a keyword phrase in your blog post such as “Denver Immigration Lawyer”, you should link to your immigration practice area page. This will help the search engines to rank your practice area pages higher.
6. Include at least one photo or image in your blog posts - Visitors to your website are drawn to visual elements. Include at least one image or photo that relates to your blog post content in all blog post you write. You should include your targeted keyword phrase in the images properties. We will teach you how to do this in your training session that you will receive as part of your new WordPress law firm website.

If you follow these tips, you will be a more successful legal blogger. The more successful you are with your law firm blogging, the higher your site will rank in the search engines. You need good search engine rankings in order to attract enough visitors to your website so that you can generate leads and get new clients.

Here are ten law firm blogging ideas to help get you get started on becoming a successful law firm blogger:

1. Information on how to hire an attorney, such as Eight Skills Your Attorney Must Have
2. A monthly legal issues newsletter
3. Information on upcoming seminars and talks presented by your law firm’s attorneys
4. Articles about your practice areas
5. Articles about typical clients that your firm serves
6. Case studies about typical cases that your firm has handled
7. Articles about your attorneys interests. For example, if one of your attorneys runs marathons, you could write a blog post about the last marathon they ran. If one of your attorneys strongly believes in a non-profit cause, write a blog post about why they believe in it.
8. Articles about high profile legal cases in the news

Top 5 Ways Google + Helps Your Search Engine Rankings

This article explains how to grow your law firm website’s audience with Google+. It describes Google+ as “a vital component of your online marketing strategy”. If it’s not, it should be in the near future.

Why Your Business Needs to Be on Google+ Now

Getting the picture? Your law firm could be benefit from taking advantage of Google+.  Did you know they already have over 90 million users? This isn’t just for large firms – individual attorneys can certainly benefit, too.

The First 5 Things You Should Do With Your Google+ Business Page

If you’re ready to get started, take a look at that article. It’ll help. It includes step-by-step instructions for when you’re ready to get your feet wet with Google+.

Confessions of a Google junkie (or, Privacy? What privacy?)

If all this talk about privacy interests you like it does us, you may want to take a look at this article.  If the privacy angle isn’t interesting, what the author says about what expects in return for giving up privacy should be of interest. He talks about highly tailored ads and search results. That’s where your law firm can get more exposure, if you know how to use Google+.

Want to know more about how Google+ relates to search results?

Take a look at the video below. It’s a bit old (Google+ is simply called a Google Profile) but it helps put it all in perspective.