By now businesses, including law offices, understand that having a website is no longer enough to attract new clients and obtain more work from existing ones. Law firms need to employ online marketing strategies which include techniques for growing their online footprint – if they home to stand out from, or dominate, their competitors.
This involves creating and maintaining social media properties such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, joining relevant online discussion groups and forums and updating their website’s blog regularly. Integral to growing your law firm’s online footprint is the creation and publication of original, high quality and useful content which you can publish online and use as a magnet for attracting real (and in the eyes of the search engines, worthwhile) inbound links to your website or blog.
The importance of a legal blog
Online reputation and search visibility
Legal blogs enable lawyers to demonstrate their knowledge and skills to existing and potential clients through the professional opinions expressed and the explanations provided in their blog posts, and replies to reader comments. The posts might explain difficult-to-understand concepts, and can help to boost your law firm’s reputation in a specific niche. By enhancing visibility to search engines – and having more pages indexed – your blog posts will also improve your website’s search rankings.
Integration with social media
Social media sites thrive on regular status updates, ideally containing helpful information that is relevant to your ‘fans’ and followers. Social media can also be used for introducing a new member of your firm, announcing the successful outcome of a case, informing the public of developments in legislation, and of your firm’s expansion into new practice fields.
Publishing helpful content that enlightens Internet users on complex legal issues can promote sharing activities, growing your law firm’s online audience through word of mouth. Such ‘social proof’ is a powerful motivator for your prospects to pick up the phone or send you an email enquiry.
When posting an update in social media, it is sound practice to include links that can lead readers back to your website or blog. And don’t forget to incorporate social media buttons on each page of your website, and each blog post that you publish. These allow site visitors to easily share the great content they are reading.
Regular content creation
Blogs are easily updated and can be used for expressing editorial comments on current issues and events. Updating your legal blog regularly – weekly at the very least – will make it appealing to both clients and search engines. Increased online visibility drives traffic further to your website or blog, growing your online footprint.
Content creation must be handled with care — articles that are irrelevant, inaccurate, poorly researched, or written carelessly will tarnish your online reputation and won’t be shared. Develop, and stick to, a regular publication schedule and develop interesting topics to write about.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to write and update your website content, don’t let this become an excuse for ignoring such an important part of your business marketing.
And if you’d like to discuss how I can relieve you of that burden – by all means contact me!
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