Five reasons your law firm should have a blog
Updated 9 July 2020
A successful law firm without a website is no longer an option. And to make that firm's website work really hard for you, it must have a blog.
In today’s rapid moving digital world, a blog is one of the quintessential tools for driving visitors and potential clients to your firm and ultimately, increasing your revenue.
If your firm is not blogging or is not blogging regularly, here are five reasons that should spur you into action.
1. Your blog will demonstrate your expertise and authority to a wider audience
Your clients want to know that you have the knowledge, expertise and experience to provide the results they need.
Sadly, many law firm websites are what we might term “static”, not to mention dull and uninformative. They build a website, add some information to it about what they do, who their key people are and how to contact them. They then say “tick, job done”. Wrong.
Your static pages will rarely be changed; maybe a change in legislation, or a new office location or a new staff member will prompt you to make a change but otherwise, the information usually stays the same.
Your website is primed for a blog. Although there are many views as to exactly what a blog is, we’re sticking with a traditional view. A blog is a standalone website or a dedicated page within your website, that hosts a series of articles usually in a style of “one question, one answer”. Each article is called a blog post.
Blog posts give you the opportunity to demonstrate your authority in the areas of law your potential clients are searching; to articulate expertise and experience on specific topics. Further, a series of blog posts, inter-linking to each other, is a testimony to your broader knowledge base.
2. Online is where your clients are
There are simply too many platforms to provide an overview of where your clients might be in the online world. So we’re going to have a quick look at some demographics on the three important channels: Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Of all the search engines available, Google nets approximately 76% of desktop searches and 86% of mobile of searches (2020 stats)
- Nearly 93% of web traffic comes via search engines
- There are approximately 75,000 searches on Google every SECOND! (2020 stats)
- When someone uses Google, they’re looking for something specific, including legal services
- To put it simply, half of your potential clients are searching on Google
- Facebook has about 2.6 billion monthly active users (2020 stats)
- Teens usage has dropped by about 20% in from 2017 to 2020 (this is good for law firms as teens are not your optimal audience
- The 65+ user group is increasing yearly (remember, Mum and Dad and Gran and Pop will refer their kids and grandkids to you if they know and/or trust you)
- Over 67% of social media marketers (2022) say Facebook is the most effective social media platform. That many people can’t be wrong.
- LinkedIn has over 690 million users (2020 stats)
- It is the platform to reach one of the most affluent and educated demographics
- The most popular age demographics are 25-29 and 30-49 years.
As you can see, your potential clients are likely online on a daily basis. They’re not only looking for entertainment, family moments and news; they’re looking for information, education and services. Your blog will provide answers to the questions your potential clients are asking every day online.
3. Your blog builds a library of knowledge and expertise you can share across multiple platforms
Once you’ve created your blog and you’re diligent with your blogging schedule, you’ll build a library of expertise very quickly.
This library will sit on your site to be found organically by Google and other search engines but you can also use it to share across multiple digital networks. You’ve already done the hard work in curating and publishing your content, it’s not necessary to re-create that content for other platforms.
You can simply re-purpose or share your blog content in many ways including:
- LinkedIn organic and paid posts
- Facebook organic and paid posts
- Google AdWords
- Monthly e-newsletter
- Part of your introductory correspondence pack for new clients
- Email blog links to prospective clients
- Printed versions for your reception display
4. Your blog will increase your revenue
If your law firm does not have a blog (either within your website or standalone), it is unlikely that Google is showing your firm in its search results as much as it could be or as much as you’d like it to. Your website will not be working as hard for you as it should.
With a dynamic blog within your site together with a regular publishing schedule, your search results will begin to improve. The more you publish, the higher the likelihood of getting results.
It then goes without saying, if you’re showing up more in search results, more people will contact you. You should note, however, that it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to commit to your blog for the long haul but if you do, it will deliver one of the best ROI figures of all your marketing initiatives.
A word of advice:
Writing your content in a way to be found online is both an art and a science. It’s a very different style to writing for a printed publication or writing a legal document. It’s important to seek advice on “how to write a blog post” from someone experienced and successful in writing online content.
5. Google loves blogs
Google, and other search engines, want your website to be as dynamic, interesting and useful as possible. Google wants to share content that is accurate, current and up to date.
If Google crawls your website, say monthly, and finds no changes, it may assume that your website is not well maintained and it may skip your site in search results; choosing to list more recently updated sites instead (your competitors’ sites).
One of the easiest ways to show Google that your site is well maintained is to add regular and relevant new content to your site. This cannot simply be changing a few paragraphs here and there. It must be regular and substantive changes in content for Google to pay attention.
One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to have a blog on your website.
If you publish an entirely new page to your website, say a minimum of once a week, in the form of a well-written blog post, your Google search rankings will improve.
Want more blogging tips?
You may find these articles useful.
- How do I choose topics and titles for my blog?
- What is evergreen content and should I be creating some?
- What is long-form content and why should I be creating it?
Get help
Looking for assistance with any aspect of your digital marketing? We'd love to help.
Share this page...