Who Is Better at Writing Legal Blog Content: Lawyers or Professional Content Writers?

You can probably think of examples of terrible writing by lawyers. Perhaps there is a colleague whose emails consist of interminable sentences so cluttered with Latin jargon, words that have not been part of spoken English since the 18th century, and overblown literary ambitions that you are tempted to print them and post them on you’re the wall of your office as an example of how not to write. If you are old enough, you may remember “greatest hits” lists of examples of awful lawyer writing circulating by email in the 1990s or by fax in the 1980s. Suffice it to say that writing blog content does not come naturally to most lawyers. Likewise, every conversation you have with anyone outside the legal profession serves as a reminder of how little most people who are not lawyers know about the law. Meanwhile, every law firm needs a blog, so who is best to write your legal blog content?

Teaching Lawyers to Blog or Teaching Bloggers About the Law?

According to Robert Rose of Content Marketing Institute, the CEO of UPS once allegedly contributed his company’s success to the strategy of hiring drivers based on their customer service skills and not on their driving ability; according to this possibly apocryphal story, the CEO allegedly believed that it is easier to build the driving skills of people who are already good at customer service than the other way around. Rose goes on to show how the quest for subject matter experts, known as SMEs in the content marketing profession, has become an obsession for some marketing companies.

Of course, in the legal profession, anyone with the letters “J.D.” behind their name is the ultimate SME, but how good are they at writing blog posts? Is it better to risk having a blog characterized by the lawyerly writing style that ranges from wooden to incomprehensible or to post readable blog content that is short on substance? One solution is to have legal professionals and professional content writers work together to produce content that is factually accurate and teaches audiences something they do not already know, while following the best practices for search engine optimization (SEO). This way, the lawyer can bring their professional experience without having to rely on second-hand accounts of what happens in a courtroom, and the content marketing expert can bring their professional experience about what gets the best response from Google users. This means that your content marketing strategy will require more planning and more collaboration, but it also means that your content will perform better on the first try.

The Best of Both Worlds

The best solution, of course, is to hire writers who have professional experience both in the legal field and in content marketing. The professional legal content writers at Law Blog Writers are experienced in both fields. The result is that you get readable content that reflects an understanding of the law beyond what you would get from generic content marketing firms.

Sources

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/content-skills-subject-matter-expertise

Turning Today’s News Into Evergreen Content

Outside the world of content marketing, most people only use the word “evergreen” in December and late November, in other words, only during the time of year when people shop for Christmas trees. Evergreen content is the very opposite of seasonal content; the identifying characteristic of evergreen content is that it is relevant year after year and at any time of year. In other words, it never goes out of date. Updating your law firm’s blog regularly is great for SEO and lead generation, and when you have to think of one or more new blog topics every month, it’s easy to go with seasonal ones, but the posts that people will keep visiting are the evergreen ones. Even if you are caught up in the seasonal hype or in the current events being blasted in your direction at intense volume by the 24-hour news cycle, you can’t go wrong with evergreen legal blog content.

Think Past the Current Hype to Choose Evergreen Blog Topics

The news is truly relentless these days, such as last year’s current events seem like ancient history. It might seem like the latest scandal or sign of impending catastrophe is all that matters. Likewise, many businesses make their bread and butter based on seasonal promotions. Just remember that this, too, shall pass. Bars only sell green beer on St. Patrick’s Day, because even a few days later, no one would buy it. Likewise, Turning Red is not the only children’s movie that has ever drawn the attention of film critics. (Does anyone remember Luca? Or The Mitchells vs. the Machines? Or Frozen?)

Evergreen marketing content doesn’t have to be generic, even though it might not shout as loud for our attention as the seasonal ad campaigns. There is more to evergreen law firm blog content than “How to Choose the Best Personal Injury Lawyer” and “5 Things to Do After a Car Accident.” In fact, you can write of-the-moment posts and make them evergreen just by not including the parts that refer to the current moment. Family law attorneys everywhere found their minds flooded with clickbait blog post topics when they saw Kanye West’s video about the murder of a Claymation Pete Davidson, but it is more prudent to keep brainstorming until your reaction to the video leads to an evergreen topic like “How to Co-Parent If Your Ex Is Harassing Your New Partner.” Likewise, if the news about the war in Ukraine fills your mind with apocalyptic scenarios, keep brainstorming until you get to something like “How to Wrap Up Business Operations in a Foreign Country.”

Consider that one of the most clicked-on articles on March 19, 2020 was a generic article about cake decorating. We all know why everyone was at home baking cakes on March 19, 2020, but the words “coronavirus,” “pandemic,” and “lockdown” were nowhere to be found in this post, even though they were all over the Internet. Two years, later, that article is still getting clicks, while all the other early-pandemic cooking posts have gone the way of MySpace.

Law Blog Writers Can Make Any Current Topic Evergreen

For readable blog content that outlasts the current holiday season or the latest trending news topics, you can count on the professional legal content writers at Law Blog Writers.

Sources

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/evergreen-content-tips-strategy

How to Get Google’s Bots to Choose Your Blog Posts for Its Featured Snippets

Search engine optimization (SEO) efforts often revolve around getting to first place. Content writers dedicate their strategy and their elbow grease to getting their sites to rank in first place, to be the first website listed in the organic search results. In the case of law firms, the competition is especially intense to rank in first place for search queries that take the form of common legal questions such as “How much money can you get in a personal injury lawsuit?” or “How does the court calculate child support in California?” Before you invest any more of your marketing budget in getting to first place, though, keep in mind that there is an even more visible location for your content, namely the featured snippet. Julia McCoy of Content Marketing Institute refers to the featured snippet as “position zero.” Keep reading to find out more about how you can get Google to choose your legal blog content for its featured snippets.

Four Steps to Getting Your Content Chosen for Featured Snippets

McCoy has identified four things content writers can do to catch the attention of the search engine bots that choose text for featured snippets:

· Don’t Step on the Big Guys’ Toes – For some keywords, huge businesses already have a monopoly on the featured snippets. For example, for most tax-related questions, your small law firm cannot displace H&R Block or the IRS website from the snippet position. Choose keywords with a low keyword difficulty, which means that there is not some huge entity with a firm grasp on the top spot on search rankings. Set your sights on queries where your biggest competition is the other law firms in your area. You have a better chance ranking for “best child support lawyer in Arizona” than “do you have to pay taxes on child support.”

· Phrase Users’ Questions in the Form of a Statement – People Also Ask is a great resource for blog topics and subheadings. To rank for snippets, take a People Also Ask question about your practice area and phrase it as a statement (such as “The best child support lawyer in Arizona is Branwell Bloggins, Esq.”). Google’s bots can tell that these statements are directly relevant to the query.

· Make Sure the Entire Post Matches the Prospective Snippet – A concisely written, query-focused statement adrift in a sea of ungrammatical claptrap will arouse the suspicion of even the crudest plagiarism checkers, so imagine how negatively the snippet bots will react to it. Keep your writing quality and tone consistent throughout the post.

· First Place Is Still a Winner – Most of the time, Google chooses its snippet from the same page that ranks the highest on the organic search results. In other words, if you achieve first place, you will probably also receive position zero.

Snippets Are Just One Part of a Comprehensive SEO Strategy

For readable blog content that easily convinces Google of its snippet value, you can count on the professional legal content writers at Law Blog Writers.

Sources

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/google-featured-snippets