Next month, I will speak on a panel at the Clio Cloud Conference in Nashville. The panel will cover the many benefits of creating a legal blog transcending thought leadership, including creating downloadable assets to build leads, powerful testimonials for marketing content, SEO benefits, and more.
When I started my business, I was very low on cash. I wanted to publicize my business, so I started blogging. Blogs provide helpful information and are an excellent opportunity to offer content that attracts potential clients and produces great search engine results.
Here’s how you can start blogging:
Figure Out What Questions To Answer
To attract a particular client, write a blog centered around their needs. If you’re unsure what keywords to target, do some research. Resources are available that can show you what keywords are trending or frequently used. Once you’ve identified these keywords, you can create content that incorporates those phrases.
I used a search tool called Keywords Everywhere to find common search terms about estate planning on Google or YouTube. Don’t assume what questions a client wants answering. Instead, look at the data the Internet provides on frequent search terms.
For example, I’d compare the results of searching for “texas estate planning” vs. “texas wills.” As of this writing, the keywords “texas estate planning” has 170 searches per month, and the keywords “texas wills” has 1,000 searches per month; this means that more people (almost tenfold) searched for the latter term over the former. Start a spreadsheet of the popular terms that relate to your business area and start thinking of how to include them in answers to common legal questions on the Internet.
Be Consistent
When you have a list in hand, take the time to write the blog article. I kept mine at least 500 to 1500 words, but this number continually changes with thought leadership on the benefits of long-form vs. short-form blogs. The most important thing is to be consistent when writing your blog, so stick to a weekly, bimonthly, or monthly schedule.
If you have struggled to keep up with writing a blog, you know what time-consuming blogging is. Sometimes, there is not enough time in the day to write and run a law firm. Trust me on this: outsource this critical job and find the assistance of a skilled blog writer! With someone else writing your blog, you can focus on other matters, like your brand and law firm growth.
Optimize For SEO
Lastly, I recommend optimizing your blog. Search engines like Google scan the content of your website with search engine crawling. Then, the search engine indexes your web pages and categorizes and ranks them according to relevancy. Make sure your blog provides valuable information with the aforementioned strategic keywords that potential clients use to search for your services.
I hired an “SEO guy” to handle all aspects of improving my law firm’s rankings and visibility on search engines. He helped optimize my page load speeds, developed my backlinks, and provided me with analytics for how my blog was performing.
It’s important to remember that blog results won’t happen overnight. It will take time for your SEO-rich content to be indexed by search engines. However, businesses with SEO help can experience higher website traffic and more qualified leads by investing in their SEO development.
If you remain unsure whether you should blog, commit to trying organic marketing for a season. I have successfully found new clients by blogging and answering common questions. Blogging can help grow your law firm more sustainably and affordably than sinking money into Google Ads. I’d love to hear about your blogging exploits. Please email me at info@iffyibekwe.com to share.
Iffy Ibekwe is an estate planning attorney and evangelist for intergenerational wealth transfer with effective wills and trusts. Iffy is a prolific speaker and she is writing her first book on culturally competent estate planning, available in 2024 (prayers up!). She graduated from The University of Texas School of Law and has practiced law for over 16 years. Iffy can be reached by email at info@iffyibekwe.com, on her website, and on Instagram at @iffyibekweesq.
