As my last post in the “Blogging Basics for Lawyers” series, I think it’s time to wrap-up our previous discussions and expand on a few of the points that I made.

But before we get into the thick of it, here’s a special thanks to everyone who provided feedback for this series. Your input helps me continue to make these topics a valuable resource for the legal community.

Over time, we’ve covered quite a bit when it comes to blogging basics, including the following:

You probably noticed that I discussed how important a blog was to my firm’s success in each of these posts. 

Blogs are some of the best ways to bring in more clients for your firm.

In fact, a high-quality blog is essential in any law firm’s online success. The tips I provided in these articles played no small part in my journey from solo living room operation in 2006 to multi-employee and associate business by the end of 2009.

Yes, I made it that far in just three years.

While plenty of things have changed in the world since 2010, the value of the above-described techniques has not. Proper blogging will ensure your rise the top of searches in several ways.

Why Attorneys Need to Understand the Benefits of SEO & Blogging

Attorney blogging

According to a study from FinancesOnline, only 15% of law firms syndicate content on their website. This makes having a blog, a perfect opportunity for lawyers to stand out.

Proper blogging (and I stress the word “proper”) will aid your SEO efforts on three fronts. These fronts include building a body of quality content, establishing yourself as an authority, and providing a source for quality backlinks to be acquired to your site. 

I’ll address them in order:

Creating High-Quality Content

First, blogging provides you with a healthy body of quality content on topics relevant to your clients. 

Having this body of content makes your site more authoritative on a given topic. As a result, Google and Bing are more likely to return your site earlier in search results than they would otherwise. 

To put it simply, better blogging means better search placement for your website.

Establishing Your Firm as an Authority Figure

The second of these three fronts is that proper blog promotion to your peers is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority in your niche. 

Being an authority does a few great things in and of itself:

First, anyone who sees that you’re an authority in your sector is all the more likely to pick you over competitors. If they see you’re very knowledgable and willing to give value via a blog, you’re that much more enticing to work with.

And second, Google loves putting authority figures up top on the search. 

Take a look at who pops up when we search for running shoes, for instance.

Authority SERP

These aren’t just some random websites that pop up; they’re websites that have spent the time to build up extensive knowledgebases and blogs for visitors.

And you could be the law firm equivalent if you do the same with your own blog.

Building Backlinks for Your Law Firm’s Blog

Finally, quality blogging will result in high-quality backlinks to your site (which helps boost your site in search). For those who aren’t aware, a backlink is a link to another website to your own.

The great thing about backlinks is that they can bring traffic from those websites, and Google’s algorithm uses the number of good backlinks you get as a significant metric for your search engine rank.

On my former firm’s law blog, several of the posts had various backlinks from other important legal websites as a resource. 

These high-quality backlinks helped pass significant authority to my blog, which, in turn, boosted it’s rank and brought me more clients. 

Remember, writing a series on topics that impact clients in tangible ways is a great method for bringing more backlinks to your site.

More on Authority: How Blogging “Validates” You to Prospects

Attorney discovering SEO

Blogging isn’t just an SEO practice; it helps you in ways beyond the search itself. 

A well-written and maintained blog brings in comments from potential clients or others in the general public who have faced similar legal struggles.

Those comments can often legitimize your firm to potential clients when they see that others are discussing the topic in your particular corner of the blogosphere. 

Writing content in a way that makes people more likely to comment, and participating in an appropriate discussion on your blog’s comment section, will lead to a higher conversion rate than the attorneys without a blog on their site.

Hopefully, this series has helped you with your firm’s blogging strategy! While this may the last post in the series, I’ll certainly be revisiting the topic in the future.

Want to learn how to choose the best SEO agency for your law firm? Read How to Choose the Best SEO Company for Lawyers.