Why Add Content To Your Law Office’s Attorney Website?
This article talks about the 5 essential tips to remember while creating content for attorney websites. It focuses on the need to balance legalese with simplicity. Is being the best in your job enough to grab new clients? No, it isn’t. Your legal services may be top-notch but unless potential clients know or hear from you, there will be a lull in your business sooner than you realize. The best way to always stay at the top of your game is to reach out to people, communicate with them and tell them more about your services.
It is time for you to launch your law firm’s website that informs people about your services and practices. But a simple website will not take you far. Unless you have high-quality content on your website, unless it is highly ranked on search engines and has a considerable social media presence, it will not meet your purpose. Today we shall be talking about some of the best practices that attorney websites should keep in mind while developing content for their websites.
1 – Know Attorney Advertising Rules, and Follow Them
As a legal service provider, you must stick to the rules. That’s arguably the most important tip for writing content for attorney websites. Refer to all attorney advertising rules, check with your state bar association’s laws before you begin writing content. We mention a few common tips that you can start with.
–A– Be Careful of the Words Used
Running an attorney website means being very careful of the words you use. Even if you specialize in divorce cases and have earned a reputation in custody challenges, you cannot claim to be an ‘expert’ or ‘specialist’ as these terms are prohibited by the law. You also cannot claim the entire firm to be board-certified, you must mention the name of the lawyers who are.
–B– Don’t Make Misleading Statements
Do not publish statements that can be perceived as misleading or false. While client testimonials are published by all kinds of websites, for an attorney website, you simply cannot publish without knowing whether it is allowed in your state. Also, do not make a claim that isn’t backed by quantifiable proof.
–C– Don’t Promise Services You Don’t Offer
It is not only unethical to promise prospective customers services you don’t offer, but it is also illegal. So, don’t write about services that you do not offer.
There are many more such basic rules that as an attorney you must be very careful of.
2 – Don’t Forget to Add Disclaimers
For the public, disclaimers are a nuisance – a waste of time. But as an attorney, you would know their importance. Thus, do not forget the disclaimers as and when needed. You may have to place it very often – on the website footer, before testimonials (whenever you are allowed to publish them), on every blog post, etc. Do not forget the specialized disclaimer page on your website that gets linked to every shortened disclaimer ticker on other pages.
3 – Keep The Jargons for The Courtrooms
Do you know why people get intimidated by lawyers and attorneys? It’s mainly because of the language you speak in courtrooms and use in legal documents. The jargon you normally use in your profession isn’t something others are comfortable using. So, while developing your attorney website, you must keep the language simple. Your SEO must strictly be people and search engine-friendly. This can only happen when you write your content in the language your clients understand. Thus, skip the jargon out and speak as plainly as possible. Keep the law out of your law firm website – simple!
4 – Promote Integrity and Honesty on Your Website
One of the main aims of launching a website is to promote yourself as a market leader, as being a valuable voice among lawyers and having answers to difficult questions. But guess what? You can’t have all the answers, and this is something you must acknowledge from the very beginning. Don’t pretend to know something you don’t know. Don’t hesitate to use phrases such as ‘it depends’ because that’s what happens in real life. Law is complicated and there is hardly one solution for all problems. Don’t say you have answers to all problems when as a lawyer you must be aware that it isn’t possible. Be honest and always be open to more conversations (preferably offline).
While creating content, always remember the law and the fact that they differ from place to place and from situation to situation. Don’t promise a solution where it’s not applicable. Always be honest while using design, artwork, and content. Credit them or have written permission from creators before publishing their work. As a lawyer, you must first practice being honest before you tell your clients to be ethically right.
5 – Make Your Website SEO and People Friendly
Design and content play a very important role in how far-reaching your website becomes. Your aim should be simple – to design it for people and search engines. Yes, you read that right. Your website must be search engine friendly because unless it is so, people won’t know about you. As it turns out search engine bots are like what people like. Some of the elements your website must include are –
- Create scroll-worthy structure
- Use bullet points
- Write short and crisp sentences and paragraphs
- Don’t forget the headers
- Create readable content
Your aim must be to be on top of an organic search results page. You must also make your content interesting so that more people read it. Keep the content simple – that’s what’s going to get you, followers. Remember that’s going to be one of your major challenges. It is always a good idea to run your blogs through a real-time content analyzer before you publish them so that you can improve content.
Try to understand as much as you can about search engine optimization. This will help you develop your website better. However, if you feel your expertise is inadequate in this matter, hire the services of specialists (digital marketing agencies) who can help you develop a great site.
Cyrusson Inc. is a leading digital marketing agency located in San Francisco’s Bay Area. We have years of experience in offering SEO, content creation, web development, social media marketing, digital ads solutions to businesses and service providers. We help businesses create their digital presence from scratch. If you think your law firm needs an online boost, get in touch with us today. We will help develop your site, and make it SEO friendly.