If you want to rank highly in Google, your law firm’s website needs amazing content.

Not “okay” content.

Not “it’ll do” content.

Not “I just bought my daughter a new laptop so she can write it” content.

No, you need amazing content. Full stop.

In recent years, it has become more and more difficult to rank highly in Google for competitive keywords. The good news is that most law firms don’t get their legal copy anywhere near to where it should be.

This is a huge opportunity for you!

Using 13 techniques, I’ll show you how you can rise above the competition by writing the best SEO-focused website content for your law firm.

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Before you start writing law firm website content remember these three points.

1. Knowing your audience is 80% of the battle. Strong legal content starts with understanding your customers and giving them exactly what they want. Consider the following items before writing anything.

• How can you help a potential client understand the legal issue: for instance, from the charge through to bail, sentencing, and next steps?
• How can you help a potential client understand the full consequences of the legal issue they face?
• What are the most frequently asked questions with such legal cases?

2. Think beyond static articles. What type of format is the best fit for your content? It could be a video, infographic, podcast, article or case summary. Look for opportunities to blend several formats together to produce a piece of content that’s truly exceptional.

3. Engagement metrics like Time On Site & Bounce Rate matter. There’s no such thing as content that is great for SEO but poorly written. Search engines reward well-written and produced, relevant, original content that attracts users and keeps them on your pages for as long as possible.

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What is legal content writing?

A cornerstone of a law firm’s SEO campaign, legal content writing involves creating valuable content that shows your expertise, brings in more traffic, and establishes yourself as a trustworthy thought leader in your practice area.

A legal content writer creates all types of content, including:

• Blogs
• eBooks
• Emails
• Guides

The best writers who specialize in legal topics can break down complex, jargon-filled legal matters and explain them in plain language.

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The 13 law firm content techniques that will get your website ranking

You will see from the following points that getting content for law firms right is as much about structure as it is about the actual copy.

1. Include a unique page for each service you provide

Specialize in estate planning in Chicago? Break it down and include a unique page for each of your services: trusts, estate planning, wills, etc.

Just like Schottler & Associates does.

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This applies to any law firm website, of course. Take a look at how specific this personal injury law firm in Denver is with their services.

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Don’t be tempted to clump all of your services together on one page. You will never be able to rank for the variety of keywords that describe multiple services (see the next point).

Plus, it makes it easier for visitors to navigate to the right information: a good example of what’s good for the reader is also good for SEO.

2. Optimize each web page for one or two search terms

Taking the above example of the personal injury law firm in Denver, let’s see what they do on their social security disability (SSD) service page.

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You can see that the page copy is very focused on the keyword phrase social security disability lawyers.

The copy includes phrases like:

• Denver & Colorado Social Security Disability Lawyer
• Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits
• Colorado Social Security Disability lawyers
• Social Security Disability claims

They are not trying to target personal injury lawyer or a multitude of other phrases on the page; it’s purely targeting one primary keyword phrase.

This is an important lesson: only optimize each page for one (or maximum two) search terms. By doing that, you tell the search engines exactly what your page is about.

Here’s what they do on the workers’ compensation service page.

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Again the website copy is focused around workers’ compensation attorney and workers’ compensation lawyer. There is very little mention of personal injury at all: it’s very specific and targeted.

3. Include Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) terms in your copy

Don’t worry about the long name. LSI is basically a method to improve the accuracy of information retrieval.

You can see why that would be important to Google and the other search engines in the constant struggle to make search results more relevant.

What it means to a legal content writer is that you need to add phrases that are related to the main keyword in your page copy.

To get ideas for this, simply use Google suggest. Type in the main keyword you’re targeting for a particular page and Google will suggest other terms.

Here’s an example for dui law in Illinois:

4. Include specific statistics related to the legal issue/offence

You’re in the legal profession. Nobody needs to tell you how important it is to back up your case with evidence.

The case you’re trying to make through your firm’s website content is that a potential client should hire you as opposed to your competitors. So you need to provide statistics related to your involvement in such cases.

Alan Pearse provides this clearly and effectively on his website for his practice in Edmonton.

Credibility is a key element in convincing potential clients who land on your site to remain there and go deeper into your information. Lack of credibility is a good reason for them to ‘bounce’.

Think about it. If you were looking for a personal injury attorney in San Francisco, would you be more likely to consider a newcomer to the profession – or would you want to know more about the following law firm?

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I’m sure you’ll agree, those numbers from Scarlett Law Group are pretty impressive.

Remember – provide content that keeps visitors on your site and encourages them to go deeper into what you do and how you deliver.

5. Include successful case results

Provide statistical evidence about your practice area is not the only proof you need. You also need to back up your own success as a law firm with hard evidence.

In this case, successful case studies with testimonials can act as your evidence.

This website from Oykhman Criminal Defence Law in Calgary includes a section for successful cases prominently on the homepage.

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By providing real-world evidence of your successes, you raise your credibility and encourage the visitor to read up, go deeper, and remain on your site.

Further evidence is provided when you click through from the homepage – as you can see here from the Drug Offences page.

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If a potential client is in a similar position to a previous client you have helped, how much more likely are they to want to know more?

6. Include testimonials and reviews

Like all of the best legal cases, there should be no shortage of ‘witnesses’ on your website.

These are your past clients and their testimonials serve several important purposes. The website for the law offices of Nikki Siesel PLLC  handle the testimonials like this.

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Firstly, testimonials provide all-important credibility again. It’s simply more believable when someone else says it.

Secondly, testimonials allow you to rank for some highly competitive, top-tier keywords if you use them smartly.

As my article on how law firms can rank for ‘best’ and ‘top’ keywords points out when clients include the words ‘best’ or ‘top’ in reviews, your firm is automatically associated with these terms. And Google will pick up on that.

Here’s an example of one such review on the Gasner Criminal Law website.

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Thirdly, like with the case studies, reviews help readers relate their issue to real-world results – and this keeps them on your website longer, delving deeper into what you can provide.

The same website, Gasner Criminal Law, highlights the reviews prominently near the top of its home page.

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7. Integrate multimedia like images, videos & infographics

Law firm website content should go well beyond the text that you write.

You may already know that images are important to break copy up and provide a visual side to what you do (see point 11). But what about video? Infographics?

Using the multimedia options available to you helps you differentiate your site from others AND can help increase the time on site and dwell time for visitors to your site.

Colorado Legal Group uses video effectively, both to explain its services and provide a behind-the-scenes view of what it is like to work with the firm.

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Dwell time is the time spent in one position on your site. It indicates that the content is of interest and has your attention.

Google pays “very close attention” to it, according to Brian Dean, from Backlinko.

A visitor interested in the difference between a private attorney and public defender is more likely to spend time on the following infographic rather than a block of text.

Video and infographics are great ways to increase dwell time, while also keeping visitors on your website for longer, delving deeper into your content and potentially helping to boost rankings.

8. Integrate FAQs into your website

FAQs are an important ingredient of your website – but possibly in more ways than you imagine.

Of course, the most important reason is that they help to answer the main queries of your target audience.

LaMantia Law Firm in Charleston, SC comprehensively answer FAQs on separation and divorce law like this.

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Not only do FAQs give you a chance to use your main keyword phrases but you can also easily insert the semantic SEO terms that I mentioned in point three above.

Try typing the word you want to target and then see what comes up in the results – paying special attention to the ‘featured snippet’.

The ‘featured snippet’ element of Google search results is placed in pole position after the ads and is, therefore, an important addition to the SERPS.

Its purpose is to immediately provide an accurate answer to search questions, like in this example.

If your law firm website can be included in this featured snippet, it opens a gateway for a huge amount of traffic because of its prominence on the page.

You can target these featured snippets by answering key questions in bullet point form and including semantic SEO terms.

9. Include internal links to other articles & resources

It stands to reason that Google values websites that show a cohesive understanding of the subject matter.

Look how Lisa Stern, a Michigan family law attorney, introduces herself and then provides resources for the key subject matter.

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If your law firm’s main keyword phrase is “family law Detroit”, link to other relevant pages within your website: “divorce law in Michigan”, “child custody laws in Michigan”, and so on. This demonstrates that your website is thematically related to the main subject matter.

It’s considered another important ranking factor.

Include internal links that help to tie your website together and provide a coherent and logical path for visitors – and for Google.

Again, you can see how the Lisa Stern website achieves this with plenty of internal links about child custody.

As well as focusing on internal links in your on-page website copy, legal blog writing can include links to relevant pages on your site: you don’t always have to link to your homepage, remember.

10. Where it makes sense to do so, describe the legal process

Describing the legal process is not only good for your web visitors; it’s good for Google.

The Oykhman Criminal Defence Law website (mentioned earlier) knows this and details it clearly for the target audience.

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Your visitors may not be well-versed in the legal process. And, when they are in the information-gathering stage, they will want to know precisely what will happen in their case.

Spell out what’s in store. This is valuable content that keeps them on the page and answers their key questions.

Remember what I said previously about informational and transactional queries?

By taking visitors through the legal process, their informational questions are answered. For transactional queries, you’ll want to cover your engagement process. What happens if they choose to hire you?

Here’s a good example from an employment law firm website.

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11. Pay close attention to the STRUCTURE of your content

Most visitors to law firm websites are looking for quick help or guidance. They’re either after specific, easy-to-understand information or want to know if they should hire your firm.

Either way, a web page like this may not be much help.

Clumping content into long, technical paragraphs is likely to cause most visitors to look elsewhere. This increases the ‘bounce rate’ from your site – NOT good for SEO.

So, focus your legal content on well-structured, easy-to-digest paragraphs.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Large, black readable text on a light background usually performs the best
• Use short sentences, short paragraphs, and clear headers – just like I do in this article
• Use graphics, video and images to break up text and explain complex points in more detail

12. Make it mobile-friendly

You should know by now that all your law firm website content must be mobile-friendly.

So, as well as structuring your content to be easily readable on desktops, it needs to be just as readable on smartphones and tablets – regardless of screen size.

Some law firm websites are clearly built with a mobile-first mentality, like this page we designed for Colorado Legal Group.

Design for mobile. If not mobile-first, it needs to be a very close second.

13. Craft an enticing title tag & description

You may already know that the title tag and description of your website is important for SEO. This remains so – and you should use your main keywords in both the title and description.

But you also need to make it more enticing to encourage clicks.

Your title and description appear in the SERPs snippet, like this:

The more people who click on your snippet, the more “organic traffic” you get to your website. It is also widely believed that your website’s Click Through Rate (CTR) in Google’s search results may impact your website’s rankings. It tells Google that your website is highly relevant to the search term.

The combination of Title and Description meta data effectively gives you a double boost.

To give your website this boost try to make it as enticing as possible.

Here are a few more examples of well-written meta descriptions.

The bottom line? Treat your title and description with the respect they deserve. Use a professional legal website content writer to craft yours.

Now it’s your turn to start writing law firm website content that ranks

You now know 13 of the main actionable ways to improve the ranking of your law firm website content.

Apply. Test. Adjust as necessary.

I’d love to hear from anyone who implements these techniques. Maybe you’ve got another great tip you’d like to share. If so, leave a comment below.