They say written content is king because it rules the entire world wide web. You can have vivid explainer videos or beautifully designed product images but this is not enough to complete your sales funnel. How will prospective customers know what you are selling? Or what next steps to take if they want to hire your legal services? Through written content.
But this is easier said than done. Content and search engine optimization (SEO) are inseparable. There is so much that goes into written content for it to rank higher in search results and convert visitors into clients.
Here is a list of five practices for writing content that brings good SEO results.
Table of Contents
1) Keyword Optimization
When people are looking to buy something, compare brands, or inform themselves, they often start with search engines before looking anywhere else. The specific words or phrases they type in the search bar are the keywords.
These are what you want to include in your written content. You can identify the highest-performing keywords in your area of specialization through free services like Google’s search bar, or other premium services.
Next, narrow down the keywords so that you are left with the most relevant for the kind of content you are writing. Weave in these keywords as naturally as possible in your headings, meta descriptions, title tags, paragraphs, and so on. However, avoid keyword stuffing.
2) Focus on Quality Over Quantity
There are so many articles on the internet explaining why a longer article is better for SEO or why search engines love short posts. But the truth is, the length of your content has a very minimal say in whether it ranks higher on search engines. Instead, focus on writing quality content.
This begins with finding a valuable and trending topic, conducting research, and writing in-depth information that tells the user exactly what they were looking for. Quality content also means fresh content. A law may change or research statistics drop; all these need to reflect in your content for good SEO results.
3) Consider Your Audience’s Search Intent
Search intent is the underlying reason for a particular internet search. It is the user’s reason for opening their browser and typing a key phrase. Are they looking for information? Are they comparing products? Are they looking to hire services immediately?
Whatever your audience’s intent is, ensure that you incorporate it in your copy. How can you do this?
Determine the highest-ranking search results for your particular services. Next, identify the top-performing intent words and phrases such as “hire,” “what to do,” “how-to,” and include them in your written content.
4) Write with Conversion in Mind
Just like any other industry, legal content writing should have the end goal in mind. You are providing information to customers not only to show your legal knowledge but also to prove that you can handle their lawsuit.
Content writing for SEO should promote conversion by always including clear Calls to Action, diversifying the same content on different platforms, and speaking the customer’s language.
5) Encourage Link Building
Search engines look at sites with natural inbound and outbound links as authoritative in that industry and thus, give them the highest priority on the results page. The emphasis is on “natural” because some businesses take the shorter route of buying links, which often fail terribly when search engines penalize them for using unnatural links.
You can jumpstart your link building strategy by linking to your own content. Writing quality content that adds value to visitors will also result in other sites linking to your website. Another way of building natural links is by listing your law firm in an online directory.
