Top Blogging Mistakes Lawyers Make

As an attorney, you are probably well aware of the importance of a legal blog. It is often possible to quickly work your way up in Google results by doing nothing more than blogging on a regular basis. Of course the “regular basis” portion of that sentence is a crucial component of a successful legal blog. Since few attorneys have the necessary time to blog regularly, many incorporate a legal blog writer into their website strategy. While there are certainly many legal blog writers out there, the number of true professionals in the field narrows the field significantly. The following are the top blogging mistakes made by lawyers—and how a talented legal website writer can help you avoid these mistakes:

• Blogging sporadically: While it’s easy to make a commitment to blogging regularly, it’s equally easy to let it slip through the cracks when your schedule gets crazy. While once-a-week blog posting is good, twice a week is even better – and daily posting is the gold standard. According to a survey in TMG Custom Media, more than three-quarters of people believe the attorney is interested in building a relationship with them when blog content is posted regularly. Further, when people go onto your legal blog for the first time and see nothing but out-of-date content, they are unlikely to check back in. To go one step further, it’s really not worth maintaining your legal blog if you are posting less often than once per week. When you have a solid working relationship with a legal blog writer, you can ensure your blog is updated on a regular basis.

• Using too many legal terms: Legal language comes naturally to you, just as it does to all attorneys. However, to the average person reading your blog, too many legal terms can ensure they will not be back to read the next blog. It is also helpful to define your “typical” audience. If you happen to be a construction lawyer, your blog must be written in the language of general contractors, engineers and architects. A skilled legal website writer can deftly “translate” legal jargon into a post your readers will understand, enjoy, and even “share” with their friends.

• Writing legal blogs that are too long or too short: Most web readers have a limited amount of time to learn everything they need to know about a particular subject. Five hundred to seven hundred words is the most you will want to post on any subject on a regular basis. While longer posts have their value, they should be saved for special topics or posts. Likewise, posts that are too short are not engaging and will not offer your readers valuable information they can bookmark or share.

• Not realizing the importance of subheadings: For the same reason that you want to keep your blog fairly short, subheadings help the person with limited time reach the information they need quickly. Readers can quickly become overwhelmed when they scan a blog post and see one lengthy paragraph after another without any idea what the paragraphs are about. Subheadings are like a map for your readers which keep them on the right path. When the subheadings are properly written, they can tantalize the reader into actually reading the entire post as well as offering significant SEO value.

If you want to ensure that potential clients find your law firm’s website, read your blog, and come back again, your blog must be informative and engaging. Legal blogging can improve your ratings dramatically as it creates a consistent stream of content for search engines to crawl and identify as relevant to particular keywords. Take the time to find an experienced legal blog writer with a similar vision of the future of your legal blog and you will reap the rewards.

If you are interested in boosting your online visibility and using your blog to attract potential clients, fill out our contact form for more information on our services. We can even let you try our services for FREE! Just ask us how. Our legal bloggers are professional writers that can help you keep your blog supplied with fresh and engaging content. Come see why Legal Content Writers is one of the fastest growing legal copywriting firms on the market.