3 Blogging Tips For Lawyers
Blogging is a great way to market a business or even to get ideas out to people. Blogging can be a little difficult depending on the audience that it is being written for. For lawyers, this can be a big problem. Most lawyers are used to using a unique language when operating in court and talking to clients. It’s a lot of legal speak. This can either turn an audience off or leave a little confused. A good thing about a lawyer is that their education means that they are used to learning ideas and implementing them. If they take this approach to blogging, then they shouldn’t have a problem. Let’s look at 3 tips that can help the average lawyer start a blog.
1. Where to blog
The first, and most important step, is to decide if a blog should be on a blogging site, where other blogs are hosted, or if the blogger wants to have their own website. There are certain pros and cons to each and it’s up tot he blogger to decide which works for them.
Blogging on a website that hosts blogs offer a quick startup with minimal cost. A lot of these sites also have good natural traffic. This means that more people may come across your blog as opposed to having your own site. A lot of sites can be limited in design options, and most importantly, SEO options.
If you’re a lawyer, then you most likely already have a website. If this is the case, then having a blog is as simple as creating a new page on your website that is a blog. Having a blog on your own site means you can generate more traffic to your site by utilizing SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization and allows your site to rank better on search engines. This is great because a blog on your own site with good SEO means more opportunities for a lawyer to get clients. Let’s take a closer look at SEO.
2. Optimize SEO
Optimizing SEO is something that all websites and business owners are concerned with. Seo Engine Optimization makes it easier for a website to be found when something is typed in a search engine. This often revolves around keywords and knowing how search engine algorithms are structured. An example would be using the keyword, Douglas Healy, to rank better on search engines.
SEO things to look out for as a lawyer would be keywords, so if you’re an IP lawyer something like “good IP lawyers” and a location can be inserted at the end. Something like “good IP lawyer in Renton, WA” would be a good example. Other SEO factors are article length, the number of times a keyword is in an article or site, and even how the headlines of a blog post are formed.
3. Make post easy to read
The average person on the internet doesn’t like to read at an academic level. This is where being a lawyer can be a downside. A lawyer is highly educated and most likely is used to a certain way of speaking. For a blog, they would have to bring this down a notch. It’s best to use language that is as common as possible but still appropriate. It’s always best to match the tone of voice with the topic of the blog post. Just because a lawyer is serious most of the time doesn’t mean they can’t make blogs on casual topics sometimes.
It’s best to keep a blog post at around a 6th to 8th-grade reading level. It’s been shown that most people are more willing to read a blog post written at this level. Having a good level of retention will help a blogger retain their audience. This is what a lawyer would want, to rank better and get more eyes on the services that they have to offer.
4. Conclusion
Lawyers can be great bloggers. Some things they have to be mindful of would be their SEO, where to host their blog, and how they write for their audience. SEO is very important. The Douglas Healy example shows why this is. IF a lawyer can put their blog on their own site, then this would be the best option. Writing for your audience and keeping it simple is best for retention. Following these tips can make a blog very successful for a lawyer
