This blog post is part of a series on beginning content creation tips for law firms. To see all the posts in this series, visit our series introduction page.
The titles and headers that you create on your law firm website pages are among the first impressions that a potential client may have of your firm. When they’re created with potential clients in mind, good titles and headers can help you attract more business to your law firm’s website.
Here’s what you need to know about creating titles and headers that get the attention of potential clients.
Why are titles and headers important on law firm websites?
The titles and headers featured on the pages of your law firm’s website have two important purposes.
Titles and headers are important to your readers: They represent key concepts about what is on your page. When they’re created correctly, they provide clarity to your readers about what information they will find on any given page. Titles and headers also serve as a visual speedbump. Good titles stick out to readers in search engine results pages and it can make it more likely that they click on your entry. Since readers tend to scan for information on a page once they get there, good headers serve as another visual speed bump that helps readers decide what information to consume next.
Headers usually serve a dual purpose. They act as indicators of emphasis to the search engines, and they provide structure and style to most web pages. Headers are indicators of hierarchy or importance of your content for both readers and search engines. Headers are important in ascending order, so a Primary Header (“H1”) is more important than a Secondary Header (“H2”) and so forth. The search engines see your H1 header (or title) as the main idea. You can have several H2 topics under your H1, and then nest H3 topics under your H2s.
In this example, the law firm uses headers to nest additional subtopics into the main page, “Are You a Victim of Medical Malpractice in Baltimore, or Suspect That You Might Be?”
Creating compelling titles and headers on your law firm’s website
To create compelling titles and headers, it’s important to think about how your potential clients think, because they are the people who will care most about your titles and headers.
Be sure that your titles are both descriptive and concise. A descriptive, clear title helps both search engines and web users understand the relevance of the page.
Just as it’s important to create unique content, it’s also important to create unique titles and headers.
If you have several pages with the same title, that’s going to confuse your potential clients, and it some cases it can also confuse search engines.
You’ll likely want to include local elements in your titles and headers, because that often mimics the way that potential clients conduct research about their case or matter. For more on local elements, see “Thinking Locally, Not Legally: How Potential Clients Find Attorneys Online.”
So, as an example of this, compare the following page titles:
“Vehicular Manslaughter Charges” vs. “Distracted Driving Accidents May Result in San Diego Vehicular Manslaughter Charges.”
The first title is short, but it’s unclear. The title alone will not tell you much about the page content. Alternatively, the second title has a local element, it’s unique, and it tells you about what you can expect to find on that page.
Examples of strong titles and headers on law firm websites
Let’s see a few examples of strong titles and headers.
In this example, a potential client for a personal injury firm in Nashville has been injured in a wreck. However, she was on the phone when the wreck occurred, and she’s concerned that she’s not going to be able to get compensation for that reason.
A personal injury attorney might want to try a strong title such as:
“Can I still get compensation for a car accident injury in Nashville if I was on the phone?”
(Compare this to a vague, keyword-y title such as: “Compensation for car accident personal injury Tennessee”)
Note how the first title is descriptive, local, and unique. A title like this one is likely to be a close match to a query conducted by a potential client who is in this situation.
Next, let’s move onto an example of strong headers.
Much like titles, it’s important to have headers that are unique, descriptive, and contain local elements.
Let’s say a personal injury attorney creates a page that answers the longtail query: “If I’m driving in Maricopa county and I get into an accident, can my passenger sue me?”
A page like this, when written comprehensively, will likely cover several topics. This attorney might choose headers like:
- Determining liability in a one-car accident in Maricopa County
- Determining liability in a multiple-car accident in Phoenix
- If my passenger is a family member or friend, can they file a claim against my insurance policy in Arizona?
How LawLytics makes creating compelling titles and headers easy
Good titles and headers are important but often overlooked. However, when you use the right tools to craft your titles and headers, they help your potential clients find you and guide them to the information that you want them to consume.
With our software, strategy, and support, we make it easy for attorneys to create titles and headers that capture potential clients’ attention and inspire them to contact your law firm.
To learn more about using LawLytics for your law firm, schedule a free, interactive demo.
