In this post, we provide 11 evergreen page topics and 10 blog topics that attorneys who practice family law can use on their websites. We also include information about how to maximize the effectiveness of each suggested topic. [9-minute read]
If you’re a family lawyer looking for content ideas for your law firm website, we’ve got you covered this week with eleven evergreen page suggestions and ten potential blog topics.
When adding content to your law firm website, remember to link to other relevant pages on your site using a strategic internal linking structure.
Evergreen Family Law Page Topics
The evergreen pages of your family law website are meant to cover information that is not likely to change very often, including detailed information about the law. Evergreen pages should have permanent links pointing to them from within your site’s main navigational structure.
Blog posts, on the other hand, are meant to cover more timely information that may not prove relevant throughout the year or that might otherwise have a shorter shelf life than information about your firm’s practice area of focus and the specific laws governing that practice area.
Once you’ve added some general content to your site about the services your firm offers, drill down into specific information for each section by focusing on long tail search phrases that your potential clients are likely to enter into search engines about those topics. You will likely want to have many thorough evergreen pages in place on your site before transitioning to an aggressive blogging strategy.
The content of this blog post is not a complete list of topics that could be covered on your law firm website, but the suggestions included here might prove helpful to your site’s online visibility for relevant search queries.
Divorce — Potential divorce clients are likely going to want to know about basic divorce proceedings as they decide whether or not to hire a lawyer for the process, so start by outlining the process for them on your site.
Get more granular — There are literally hundreds of specific questions your potential clients may type into Google that are pertinent to the specific set of circumstances surrounding their divorce, including questions about contested vs. uncontested divorce, how long divorce takes, how assets are likely to be divided, how annulments work, and more. Answer as many questions as you can for potential clients on your law firm website.
Spousal support — Define spousal support, alimony, and palimony for your potential clients and layout who qualifies for such support and for how long it must be paid.
Get more granular — Discuss how to determine how much support is likely to be awarded in specific cases based on income, employment, time spent in the marriage, etc., as well as if it is possible to appeal support decisions and how to go about doing so.
Separation of assets — When discussing or considering divorce, the separation of mutual assets is likely to be forefront in your potential clients’ minds.
Get more granular — Outline which assets are likely to be included in discussions about dividing property, discuss categories of divisible and indivisible property and work your way from covering common assets like homes and cars to less common and/or lower priority items like social security benefits, pets, etc.
Custody/Parenting Time — There’s a lot to cover when it comes to custody, so it is probably a good idea to start by fleshing this section out with definitions of common terms like physical custody, legal custody, joint custody, and parenting plans.
Get more granular — After you’ve added enough information to give readers a general sense of what to expect in custody proceedings, you can drill down into specific topics that might affect custody proceedings, such as admissible evidence, intention to move, how a child’s preference might factor into the custody equation, conversations about grandparents’ rights, etc. You can also cover more obscure but relevant topics, such as who gets custody of pets, even though animals are likely to be considered “assets,” in the legal sense.
Visitation — Non-custodial parents will likely search for information about visitation online, and including such information on your law firm website can help you capture the attention of potential clients who are looking to modify custody decrees.
Get more granular — Define how visitation works in supervised vs. unsupervised situations, talk about how these decrees are enforced, what happens if a decree is violated, and how they can be modified.
Unmarried parents and custody — Whether or not this information differs greatly from custody information associated with couples who are divorced or divorcing, there are likely to be a number of long tail phrases used in search engines by your potential clients that pertain to this topic specifically.
Get more granular — Talk about how custody arrangements between unmarried parents compare to those of married couples, then drill down into specific circumstances such as when parents live in different states, evidence that can be used in custody proceedings, and the process of renegotiating custody agreements.
Post-decree modifications — The life circumstances of parties involved in a divorce may be subject to change in the years that follow a judge’s initial decision in a case, and your potential clients may be searching online about how to make changes to their divorce decisions based on such changes.
Get more granular — Start by defining the term, then offer information about the process of amending a divorce decree. You can get more specific about how asset divisions, custody arrangements, and spousal and child support decisions may be affected or amended.
Guardianship — There are many reasons that one individual could be granted decision-making power over another, and it may behoove your potential clients to have a basic understanding of how legal guardianship can be obtained and under what circumstances it might be granted.
Get more granular — Define the term generally and outline some reasons why guardianship might be granted to an individual (such as deteriorating health and/or mental health), then cover more obscure situations that are relevant to the conversation, such as in loco parentis statutes, where applicable.
Adoption — Start by defining the many types of potential adoptions in your jurisdiction (open, closed, private, international, adult, etc.) and outline the basic steps of the adoption process for your potential clients.
Get more granular — Once your basic information is in place, you can go into more detail about the specific processes and extenuating circumstances that may pertain to each specific type of adoption.
Marriage — It’s likely that a number of your potential clients will not be familiar with the process of obtaining a marriage license, what it takes to be legally married in your jurisdiction, the many reasons why it might be appropriate to set up a prenuptial agreement, or how to go about doing so.
Get more granular — Provide a basic outline for the process of getting married and establishing a prenuptial agreement, then go into detail about other relevant considerations, such as postnuptial agreements, same-sex marriage, adoption of stepchildren, common law marriages, how property allocations and rights may be affected by a marriage or second marriage, how wills may or may not be affected, etc.
Paternity — There can be a number of reasons that an individual might need to establish the biological paternity of a child, but you can start by covering how to initiate the process of determining biological paternity, how to establish legal paternity, and then offering some insight into how paternity might affect child support and/or preexisting custody decrees.
Get more granular — Try to think of the many reasons someone might want to establish paternity and write content that addresses those specific sets of circumstances. How can someone initiate a biological paternity test in your jurisdiction if they have no legal access to the child in question, for instance? Can establishing biological paternity cause an individual to be responsible for child support payments after divorce or in cases where the couple was never married? Can disproving biological paternity nullify a custody agreement? You can also help your potential clients by providing information about paternity testing resources and getting as specific about the relevant processes as you can.
Potential Family Law Blog Topics
Changes to laws — When laws change in your jurisdiction in ways that can affect your potential clients’ cases, it’s worth blogging about it. Also, make sure to update your site’s relevant evergreen pages to reflect the current state of the law.
“Is _______ marital property in (your state)?” — There’s a chance that your potential clients will be entering a number of possible iterations of this phrase into Google. Capture their attention by answering those questions one at a time, with reference to specific pieces of property in dedicated blogs on your law firm website.
How divorce can affect estate planning — There may be some unexpected overlap in your potential clients’ cases — layout how estate planning should be factored in as a consideration in divorce proceedings on your blog.
Custody and holidays — The holidays can be both joyful and stressful. Alleviate some of that stress for your potential clients when holidays are approaching by covering information about how custody agreements can pertain to and affect holiday celebrations and potential travel plans.
Social media/texting and divorce/custody cases — Social media posts and text messages may only take a few seconds to type out and share, but they can have long-lasting and unforeseen implications in certain divorce and custody cases — a topic that may be worth covering on your blog.
Far-reaching court decisions — When cases are decided in a way that sets a precedent for future cases, your potential clients may well benefit from knowing about it. Use your blog to cover such decisions, along with how they can affect current and future cases.
Example cases/case studies — It may help your potential clients to understand how cases similar to theirs have played out in the past. Cover case studies on your blog which outline both common and unique sets of circumstances and offer legal insight into the cases and associated processes to help build authority and trust with readers.
Vacation and custody — Summer, spring break, winter break, and a number of holidays that lead to extended weekends create an opportunity to use your blog to discuss how travel plans can be affected by custody agreements.
Can custody decisions be affected by where you live? — It is obvious to most people that things like employment and criminal history can affect custody decisions, but there are other factors — such as the quality of school districts and safety of the neighborhood in which you live — that can play a role as well, though these considerations might not be as obvious to your potential clients.
How to prepare yourself to file for divorce — Your potential clients may not contact your firm until they think they’re ready to officially file for divorce, but they may not be aware that there are often steps they can take to protect themselves, their assets, and their parenting rights before the proceedings begin. Cover these circumstances on your blog, and consider writing a second blog about what to do if you think your spouse is considering filing for divorce.
