Frequently asked questions (FAQ) or Q&A pages can be a useful part of your law firm’s online marketing.
By answering potential clients’ questions, these pages can help position your law firm as a trusted, knowledgeable resource. Thorough FAQs that provide helpful answers to search engine users’ questions can also increase your law firm website’s visibility in search engine results for relevant queries.
While the specific questions you choose to answer will depend on your practice and your potential clients, the most effective law firm FAQ pages often exhibit these four characteristics.
1. Good law firm FAQ pages provide meaningful information
Law firm FAQs can be a good way to increase your law firm website’s visibility in search engine results for relevant queries. The best way to do this is to provide detailed answers to your potential clients’ questions.
Your potential clients may not know they need an attorney. They may not search for information by using terms such as “Phoenix personal injury lawyer” or “Minneapolis DUI attorney.” Instead, they are likely to search for answers to specific, complex questions, such as “What do I do if I slipped and fell at a store in Phoenix?” or “Do I have to report a DUI to future employers in Minneapolis?”
Google prioritizes websites that provide high-quality information that answers search engine users’ questions. (Providing high-quality information is particularly important for law firm websites. To learn more about this subject, see our blog post, “What Google’s Search Quality Rating Guidelines Can Reveal To Attorneys.”)
By providing quality information on your FAQ page, you can increase the likelihood that your website will appear in potential clients’ search results for relevant queries.
Providing helpful answers to their questions can also help potential clients develop a bond of trust with your law firm.
2. Law firm FAQ pages demonstrate how you can help potential clients
A detailed FAQ page can demonstrate that you are knowledgeable and that you are willing to take the time and effort to explain complex legal issues in a way that your potential clients can understand.
This can help position your law firm as a trustworthy and approachable resource, even before a potential client knows they need an attorney. When they are ready to choose an attorney, they are more likely to choose a firm that has already provided them with helpful information.
Make it easy for potential clients to contact your law firm after they’ve benefited from the helpful information in your FAQ page(s). Consider adding a contact form to your FAQ page(s), in addition to including contact information in your website header and footer.
3. Engaging law firm FAQ pages use client-friendly language
Successful FAQ pages (as well as other law firm website pages) use client-friendly language. As you are writing your FAQ pages, think about the type of questions your potential clients are likely to ask and how they are likely to ask those questions.
Potential clients may use slang or jargon when they are searching for information. For example, they may refer to geographic locations or landmarks by something other than their official names. As you are writing FAQs, consider using those terms in your content.
Your potential clients may not use legal terminology when they ask questions. By using the kind of language your potential clients actually use, your law firm FAQ pages are more likely to appear in their search engine results when they look for related information about their case or matter.
For example, rather than searching for “healthcare power of attorney,” a potential client may search for “Who makes medical decisions for someone with dementia?” or “Can I make medical decisions for my partner if we’re not married?” A law firm FAQ page that provides detailed answers those types of questions is more likely to appear in their search results.
The answers you provide in your FAQs should be as client-friendly as the questions. Your potential clients likely don’t have a legal background, so it is also important to explain legal terminology or jargon in a way that someone without a legal background can understand.
For more tips on writing content that your potential clients are likely to understand and engage with, see “Is Your Law Firm Website Content Client-Friendly?“
4. Effective law firm FAQ pages are organized
As you add more questions and answers to your FAQ page over time, it can get cluttered and hard to navigate unless you organize it well.
There are a number of different approaches to organizing law firm website FAQs. One approach is to create a single FAQ page that includes all your questions and answers. This layout can be helpful for potential clients who may have more than one question or don’t realize they may have other questions about their case or problem. They can browse through a list of questions that are relevant to their case or matter, but that they might not have considered asking.
The downside of this approach is that, if your FAQ page addresses many different topics, it may not be as good at attracting the search engines for relevant queries because there’s a large amount of information about lots of different topics on the page.
Another approach is to create a browsable index page that includes all of your FAQs. Each question would link to a dedicated page for that question. (It’s easy to do this using the LawLytics system). Creating individual pages for each question can make it easier for search engines to find, index and return your FAQ pages when a potential client conducts a relevant search. An individual page that addresses a single topic may be a clearer “match” to a specific search query than a page that includes a lot of unrelated information.
Whether you have a single page that includes all your FAQs or an index page with links to separate pages for each question, it can be helpful to organize FAQs topically. For example, a criminal defense law firm FAQ page might group together all the questions related to a particular type of crime.
It can also be helpful to organize FAQs hierarchically: provide more general information first, then more detailed information after that (either by linking to other pages on your website or by creating more detailed sub-questions below a general question).
Find out what your law firm’s potential clients want to know
For tips on identifying the questions your potential clients are likely to ask and effective ways to answer those questions, see our blog post, “Creating Law FIrm Website Content That Potential Clients Will Read.”
