Google cares about — and rewards — unique website content. That’s because Google’s users care about unique content, too.
Whether you’re just getting started with content marketing for your law firm or you’ve been at it for a while, you might be worried that everything that can be written on a law firm website has already been written. However, to write content that is unique to your law firm — and your clients — all you need is a small perspective shift.
Here are some easy tips to help you take general content to the next level — and engage your law firm’s potential clients.
Why does Google care about unique law firm website content?
Google cares about unique content because it knows that search engine users care about the material that is relevant to their needs, and that is interesting to read.
As a result, Google is likely to reward unique and detailed content with better placement in search results for relevant queries.
In the past, Google has offered several clarifying questions to help webmasters develop the best possible content for their users, including:
- Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
- Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
Below, we’ll unpack how to develop content that sets you apart from the competition and sets you up for success with potential clients.
Start with strong page titles for your law firm’s content.
Imagine that a search engine user is researching their case or matter. They make a query of Google that’s highly relevant to a page that you’ve created on your law firm’s website. As a result, Google decides to return that page in search results.
When the user receives the search results for that particular query, one of the first things they’ll see are the page titles of each result. The next choice a potential client makes is which result to select.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to develop strong page titles that inspire potential clients to visit your firm’s page over others. Just as your content should be unique, so should your page titles.
Strong page titles are descriptive, engaging, and concise.
Give your law firm website content local elements.
One of the best ways to make general content unique is to angle the material toward the potential clients in the geographic area where you practice.
Many web users will do legal research using local terms, even if those local terms don’t accurately reflect the structure of the law.
As a result, it can be a good idea to have your content mirror the way that these potential clients search.
Potential clients may search for things like: “What is the legal limit in Los Angeles?” or “Who is responsible if I slipped and fell in a parking lot in Maricopa County?”
You may even see potential clients who search with a parish, neighborhood, or subsection of a city in mind. For example, “What do I need to do after being pulled over for a DUI in downtown Seattle?”
By targeting concepts that reflect your specific geographic location and the words your potential clients are likely to use, you can capture the attention of a greater number of potential clients in your geographic area.
You may also want to develop content around other local resources such as courts, jails, towing companies, hospitals, and more, depending upon your practice area.
Take a general content topic and make it detailed and educational
If your content is too broad, it’s unlikely to attract and inspire the right audience.
Go beyond ad-like copy to teach your potential clients new things. As you’re writing content for your web visitors, ask yourself:
- What kinds of questions do my potential clients often ask me about this particular topic?
- What do my potential clients need to know about this particular problem?
- What don’t my potential clients know yet?
- How can I help them solve this problem?
- What actions can they take in their current situation?
Taking general content and adding your unique analysis.
One problem that we often see in law firm website content is a failure to add unique analysis.
An area where this commonly occurs is in law firm blog posts. One of the mistakes that we see most often in law firm blog posts is when an attorney writes nothing more than a recap of a news story.
Doing this misses the point of blogging and doesn’t allow you to develop your online voice as a thought leader.
There’s nothing wrong with using a news story as the catalyst for a blog post, but the news story alone will not drive traffic to your law firm. Use the news story as a jumping-off point for your analysis.
As it relates to the news story, convey to your readers what this piece of news means for your potential clients or what it could mean in the future.
To learn more about adding analysis to blog posts, see: “What Does a Good Law Firm Blog Post Look Like?“
Learn more about developing unique law firm website content
Google wants high-quality content because that’s what potential clients want, and part of high-quality content is how unique it is. To learn more about developing unique content that drives new business to your law firm, listen to our podcast episode on creating unique content.
