Creating high-quality legal content takes a lot of time, great skills, and a few tools. Of course, you can always make do with a simple notepad or word processor for your content creation process. However, streamlined strategies are a must for sustainable content marketing for lawyers.

Having a great content creation plan and consistent workflow will allow you to make content that’s valuable, ranks high, and generates leads for your law firm.

That said, here’s a checklist of all the important aspects of content creation:

Content Checklist

The first thing you need to think about is the content itself. Consider checking for the following:

1. Content Ideas

First, start with content ideas. Having a set topic from the get-go avoids delays. The best way to keep new content ideas coming is to keep a list. If you get an idea at any time, even while you’re in the middle of writing something else, list them down.

2. Topic Research

After you have an idea in mind, you need to make sure you do some research. Although you probably know the legal aspects of your content ideas, you still want to incorporate possible examples like new cases, the news, and new policies. Adding updated information to your content keeps them fresh—not to mention, Google loves fresh and relevant content, too!

3. Outlining

Some writers prefer laying their writings down without guides or outlines. However, you should still try outlining and see how things work out for you! Doing so helps you plot ideas and key points before you type them all out, allowing you to reorganize your structure or thoughts if you need to.

4. Editing And Proofreading

Grammar and spelling mistakes are a red flag for readers and search engines alike. Too many spelling errors make your content look unfinished and unprofessional. Not to mention, proofreading is also a way to ensure you have the correct information and all your essential ideas. Also, don’t forget to add photos and videos if you need them!

Lawyer SEO Checklist

 The goal of Lawyer SEO is to rank high in the SERPs so that your blog posts get traffic. After all, you can’t generate leads when no one sees or reads your content—no matter how high quality and comprehensive it might be.

1. Do Keyword Research

You need keywords to rank in the SERPs, so look for high-volume keywords you want to compete for. Of course, since you’re looking to compete with every other page that optimizes for the same keywords, your choice should be strategic, too.

2. Avoid Keyword Stuffing And Cannibalization

Keyword stuffing can read as spam, as it is often done solely for pages to rank high in the SERPs regardless of the content. Meanwhile, cannibalization can lead to your pages competing with each other, which often drags your rankings down. Make sure you’re not doing both to maintain steady SEO growth.

3. Manage Your Links

Visitors and site crawlers access your website through links. So, make sure you’re linking to relevant pages, both for your internal and external links. Using irrelevant anchor texts to get more links is generally a bad idea.

4. Maintain Mobile Friendliness

Since many people access the internet on their phones, make sure your content format and site design are compatible with smaller screens. Desktop to mobile settings, if unoptimized, can lead to bugs and poor user experience.

5. Optimize For User Experience

Make sure your content is easy to read, and your website is designed for smooth and easy navigation. So, make sure to avoid overly-stylized fonts, use great color schemes, and make sure your loading speeds are fast.

6. Use Calls To Action

You don’t just want people to find your content; you want to make sure that the people who do become potential clients for your law firm. CTAs are brief, encouraging statements that urge readers to perform certain actions. A simple “click here to read more” or “set up an appointment with us” can do wonders.

Tools Checklist

Again, you can start posting blogs with a simple word processor and a well-structured website. However, a few writing and Lawyer SEO tools can help you streamline your process:

1. Keyword Tools

Use keyword tools to find and monitor high-volume keywords you’ll apply to your content and pages. Google’s Keyword Planner is a great free keyword tool if you’re looking for something to start with.

2. Google Search Console And Bing Webmaster Tools

Although entirely free to use, long-time SEO experts still use the Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to this day. These tools can provide accurate data on your Lawyer SEO performance thanks to their search engine integration.

3. Mobile-Friendliness Test

As mentioned, make sure to run your website through a mobile-friendliness test. Google has a free and straightforward Mobile-Friendliness tool that only requires you to input the URL and tells you whether it’s easy to use on a mobile device or not. Since it’s using Google’s search algorithm, you’ll get the most accurate result based on their ranking factors.

4. Plagiarism Checkers

Google hates duplicate content. Even if you didn’t scrape pages and post the exact same content, high plagiarism ratings could still read as low-quality. So, make sure you get a plagiarism checker or tool to ensure your text isn’t directly lifted from or too similar to another page.

5. Domain Authority And Alexa Rankings Tools

Companies might privately develop DA and Alexa rankings. However, they’re widely used to monitor your page and website’s rankings and overall standings. They’re also great for monitoring backlink profiles, as it’s a fast and easy way to tell if your backlinks are coming from a trusted, high-traffic, and high-authority site.

Bottom-line

For blogging to be an efficient digital marketing strategy, you need to make sure people find, read, and respond to your blog. Hence, you need to take a lot of extra steps to make sure your content quality is high, your backlink profile is well-managed, and your Lawyer SEO diligently monitored.

Not to mention, rankings, algorithms, and topic interest can change over time, so you need to keep up with these trends and keep climbing the SERPs.

Author’s Bio

JC Serrano is the founder of 1000Attorneys.com, one of the very few private enterprises certified to process lawyer referrals by the California State Bar. His marketing strategies have continuously evolved since 2005, incorporating ever-changing SEO strategies into lawyerleadmachine.com.