HOW TO WRITE EFFECTIVE BLOG POSTS FOR LAWYERS
Blogging has transformed into one of the most effective ways to reach potential clients and prote your small firm or solo practice. In my last post, I wrote about writing engaging content for your blog. But blog writing is more than putting words on a webpage.
Without getting too technical, here are six of the “mechanics” behind effective blog posts:
1. Keep blog posts relatively short. Ideally, the entire post should be between 250 and 400 words. This gives you enough space to do some brief analysis without overwhelming readers with too much information. If you have more than 400 words to write on a topic, a good option is to write a two or three-part series.
2. Keep headlines even shorter. Headlines are supposed to be simple and direct. A good rule of thumb is that blog post headlines shouldn’t exceed 65 characters, including spaces. Finally, it’s wise to include your geographic location in headlines to attract readers from your area.
3. Link back to your firm’s website. One of the easiest ways to turn readers into potential clients is by providing a deep link back to your firm’s website. The words you use as anchor text to embed the link should appear on the website you are linking to. Also, it’s best to only include a maximum of two deep links per post to prevent the post from looking messy.
4. Categorize posts by topic. Categories are a way to archive all of your posts by general topic so readers can easily find similar posts. For example, if you are a family law attorney, your blog may have the following categories: Divorce, Child Custody, Child Support, Spousal Maintenance and Prenuptial Agreements.
5. Tag posts by topic. Tagging is a way to classify blog posts further by topic. Generally, tags are more specific than categories. For example, a personal injury lawyer might write a post under the category of Car Accidents and use the following tags: Head-On Collision, Drunk Driving Accident, and Teen Driving.
6. Manage reader comments. Most likely, you have your blog preferences set so that you need to approve comments before they are published on the blog. Publishing and responding to comments is a great way to participate in two-way communication with readers. Of course, it is up to you to choose which comments to approve and respond to.
Now you have some tips on the writing and mechanical aspects that go into maintaining an effective blog for a small firm or solo practice.
http://blog.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/small-law-firms/how-to-write-effective-blog-posts-for-lawyers-part-2/
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