5 Critical And All Too Common Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Website Content For Law Firms

By Author: Smart Content
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Law firm website content needs to be extremely well-written. Prospective clients expect professionalism and expertise, and a law firm’s website needs to demonstrate that the firm has the capabilities to provide effective representation in prospective clients’ areas of need. If it doesn’t, prospective clients are going to look elsewhere; and, more likely than not, they aren’t going to come back—ever.

What Not To Do When Writing Content for a Law Firm Website

With this in mind, when writing legal website content, there are some critical mistakes that writers need to avoid. This applies to both solo lawyers who are trying to write their own website content and professional writers who freelance or work for content marketing agencies. Some examples of these critical mistakes include:

1. Not Considering Your Intended Audience

Considering your intended audience is key. At a high level, this involves focusing on the services that a law firm offers. Law firms help people and companies that have needs they can’t adequately address on their own. This alone should inform writers’ approach to ...
... developing website content for law firms.

But, within this broad umbrella, writers should narrow their focus even further. Does the firm represent people or companies? If it represents people, does it cater to entrepreneurs and investors, or is its client base primarily accident victims or people who need help with other personal matters? If it represents companies, does it primarily represent startups, or does it work with Fortune 500 companies? The answers to these types of questions should play a key role in determining a writer’s approach to law firm website content.

2. Overdoing It on Organic SEO Keywords

Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for law firms in many practice areas—particularly consumer-oriented practice areas such as personal injury, estate planning, and family law. But, when incorporating keywords into website content for organic SEO purposes, it is important not to overdo it. Not only is overdoing it going to be ineffective from an SEO perspective, but it is also going to turn off prospective clients—and this is the opposite of what website content is supposed to do.

3. Writing Pages and Articles that Are Too Short

It used to be that quantity was key when it came to rising through the organic search engine rankings. But, this is no longer the case. Google and other search engines now give more weight to longer and more in-depth website pages and blog articles. As a result, rather than writing five 500-word articles that only scratch the surface of legal topics, writing one 2,500-word article is generally going to be more effective. Longer and more in-depth articles are also better for demonstrating lawyers’ knowledge and capabilities—and this means that they are also better at generating conversions.

4. Publishing Inaccurate or Outdated Legal Information

When publishing content on a law firm’s website, it is absolutely critical not to publish inaccurate or outdated legal information. While this is primarily a word of caution for professional content writers, lawyers must be careful to ensure that any content they write for their own websites is up-to-date as well. To avoid having content become outdated in the future, it will often make sense to couch legal information in terms of its temporal accuracy. This way, if the law changes, the firm’s website content won’t immediately become outdated.

5. Failing to Proofread Your Content

This applies to all website content—not just content for law firms—but it is also an extremely common issue. When writing website content, you need to proofread. While poorly written website content can reflect badly on any type of business, this is especially true for law firms and other businesses that provide professional services. Proofreading doesn’t take long, and it can save you from publishing content with some embarrassing mistakes.

Other Common Mistakes When Writing Website Content for Law Firms
Along with these common content writing mistakes, there are some other common mistakes that law firms and content marketing agencies should avoid when developing their (or their clients’) website content. These include things like:

Publishing too few practice area pages
Creating a messy or complicated site architecture
Not publishing blog articles consistently
Choosing blog article topics and titles that aren’t good for organic SEO
Writing pages that are too similar (i.e., when writing similar practice area pages for multiple locations)

Just like practicing law, writing website content for law firms requires an informed, strategic, and detail-oriented approach. If you don’t put in the time and effort needed to produce high-quality content, you aren’t going to generate the results that you (or your clients) desire.

How Can You Avoid These Legal Content Writing Mistakes?

So, now that we’ve discussed these mistakes, how can you avoid them? The best way to avoid content writing mistakes when working on law firm websites is to work with a content marketing agency that has specific—and extensive—experience writing legal content. Legal content writing is unique in many respects; and, ideally, a legal content writer will have practiced law before transitioning to writing full-time. While agencies and writers with this experience are relatively few and far between, they do exist, and making sure you choose the right agency will pay dividends in the long run.