Law Blog Trends
Trends in Legal Blogging: In addition to the emergence of a larger number of voices on more specific legal issues, there has also been a growing tendency toward more sophisticated and multi-modal content. Some of the most successful legal blogs include videos, podcasts, graphics, and even data visualizations, in addition to the more typical text format. Legal bloggers have also become skilled in the use of social media to further expand their reach and engagement , and to promote their latest content.
While there are no guarantees that legal blogging will result in public acclaim or help attract new business, it is clear that more lawyers, law firms, and other legal service providers are blogging than ever before. It is also clear that, in the court of public opinion, there is strength in numbers.
Consistent Legal Topics
The term "evergreen" is used to describe content that remains relevant and useful for an extended period of time. In the context of law blogs, these topics are not tied to specific events and tend not to become outdated. They can provide a steady stream of readers visiting your blog long after the content has been published. Examples of evergreen topics in law blog content include:
- Beginner’s guides. For relatively new areas of law, or law student-related issues, evergreen content that is explanatory in nature is sure to be in demand. For example, if you are a tax lawyer, a beginner’s guide to the different types of taxes regularly encountered by individuals could be useful for years to come.
- High-quality legal reference materials. Keep your readers coming back for more by providing rare, hard-to-find or poorly indexed legal resources. Things like checklists, tables, charts and other tools are great examples of this type of evergreen content.
- Your opinions on recent developments in the law. While not directly tied to one specific event, evergreen content can be trend-based. This can be a useful tool for people who are following specific areas of the law. Things to consider writing about include: opinions on the latest decisions in your practice area; a series of posts connecting common decisions to specific areas of law; collector’s posts with summaries of important decisions.
- Q&A columns. Frequently asked questions are a common topic for resourceful bloggers. The content of the posts can be evergreen if the questions are self-contained examples, such as contract disputes, criminal defense procedures, etc.
- Specific state or regional content. Things like information about bar associations, local courts, emergency contact information, legal aid society data, and state-specific news updates are among the things that will keep people coming back for more.
Business Law Blog Topics
Business law is a large area of practice, and its various sub-practice areas can be broken down into even more specific topics. Part of the art of blogging is realizing what your target market wants to know, so here are some ideas for blog posts geared toward business law topics that may interest business owners:
- The steps for forming a business entity
- The benefits of becoming an LLC as opposed to forming a LLC
- When to incorporate
- Pros and cons of different business structures
- Franchise law overview
- What to look for when leasing commercial property
- Making sense of business contracts
- Drafting a business purchase agreement
- Breaking down the intricacies of business partner agreements
- How to handle non-compete and non-solicitation agreements
- Licensing and distribution agreements
- International business contracts
- How business trademarks work
- How patents affect business
- Business and intellectual property law
- Enforcing a judgment against a business
Family Law Blog Topics
If you are a family lawyer, you have a virtually endless supply of topics that you can write about. In addition to the obvious topics like divorce and custody arrangements, consider discussing the impact of the newest family law legislation or an overview of the divorce and custody process. These are both topics that would be useful for your potential clients to have some understanding of, as well as giving information to those who may be going through the process. When writing about the substantive law, remember to stay away from the state-specific rules and focus on the general principles while directing readers to your site for more specific information.
Other topics that could be useful include estate planning, marriage dissolution, setting up prenuptial agreements, LGBT family law, protecting yourself from dating scams, and even ways to get out of a bad marriage. While not all of these are related to family law in the traditional sense, they are all related in some way. Consider which indirect topics you might be able to write about that would draw attention to your site and potentially siphon off some of that traffic to your main pages.
If there is an unusual case that might affect the population that you serve, you could consider blogging about it. Keep in mind that you should not talk about any clients or give any personal information about clients, but you could still discuss the impact the case will likely have.
Criminal Law Blog Topics
Many individuals turn to social platforms and other blogs to express their thoughts on various current events, including criminal cases. Companies, that are looking to engage with the public, should look at what people are saying. You will want to capitalize on what interests them rather than buying into the trending topics. For law firms, investigating criminal law topics should be of interest whether you are a litigator or not . Criminal laws vary by jurisdiction so your target audience will depend, but there are ample opportunities for case studies. Your feed should include law blogs from other regions to give you an idea of what others are doing. For example, if you are a New York state criminal defense attorney, you should follow what blogs in Florida are posting about. Of course, each state has its own criminal code, but it’s worth checking out what other states find interesting. Here are several criminal law topics to explore.
Intellectual Property Law Topics
There are a number of blog topics that you can cover in the realm of intellectual property. You could write a post about an overview of the patent process and what different types of patents exist. You could write a thorough piece on copyright issues you’ve addressed or currently see in your practice, or the difference between protections and requirements in the U.S. and other countries. You might choose to write a post on what constitutes a trademark – and not just in the obvious cases, like logos or company names, but also things like sounds or colors that can be trademarks. You could also explore concepts such as product design patenting, trademark infringement, and trade secrets.
Personal Injury Blog Topics
In this area, given the prevalence of car accidents and the extremely high stakes of injury-related lawsuits, there are plenty of topics to choose from. Consider delving into accident claims and how such a personal injury action can play out in the courtroom. Some other areas you may want to cover in your blog posts include settlement processes, or a recent high-profile personal injury case in your area. However, just as with your personal injury website, you should be cautious about discussing the particularities of sensitive cases. If you can get an interview with one of your clients who was successful in their personal injury lawsuit, that could be extremely valuable to gain their testimony as to how your firm helped them throughout their case.
SEO Strategy for Law Blogs
Leading legal bloggers know that great content is just part of the equation. For their work to have an impact, they have to get it in front of their intended audience, and SEO plays a significant role in how to achieve optimum visibility for most legal blogs.
"SEO is absolutely important for blogs," said Dan Schwartz, a partner at one of the country’s largest law firms, Shipman & Goodwin. Schwartz has written his award-winning employment law blog since 2006. "At first, we wanted to be found in search engines. Then we realized that the best way to be found was through word of mouth. I never would have predicted that."
Still, SEO is a key part of Schwartz’s strategy, and it’s an important component for other leading legal bloggers too.
Schwartz, who was trained in journalism before he became a lawyer, believes that quality content is transformational. If you write relevant, unique content, the right people will eventually hear of it and quote you, he says. But that does not mean SEO efforts are not crucial.
He recommends four tactics to enhance SEO:
1) Conduct keyword research. Schwartz says that keywords are still important, so you need to know what those keywords are. Don’t simply guess. Instead, use tools like Google Keyword Planner or UberSuggest to determine what keywords people are using to search for content. You might be surprised by what you learn.
There’s also a chance you’ll be disappointed by what you learn. Schwartz notes as an example that there’s been "terrible" organic traffic growth for "Connecticut employment law" keywords over the past five years. "There’s tremendous long-tail growth for ‘Connecticut minimum wage’ or ‘Connecticut non-compete agreements,’" he said.
2) Optimize your blog posts for keywords. Once you have identified relevant keywords, implement them in the blog post title, URL slug, and throughout the body . That said, though, don’t go overboard. Schwartz warns that keyword stuffing is an amateurish practice that may put off readers and properly trained search engine bots. Google will beat you up for this. It will reduce your traffic, he notes.
3) Make each post unique. Most legal bloggers have content that covers similar topics. But you can still make your posts distinctive and relevant to your target audience: the clients and colleagues you want to read your blog.
The best way to ensure each post is unique is to prioritize a unique angle for each piece and include enough details to make each post. Sometimes, it’s also possible to resuscitate a well-written post you already published on another channel (like LinkedIn or Quora). Of course, you need to ensure the content meets the guidelines of the platform of origin for such republishing.
4) Build links. Schwartz believes that media relations and link-building are still integral parts of a great legal blog. He regularly links to other sites in his posts, and often mentions other bloggers in his posts.
"This is huge to Google," he cautions. "If boring law professors do not know you exist—and the Wall Street Journal finds you boring—you are not going to get linked to, and you will be wasting your time."
He believes there are a number of tactics to successful legal blogs. But it all comes back to quality content. He says, "Good bloggers write for people first and use the other tricks, tips, and strategies to enhance their effect."
Schwartz also recommends regularly checking your blog’s statistics. Track traffic, user sessions, and the average time your audience spends on your site. Use that analytical data to inform what’s working and what isn’t, and adapt your content based on the insights gleaned from your analysis. This is something all successful legal bloggers agree upon.
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