Quality content is the heartbeat of a successful SEO plan. Not just law firm SEO, but all types of digital marketing. But what happens when you treat your marketing content like a legal brief? Or worse, what happens when perfection is never met and your content never gets a moment to shine in Google’s search results?
I recently talked about how “perfect” content can doom an SEO strategy on Forbes. The inspiration for the piece came from a Harvard Business Review article that said, “We should all strive to do our best, but people who always aim for perfect often miss deadlines and opportunities.”
That reminded me of lawyers that treat their marketing content as if it’s a legal filing and because of that, words often never make it to the general public. Thus, the content never works for your firm.
Here are a few takeaways from my Forbes article:
Marketing content should be written at an 8th grade level. This is a standard set by the American Marketing Association. Your law firm’s content is probably written for the general consumer so this rule would apply. The exception to that rule is if you’re writing content that is intended for other lawyers such as potential referral sources or in-house counsel for corporations and institutions. If that's your market, you should tighten up your writing style, use legal jargon, and write with a level of complexity that would not be appropriate for a general audience.
Even the U.S. Supreme Court occasionally releases a typo. There are some fascinating examples of how the highest court in the land has sometimes not produced grammatical perfection. Unlike court opinions, your website and blog content can simply be edited without changing decades of case law.
Create rules for your law firm’s marketing company. You can have quality content that is effective at converting visitors to cases and get you ranked on the first page of Google. But some things, like facts, are non-negotiable. In my article, I talk about CLM establishes policies for each client that ensures quality content that is factual and professional. A missing comma might be forgivable, but a misstated fact is not.
Web content can always be changed. The biggest risk to your SEO strategy is not having your content out there working for your firm. Anything on your site can be quickly changed at any time!
If your content is factual and can help your potential clients, publish it and let it work for your firm. The fastest way to doom your SEO strategy is to treat your marketing content like a legal brief were “perfect” prevents performance.
