Posted by admin in Content Cultivation, Web Marketing on July 19th, 2012

Whether you’re a lawyer, a judge or a magician, if you want to find your site on the first page of Google (and other search engines), you need quality content. That’s right: even magic doesn’t trump content. Your articles need to be relevant, timely and informative. They need to enrich your audience’s life in some way. They need to be unique.

You may have heard the term “linkbait” being thrown around by SEO industry leaders, but be careful. Too many lawyers produce content that borders on absurd just because they think it’ll get them some attention. A funky title may get someone to click through, but it won’t necessarily make anyone want to link to your content. If the content is poorly written or lacks purpose, you’ve lost their interest.

Here are some tips for producing “linkbait” articles:

• Find someone who knows what they’re doing. Some lawyers are amazing writers. Some are just amazing lawyers. Don’t feel bad if all your efforts read like a legal dictionary. Just hire a creative writer to help you out. He or she can take your ideas and generate catchy headlines and easy-to-follow articles.
• Write about current events. This is one linkbait strategy that can be very effective – if it’s done right. It’s not enough to merely regurgitate the same old information you’re reading everywhere on the web (snooze!). Instead, give your take on the issue. It may be speculative or just plain controversial, but if it’s genuine and unique, people will want to link to your content.
• Analyze data and present your findings. Okay, so this one doesn’t sound very exciting, but people just love linking to statistics. Why? Because they don’t want to do the legwork themselves. It could be something silly like the percentage of lawyers who wear green ties on Thursdays. Or, it could be more serious like a survey of lawyers who market themselves on Twitter (the serious one may be more difficult, but it’ll probably get a few more links). The important thing is that your findings are completely your own. This is content that won’t be found elsewhere on the web.
• Present your information in an interesting way. Articles should be broken up with subheadings or lists (like this one). Data should be presented in graphs or (better) infographics. Think of an infographic as a poster for your information. It’ll include graphs, pictures and text, so it’ll be easily digestible.
• Create fun, funny or informative videos. Follow the same rules for creating written content here. You want something that has never been done before. You want something that will somehow enrich the audience’s life (even if it’s just to make them smile). Lawyerist.com has realized the important of quality video as one of their most recently added contributors mainly focuses on video production. His column can be found here.

Once you have amazing content, you have to get the word out. Many lawyers falter here because they think it’s enough just to publish. That may have been true 10 years ago, but it’s not true today. Today, you have to promote your content. If it’s good, it’ll gain traction; it may even go viral. If it’s bad, all the promotion in the world won’t help. And that’s why content is even more valuable than magic.

Tags: copywriting, current events, facebook, infographic, news, twitter, video