Lawyernomics

Content Really Is King: An Introductory Guide to Web Content Marketing

December 8, 2011 Content Development, SEO
By Aaron Kelly

“Content is King!”

Believe it or not, that three-letter phrase is the most important thing to remember about marketing your law firm online – because publishing quality web content can lead to higher search rankings, which usually translates into a longer client roster.

“How do you implement an effective web content and article marketing campaign,” you ask? Grab a cup of coffee and note-taking utensils, because I’m about to tell you how.

First Things First: What is web content?

As its name suggests, web content is any copy, graph, image, or any combination thereof that conveys information on a website. Unlike traditional print-journalism, however, web content usually adheres to certain search engine optimization (SEO) rules, which allows for increased online exposure. Moreover, since the goal is to publish as much unique, quality online content as possible, more emphasis is placed on speed as opposed to wordsmith-ing and editing.

SEO Keywords and Web Content

Web content should be SEO optimized, meaning each article or blog post should have a keyword focus. For example, if your practice focuses on bankruptcy law, all the Web content you publish should use keyword phrases related to bankruptcy law. Now, don’t interpret that to mean that every article you publish must concentrate on the same keyword phrase. Instead, spend time researching a multitude of relevant keyword phrases for your law practice. Your goal is to uncover the watchwords people actually search for.

Sounds like a big job, right? Well, it is – but thankfully Google’s Keyword Tool does a lot of the work for you.

Pro-Tip: Don’t forget to add your location into some of your keyword phrases, as local search is becoming ever more popular.

The More Web Content You Weave, The More Exposure You’ll Receive

When it comes to web content speed and volume are important. As such, it’s important to temper your literary expectations and sacrifice some elegance in favor of volume. In an ideal world, you should be publishing 1-2 articles a day. (Super users often publish 1-2 articles a day across several websites.)

Since a premium is placed on speed, many web content articles may not be as polished as print-journalism pieces, as there’s often very little time for editing or research.  But on the upside, since web content takes less time, it often costs less than freelance print articles.

How do search engines work?

What website do you hit if you need to do research? If you’re not a part of the 5%, chances are you answered that question with either, “Google” or “Yahoo!”

Now take a minute to think about how you do an online search. You type in a string of words that corresponds to the type of information you’re looking for and press enter, right? For example, if you live in Phoenix, Arizona, and you’re pipes clogged up, you’d probably head online and do a search for “plumbers Phoenix, Arizona.” The friendly search engine would then scour the Internet for websites that have the keywords “plumbers Phoenix, Arizona” and return the most relevant websites in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

As you’ve already probably gleaned from your own online experience, the goal is to show up on the first SERP for searches relevant to your practice. So of course the big question then becomes: how does one claim a coveted first page listing?

Unfortunately, there is no simple, definitive answer to that question, but two things are for certain. Search engines:

1.  Love websites and blogs that are frequently updated
2. Reward sites with high-quality, keyword-rich linkbacks (e.g., links pointing at your site).

Search engines are more adept at interpreting words than design, so the algorithms used to determine rank are, for the most part, based on the textual content of a website. And it’s hard to remember, but not so long ago, when search algorithms were still growing up, publishing barely readable content, overflowing with keywords, would earn you a spot on the first page. But those types of articles quickly became the bane of the Internet’s existence. After all, users had trouble finding relevant content when conducting searches, which, if left unchecked, could have rendered the Internet useless. So techs got busy developing super-complex algorithms that reward quality web content.

The current quality calculations used by search engine spiders are elementary in comparison to what a human editor could detect, but changes are being made all the time. Suffice it to say that a unique, interesting, article that uses proper keyword density will perform better over the long run than sloppy, barely readable articles that only serve to spit out keywords.

Now that you have a better understanding of web content and the machinations of search engines, it’s time to talk about leveraging web content as a means to maximize your search engine profile.

How to start marketing your law firm with web content (and very little money)

At this point you may be thinking, “there’s no way I can afford to have a writer provide tons of content for me!” Don’t worry, web content writer rates are usually a lot less than a traditional freelance writers’ rates. Moreover, there are several established content mills where you can purchase articles for pennies on the word. All the juicy details are below.

Length and Scope of Content

In general, you want to keep your web content articles between 400 and 2000 words. Shorter than that and the search engine spiders don’t have enough text to analyze; anything more can be overkill and un-user-friendly. Moreover, to avoid “keyword stuffing” – an offense that could land you at the back of the search engine result line – keep your keyword density between 2% and 3%.

As far as content topics go, that’s up to you. Search Engines love when you keep current, so it’s important to publish articles about happenings in your field – especially cases that have a profound effect on your area of law.

Where to Get Content

Textbroker.com

Textbroker.com is an excellent website from which to order content. Thousands of writers work for the site; plus, you have the option of ordering different quality levels. Textbroker.com is a great place when you need lots of content, quickly. Moreover, since there are so many writers to choose from, you’re bound to find a few authors to work with on an on-going basis. Attorneys looking for content should only order from Level 4 and 5 authors. Rates vary between 3 cents and 10 cents a word.

Where to Publish Content

Once you have a bunch of content, you’ll need to publish it – but where?

First and foremost, you should continuously be adding content to your own website; that’s where the majority of your content should land. In addition, seek out opportunities to feature your content on niche blogs and other websites related to your field. Be sure that articles you publish on other sites have linkbacks to your website.

In addition to guest blogging, submit your content to well established article directories. You can find a list of recommended ones here.

How good does web content really have to be?

Considering Google’s new-found love for quality web content, it’s important that everything you publish is at least of “good” quality.

Notice how I didn’t say “great.”

That’s right, not everything you publish has to be perfect; sometimes it can be “just good enough” so long as it’s readable and contains the right amount of keywords. Be sure, however, to publish at least two or three great pieces a week, as it improves your online credibility. Besides, you’re a law firm; do you really want sub-par content floating around online, under your moniker?

Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, in late February, Google announced an adjustment to their search algorithms. According to them, the changes were implemented to “provide better rankings for high quality sites—sites with original content and information such as in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

In other words, Google is definitely moving in a semantic direction and hell-bent on developing super-sensitive algorithms that return high-quality results. My prediction: over the next three years, quality content will become increasingly more important.

Caveat Emptor: Web content marketing cautions

Before you embark on your web content marketing journey, please heed two points of caution.

1. Keywords are great, but if you pack your content with them, the search engine spiders will give you demerits and push your site further down the SERPs. Don’t risk being penalized for over stuffing your web content.
2. Be cautious when choosing article directories. A bad directory can do just as much damage as a good directory can benefit.

Article marketing has been around since Gutenberg invented his press; think of web content publishing as the 21st century version. There’s no doubt that lots of well-written, SEO-optimized content will get you noticed online – and while you may not see a rapid uptick in your rankings overnight, if you keep at it, over the course of a few months, you may just find yourself on the venerated first page of the SERPs. Good luck!

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