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If you’re wondering what the magic formula is for getting your website to the top of Google, you’re not alone. A common issue for law firms we’ve worked with is the state of their website content. There’s a distinct lack of high quality pages ranking well on Google and bringing them lots of profitable web traffic.

Although no-one knows for sure the precise nature of Google’s algorithm, we do know what it takes to make great content that ranks – we’ve done it so many times that we can identify the important elements.

It’s relatively easy to create content that will generate you traffic – but you really want relevant traffic. That is, website visitors who are more likely to pick up the phone or fill in a contact form and become your client. 

Creating inbound SEO content

When we’re creating content for SEO, we consider three main factors:

1. The goals of our content, which will inform the keywords we optimise for and the content we create
2. The intentions of our users, whether they’re researching or ready to enquire
3. The design of our content, to make it engaging and optimised for search engines.

Your SEO goals

Let’s start with those goals. Every business is different – as a law firm, our main goals are to generate leads, primarily through contact forms. As such, our target keywords will be different, as will our best performing content.

A law firm site needs to inform people, which will steer our content. We might consider long-form articles, blogs, or even infographics. Google is looking for pages that offer authority on the subjects its users are searching for, so we need to demonstrate this expertise in our content.

Your user intentions

Though they may not know it, every time a user conducts a search, they’re entering one of four query types.

1. Informational queries

Most common for law firms, these will usually start with 'how to' or 'what is' – something interrogative that calls for more information. Think about the value you offer and what you’d ask a search engine.

Run a search and see what comes up. Is it solely text results, or are there rich snippets? If videos appear first, for example, you might want to vary your content.

Informational queries may also guide your keyword strategy. Use sites like  find out what people are asking, or look at Google’s LSI section. Known as , this displays in results as ‘people also ask’.

2. Comparative queries

These are nice and simple – ‘difference between a lawyer and a solicitor’, for example. You can guide users with category content, and then link through with a call to action.

3. Transactional queries

These relate to the product/service itself, e.g. ‘law firm Leeds’. Serve your customers with category pages featuring these target terms, and any semantically-related ones. This is a great upselling opportunity too, for example, family law could link to divorce law or wills and testament.

4. Navigational queries

Congratulations – searchers know your brand! These queries are looking for a specific company/brand name, so make sure your homepage, about us and contact pages are ranking for your brand. Often, , but you can increase your search presence by registering a  profile.

The technical stuff

This is where it gets a little trickier. We need to design our content to make it engaging. We also need to follow some housekeeping rules to make it easy for search engines to crawl the site.

Let’s start with that housekeeping.

Simple SEO content best practices

• Keywords – use target keywords early in URLs, and try to keep these short. 50 to 60 characters is optimum, without stop words e.g. ‘and’. They should be readable, e.g. ‘www.site.com/seo-content-guide’.
• Again, use keywords early in your introductions, and your page titles. This is a great opportunity to use long-tail keywords for less competition.
• Meta descriptions – remember, Google highlights search terms in meta descriptions, so add these and a call to action for better click-through rates.
• Use alt tags – add descriptions to your images including captions and alt text, which 
• Link externally and internally – link back to two or three relevant pages on your site, plus a couple of relevant external links. The latter helps with , citing trusted sources.
• Break up content – use bullet points, pull-out quotes, images and video to keep users engaged. Search engines can also pull these out as rich snippets.

Designing engaging copy

Search engine analysts have some evidence to suggest that ‘, i.e. time spent on site after clicking a result, can positively impact SEO.

So, we need to structure our content to encourage users to stay on-site. It all starts with a headline.

Demonstrate your expertise

Law firm websites are classes as “Your Money, Your Life (YMYL)” websites by Google.  Your law firm’s website needs to demonstrate to Google that you know what you’re talking about and it can trust your content.

Quick tips to demonstrate expertise include:

• Using authors and biographies for blogs – including linking to their LinkedIn profiles too
• Citing any sources or demonstrating proof using links to other sites of authority
• Making content focused on your speciality areas, avoiding generalist content that while appealing to a wider audience, hurts the ‘expertise’ of your site.

Use compelling introductions

Buzzstream offers some great examples, adding a little personality into headlines to rank for short and long-tail keywords. ‘Become a Master Writer’ performs worse than ''.

Note how they’ve used ‘how to’ and ‘headlines’, with their own unique flair. Next, use a compelling introduction that addresses the reader straight away. You should then present the idea, and back it up with a source:

You’re probably wondering why your content marketing isn’t ranking.

The answer could lie in your user experience.

Research from Google suggests .

Don’t hide your content

Your opening gambit should be visible straight away – remember that UX. Don’t make users scroll through rich media to get to your keywords.

Longer content ranks higher

Obviously, this is all relative to the quality of your content, the sector, and the competitiveness of your search terms. The simple fact is, however,  This in turn increases your authority online, while you can also target more keywords and explore a topic in-depth.

For best results, try posts of 2,000 to 3,000 words – this will also encourage social sharing. It’s important though that the content remains relevant, and informative, don’t add words just for the sake of hitting a word count.

Let LSI guide your headings

Stuck for what to put into this long-form content? Let those ‘people also ask’ boxes guide you. These will form natural H2/H3 headers and could also appear in rich snippets.

Keep it simple

The  also applies to your content. Rather than sprawling paragraphs, meandering sentences and endless technical jargon, you should keep your content simple. Tools such as the  identify needlessly long sentences, while the  will highlight any difficult words.

Remember to break your content up, too – no more than three sentences per paragraph! We need to aid natural scrolling to make SEO content user-friendly. 

Ready to go? Start with a strategy

Now you know how to design and word your content, you’ll need a strategy to kick it all off. Find an , or follow these quick tips:

• Identify your goals and plan content types around user intentions
• Create an editorial calendar with ‘wiggle room’ for trickier content/reactive content
• Go back over old posts and finesse with these design/SEO principles
• Measure success through shares, views, time on page and conversions, then review.

For more guidance on tailoring your content marketing for SEO, .