An essential marketing tool implemented by many small business law firms today is creating an online business blog. There are many ways to get started. However, a few key factors can be the difference between a successful blog with a large audience and new and frequent visitors, versus an inefficient, stale platform. Whether you’re in the early stages of creating a blog for your business, or you’ve been doing it for a long period of time, the following are some common mistakes and bad habits to avoid:
- Your blog isn’t simply a promotional platform. Many new law firm businesses do not take the time to truly understand the nature of blogging and how to really utilize its benefits in terms of function. Most new bloggers only see it as free advertising, and choose strategies geared only toward self-promotion. However, as soon you begin posting blog articles that focus too much on your company and services, your blog will cease to remain useful or credible to visitors. A blog audience is eager to acquire new information from credible sources, which is why it’s important you take the focus away from your actual law firm and instead discuss, for example, relevant material and common issues your firm specializes in, or how you can help provide solutions for topics your business is likely to address. If a large portion of your posts are company-related, versus issue or information-related, it will change the way visitors will think about your blog. Direct your content so that it offers information that’s useful and relevant to whatever your particular audience cares about and may be searching for. Focus on posting more educational content rather than promotional content to keep your audience’s needs and interests at the top of your blog strategy.
- You aren’t blogging consistently. It’s no secret that it’s far easier to start a blog, than to keep it going, posting content on a regular basis. Many new small business blogs fail to maintain a consistent blogging strategy due to a lack of resources and commitment. Undoubtedly, companies that blog frequently and consistently benefit the most from their blogging efforts. Prior to launching your blog, create a plan to determine an ideal schedule to post frequently, keeping your blog fresh and updated. Depending on your company demands and the commitment you’re allowed, new posts, a couple of times per week is more than adequate. Obviously, if you’re able to afford it more time, go for it. It might even be in your best interest to scope out other similar content-related blogs to gauge the average number of their posts per week. Some topics may be more time-sensitive to create, while other be a simple, less time-consuming post. It’s necessary to keep a good mix going to keep reader captivated, and coming back for more.
- You’re too focused on SEO. Blogging can have many benefits for your business presence online, two of which are increasing your keyword rankings and generating greater organic search traffic. It’s advisable to develop an SEO strategy for your blog by identifying the top keywords for your business and optimizing your posts with such keywords. Although it’s necessary to implement an SEO strategy for your company, it’s also necessary not to lose sight of the fact the most successful business blogs write for people, not search engines. Content must be consistently useful and easy to read. You want visitors to stay, read the content, and engage in commentary, sharing opinions, links, etc.
- You use text only. Many new blogs tend to focus on posting content in the form of text-only articles, ignoring the use of images as a way of capturing people’s attention. In addition, posting images is a great way to break up larger posts to help explain what you’re talking about. This will keeps readers interested and engaged for longer periods of time, adding variety to your content. When considering an image(s) to use for your post, you should always base your selection on visual appeal and relevance to your post. Your image should express a concept and not just appear as though you picked an arbitrary stock image out of convenience. One other thing to keep in mind is potential violation of copyright laws when using images found on the Internet. The best way to avoid this kind of trouble is to use images with Creative Commons licensing. These images can be found in various locations online.
Have questions or need free advice? Call toll free (800) 877-2776 to speak with an expert attorney blog writer, and not a sales representative, for information on how to get started with your new law firm blog. We are available and ready to assist you today with all of your blogging needs!
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