Once you’ve grabbed your intended reader’s full attention with the title of your legal blog, you are left staring at the second most important part of the page—your opening paragraph.  Think how disappointing it would be if you’d spent considerable time and effort crafting a killer headline for your blog posting then your potential client slipped quietly away with a click of their mouse due to an opening paragraph which simply faltered and died. If you want to ensure your legal blog posting really delivers on your headline’s promise, then consider the following:

Jump Right In With a Question

Open up your blog with a question, even if it happens to be a rhetorical one. The idea is to get your potential client thinking because thinking equals engagement with your writing, and engagement means they will continue to read. Remember, though, not to ask a question which could be answered with a “no” or “who cares?” answer.  After you’ve asked your burning question, thrown in a quick anecdote which will either bring a smile to your reader’s face, or establish the main point of your posting.

Especially in the legal world which can be known for its, um…dryness, a little personality can go a long way. Don’t be afraid to figuratively let down your hair from time to time, but keep it relatively tasteful. You could also use an amazing quote that fits into the theme of your legal blog post—anything that will continue to hold the reader’s attention and prevent them from a shrug and a click onto greener—and more interesting—pastures.

Give Them a Powerful Mental Image

Although the legal profession can seem narrow and technical to the layperson, your legal blog doesn’t have to have the same tone. You can relax the legalese in your blog, and use your most descriptive words to activate your reader’s imagination. In the same vein, using metaphors, similes and analogies (correctly, of course) can be a powerful tool for capturing your visitor’s attention and telling a story in a single sentence. Citing a statistic or fact that is particularly unique or startling is also a good tool to use in your first paragraph.

Share Something Personal with Your Readers

We all love to feel as though we have established a deeper connection than a standard business one with our business connections. While you should never make up something “personal” (it will come back to bite you) simply for the sake of grabbing your reader, it can be used very effectively in expressing your own unique personality. When you share something personal about yourself, you can literally guarantee that there will be readers shaking their heads in agreement, saying “me too!”

Withhold One Piece of Critical Information and Break it Up

Though it seems a bit sneaky, holding back a key piece to the puzzle of your legal blog’s overall theme until later in the posting is a great way to ensure your visitors keep reading to the very end. Yes, past the fold and all the way to the bottom. Remember that we read the web very differently than we read the printed page. It’s okay if you have lots to say, but make sure you break it up and have plenty of informative headlines which enable readers to quickly scan before they make the commitment to actually read. Use an assortment of lists, images, bold text, subtitles, and paragraphs in easily readable chunks. Get your reader totally intrigued with your headline and first paragraph, and before you know it you will have a dedicated reader, not to mention a potential client.

If you are interested in keeping abreast of the ever-changing laws without emptying your pocketbook, Google Alerts can give you the peace of mind which comes with knowing you are up-to-speed and able to monitor the changing laws, while ensuring your practice is fully covered. Do you ever wonder what others are saying about your firm, or you personally? Using Google Alerts in a savvy and intelligent way can keep you on the professional cutting edge.

Google Alerts are basically set up to monitor content, automatically notifying you when any new content from the Internet matches the pre-set terms you have selected. Google Alerts can be used to find out what others are saying (on the Internet) about you and your firm, to monitor the latest legal news, to monitor the status of a bill, and even to stay informed as to what your competition is up to.

How Are Notifications Received?

There are several ways you can receive Google Alerts, the most common one being through your e-mail. You can also receive Google Alerts as a web feed, or even have them prominently displayed on your iGoogle page. There are essentially six types of alerts to receive when content on the Internet matches your particular search terms and the alerts you have created.  You can set your Google Alerts to the default, which is everything, or the entire web, through the Google search engine. Secondly, you can set your settings to News, meaning you will only receive updates when matching content makes it into the top ten results of a Google News Search. Third down the line is the “web” setting, which allows you to receive updates only when new web pages appear in the top twenty results for a Google Web search, and fourth is the blog setting-you will only get updates when content which matches your search terms appears in a blog which resides in the top ten results of a Google Blog Search. The video setting will allow you to receive updates only when matching content appears in the top ten results of a Google video search, and finally, you can set your alters to “groups” which will only send updates whenever matching content appears in the top fifty results of a Google Groups search.

Next, you can choose the frequency of your Google Alerts, meaning you can have Alerts sent to you once a day, once a week, or in real time (or close to it), as things happen. For many subjects or issues, onece a day or once a week will be plenty, most especially if you have chosen a top which receives tons of hits. If you are setting an Alert for something which happens rarely, but you want to know as soon as it does happen, set your Google Alert to “as it happens.”  Don’t get too overwhelmed with the different settings; after you play with them a bit you will easily find the one which works best for you and your specific needs.

How Complicated is Setting Up Google Alerts?

Don’t panic, setting up Google Alerts is fairly simple. You must first go to http://google.com/alerts. From here you will pick your search terms; for instance, you might choose Texas DWI Law, then you will use the drop down boxes to select the type of alert, frequency, length, and where to have them sent. Although it may take a little trial and error to get Google Alerts set up exactly like you want them to be, it will definitely be worth it once you have everything just like you want it.

Why Should I Bother?

Google Alerts can be an incredibly powerful tool for lawyers–Google travels around the web literally sucking up insanely huge amounts of data from across the globe, while you work and sleep, then analyzes those sites for relevant information according to you search terms, and sends you an e-mail with the results.

Where Do I Start?

If you are unsure which search terms to use to begin with, first of all put in your own name/firm’s name as a keyword so you will always be up to speed on what the rest of the world is saying about you. If you want to know what your competition is up to, put in their names next. You can easily monitor news about legislation or regulation in specific practice and business areas by setting keywords for those subjects. You can set your Google Alerts to look for proprietary data of your most significant clients—you might be surprised at how often such data shows up in blogs across the Internet. So, if one of your clients sells a highly-recognized product, you can keep up with what’s being said about it, or even watch for knockoffs. You could enter a search term such as “electronic evidence,” which would allow you and your firm to keep up with developments which are highly relevant to your practice. Think of terms which might render some surprising information regarding a pending litigation your law firm is handling, think of a place you want to monitor, such as an office you might have in another state or country.

While it’s true that your Google Alerts can be somewhat erratic at times, meaning you may not get everything you should—or thing you should—and sometimes there may seem to be absolutely no rhyme or reason to why you receive what you receive. Even so, Google Alerts is the best thing going for tracking news specific to your firm and your practice areas.

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Assuming you are already using Google Alerts—and presumably already loving it, there are some easy searches you can run that you may not have thought of which can give you some amazing results in your inbox each day. Additionally, if you want more accurate results from your Google Alerts, you will need to utilize some of the advanced search options or search operators in order to narrow your searches.

Advanced Search Options

In other words, if you are interested in receiving the latest legislation regarding DWI in your state, you might type in DWI+Texas+legislation. Enclosing your search results in quotes, and using the minus sign (-) to filter out unwanted results can also give you much more precise Google Alerts results. On each search term you will set how often you want the alert to be sent, so for topics you want to keep an eye on, but are not critical, selecting “once a week,” may be appropriate. For topics which you need to be apprised up the second after they happen, then you will, of course, set “as it happens,” for frequency. Many people simply have a blanket setting of once per day for everything, however this can potentially give you many legal alerts you don’t need or want.

When setting how you would like to receive your alerts, you can check e-mail or RSS feed; if you choose e-mail, you will receive a separate e-mail for each alert you create, or you can subscribe to the RSS feed in Google Reader rather than e-mail. You will next need to tell Google exactly which information to include in the search, whether news, blogs, web, comprehensive, video or groups. Depending on your search terms you may want to only search in blogs, or news, or you may simply use “comprehensive” for most of your search terms.

What Search Terms Should I Use?

First and foremost, do a “vanity search” for your own name, your firm’s name, or your blog’s name in order to find out when your name or your blog is mentioned by someone else. You can set it up as “Richardson Law Firm,” Robert+Richardson+Lawyer, or even Richardson’s Legal Blog. If your name or your firm’s name is fairly common, put it in quotes. You can track incoming links to your legal website or legal blog by inserting your blog’s URL which can track links from other sites to your own site. Use the highest URL level where you have content for your site links, and if you want to track incoming links to a specific post, enter the post’s exact URL.

Check Your Own Content for Plagiarism by Others

Sometimes content can be “stolen” unintentionally, or sometimes content can be stolen using robots which strip out links so the post remains primarily text. You can set your search terms for “specific phrase from your content” which will immediately tell you if someone else is using that amazing phrase you thought came straight from your own creative mind. Unless your content is, in fact highly creative and original, it is likely you will receive lots of alerts regarding the portions you are having checked.

Check for Your Favorite Topics

If you are currently working on a specific brief, or a particular case, you can set search terms for the topic—you will soon realize what a great way this can be to research a topic and see articles and posts where others are talking about the subject as well. Narrow and refine your search topic through the use of (+,-,””, or, not) or through search operators (link:, site:)

As long as you don’t forget that Google Alerts is neither 100% foolproof or reliable, and that it only sends alerts when new pages enter into the top searches, you should greatly enjoy the results your receive from Google Alerts. You may also want to try out Yahoo’s similar service, called, appropriately enough, Yahoo! Alerts.

FREE ADVICE from top law firm Internet marketers is available by calling (769) 218-6099. No sales pitches, just real advice!

Since you already (hopefully) have your legal blog up and running and are reaping the rewards from a job well-done, don’t forget the importance of constantly maintaining your legal blogs. You can choose to update your blog or blogs the old-fashioned way—by hand, one at a time, or you can use a tool like Ping.fm, which allows you to update them all at once, although you must compose a blog post to do so.  You could also use RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication and essentially allows you to find or create an RSS feed which updates your blog in a more mechanical way, through an RSS URL feed, which feeds data you have chosen as content you would like to see on your blog as updates to your blogs. This method does definitely lack the personal touch, but can be somewhat effective. Beyond these two methods, there are plenty of maintenance that should be done on a regular basis to ensure your blog sites remain worry-free and exceptionally effective.

WordPress Applications Which Need Regular Checkups

WordPress can be an absolutely fantastic for your legal blogging, as it is generally full of features, fast, and works flawlessly—at least the majority of the time. Sometimes, however, we human beings play around with the program, installing themes or plug-ins, which can eventually make WordPress go crazy. To ensure your blog problems don’t have a runaway, make sure you do regular check-ups and maintenance such as:

• Check your feeds—they can be broken without you even knowing it, so test them well.
• Contact pages can be broken as well without your knowledge—check them often.
• When you set up your blog WordPress automatically fills in the About section. Specific themes may display your About section on the main page by default, so make sure the information provided is always updated and filled out to avoid seeming unprofessional.
• Make sure you check the bottoms of every page as they can appear to be working properly while hiding an error at the end.
• Adsense Ads can confuse GoogleBot, causing it to show irrelevant ads on your blog which can be extremely detrimental; look into some of the plug-ins out there for targeting Adsense.
• Be sure to check your link bar for broken links; you don’t want dead links sitting in your sidebar wasting space—and people’s precious time.

WordPress Plug-ins Which Can Help Your Legal Blog

Once your law firm’s blog has been up and running, for months, or even years, it is a sure bet that some of your links will be broken. Use Broken Link Checker as a plug in on WordPress to automatically find broken links, saving you time. Word Press Antivirus checks your theme for any lurking malicious code; you can easily enable a daily scan to ensure nobody is able to insert malicious code. Akismet is a spam-fighting tool for WordPress which can totally eradicate spam on your blog, and Redirect can help you redirect (hence the name) all URLs to the settings of your choice, thus preventing Google from thinking your site has duplicate content. Finally, the WP Security Scan can check to make sure your WordPress installation is secure by looking at several different factors including password strength and database security.

A Few More Tips for Legal Blog Maintenance

Blog maintenance also includes refreshing your header banner and site images on a regular basis, at least monthly, in order to keep the site looking new for your visitors. We humans tend to pay more attention to any site if we have the perception it is different, even slightly. Check your sidebar links for dead links, making sure it remains fresh and relevant, and that the sites you link to are current and are consistently providing content of quality which you support. Your content pages are essential to the success of your website so should be consistently updated with quality content, making them valuable to your readers and potential clients. Make sure your About page is consistently updated with content and photos. Perhaps someone in your firm has recently won a high profile case, or your firm is adding a specialty, these things definitely need updating. Consider enhancing and expanding your top five blog posts of the month; look over them and look for any outdated information, or take direction from the questions or comments your received on a particular blog. All of these tips, if done on a regular basis can ensure that your legal blog remains high in the search engine rankings, bringing traffic, thus revenue to your law firm.

Web blogs or blawgs have been on the scene now for about 5 years and they continue to be one of the hottest law firm marketing strategies on the Web.

But do they work?
Do they generate new business for lawyers?

James Greenier, Founder and CEO of Lawyer Success, Inc., joined an online round table discussion that addresses the real value of law firm blogginq directly. The panel consisted of 5 practicing attorneys, 3 law firm marketing consultants and 3 in-house marketing directors.

Here are some of the notes from that discussion:

- 2 of the 5 attorneys found that law firm blogging produced zero results for their firm.

- 3 of the 5 attorneys who generated new business practiced in areas of Probate Litigation, Insurance Law – Commercial and Non-profits, and Personal Injury.

Ideas for law firm blogs:

- Write content to enhance the law firm’s overall search engine presence.

- Develop legal content that showcases your law firm’s practice expertise.

- Write content that helps potential clients better understand their legal issue. Offer potential solutions.

- After creating a blog post, post it on social networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and discussion boards with a link back to the post.

- A blog is a great place to direct prospective clients to learn more about you.

- Legal blogs can help set the tone for your business and puts a personal “face” on your web presence.

- The content from a blog that is integrated into the law firm’s main site is an effective tool for SEO.

- Blogs can facilitate video and v-blogging is very effective in creating a more meaningful relationship with prospective clients.

- Blogs keep you in front of current clients and give them the assurance that you are a professional and stay up-to-date with the industry.

- Blogs are the heart and soul of social media.
Top Mistakes Attorneys Make When Blogging.

1. Not updating the blog regularly (at least once a week)

2. Not allowing their personality to shine through in the copy. To technical and dry.

3. Lack of promotion

4. Lack of web video

At LawyerSuccess.com, we offer custom designed web blogs that can either be a stand alone blog or one that looks and functions just like your existing website to build your law firm’s main domain and SEO presence.  We also offer on-site video production for a nominal fee to help catch your website and/or blog up to today’s standard.

For more information about our services click here.

For a free lawyer blog marketing and development consultation, call (769) 218-6099.

To ask one of our experts a question about lawyer blog click here.

Your law firm website design should be as professionally done as possible.  Cutting corners in this business is absolutely unacceptable.  There is a constant growing demand for lawyers and the law firm website design should be done thoroughly. 

That’s where Lawyer Success comes in. 

Staffed with a team of consummate professionals in the field of marketing and web design Lawyer Success will provide your law firm with the best look for your field of law. We have worked with over 3,200 clients across North America and the list keeps growing. 

Be sure to call us first for a rate quote and see how we can improve your website and marketing strategy.  We consistently research the field and use the web to our advantage.  Some things to look out for while looking for a law firm website design:

            Content:  Make sure that everything is grammatically well written.  This is another area of importance.  Don’t cut corners on the grammar either.  Rhetorically speaking, grammar can make or break a client or clients.

            Design:  Your website should stand out from others.  Is one color scheme throughout the website conducive to keeping the client’s interest?  How about a basic design of the website like one page with no hyperlinks or email contact?  That doesn’t provide your firm with the firepower to compete with other sites.  Your home page, at least, should mirror your practice.  Design and graphics go a long way in attracting clients.

            Hyperlinking: Hyperlinking is a good way to build credibility for your site.  It is also a way to build some ranking structure with Google and other search engines.  Hyperlinks also build up other sites, which in turn bring in more exposure to yours. 

            Social Media Marketing: Social media is a relatively new idea, particularly for marketing websites or products.  Take advantage of the social media available such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Xanga.  Look at marketing like a fire: once it catches, it can spread very quickly.

            Blog:  Blogging is a doorway for clients to come in.  Blogging shows that you are knowledgeable of the topic, particularly if you are bringing in scholarship or recent case studies.  Show the clients you want them to handle you. 

These are just a few of the ways we can help you promote your site.  For a rate quote or consultation, call (769) 218-6099.

It is essential to arm your website with as much firepower as you can.  A lawyer website design must be done professionally in order to get the look and the feel that you need.  As part of creating a website, one has to realize that marketing the site is as important as the design itself. 

How does a lawyer make the client stay for longer periods of time?  The answer is the blogging.  A Lawyer Blog or Weblog is a great way for you to build your base of knowledge.  Through your blog, you can be as creative as you wish to be or as serious as you want.  The blog gives you free reign to show your knowledge of your field of practice. 

Did a new law come out that effects your client base?  How about a Congressional law that just passed that affects the world in general? 

You can do creative things with blogging that will boost exposure to the site, too.  You can install Hyperlinks. 

Hyperlinking is a great way to incorporate research and other important documentation into your blog.  Rhetorically, it is sound, solid and professional.  Think of it like writing a research paper, except casually. 

The blogs’ potential is untapped and it is one of most underrated things one can do to market their website.  Because blogs or blawgs have archives, clients can see your musings in the past.  Be professional, but you can also have fun with it. 

Blogs are fun, but it can also boost your exposure two-fold.  A lawyer website design doesn’t always have to be serious.  Have fun with blogging and take your business to the next step. 

If you need help in any of the preceding strategies call us for a rate quote and a free consultation so that you too can have the best lawyer website in your market. Call (769) 218-6099 today.  We offer Lawyer Blawgs as well.

If you are a lawyer and you want to fully understand how to create a powerful blog presence on the Web, continue reading this informative and free lawyer blog marketing article to bolster your results. 

Step 1. Make the commitment – If you cannot spend 15-20 minutes per day developing new content for your law firm blog then do not even start one or hire someone to write the posts for you. 

Step 2. Look at other blogs to decide the layout, color scheme and design of your blog.

Step 3. Create call to action – ask for the business, place your contact details throughout the blog’s design.

Step 4. Stick to a specific area of law and position yourself as an expert.

Step 5.  Learn how to incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into your blog or hire an expert to teach you or perform the SEO for you.

Step 6.  Provide helpful and intelligent content. Don’t try to sell your firm. Sell through the information you provide.

Step 7. Create content that attracts media attention.

Step 8. Network with other lawyer bloggers.

Step 9. Implement social media to attract new blog visitors and potential clients while boosting your credibility.

Step 10. Call us for a free consultation to discuss the services that interest you such as attorney blog design, content writing, or online marketing. For a free consultation call (769) 218-6099. We also offer Lawyer Website and SEO consultation.

Blogs are an invaluable tool for sending out important law firm information to both consumers, clients and other law firms. Information on practice areas, firm news, timely events and opinions matters in today’s Web savvy economy.  Even more important, the regular use of a Blog can increase your firm’s website rankings on the major search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo. 

By adding fresh, relevant content you are giving your firm’s website more credence in the eyes of Google.  In this fast paced information age, even a lawyer has to prove him/herself worthy of first search page placement on Google. 
 
There are several factors that are taken into account when Google passes out its website rankings.  New content published on a regular basis ranks high on it’s list of algorithmic value.   Blog posts are a terrific way to accomplish this.  The downside is that these ‘journals’ need to be written in regularly in order to have the most benefit.  Lawyer Success has found that the more frequent the posts are added, the better website rankings are obtained. 

Call Lawyer Success if you are looking for a lawyer blog designer or legal content writer for your blog. For a free lawyer blog consultation call (769) 218-6099. We also offer Lawyer Website consultation.

Writing a blog for my own business is rather new for me. For the last few years, I have touted and pressed my lawyer clients to start a blog. The reason is simple – content is king.  The more web pages created, the more search targets I can optimize for them to cast a wider net.


Without a doubt, when a client is trained to blog or hires us to draft the blog content for them, we have seen a dramatic up tick in website traffic resulting in higher quantities of law firm Web leads for my clients. The trick is to identify the right keyword phrases and simply draft some interesting content around the specific issue.

We then have a search engine optimization module that enables us to properly label the blog posts for maximum visibility.

If you law firm is interested in developing a blog or would like to discuss developing a website, please feel free to drop us a line a (769) 218-6099.