Back in March I posted an entry to my miamidivorcepaternityblog about Florida child support. The entry is an answer to a question most prospective clients with children (in divorce or paternity) often ask. There was only one keyword phrase I used; and that was, of course Florida child support. 
When I wrote it, I wasn’t concerned about length but only about answering that one question.
Three weeks later I was hired by someone headed back to court to modify child support payments. It has become my routine to ask how people find me, which I did with this new client at the end of our meeting. I was surprised when they mentioned this exact post, right down to the introductory part about three people having a similar question. I am sure from our conversation that there were other things at play that made this person hire me, but this obviously got their attention. (I don’t even have a call to action at the end of that post, which I should).
The post is 181 words long, and the retainer paid was $3,000.00. That is how I came up with the figure of $16.57 per word. Of course, I didn’t do this calculation at the time, but only last night, when I was reviewing the entries on my fledgling blog (it’s only been up since mid-February). (I track the main website separately so it is harder to get clients to tell me which page specifically they visited before contacting me).
I think most of the entries on that blog have about the same word length. Which is interesting because in reviewing the writings guidelines at AttorneyAtWork.com they talk about sending in items that are no more than 300 to 500 words because the lawyers who read them are busy people. I’m willing to bet that my prospective clients are busy people too. (This post is probably longer than the suggested length, but I think the topic is worth it, you can always skip down to the 5 lessons I learned from this post about SEO for lawyers-at 286 words, it’s just the “right” length).
There are many reasons why us solo lawyers may be hesitant about online legal marketing. Besides ethical concerns, there are also the seemingly complicated principles of SEO optimization, content creation, etc. But the more I do this stuff (4 years now), the more I learn that it boils down to (1) relevant content, and (2) consistency.
To be sure, there is stuff to learn. But it isn’t all that difficult to learn that; the difficulty comes into putting it into practice—making it a priority is really the thing. (Think about it, compared to the practice, law school was a breeze).
Here are the lessons I learned about SEO from this post which you may find helpful:
- There still is no need for me to write about what most of us Florida divorce lawyers have on our sites, which is the technical stuff of the law. I think our prospective clients want content that helps them avoid a problem or solve a problem. It is no different than when you and I search for a solution. You need to refer to it, etc.; but other than shop-talk with fellow divorce lawyers, I doubt anyone who needs our services cares about this in the beginning.
- It isn’t the length of the post or content. It is, again, how relevant it is to address a problem. After all, Florida has its statutes online (I use them often); but I’m willing to bet that visitors don’t find what I talk about in my post when they visit the Florida child support statute.
- Keywords are important but I only need one good one and relevant content for it.
- Know my target clients. I keep this at the top of my mind when it comes to the blog or the articles I publish. Trust me when I tell you that if you sat down and thought about it, you would begin to see patterns in the questions, fears, and concerns of the people you currently serve. They are each individuals, of course, but as a group, they too have certain things in common.
- Continue to ask people how they find me. If I don’t do this, I may well decide that this blogging thing that everyone talks about doesn’t work for me; obviously that is not true.
If you have a blog, or other content online that has given you results, I would be interested in what your experience has been. Feel free to post your comments about any of the above.