Last week, I had the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on creating pages that perform well in search. One of the biggest takeaways that I tried to impress upon lawyers was that they needed to create pages that have real value to their visitors.
In this post, I want to elaborate on some ideas for pages that might have value to your visitors.
If we had to put search and internet user activities into very large, general buckets, one of those buckets would have to be research.
People have questions. They seek answers. They turn to search and the internet for more information.
So, it stands to reason that one category of pages that are likely to have real value to users are those that provide answers to their questions.
Of course, there are a variety of ethics and work product issues that publishing Q&A pages present.
However, in my experience, question and answer pages tend to perform very well in search results and often receive the best feedback from site visitors.
Pages that contain video, as well as, accompanying text, can also be very valuable to visitors.
Some things are better explained through video. Also, keep in mind that in many instances, people hire lawyers, not law firms. Some potential clients may ultimately hire you over your competitor because they simply "like" you better. Pages that contain video can help them "get to know you" a bit better. Don't be afraid to let a bit of your personality come through in your video content.
If you do add video pages to your site, make sure that they contain proper mark-up so that they generate rich video snippets in search. Also, be mindful to make your videos informational and educational, as opposed to, advertisements.
Biographical information pages are probably among the most important in terms of motivating someone to contact and eventually hire you. But you shouldn't take a shotgun approach to crafting your biography. Most lawyer bio pages are too long, boring and read like they were written for the lawyers, not their visitors.
You bio page should communicate how you help people and solve their problems in language that they can understand. They should explain your value to them.
These pages should also distinguish you from your competition. In other words, they should explain why the visitor would be better-off choosing you instead of someone else.
If I tell you that I'm great lawyer, you should become immediately skeptical. Why should you trust me?
If someone who you know and trust, who has also hired me, tells you I'm a great lawyer, you will probably be less skeptical.
One of the most important things that visitors want to see about you is "other people" talking positively about you.
Of course, there are a variety of ethical issues raised by posting testimonials on your pages. In fact, in some states, lawyers are just about banned from doing it.
But where it's permissible, and done artfully, client and peer testimonials are among the most valuable pages to visitors. In addition to, or perhaps alternatively, you should also make it easy for visitors to find information about you on other sites. This includes adding links to profiles, publications, speaking engagements and testimonials that appear elsewhere on the web.
Make it easy for people to find the information about you for which they are looking. That's what they want.
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