9-Step Blog Writing Workflow For Legal Blogging
The Best And Most Efficient Blogging Workflow For Law Firms
If you've read up on Lawyer SEO and content marketing strategies before, you know that blogs must be high-quality and consistent. So not only are you supposed to do research, writing, and proofreading, you need to do all of that on a regular basis. To make sure you meet your deadlines, you need an efficient workflow that makes content creation as smooth as possible.
Before anything else, do remember a vital content marketing tip: quality over quantity.
If you're doing this on your own, without a content writer or lawyer marketing agency, then don't pressure yourself to post multiple times a day. More content is great, but you shouldn't be sacrificing the quality of your posts for the sake of publishing more.
Remember: Not only do users ignore unhelpful blog content, but search engine crawlers can also detect thin, low-quality, and spammy pages.
So work at your own pace, and follow the steps below.
1. Topic Research
Start with this question: what do your readers want to read?
Remember: You should have already done keyword research while you're building your website and optimizing your first pages.
Look at the keywords and identify the user intent:
Are users looking for a personal injury lawyer?
Do they want to know how much it costs to hire an attorney?
Do they want a list of damages they can win from a case?
After doing so, try looking at what's showing up in the SERPs. What types of content are ranking high? How can you make your own blog post original?
2. Additional Keyword Research
Since you already have your main keywords, you might want to start looking for other relevant keywords to compete for.
For Example:
You might have a page dedicated and optimized for "Family Law", but your blog is about going through the legal processes of divorce. Since divorce is more specific, you might not have the keywords specifically for your content. So select a combination of long-tail and short-tail keywords, all relevant to Family Law and Divorce.
3. Link Attributions
Link your sources. Every time you make a claim, you must cite your resources to back it up. So, if you're showing statistic and behavioral data, add those as hyperlinks to appropriate anchor texts. Also, quote and link news sources when you feature them.
You should also add internal links from your site. Link your own legal guides and other relevant material. This will help you keep visitors on the site for as long as possible.
4. Outline
Draft an outline. Before writing anything, gather your thoughts and arrange your points. Use headers and bullets to break down your points into concise, more digestible sections.
5. Graphics And Images
When choosing images, make sure they're relevant to your blog post. Visuals are supposed to help visualize your points and improve the aesthetic of your blog.
You can use stock images, which can be used for any purpose for free. Even better, you can also use your own photos.
6. Drafting
After you've outlined, start filling the sections in with content. Again, stick to your outline and pay attention to your flow.
Remember: Don't forget to write Calls-To-Action (CTAs). Although, you should avoid being too promotional.
Be sure to think about your title, too. Write titles for readers, not search engines—so use keywords, but only when you can. If your keywords don't make grammatical sense (i.e., "lawyer los angeles", "lawyer high-profile", etc.), try something else.
7. Editing And Proofreading
Don't forget to proofread your work. Spelling errors and bad grammar can really turn readers off. And if they do try to ignore it, one spelling or grammatical mistake can either change the meaning of a sentence or make it hard to understand.
If you can, ask a friend or a colleague to proofread the draft for you. Other people are more likely to spot errors than the writer themselves. If not, you can use a grammar software like Grammarly, which has a free and paid version depending on your needs.
8. On-Page Optimization And Publishing
Once you've pasted the text into the "compose" box, you can now optimize not only the text and keywords, but also your links, headers, tags, and so on.
Here's a list of optimizations you can do:
Add hyperlinks
Add images
Write alt text and captions to images
Add CTAs
Embed videos
Write a meta description
Add tags
Some blogs will also have preview options. This is an excellent way to see how your post—including text, photo, and header positioning—looks on your page.
9. Promotion
After publishing your post, make sure to promote them! Don't just leave it for the crawlers and the algorithm to index and rank. Even if you don't have a large following on your social media accounts, using hashtags and keywords can boost the chances of people finding it.
You can also promote them on your email lists and newsletters. Encourage subscribers to click on your new post by teasing it or writing a CTA.
Do You Need Help With Law Firm Content?
When consistent and well-optimized, legal blogging is an effective Lawyer Marketing Strategy. If you're a busy firm that doesn't have the time to do all that, LawyerLeadMachine can help with Lawyer SEO content.
Review your options to work with SEO experts here.
