Blogging is one of the best possible ways for you to dramatically increase your lead flow, improve your firm website’s SEO and traffic count, and build a sterling reputation online – all of which should lead to a healthier bottom line for your firm.

Here are 3 keys to blogging successfully:

1.  Clear Strategy is Critical

Are all legal blogs successful? No, and here’s why: lack of a clear strategy. Blogging should be a part of, but not your entire, online law firm marketing strategy. Think of a blog as an online platform that allows you to connect with members of your local community, educate potential prospects, stay connected with clients, show referral sources what you can do, and position yourself as a credible expert to the media. In order for your blog to be effective it needs to include:

• Topics designed to engage your target audience

• Social media sites you can use to promote your blog and a clear plan of how to do it

• A SEO strategy to increase your page rank (Google’s measure of your site’s authority)

2. Content — and Lots of It — Is Still King

In a study of 1,400 small business owners and lead generation results from blogs and social media, Hubspot.com reported that business to business (B2B) companies that reported having a blog generated 67% more leads than companies who did not have a blog. The gap was even larger when comparing business to consumer (B2C) companies (in the legal industry, a B2C law firm would practice primarily consumer law like personal injury, family law, bankruptcy, estate planning, and criminal defense).

B2C companies that had a blog reported generating 88% more leads than B2C companies who did not. Read that again! That one statistic should convince the skeptics among you to rethink your “I don’t understand blogging or I don’t have time to blog” non-strategy. For our clients who use blogging and social media correctly, it is becoming a great source of online lead generation.

However, you need to know that content is still king. Google loves fresh content and in general, the more fresh content you push out to Google the more it will reward your blog site by pushing it up in search results. In another report by Hubspot.com, they found a direct correlation between the frequency of blog updates and the number of leads generated. Overall, companies that have more than 400 blog posts on their site get more than three times as many leads as those with less than 100 blogs on their site. Frequency matters!

3.  Conversion Matters Most

Many law firms spend an enormous amount of time and money trying to drive visitors to their website and blog. However, they don’t spend nearly enough time focusing on tweaking their blog or website to improve conversion rates. It’s amazing how much difference the placement of a photograph can make or the changing of a headline or even the size of the opt in button.