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Updated: March 25, 2024
Legal blogging can allow law firms and other legal professionals to engage with readers in various ways. For example, writing law blogs might provide an attorney with the ability to engage in dialogue with other practitioners in the same field, attract new clients, demonstrate expertise in a particular area of the law, advertise to potential clients and community members, to gain traction on Google searches and other search engines, to highlight achievements of particular lawyers at the firm, and to interest other attorneys who may be considering a move. The following are some distinct types of content you should consider for your legal blog.
You can also learn how to start a legal blog and more about the history and best practices in our Guide to Law Firm Marketing.
Evergreen Blogs
What is evergreen content? If you're familiar with evergreen trees and other plants, you may know that they have their name because, appropriately, they have foliage during all seasons and are always green—hence the name "evergreen." Similarly, evergreen blogs or evergreen content are always relevant or applicable to readers who encounter them for the first time.
Evergreen content doesn't get "stale" in just a few weeks or months. Instead, this kind of content can be developed by writers and accessed by readers for years.
Any legal blog should have some evergreen content to draw readers to the site and rely on older blog posts to drive that traffic. Blogging does not typically have an immediate payoff but certainly pays off over time.
For example, you may have posted a blog in one year that only gets a handful of clicks in the weeks and months immediately after you post it, but within a year or two, it could be one of the most widely read blogs on your site that drive thousands of readers to your blog regularly.
With that idea in mind, what does evergreen content look like for a legal blog? As you might imagine, evergreen content will be different depending upon the type of blog or website where it appears. Typically, evergreen content on a law blog will contain information that will still be relevant to readers a year from now (or even longer).
For example, evergreen articles or blogs for a criminal law firm might include topics like "Understanding Misdemeanor and Felony Penalties" or "Consequences of a Driver's License Suspension." For business law blogs, evergreen content might contain articles like "How to Choose a Business Structure" or "Choosing Between a C-Corp and an S-Corp." In theory, the information in these posts will not change and will remain applicable.
Newsworthy Topics and Trends in the Law
You might also want to include blogs about newsworthy topics to help readers locate your firm if they're seeking information about a recent legal issue or change to the law. When you create blogs about newsworthy topics, you can also attract clients who may be searching for information about that news issue.
For example, a lawyer who runs a personal injury law practice focusing on nursing home neglect might want to plan blogs about recent allegations of elder abuse against facilities in the same geographic region. A resident of that facility or a person with a relative in that nursing home might run an internet search to find information about abuse allegations against that particular facility. Suppose your law firm's blog has a post about the allegations against that facility. In that case, your post might come up in a search, and you may be contacted by a potential client who wants to learn more about options for filing a lawsuit against that facility.
Newsworthy topics can also lean more toward trends in the law, such as recently published studies or decided cases, or new legislation in your area. For example, if you run a family law blog in your state and a new study on divorces appeared in a peer-reviewed psychology journal, you may want to craft a blog post discussing that article. Other family law attorneys, as well as potential and current clients, may be interested in learning about the study.
Similarly, for example, if you are an employment lawyer, it can be beneficial to blog about new employment law statutes or cases in your state to show other attorneys and potential clients that you’re engaged in dialogue in your field. These kinds of blogs can demonstrate that you’re constantly engaging in relevant legal issues and are up-to-date on changes in the legal field.
When blogging about newsworthy topics or trends in the law, it’s essential to be quick. Unlike evergreen content, this material will not remain "fresh" for readers as the evergreen posts will. As such, you should be thinking about these types of blogs as timely posts that can help to draw traffic to your firm’s website while the topic itself remains newsworthy and relevant.
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Firm Updates and News
Some legal blogs will also have posts that include updates about the firm and news about lawyers working there. These types of blogs can help attract potential clients, as well as for attracting new lawyers to the practice. For example, a blog post about a firm update might alert readers that one of the partners was named to a community advisory board or was selected as a "Super Lawyer" or "Rising Star" in the area where the lawyer practices.
These types of blogs can be beneficial for attracting potential clients who may have already done a bit of research into your firm. In addition, posts that provide information about firm updates and news can also appeal to other lawyers thinking about moving from a larger firm to a smaller or midsize firm like yours. Indeed, if you’re currently hiring new associates or if you’re looking to expand your firm, brief articles that provide information about the firm and its successes may also help you to grow your business.
How to Choose the Types of Content for Your Blog
When you’re developing a schedule for blog posts, you’ll want to think about the purpose of these types of law blogs and who you’re hoping to target with the material. Many firms create a blog schedule that has a mix of various kinds of blog posts, while others will stick with one or two general types of posts. What are you hoping to achieve with your blog? What kind of reader are you envisioning? It may be that you’re trying to target multiple kinds of readers, and accordingly, you may end up putting together a blog schedule that includes many different forms of content.
Ultimately, when deciding what content to include in your law blog, it’s essential to think about your intended audience (and what that reader wants). Yet, even more importantly, you should remember that you can always make revisions and change the content on your blog. One of the great benefits of a blog—as opposed to a print journal, for example—is that you can always update your posts and make revisions based on your needs.
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