Writing content for your legal website may seem like a fairly simple task: you just create a short landing page, “About Us” and “Contact Information” pages with little content on them, and maybe a letter from a senior partner. However, if you want to generate any traffic to your website without having to practically beg for it, then you’ll need to take some additional care with your content. You’ll want, in a word, to optimize your content to improve your search engine rankings. In addition, you want to make sure that you provide, in a clear and navigable way, answers to questions that your prospective clients might have. That is, after all, why they’re on your website: they need help and hope that you can provide it. Here’s a breakdown of what you need to do to make your content work for you. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO). One of the best ways of driving traffic to your website is by linking your website with search terms prospective clients are likely to use. If, for example, you’re a Chicago trial lawyer specializing in slip, trip and fall accidents, you’re going to want your website to come up when someone types “slip and fall accident lawyer help Chicago” into Google. The process by which you tweak your website to rise in the search engine rankings (thus putting your website closer to the top) is called SEO. Here’s how you can write content that’s linked to the words you want:

1. On each page of your website, make sure that you use the search terms you’ve selected at a rate of between 1 and 7 percent per page. If you have a number of terms, don’t try to use all of them, but rather divide them up among your web pages, focusing on one or two terms per page. Weave the content in as naturally as possible so that it doesn’t seem forced. You should not be heavily editing content here, but rather working in those search terms you think are important.
2. Organize your content into headings and subheadings. Not only does this allow you to bold your search terms (Google weights bolded text heavier than unbolded text), but it also makes it easier (more digestible) for the readers, who frequently skim (particularly with legal content) when reading online. 
3. Use your search terms in the architecture of your site. Make sure that your meta tags include the search terms, as well as the titles of your pages. Search engines take the content in these sections into account when ranking websites, so your content writing needs to cover them as well.  

Content for Clients. If you’ve been practicing law for a while, you can probably rattle off all the questions new clients ask about what to expect. By answering those questions in, for example, a series of articles or videos, you will provide a real service to your prospective clients—and make them far more likely to trust and hire you. People searching for lawyers online generally don’t call until they’ve made a decision, and the more information you give them, the more they’ll have to judge you by.