/CEPACLaw.com/Kevin Quinlan/ 08/27/2009
Kevin Quinlan, legal marketer, weighs in on the importance of creativity and relevant content in SEO copywriting that is written for the benefit of prospects and not just for search engine optimization and Google algorithms.
Many people have come to believe that writing legal content for search engine optimization (SEO) is just a matter of stuffing keywords and phrases into copy without regard to how interesting or relevant the communication is. SEO copywriting is about much more than incorporating keywords into content so that search engines can find your pages, but consumers find them unreadable, unusable or just plain irritating.
It has always amazed me when I land on a page that has virtually no relevance to my original Google search. As a marketer with a background in retail, it is not lost on me that there are certain items and techniques that can result in impulse buys. That said it is hard to fathom how results so unrelated to a search could pique someone’s interest to a greater extent than it would irritate them enough to never return to that site.
Copywriting for SEO has always been more of a creative process than just focusing on the density of keywords on a page or where keywords are placed based upon what some optimizers speculate the search engine algorithms look for. Many attorneys have reluctantly come to accept excessively optimized content as the norm and are unaware that professionally crafted copy for SEO should serve the same purpose as writing for traditional print media; it should be informative, address the questions posed by typical prospects for your law firm and be a smooth easy read. The bottom line is that the content on your law firm’s website or in your news releases should be crafted for the benefit of your readers/prospects first and to satisfy an algorithm last.
The challenge for professional legal SEO copywriters is to strike a balance between personal style, creativity and providing the most relevant content to address the questions and concerns of prospects for law firms and the inclusion of content relevant to search engine spiders. Staying on message while following best practices for Title tags, keyword placement and density, and inclusion of anchor tags can be a challenging task, but that is why it makes sense for law firms to work with seasoned legal Internet marketers.
Uninspired SEO copywriting can increase the bounce rate on an attorney’s website almost as quickly as poorly designed navigation. The title tag must make a prospect want to click through to your website and when keywords are used only as often as it makes sense for the content, users will tend to read on and hopefully answer your call to action.
For more information on SEO copywriting for lawyers, web design or web marketing for law firms, contact Rene Perras
Press Release Contact Information:
Kevin Quinlan Phone: 561.313.7410
