The word blog was extracted from Web-log, which is a personal journal or newsletter that is posted on the Internet. The key to a blog is that it is ongoing. You can easily update it with fresh and current information at any time, without the need for a webmaster. In fact, the best blogs are updated on a regular basis, as frequently as every day.

This can be a huge benefit for your legal website in two important ways:

First, the Internet is reaching new highs every month in terms of audience and searches. For instance, there were more than 3 million “lawyer”-related searches and over 2 million “attorney”-related searches in the month of January alone. A blog can be a big help in improving your search engine positioning results in very cluttered search engines.

Search engines have “spiders” or “robots” that visit your website, as they organize their index. If your website is optimized effectively, they will “spider” through every page, including your blog. These spiders weed through your website looking for new content. A consistently updated blog creates fresh content on your website for the spiders to find. Fresh content serves as “bait” for the search engine spiders, so that they keep coming back.

The second, and most overlooked benefit of blogs is that the copy projects more of your personality or that of your practice. Since blogs are more conversational and less formal, readers get to know the author in a much more personal way. Since lawyers are in a service industry, developing a “relationship” is the first step to earning trust. In many cases, your website is the first exposure potential clients have of you. So make it count and blog away!

Following are a couple of legal blogs that are updated on a regular basis:

• Anthony Castelli - Cincinnati Ohio Personal Injury Lawyer's Blog
• The Injury Lawyer Directory Blog
  

Kristina Griffin
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