In commenting on John Jantsch’s post about avoiding the “B” word, Michelle Golden at Golden Practices got me thinking about why it might be a very good legal marketing tool to turn your website into a weblog (see even I avoided the “B” word).

So, why turn your boring, brochure-site that no one visits (except maybe to get directions, if you have them, or to check out a lawyer’s bio after having already heard of her or him) into a Blog (oops)?

For all the reasons cited by John in his “B” word-avoiding post (with my parenthetical comments):

  • Will bring you a substantial increase in search engine traffic (because the content is fresh and regularly updated),
  • Will greatly enhance your ability to communicate with your market (presumably because your content is of value),
  • Will increase your odds of being interviewed by the media (because you are getting picked up by the search engines, and thus becoming known and of interest to the media)
  • Will allow you (or someone you designate) to instantly post news updates to your web site (because blogging software is soooo easy to use),
  • Will guarantee that your web site has fresh reasons for people to come back (see bullet No.1 above)
  • Will allow you to be seen as a thought leader in your industry (see bullet No. 2 above), and
  • Will give you a tool to help cement strategic partner relationships (because, most likely, for all the reasons above).

Okay, there you are. You don’t have to use the “B” word or officially have one of those “things” for that matter. But it would be a very good legal marketing idea if your website at least accomplished the same things.