Strategic Marketing

Trial lawyers are master storytellers, and storytelling is a powerful art. It’s powerful because human beings communicate, plan, operate, and live every day in the context of stories—fantastic narratives in which we mutually agree to abide, and from which we understand the world around us. Because stories are such a critical part of the human experience, honing the art of narrative storytelling will make you a better trial lawyer, and a more effective advocate for your clients in mediation as well. A story, when carefully crafted, is like a Trojan horse—it’s a vehicle for infiltrating the minds and hearts of others with a message, and once safely secured behind the walls of our prejudices and preconceived notions, the story takes hold of our conscious mind and imposes its will. The Trojan horse was a military weapon of subterfuge used to conquer a great city, but stories don’t have to be used for nefarious purposes. They can also be used to provide information that empowers people to establish justice. What Are Stories and Why Are They so Important? Stories are the primary way that our species exchanges information. Wherever information is shared, critical messages are communicated via a story. The better the story, the better the communication. As a vehicle, a story can transport us through time and space, take us to places we’ve never been or that don’t exist, and trigger real, physiological responses—from joy to grief. Stories are important because they are powerful, uniquely human tools. Our species has been engaged in the practice of telling and believing stories ever since the first apes gazed at the stars and fashioned them into gods. Perhaps this ability to tell and believe a narrative is what separates us from the other animals. While I don’t know why we make up and believe stories, as a trial lawyer, I’m an expert storyteller and have seen, firsthand, the impact of stories, not only on juries, but also on people in general—and so have you. It’s just that the make-believe is so commonplace that we often fail to realize we are a part of the narrative. Whether it be the story behind a nation’s flag, which may instill the pride we have in our country; the stories we believe about money, which convert a mere paper object into currency; or the stories wielded by a trial lawyer spinning a yarn of evidence into a verdict of gold, we find ourselves yielding helplessly to the narrative. Not out of naiveté, but because stories are useful. They bind us to one another and allow people to cooperate in complex ways, which is why I am fond of telling plaintiff’s and defense lawyers alike that, “if you want a jury to connect and cooperate with you, then you must have them accept your invitation to become a part of a story.” The Mechanics of a Good Story So, let’s talk about the elements of a good story. Take a typical auto accident case. It’s easy to become a little lazy when it comes to the narrative. The police officer’s incident report tells us what happened, and the medical records provide evidence of damages, so our instinct is to frame the story around what the officer has described and what the doctor has diagnosed. But the officer has been trained to provide the most boring factually neutral story possible, and the doctor is a scientist, not a storyteller. On the other hand, trial lawyers are tethered only by evidence and procedure. Because the evidentiary elements of our cases are so critical, we can often be tempted to spend inordinate amounts of time developing our evidence at the expense of developing a compelling story—all while squandering the trial lawyer’s gift. Do not fall prey to the tide of form over substance. Resist by crafting your evidence into a gripping and persuasive story. A good story need not be complex, but it must be told well. Stories, at least those stories that tend to move people, generally follow a problem/solution pattern. There is a status quo that exists. A situational problem arises. Then a solution or victory is obtained, often by a person who is a hero. The knottier or thornier the problem, and the more creative the solution, the more that story resonates, and picks open locks in our minds. This is why inside a good story, we’re more open-minded, and more persuadable. Coincidentally, the classic framework of a captivating story is the same framework encountered in many of our cases. A person is bumping along, living his or her life, and then—bang! Bad things happen; perhaps a contract is breached or someone becomes horribly injured. Now the person must fight through the problem. He may have lost a critical business opportunity, or she might have medical expenses, pain, suffering, loss of a job, or other troubles. As lawyers, we have the opportunity to fashion the evidence into a story that empowers a jury to accept the solution that our clients desire. If you have told the type of story that has brought the jury into the life of the character—your client—the jury will step into the story and take on the role that they’ve seen played out repeatedly in stories throughout their lives. They become the agent of change. The hero who dispenses justice and restores righteousness and order to the lives of the parties involved. Whether your client is the plaintiff or the defendant, when it comes to the jury, the best story (vehicle for transmitting your ideas) wins. To sum up, the facts of your case are the battleground, but the story is the fight. The main ingredients of a story are character, conflict, and resolution. Your story should include your client, how his or her life was disrupted, and then (hopefully) a verdict in his or her favor. You want the jury, your audience, to care about your client/character, and you want the relief to be an appropriate remedy. Using Stories at Mediation and Trial Remember this as you build your case. Look beyond the facts in a contract, police report, medical records, testimony, or other evidence, and ask yourself—what story does this tell? Because the story is what compels people. The story is what captures people’s most vulnerable human instincts, and the story is what wins. To build this kind of narrative as you prepare for trial: Identify your story early and keep an open mind because you may need to adapt it. Choose a main character—perhaps your client (or your client’s family), a business owner (or the business’s employees). And make your characters real-life, multi-dimensional people that the jury can grow to know and love. Establish trust. People will avoid talking about difficult circumstances unless there is trust, and it’s the difficult things that make a story rich and exciting. When clients/witnesses trust you, they provide deeper, more complex information for your story. Look for a theme that runs throughout your story. Is it about distracted driving? Profits over people? Safety? The theme is often connected to the essence of the conflict. For example, the conflict may look like, “the red car hit the blue car.” And that’s a story, but it isn’t a good story. A good story is that the person in the red car was distracted when she was supposed to be guarding the safety and well-being of her fellow motorists. Case facts don’t make themselves into a story on their own. They must be shaped. A jury is supposed to carefully evaluate each party’s facts and determine, by the evidence presented, what outcome should take place. But we’re human beings. We construct and believe in stories, and so the better-told story can often mean the difference between a win and a loss or a win and a big win. When you understand your story, you develop evidence that supports that story. Think of the “whys”. Why did the tragedy happen? Think of big-picture aspects that are bigger than the incident that caused the harm. What can the jury fix? How can the jury fix it? Stories are not only useful at trial. Your client’s story can also be an effective tool at mediation and can help the mediator understand not only the facts of the case but also how your client has been affected—and how a jury is likely to respond to your client. At mediation your goal isn’t to convince a jury; nevertheless, crafting a thoughtful, compelling story can help you better prepare for mediation and for trial, should mediation fail. Finally, practice your story. Share it with your significant other, your law partners, the Lyft driver. Tell it over and over again. You’ll find yourself tweaking it and perfecting it along the way. Tell it so often and so well that it ceases to be a mirage and becomes a manifested reality. Don’t worry about sounding contrived. You’re telling a story, and that’s what juries and people want. I say this—the good lawyers practice and practice until they get it right. The great ones practice and practice until they can’t get it wrong. *Originally published in the Daily Report and reprinted with permission.

The firms that will dominate client acquisition in 2026 are making fundamentally different strategic moves than their competitors. Will your firm lead the transition or chase after it? Today, there are six critical shifts reshaping legal marketing: The AI search revolution that’s already capturing a growing percentage of legal research queries The death of generic marketing strategies The rising importance of referral validation infrastructure The technical SEO factors separating visible firms from invisible ones The measurement frameworks that prove (or disprove) marketing ROI The specialization imperative driving client selection Understanding these trends and acting on them is the difference between growth and stagnation. At 9Sail, we’ve been tracking these shifts for more than a decade, and we’re seeing the competitive advantages compound for firms who moved early. The 12–18-month head start available to forward-thinking firms in early 2026 represents a once-in-a-decade opportunity to establish digital authority before markets become saturated. The AI Search Revolution Is Already Here (And Most Firms Are Invisible) The firms dominating these AI platforms aren’t there by accident—they’re there by strategy. What Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Means for Law Firms GEO isn’t just another marketing buzzword—it’s a fundamental shift in how legal expertise is discovered: Content becomes citation-worthy. AI platforms need comprehensive, authoritative content that directly answers complex queries. Technical implementation matters. Structured data, clear schema markup, and LLMs.txt files signal credibility to AI. First-mover advantage exists. Only 2-3 agencies in the legal marketing space offer true GEO services currently. Timeline urgency is real. You have a 12–18-month window before this becomes table stakes rather than competitive advantage. Practical First Steps for AI Search Visibility Start with an honest assessment of where you stand: Audit your current AI search presence by testing your firm name and practice areas in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Identify content gaps by asking which client questions AI platforms answer without citing your firm. Prioritize comprehensive, authoritative content over thin keyword-stuffed pages that served the old SEO playbook. Consider GEO-specific technical implementation for your highest-value practice area pages. Traditional SEO focused on keywords and backlinks. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) requires citation-worthy content structure and authoritative source signals that AI platforms trust and reference. AI search represents the most significant shift in client discovery since Google transformed legal marketing two decades ago, but it’s compounded by the death of generic marketing strategies. Generic Marketing Strategies Now Actively Harm Multi-Practice Firms The “one-size-fits-all” digital marketing approach that many large, multi-practice firms have relied on for years is now actively costing firms high-value clients. When a boutique firm with specialized expertise outranks a full-service firm with superior resources, it’s not an accident—it’s the market punishing generic positioning. Why Specialized Boutique Firms Are Winning Digital Battles Sophisticated clients don’t search for “law firms near me.” They search for specific solutions to specific problems. Boutique firms optimize deeply for narrow specialization. Multi-practice firms often optimize shallowly across everything, trying to be all things to all people. As a result, boutique firms with 10 attorneys outrank their much larger counterparts because their digital presence screams expertise rather than whispers competence. The solution isn’t becoming a boutique firm. It’s marketing like you have deep, niche expertise in each practice area. That requires abandoning firm-wide generic approaches in favor of practice-specific strategies that demonstrate depth rather than breadth. Practice-Specific Content Architecture Implementation starts with honest assessment: Audit your website structure. Do you have generic “practice areas” pages or deep, authoritative content that answers every question prospects ask? Develop practice-specific content calendars that address the unique questions criminal defense clients ask versus questions business law clients’ research. Create practice-specific conversion paths instead of funneling everyone to the same generic contact form. Build practice-specific landing pages for paid campaigns rather than wasting ad spend sending prospects to your homepage. Specialization matters more than ever because referral validation has fundamentally changed how prospects evaluate law firms. Referral Validation Infrastructure Determines Conversion Rates The most expensive marketing failure isn’t generating too few leads—it’s losing warm referrals during their digital validation research. When a CPA refers a client to your business law group, and that client researches your firm online but never calls, you’ve lost a qualified prospect with the highest possible intent. This “referral validation gap” costs firms millions in lost revenue. Referral Research Before They Contact You. For Real. The referral journey has changed permanently: Data shows referred prospects research the attorney online before making contact. Referral sources expect firms to have strong digital presence that validates their recommendation. What prospects look for during validation: specific expertise demonstration, recent relevant content, professional credibility signals, and a clear engagement path. Weak digital presence doesn’t just fail to generate leads—it actively kills referrals you’ve already received. Your digital infrastructure either converts referrals or loses them. There’s no middle ground. Building Digital Infrastructure That Converts Referrals Converting referrals requires specific digital assets: Recent, relevant thought leadership that shows active practice rather than stale content from 2009. Clear, immediate contact mechanisms instead of a single contact form that is removed from the intake process. Social proof and credibility indicators including case results, speaking engagements, and third-party publications. Mobile-optimized experience because many prospects research on phones during initial contact moments (not to mention Google gives preferences to well-optimized mobile experiences). Measuring Referral Conversion vs. Lead Generation Track referrals in a central database: Monitor referral source attribution separately from organic traffic. Measure time between referral received and prospect contact. Identify drop-off points in the referral journey (where do they research but not engage?). Survey referred prospects who don’t convert: “What made you choose another firm?” Calculate cost of referral leakage: [referrals received] x [conversion rate] x [average case value]. Referral conversion depends heavily on technical foundations most firms completely ignore. Technical SEO Is Now a Revenue Driver, Not Just an IT Issue Technical SEO factors invisibly determine whether prospects can find you at all. Core Web Vitals, mobile performance, structured data, and site architecture aren’t technical minutiae. They’re revenue enablers. Or revenue killers. Core Web Vitals and the Speed-to-Lead Connection Google’s Core Web Vitals measure loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. These directly impact rankings, but the business impact is more severe: slow sites lose prospects before they engage. Sites loading in 1–2 seconds convert at significantly higher rates than sites loading in 5–6 seconds. Legal searchers have high intent but are time-poor. Technical performance determines conversion before content quality even enters the equation. Schema Markup and AI Search Readiness Schema markup helps search engines and AI platforms understand your content structure. Critical schemas for law firms include Local Business, Attorney, Legal Service, and FAQ Page. Proper schema enables rich results like FAQ expansions and local pack inclusion. AI platforms use schema to validate authority and extract structured information. Most law firm websites have incomplete or incorrect schema implementation—low-hanging fruit that dramatically improves both traditional and AI search visibility. The LLMs.txt and Robots.txt Strategy Control how AI platforms access your content: Implement LLMs.txt to direct AI platforms toward your most authoritative content. Review robots.txt to ensure you’re not accidentally blocking valuable content from AI crawlers. Create XML sitemaps specifically for high-value practice area content. Conduct regular technical audits (quarterly minimum) to catch issues before they impact rankings. Test mobile-first because what works on desktop often breaks on mobile. But technical foundations only matter if you can measure what’s working. ROI Measurement Frameworks Now Make or Break Marketing Budgets “We’re getting more traffic” no longer justifies marketing budgets. Managing partners and executive committees demand clear connections between marketing spend and revenue generation. The marketing teams winning budget battles in 2026 will be those with the clearest ROI measurement. Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics Vanity metrics (website traffic, social media followers, keyword rankings) are easy to track but don’t connect to revenue. Revenue metrics (cost per qualified lead, lead-to-client conversion rate, revenue per marketing dollar, client lifetime value) require more sophisticated tracking but actually justify budgets. The gap between what firms measure and what partners care about creates budget vulnerability. When budgets get cut, firms tracking vanity metrics lose funding while firms demonstrating revenue impact get increases. Compare “Our traffic increased 45%” versus “Our marketing generated $487K in new revenue at 4:1 ROI.” Which statement wins budget discussions? Attribution Models for Legal Services Legal services have long sales cycles, multiple touchpoints, and referral complexity that make attribution challenging: First-touch attribution. What initially brought the prospect to your firm? Last-touch attribution. What finally converted them to a client? Multi-touch attribution. Which touchpoints contributed throughout the journey? Track the full journey but weight last-touch for budget allocation decisions. Don’t forget that referral validation touches count even if the referral itself is “first touch.” Building Your Marketing Dashboard Essential KPIs for law firm marketing: Lead metrics. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) Cost metrics. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Conversion metrics. Lead-to-Client Conversion Rate by source and practice area Track by channel to identify which sources generate highest-quality leads at lowest cost. Track by practice area to understand where marketing ROI is strongest. Focus monthly executive reporting on revenue metrics, not vanity metrics. Use data to inform budget allocation—double down on high-ROI channels. Measurement reveals which specialization investments actually pay off. Generic Expertise Claims No Longer Persuade “We handle all types of business legal matters” was acceptable positioning in 2015. In 2026, it’s a liability. Clients don’t want generalists who can handle their case, they want specialists who’ve handled dozens, if not hundreds, of similar cases. Digital marketing must reflect this specialization, not obscure it. How Clients Actually Select Attorneys Clients choose attorneys based on specific experience, not general capability. So naturally, digital content must demonstrate depth, not breadth. Being known for everything means being known for nothing. (Or as my father liked to say, “Some men know everything. But that’s all they know.”) The expertise paradox is real: the more broadly you position yourself, the less credible you become for any specific need. Content Depth as a Competitive Moat Build unassailable positions in your strongest practice areas: Identify 2-3 practice areas where your firm has deepest expertise and highest revenue potential. Build comprehensive content libraries for those areas (50+ pieces minimum). Address every question prospective clients ask during initial consultations. Use content depth to differentiate from competitors with thin practice area pages. Measure content effectiveness by tracking which pieces drive qualified inquiries. Specialization is about demonstrating depth in the areas where you compete for high-value work. Decisions to Make in 2026 The landscape in 2026 rewards firms that understand these critical shifts. The common thread across all six is strategic sophistication. Firms that view digital marketing as a cost center to minimize will lose ground to firms that view it as a revenue driver to optimize. The question isn’t whether to invest in these areas—it’s which priorities to address first based on your competitive positioning, practice mix, and current digital foundation. Begin your 2026 planning by auditing where your firm stands across these six dimensions. Which represent your biggest opportunities? Which pose the greatest competitive threats?

If you feel like you’re always racing to keep pace with your law firm’s ever-expanding content calendar, it’s not your imagination. Consistently producing high-quality blogs, engaging newsletters, and compelling social media posts takes significant bandwidth, something few legal marketers can spare. No wonder firms are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence to lighten the load. When leveraged in concert with human creativity, the right AI-powered tools can transform even the worst content bottleneck into a far more efficient workflow. AI Tools to Streamline Content Creation Few marketing activities require more time and focus than content creation. It’s an ongoing cycle of research, writing, editing, and approvals that can easily stretch from hours into days. But these generative AI tools are quickly changing that dynamic, streamlining processes, taking on routine tasks, and leaving marketers free to focus on what matters most: Jasper From brainstorming blog topics and producing initial drafts to crafting social media captions and repurposing content for a monthly newsletter, this end-to-end marketing platform improves efficiency across the entire content life cycle. Once given clear direction on brand guidelines and context-rich prompts, Jasper can quickly generate engaging content aligned with your firm’s voice, tone, and strategic goals. ChatGPT A powerful AI platform with wide-ranging content generation capabilities. ChatGPT can help your firm produce high-quality first drafts for legal articles, blog posts, and email communications. CoCounsel by Thomson Reuters CoCounsel uses trusted databases like Westlaw to create accurate, authoritative legal content. Perfect for client alerts, thought leadership, and regulatory updates, it streamlines content creation while minimizing factual errors. Clio Duo This platform leverages generative AI to distill complex legal documents, case files, and judicial decisions into clear, client-friendly summaries for newsletters, blog posts, and case studies. MyCase IQ MyCase IQ analyzes large volumes of legal documents, converting dense text into plain-language insights that you can use to highlight results, outcomes, or evolving trends within your firm’s practice areas. Grammarly The premium version goes beyond a simple grammar check, offering real-time suggestions on tone, clarity, and style. Integrating it into your workflow ensures every communication is polished, professional, and error-free. AI-Powered SEO and Market Research Creating great content is only half the battle; potential clients still need to find it online. These AI-powered SEO and research tools help ensure you get the right content in front of the right audience at the right time: Surfer SEO Surfer SEO uses AI to analyze top-ranking content for your keywords and provide data-driven recommendations. By assisting with structure optimization, keyword density, readability, and semantic relevance, this platform helps improve Google rankings without sacrificing tone or authority. Clearscope Clearscope uses advanced natural language processing to refine your keyword targeting and improve topical depth. It scores your content based on readability, keyword variety, and competitive benchmarks, then offers practical suggestions to help it stand out in search. Darrow Darrow leverages the predictive power of AI to analyze massive datasets for legal, regulatory, and litigation trends. By identifying emerging topics before they become mainstream, it allows your firm to publish timely, relevant content ahead of its competitors. AI-Enhanced Analytics and Performance Tracking Even the most well-written content won’t move the needle if you can’t measure its impact. These AI analytics tools help you evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and refine your strategy for stronger results. Semrush By integrating AI into its position tracking, Semrush allows you to track how your firm appears in AI-generated answer formats and across different AI-powered interfaces, including ChatGPT and Gemini. Ahrefs Known for its powerful SEO and backlink analysis, Ahrefs uses AI-powered tools to analyze content for topic coverage, generate SEO-optimized content ideas and outlines, automate keyword research, detect AI-generated content, and monitor brand presence in AI overviews Client Engagement and Lead Generation Tools AI doesn’t just assist with content creation. The following tools transform how your firm communicates with clients and prospects, ensuring every communication and interaction feels relevant and timely. HubSpot A full-scale CRM and marketing automation platform, HubSpot enables law firms to create highly personalized email campaigns based on client behavior, practice area, or life-cycle stage. You can automate follow-ups, segment audiences, and track engagement, all from a single dashboard, helping your team nurture relationships and convert leads more efficiently. ActiveCampaign This platform utilizes AI agents to generate marketing content, automate campaigns, and provide insights for personalized strategies. Legal marketers can leverage these features to analyze audience behavior, predict trends, and automate tailored message delivery across different channels. Lately AI Lately relies on AI to repurpose long-form content into social posts optimized for various platforms. It identifies the most engaging excerpts from articles, videos, or podcasts, then turns them into shareable snippets—helping your firm maintain a consistent presence without overloading your marketing team. Buffer Buffer simplifies the management of multiple social media accounts, allowing your firm to plan, schedule, and publish posts in advance. Its AI analytics track engagement and performance, so you can identify which content resonates most with your audience and when it’s best to post. Using AI Responsibly in Legal Marketing While there’s no doubt AI can dramatically improve your team’s productivity, it’s no substitute for human judgment. Every piece of content generated with AI should be reviewed and approved by an experienced attorney to ensure it meets the highest ethical, confidentiality, and professional standards. Start small. Begin with a pilot project in one practice area or campaign to understand how AI performs within your firm’s workflow. Use this phase to identify strengths, address limitations, and refine internal processes before scaling. Establish clear guidelines. Create firm-wide policies that define where and how AI can be used. Clarify which types of content are appropriate for AI assistance (e.g., social media captions or blog drafts) and which require a fully human approach, such as legal analyses or opinion pieces. Maintain rigorous quality control. Implement multi-step review and approval workflows to ensure every AI-assisted piece meets your firm’s standards for accuracy, tone, and compliance. Incorporate legal review into your content pipeline early, not just at the end. Train your team. Education is critical. Make sure everyone, from marketing staff to attorneys, understands both the potential and limitations of AI. Provide regular training on prompt development, ethical guidelines, and privacy considerations. Takeaway When used strategically, Artificial Intelligence doesn’t replace your marketing team; it strengthens it. Pairing automation with human expertise will allow you to achieve the best possible results: more engaging content, greater efficiency, and the assurance that every piece you publish accurately reflects your firm’s brand voice and its high standards of professional integrity. 

Client testimonials build your firm’s credibility online. But there are ethical challenges with using client stories to attract new prospects. How do you use testimonials effectively and ethically? First, know the rules. Second, follow them. Third, be strategic and get creative about using testimonials to tell your own story and get attention online. Here’s what attorneys need to know about collecting and utilizing client testimonials for maximum impact online. Step 1: Collect Testimonials Ethically Ethics must be present on day one—they’re not something you can overlay afterward: Encourage without pressure. Invite clients to leave a review with an easy link. Time it right. Request it when they’re satisfied, not during ongoing work. Remind gently. People are busy, and it’s okay to remind, but never coerce or incentivize. Show appreciation. Thank them if they give you a review to reinforce goodwill. You can encourage clients to send testimonials directly to you, and you can also encourage them to post a review directly on a platform like Google. Both are valuable, even if you have to respond to a negative review. Remember, you need to obtain written consent to share a client’s story or quote. You must also avoid disclosing any confidential details or sensitive information. We find that the simplest and most effective way to collect testimonials is by using a simple post-service survey. Rather than sending a personal email and forgetting to follow up, a basic survey helps you collect concise and usable testimonials with all the information fields built in (for your ease and theirs). Step 2: Highlight Testimonials Strategically Got ’em? Time to make use of ’em. Here’s how you can make the most of your client testimonials to build trust and build your brand. Tell a story. Structure a testimonial like a mini case study. Add your own details to explain the problem, the solution, and the outcome and then embed the client’s review as social proof. Make it visual. Use a client photo (with permission) or a short video clip to encourage engagement. Otherwise, use a pull-quote style to highlight the text so it stands out. Embrace emotion. Focus on client relief, satisfaction, or positive impact. This can be just as meaningful as the sensitive legal details that you can’t share. Keep it short. Limit the length to 60 words for each testimonial. People are busy and they’re scanning your content. SEO. Include client location or practice area keywords naturally in testimonials to help boost your search visibility. Place it perfectly. Don’t bury testimonials in your footer. Make sure your website design displays quotes prominently to snag attention. Put them on your homepage, on practice area pages, and on a dedicated testimonials page. Wait! There are two final principles you need to understand: Variety means including testimonials from different practice areas or client types to appeal to diverse prospects. If all your reviews are the same, your firm will seem a little one-note. Freshness means regularly updating with new content, or at least rotating in new reviews from your collection. This demonstrates ongoing client satisfaction. Finally, you need to weave client testimonials into multiple marketing channels. Put them where people can see them! Share snippets on social media Include them in newsletters or follow-up emails to leads Seek reviews on your Google Business Profile Step 3: Maintain Compliance With Legal Advertising Rules Your state bar has guidelines on advertising and social media—bookmark them and read them carefully. Some states have stricter rules than others, like New York. Here are some general tips on compliance when it comes to testimonials: Avoid misleading claims. Do not imply guaranteed outcomes or use superlatives that can’t be backed by data. Be clear. Indicate when you’ve edited a testimonial for clarity or length. Better to give more information than accidentally mislead someone. Keep good records. Document consent so you can pull up client permission if there’s ever an inquiry. It’s worth saying that you are responsible for compliance. Even if you work with an agency, you need to ensure that everything on your site is aligned with the legal advertising rules in your area. Step 4: Measure and Adapt As with all digital marketing, you need to stay involved. Test and adapt for continual improvement. You’ll find that some testimonials resonate with your prospects more than others. Monitor. Don’t overcomplicate it. Just track engagement and see which testimonials are driving website clicks, social shares, or consultation inquiries. A/B test. Experiment with formats. Try the same testimonial in text form and in video form. Try it in a short clip or a longer video. Try a single quote or a full case study. See what resonates, and see if you understand why. Update (but not too often). Give your current content enough time to collect accurate data. Then, refresh testimonials every six months to reflect current client satisfaction and fit your evolving practice focus. Extrapolate. Take what you learn and use those insights to guide future marketing campaigns and your content strategy. Are people really responding to a certain service you offer? Perhaps it’s worth a few blog posts or a behind-the-scenes video featuring your team that explains the service in more detail. Final Tips Ethical testimonials fuel growth. With a little care and attention to detail, you can build up a steady flow of reviews and deploy them in service of your business. That’s because credibility is a game-changer in the legal industry. Testimonials are one of the fastest ways to build trust online. Integrated strategically into a strategic digital presence, you’ll drive leads effortlessly. Set yourself up for success with a website design that’s built to convert. Use a tested template that spotlights testimonials and start growing your firm. 

Knowing how to choose a legal videographer starts with learning exactly what they do and why their specific expertise is so important. Beyond film quality and formatting needs, legal videographers must understand legal proceeding protocols and follow workflows and systems that guarantee file security and compliance. Ultimately, choosing the right videography provider leads to evidence that holds up in court and risk avoidance for your firm. What Does a Legal Videographer Do? Videographers most often capture testimonies and depositions during the discovery phase of litigation. They can also be used at trial or engaged to record locations, machinery, event re-creations, and other useful videos for legal matters. Legal videography can take place in conference rooms, hotels, courtrooms, homes, or any number of locations. Capture Testimonies and Depositions on Video Deposition and testimony videos record nuances that significantly affect the believability and interpretation of an individual’s spoken words. While transcripts are essential to the legal system, they don’t convey the full experience of witness testimony, especially given the varying types of witnesses. Consider the difference between reading printed words vs. watching or hearing: Facial expressions that contradict or reinforce what is being said Fidgeting, tension, or body postures Tone and cadence changes Willingness or failure to make eye contact With a video, a judge, jury, and other viewers can more clearly: Assess truthfulness Absorb the emotion involved Receive the full impact of injuries or harm described Ensure Admissibility Through Professional Standards There are some critical rules to abide by for videos that may be introduced at trial. Video depositions, for example, must follow Rule 30, Depositions by Oral Examination, under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This covers: 1 Video manipulation: The “deponent’s and attorneys’ appearance or demeanor must not be distorted through recording techniques,” which means no filters, creative filming techniques, or post-production manipulation to a straightforward video capture. Court reporter opening: A deposition video must begin with all required elements of the court reporter’s opening statement, including their name and business address; the deposition’s location, date, and start time; the deponent’s name and the administration of the oath or affirmation to them; and the identification and role of each person present. Court reporter closing: The videographer should continue uninterrupted filming through the court reporter’s closing, which includes the ending date and time, the custody and availability plans and stipulations of the video file, and any attorney or jurisdictional stipulations related to evidentiary exhibits, etc. Skilled legal videographers will display professionalism through these behaviors: Arrive early with the right equipment for the space Handle all technical details and video equipment Capture all pertinent filming unobtrusively, without affecting the proceedings Offer rapid turnaround and choice of file format Offer Postproduction Services In addition to a “raw” video of legal proceedings, there are several ways that video files may need to be further adapted or used. When you choose a legal videographer, ask whether they (or their agency) can provide post-production services, such as: Video encoding, transcoding, conversion, and archiving Synchronization of separately recorded audio and video Video editing Video clip creation Closed captioning services Synchronized video transcripts Picture in picture (PIP) technology Core Qualifications to Look for in a Legal Videographer Proven experience should be a top priority when securing legal videography. Additionally, there are several educational and professional markers to consider. In particular, look for: Certification There is no required federal, state, or local certification, licensing, or registration for legal videographers. However, certifications from professional associations can assure of competency through a combination of coursework, practical training, exams, and continuing education: 2,3 NCRA Certified Legal Video Specialist (CLVS) AGCV Certified Deposition Video Specialist (CDVS) AGCV Certified Evidentiary Video Specialist (CEVS) AGCV Certified Trial Technology Specialist (CTTS) Industry Experience Look for specific experience in legal videography—not simply the technical skills to handle the equipment. Legal videographers need to be familiar with regulations that govern their jurisdiction(s) and the unique goals and best practices of videos used in legal proceedings. In some states, legal videographers of depositions or other official proceedings must be authorized to administer an oath to allow the video into evidence. This means holding credentials such as those obtained by: Court reporters Notary publics Court clerks and deputy clerks Bailiffs Additionally, you may want to look for a legal videographer or agency that offers overlapping skills. A legal videographer who can also act as a trial presentation specialist or court reporter can land you a major efficiency bonus. Familiarity with Courtroom Procedures and Legal Protocols From adapting files for multi-platform use in hybrid trials to opting for best-practice equipment such as cardioid directional microphones, your videographer should understand the practical needs and requirements of the legal industry. These include: Set up to capture all relevant parties by both sound and sight The who, when, and where of courtroom access, scheduling, and connectivity Techniques to remain unobtrusive and avoid distracting the court A basic understanding of hearing, deposition, and trial sequences and protocols Technology and Equipment Considerations Legal videographers need to select optimal equipment and software, anticipating what they’ll rely on in different environments. This includes considering: Lighting, acoustic, and filming setup challenges Technology choices common to law firms and their conference rooms Built-in equipment in courthouses and courtrooms Best practices for capturing low-volume, multi-directional, multi-speaker audio Connectivity and power access workarounds Audio and Video Quality Standards for Legal Use The goal of legal videography isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but a clear record that captures all sounds and sights as crisply and truly as possible. There may be jurisdictional or administrative requirements around file specs such as format and size, but the requisite qualities of filming under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30 and Federal Rule of Evidence 902 are 1,3 : No distortion of appearance or demeanor through recording techniques Proof of original, unmanipulated file including intact metadata Inclusion of all elements of the court reporter’s opening and closing statements Backup Systems and File Security Measures A file gone missing or into the wrong hands can lead to delays or liability risks. To that end, your videographer needs to understand and utilize systems and protocols that provide security and backup for your files. This includes: Redundant datacenters 24/7 network and security operations End-to-end encryption You can check on their security protocols by inquiring about independent audits and their adherence to the following: SOC 2 Type 2 security compliance NIST Cybersecurity Framework HIPAA compliance Legal and Ethical Compliance Requirements During a trial, video can serve critical functions and offer a make-or-break impact on case outcomes. Functionally, legal videos can be used: As leverage during settlement negotiations To support pretrial preparation and strategy In lieu of live testimony at court To impeach witnesses during a trial Understanding of Confidentiality and Chain of Custody The content of legal videos can impact lives, marriages, employment, and even pose wider business and political risks. This makes confidentiality essential for all stages of capturing, storing, transferring, and (refraining from) discussing videos. Even for videos destined to be shown at trial and become part of the public record, timing and certainty of that release can alter case outcomes, making confidentiality a must. To be useful as evidence, legal videos also need to have a watertight provenance. The original file must be protected, with intact metadata that displays provenance factors including 3 : Authorship Creation and modification time-stamps Digital signatures Compliance with Local Jurisdictional Rules The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence were mentioned above, but they aren’t used across the board. While most states have adopted them to a large degree, there are variances that may impact how videos are taken and what elements must be included or proven. Your legal videographer should understand the evidentiary guidelines for the specific jurisdiction to avoid having video discarded from your evidence lineup at trial. Final Thoughts: Choosing the Right Legal Videographer with Confidence Selecting the right legal videographer means understanding what questions to ask to ensure you’re not just getting someone with the right technical and creative skills. Find out the details of their experience, legal understanding, and security workflows to produce, protect, and deliver exactly what you need.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and dozens of emerging AI search options are quietly reshaping how people discover attorneys. The question isn’t whether AI search will matter for your firm; it’s whether you’ll understand how these systems see your firm when they decide which lawyers to recommend to someone facing, for example, a divorce, planning their estate, or navigating a business dispute. Unlike traditional search engines that index web pages, AI search tools synthesize information from multiple sources, weigh authority signals differently, and can even hallucinate details about your firm. They’re creating a parallel universe of legal discovery. The firms that optimize for AI search visibility today will not only endure the transition, they’ll capture clients who never make it to page two of Google because they found their answer and their lawyer in a single AI-generated response. Let’s dive into some of the tools that can help your firm understand its AI search visibility. AI Search Visibility Limitations of Google’s Free Tools Currently, there are not many ways to understand your AI search traffic within Google’s free tools. I am hopeful that in the near future, there will be more data available, but for now, here is what each tool can tell you. GA4 Google Analytics (GA4) allows you to see the traffic coming to your website from AI search engines, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. You will need to play around with the filters within the Acquisition Reports, but we have found this to be the best free option for getting an initial understanding of the traffic your law firm’s website is generating from AI sources. Unfortunately, though, this will only tell you when someone clicked through to your site from an AI search; it will not be able to give you any data on how many times your firm was cited or mentioned. Search Console There is no way to track AI visibility directly within Search Console at this point in time. Right now, you can assume you are showing up within Google’s AI Overviews if you are seeing a spike in impressions; however, there is no way as of yet to filter out AI Overview traffic versus regular organic search traffic. Four AI Search Visibility Tracking Tools to Consider There is an abundance of new tools popping up in order to provide legal marketers with clarity on their AI Search Visibility. Let’s dive into some of the main ones that your firm should consider. Semrush AI Toolkit The Semrush AI Toolkit provides comprehensive AI search visibility analytics through its dedicated suite of artificial intelligence monitoring tools. The platform tracks how law firms appear across major AI-powered search engines, including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews, offering insights into citation frequency, source attribution, and competitive positioning within AI-generated responses. Pricing begins at $129.95 monthly for the Pro plan, with advanced AI features available in higher-tier subscriptions ranging up to $499.95 monthly for enterprise-level access. Conductor AI Tracking Conductor AI Tracking offers enterprise-grade AI search visibility monitoring as part of its comprehensive website optimization platform. The tool monitors visibility across search engines and LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity, measuring how content appears in AI answer engines to track visibility and identify opportunities. Legal firms can leverage Conductor’s AI tracking capabilities to understand their brand mentions within AI-generated responses, monitor competitive positioning across multiple AI platforms, and integrate AI search data with traditional SEO metrics through a unified dashboard. The platform combines content optimization, technical SEO auditing, and real-time website monitoring alongside its AI visibility features. Conductor operates on custom enterprise pricing tailored to specific organizational needs. Profound Profound is an AI visibility tracking platform specifically designed for those seeking comprehensive oversight of their presence across AI-powered search engines. The platform tracks how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot mention and rank content, while offering multi-region prompting and 20+ languages functionality, enabling firms to see visibility changes based on geographic location and language of queries. Profound recently unveiled real-time search volume insights for AI Answer Engines, allowing legal marketers to explore topic frequency across platforms. The platform processes 5M+ citations daily, tracks 4M+ crawler visits, and handles 1M+ prompts to deliver comprehensive intelligence for enterprise clients. Profound operates exclusively on customized enterprise pricing. Ahrefs Brand Radar Ahrefs Brand Radar provides AI search visibility tracking through the established Ahrefs platform, offering access to 5 AI indexes, 100M+ prompts, and zero setup required. The tool monitors brand mentions across major AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Users can track how often their firm is mentioned, which domains get cited, and the context surrounding these mentions, while accessing competitive share analysis to understand market positioning within AI-generated responses. Brand Radar is available for Lite plan subscribers and higher, with base access starting at $129/month through Ahrefs’ Lite plan. However, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity indexes are now available as add-ons at $99/month each following the beta period. Choosing the Right Tool for Your Firm Selecting the right AI visibility tool requires careful assessment of your firm’s specific needs, resources, and strategic objectives. Before choosing an AI visibility tool, you will want to assess whether your marketing team can effectively interpret and act upon the data each tool provides because sophisticated analytics become worthless without the ability to implement strategic changes. Next, evaluate the integration capabilities with existing marketing technology stacks, data export options for reporting, and the learning curve required for your team. Lastly and most importantly, align tool selection with measurable business objectives. Understand what you want to get out of the tool and be mindful of what your budget may be. For example, enterprise solutions like Conductor and Profound offer comprehensive capabilities but require a higher financial commitment, while tools like the Semrush AI Toolkit provide accessible entry points for firms already invested in traditional SEO platforms. The right tool is different for each firm, so take the time to identify which would be the best fit for you and your team. Looking Ahead to the Future The search landscape is already shifting dramatically. The share of Americans who have used ChatGPT had roughly doubled since summer 2023, and as of June 2025, 34% of U.S. adults say they have ever used ChatGPT, according to a Pew Research Center survey, indicating a growing use of ChatGPT and other AI agents as traditional search alternatives. Law firms face a fundamental reckoning: their visibility will increasingly depend not just on traditional SEO signals, but also on how effectively AI systems understand, cite, and recommend their expertise. The firms that invest in AI visibility tools today and develop the organizational capability to act on their insights will capture the growing segment of potential clients who never reach a traditional search results page, having found their legal counsel through AI-generated recommendations instead. Don’t Let Your Digital Visibility Tank in the Era of AI Search Law firms that continue to rely exclusively on conventional SEO and website optimization risk becoming invisible to the growing segment of potential clients who trust AI platforms for legal guidance and attorney recommendations. The window for proactive adaptation is narrowing—while your competitors debate the significance of AI search, early adopters are already positioning themselves as the preferred recommendations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and emerging AI platforms. In an industry where referrals and reputation drive success, allowing AI systems to overlook or misrepresent your firm’s expertise represents an existential threat to future growth. The firms that master AI search visibility today won’t just survive the digital evolution—they’ll define it, capturing clients and market share from competitors who waited too long to adapt to the new rules of legal discovery. 

Today, even with the changing content marketing and thought-leadership marketing landscapes, bylined articles are too valuable not to be part of your thought leadership program. If you’re an attorney or you work in marketing or business development for a law firm or an organization that serves the legal industry, it’s easy to get frustrated by the craziness in the content marketing and thought leadership marketing world today. Thanks to AI, many assumptions we’ve made about how content marketing and thought leadership marketing work have changed. From “zero-click” searches to AI gobbling up search traffic from Google, there’s a lot of uncertainty out there. But you know what? In uncertain times, it’s nice to rely on old standbys to get the job done. Bylined articles are exactly that. Today—perhaps now more than ever—they remain effective tools for building and maintaining thought leadership. Before I discuss why that’s the case, I realize that the success of a bylined article strategy depends on third-party publications publishing those articles. Those publications employ editors who serve as gatekeepers. But there are no gatekeepers for “owned media,” such as law firms’ blogs, podcasts, videos, and email newsletters. There’s no external force affecting a firm’s ability to publish or distribute content through these channels. That’s why developing owned media assets is a key thought leadership strategy for attorneys, executives, and firms seeking to establish and expand their authority. However, that doesn’t mean they—or you—shouldn’t continue to use bylined articles to achieve the same goal. Here are six reasons why they—and you—should. Bylined Articles Help Other Humans Discover You When you write a thought leadership article that’s published by a third-party publication—one that serves the industry you’re currently serving or one that you want to be known more in—you enable past, current, and future clients to discover or rediscover you through your content. If you rely on an email newsletter to distribute your thought leadership, it’s hard for people to discover you unless they’ve already subscribed to the newsletter to receive it (or were forwarded it by someone else). The same principle applies to your blogs and podcasts. With videos, a platform’s algorithm might help other people discover your videos, but they’d still need to follow you on a social media platform or subscribe to your YouTube channel to ensure they’re seeing everything you produce. Bylined Articles Help AI Platforms Discover You AI is a critical component of the discoverability and amplification of thought leadership today. If we want AI models like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and others to find us, suggest us as service providers, and cite our content in response to queries, we need to have content that’s discoverable by them. Yes, I know AI models have and will continue to crawl the internet to find all the content they can gobble up, including our blog posts, email newsletters posted online, and transcripts of our YouTube videos. But bylined articles published in reputable third-party publications give higher signs of authority and credibility than your blog posts or email newsletters. AI will deem the well-regarded publications you publish these articles in as more authoritative and credible than blog posts that may only get a few dozen readers. Bylined Articles Let You Build Authority Through Borrowed Credibility When you publish an article in a well-regarded publication, you’re seen as having some level of authority and credibility because that publication was willing to publish your thought leadership. By doing so, the publication sends a signal that your content was worthy of being included in it and worthy of carrying its imprint. Your podcasts, blog posts, email newsletters, and other owned media are a different story. As I discussed above, there’s no gatekeeper for this content, so the only credibility this content borrows is your and your firm’s credibility. Of course, if you or your firm are prominent thought leaders, that’s perfectly fine. But few attorneys or firms start their thought leadership journey from a position of high credibility and authority. Bylined Articles Are Potent Business Development Materials When a client or prospect has an issue that you’ve covered in a previous bylined article, you can send the article to them, which shows them that you’re familiar with the issue and likely have thoughts on how to address it. When you do so, you’re greasing the business development skids by letting the client/prospect know that you can handle this issue for them. Sure, this could be accomplished by sending a link to a blog post or podcast episode. But sending an article hits differently because it was published in a third-party publication, thereby borrowing the credibility of the publication. This is particularly important when the prospect is someone with whom you haven’t worked before or is someone with whom you’re not well acquainted. Bylined Articles Are More Credible Entries in Your Thought Leadership Library When you’re a professional services provider, any thought leadership is good thought leadership. Let’s get that out of the way. Even if you’re only publishing blog posts or email newsletters, the fact that you’re producing any thought leadership puts you ahead of most of your competition. Listing the blog posts you’ve written in your online bio and on your LinkedIn profile can help you build credibility and authority. But, again, that credibility and authority will be heightened when you’re listing the articles you’ve published in third-party publications, given the credibility you’re borrowing from those publications. Additionally, if you’ve published articles in a variety of publications that serve different geographies, industries, or segments of industries, your articles show clients and referral sources that there’s a breadth and depth to your knowledge and wisdom. With your blog posts, newsletters, and other owned media, that breadth and depth might not come across as clearly, even if you’re covering a wide range of topics in your content. Bylined Articles Can Drive the News Cycles at Media Outlets That Publish Them Finally, when you submit bylined articles to media outlets, those articles will be seen by those outlets’ editors and reporters. Your bylined articles could get you a separate round of publicity because you’ve alerted reporters to an interesting issue you covered in an article. This has happened several times with my clients. After submitting a bylined article that was published in a media outlet, a reporter from that outlet contacted the author to discuss the subject of their article because they wanted to report on it in a separate article. Of course, they called my client first to interview them about the topic because they had submitted the bylined article that piqued the reporter’s interest and demonstrated that the author was an authority on the article’s subject matter. This is a unique feature of bylined articles: helping people who publish articles get two bites of the thought leadership apple by first publishing an article and then having the opportunity to be interviewed for a subsequent article about the same topic. This doesn’t happen often, but the fact that it can happen at all is another reason to employ a bylined article strategy for your thought leadership. The Classics Are Classics for a Reason It’s crazy times out there today in the content marketing and thought leadership marketing arenas. When things get a little crazy, it’s nice to rely on old standbys. A bylined article strategy can help alleviate the concerns you and your colleagues have about AI and other technological developments negatively affecting your marketing and business development efforts. Even in the face of rapid technological change and uncertainty about whether marketing strategies and tactics that once worked will still work, bylined articles can help you and your colleagues implement a thought leadership campaign to build and expand your authority.

Is your firm unknowingly surrendering potential clients to its competitors? Prospects are online everyday researching the legal services they need, but if your pages aren’t appearing for the keywords they query, they’re going to head elsewhere. As a law firm in an increasingly competitive digital space, this isn’t just a problem—it’s a huge missed opportunity that’s costing your firm revenue. It’s also entirely reversible. By taking the time to conduct a keyword gap analysis, you can identify the search terms your competitors rank for, but you don’t. Tap into those keywords, and you can start to outrank your rivals and begin attracting more high-value prospects to your site. I’ve seen firsthand how the information gleaned from a well-thought-out keyword gap analysis can help law firms cut through the digital noise in a crowded online marketplace. If you’re ready to take your SEO strategy to the next level, let’s dive in! Understanding Keyword Research Keywords serve as the bridge between what potential clients search for and the legal services you provide. Effective keyword research goes beyond simply identifying highly searched terms. It requires understanding search intent—the “why” behind every query. When someone searches for “personal injury lawyer,” they have different needs than someone searching for “how to file a personal injury claim.” The first indicates they’re ready to hire legal representation, while the second suggests they’re still in the information-gathering phase. For law firms, this distinction matters tremendously. High-conversion keywords typically include location-specific terms like “divorce attorney in Chicago” or service-specific phrases such as “wrongful termination lawyer.” These targeted searches often represent prospects who are further along in their decision-making process. Long-tail keywords deserve special attention in legal marketing. While “lawyer” might generate massive search volume, “affordable immigration lawyer for green card applications” targets a specific audience with clear intent. These longer, more specific phrases typically face less competition and attract more qualified prospects. In addition, Google’s AI Mode and LLMs are shifting user behavior toward more conversational searches, which often take the form of long-tail queries and detailed questions. What Makes Keyword Gap Analysis Essential In my experience, most legal practices face intense competition online, with established firms dominating many valuable search terms. Keyword gap analysis helps level the playing field by revealing overlooked opportunities and emerging trends in legal searches. Consider this scenario: Your personal injury firm ranks well for “car accident lawyer,” but your competitor consistently appears for “rideshare accident attorney” and “bicycle accident lawyer”—terms you never considered targeting. A keyword gap analysis would identify these opportunities, allowing you to create relevant content and capture leads among potential clients querying those terms. The benefits extend beyond just finding new high-intent search terms. Keyword gap analysis provides insights into your competitors’ content strategies, reveals seasonal trends in legal searches, and helps you understand which topics resonate with your target audience. Regular gap analysis also keeps you ahead of industry changes. As new legal issues emerge or regulations change, search patterns evolve. Firms that monitor these shifts through competitor analysis can quickly adapt their content strategies to capture emerging opportunities. Performing a Keyword Gap Analysis So, what does it take to conduct a thorough keyword gap analysis? Identify Your True Competitors An effective analysis begins with identifying the right competitors to analyze. Focus on law firms that serve similar clients in your focal practice areas. Also review firms operating in your geographic area to assess how they perform locally—for example, through their office location pages and Google Business Profiles. Don’t just consider the biggest firms in your market—sometimes smaller, specialized practices can reveal valuable niche opportunities. Start by searching for your primary practice area keywords in Google. The firms consistently appearing in the top 10 results should be on your analysis list. Pay attention to both organic results and Google Ads, as firms investing in paid search often have sophisticated keyword strategies worth tracking and evaluating. Consider both direct and indirect competitors. A direct competitor might be another family law firm in your city, while an indirect competitor could be a legal information website that ranks for questions your potential clients ask. Identify Potential Competitor Keywords Once you’ve selected competitors, use your chosen analysis tool—Semrush Keyword Gap, Content Gap by Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, etc.—to extract their keyword data. Focus on terms that align with your practice areas and geographic market. A personal injury firm in Texas that only serves clients within the state shouldn’t prioritize keywords specific to New York workers’ compensation law. Look for patterns in your competitors’ keyword strategies. Are they targeting specific types of cases within your practice area that you haven’t considered? Do they rank for informational keywords that could drive top-of-funnel traffic to your firm? Pay special attention to local SEO opportunities. Competitors might rank for neighborhood-specific terms, nearby city names, or location-based legal questions that you could also target. And don’t overlook long-tail variations of your core keywords. Your competitor might rank for “how to choose a divorce lawyer” while you only target “divorce lawyer.” These informational keywords can attract prospects early in their research process. Choose Competitor Keywords to Target Not every keyword your competitors rank for deserves your attention. Prioritize opportunities based on relevance, search volume, competition level, and your firm’s capacity to create quality content. Relevance should be your first filter. A keyword might generate significant traffic for a competitor, but if it doesn’t align with your services or target clients, it won’t benefit your firm. Focus on keywords that match your practice areas and can realistically convert into qualified leads. Evaluate the competitive landscape for each keyword. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush provide keyword difficulty scores that estimate how challenging it would be to rank for specific terms. As a general rule, newer websites should target keywords with lower difficulty scores, while established firms with strong domain authority can pursue more competitive terms. Consider search intent carefully. Keywords indicating immediate need for legal services (like “hire DUI lawyer”) typically offer higher conversion potential than informational searches (like “what happens at a DUI hearing”). Balance your strategy between capturing immediate demand and building long-term organic growth through educational content. Creating Content Around High-Intent Keywords Discovering keyword opportunities is only the beginning. Success requires creating compelling, authoritative content that addresses the search intent behind each target keyword. For legal content, quality and expertise matter more than quantity. Google’s algorithms increasingly favor content that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—particularly important for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics like legal services. When creating content for legal keywords, consider the specific needs of searchers. Someone searching for “child custody modification lawyer” likely needs immediate legal assistance, making a well-optimized service page more appropriate than a general blog post. Conversely, “child custody laws in [state]” suggests an informational need better served by comprehensive educational content. Structure your content to address common questions and concerns related to each keyword. Use clear headings, bullet points, and concise paragraphs to make information easily digestible. Include relevant case studies, testimonials, or examples when appropriate, while maintaining client confidentiality. Don’t forget technical SEO elements. Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags to include your target keywords naturally. Ensure your content loads quickly and provides an excellent user experience across all devices. Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement Keyword gap analysis isn’t a one-time activity. Legal markets evolve, competitors adjust their strategies, and new opportunities emerge regularly. Establish a routine for monitoring your progress and identifying new gaps. Track key metrics including organic traffic growth, keyword ranking improvements, and most importantly, lead generation from organic search. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor how your targeted keywords perform over time. Set realistic expectations for results. SEO typically requires several months to show significant impact, particularly in competitive legal markets. Focus on gradual improvements, rather than expecting immediate dramatic changes. Keep monitoring your competitors’ activities. They may be conducting their own gap analysis and identifying opportunities you’ve overlooked. Keeping an eye on the competition helps you stay ahead of trends and maintain your search visibility. Takeaway The digital landscape is always evolving. But by prioritizing a data-driven keyword strategy that prioritizes search intent, your firm can achieve the online visibility critical to achieving its business development goals.

In today’s noisy and fast-changing content landscape, attorneys and law firms should strive to become THE DESTINATION for thought leadership in the eyes of their clients and referral sources—not merely A SOURCE of it. The way people find information today is undergoing a rapid transformation. From evolving SEO and social media algorithms to the influence of AI in both search and content creation, the landscape is constantly shifting. Yet, amidst this flux, many established and newer media outlets and content creators aren’t just surviving—they’re flourishing. Why is that? Because they’ve become destinations. Think of the audiences who actively seek out, for example, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Beast’s YouTube channel, or Joe Rogan’s or Alex Cooper’s podcasts. They know what to expect from the content these organizations and individuals produce, they want more of it, and they go directly to the source for it. They aren’t searching online for content; they’re navigating to a trusted source of information (and entertainment). This is how you and your law firm cut through the noise and stand out with your thought leadership content in the coming years. You follow this lead and strive to be the Joe Rogan or Alex Cooper of your practice area, while your law firm strives to be The New York Times of its practice areas. In other words, you and your firm strive to be THE DESTINATIONS for thought leadership, not just yet another source among many. THE DESTINATION—not just a source—for knowledge, wisdom, and insights that your clients can use regarding the work you and your firm do. Seven Strategies for Becoming THE DESTINATION for Thought Leadership So, how exactly do you and your firm become THE DESTINATIONS for thought leadership in the eyes of your target audiences? Here are seven high-level considerations to guide you as you and your firm build a content program aimed at achieving this goal: 1. Commit to the Idea and Merits of Thought Leadership You and your colleagues will have to embrace the concept that the best way to make a lasting, favorable impression on your target audiences that you are authorities regarding the work you do is to consistently create content that is relevant, valuable, and compelling to them. You and your colleagues should be convinced that thought leadership content creation is a driving force behind how you and they retain and attract clients. 2. Commit to the Idea of Owning a Niche and/or an Industry Resist the urge to create thought leadership content about broad topics related to your practice. Instead, strategically identify and commit to creating content that positions you as owning specific niches or industries. Look for niches where there might be some competition, but there’s no one attorney or firm that’s truly planted their flag as the leading voice consistently producing thought leadership regarding everything clients need to know regarding that niche. When you do so, you and your colleagues will also need to embrace regularly sharing insights not just about legal issues, but also about economic, sociopolitical, and geopolitical trends impacting that niche. If you want to be THE DESTINATION for people who want to stay up to date on the most impactful news regarding a niche or industry, you’ll need to cover more than just court decisions, legislation, or administrative agency actions. 3. Commit to Consistent Content Creation Consistency is key to becoming THE DESTINATION for thought leadership in the eyes of your target audiences. You and your colleagues need to be consistently creating content—not just monthly or bi-weekly, but at least weekly. Ideally, you should aim for multiple content pieces per week, delivered in various forms. 4. Take an Omnichannel Approach On a related note, if you want to become THE DESTINATION for thought leadership for your target audience, you can’t rely on just articles or blog posts. We all consume content differently and we all have our preferred ways for consuming content. To be a true destination, you need to meet your target audiences where they are regarding content consumption. Consider creating thought leadership content in the form of podcasts, videos, social media posts, and email newsletters. And, think about ways you can mix, match, and repurpose that content. For example, email newsletters that cover the same topics as recent articles but in summary form, or blog posts derived from recent podcast episodes. This ensures that your valuable insights reach individuals who prefer various content formats. 5. Consider the Full Spectrum of Content People not only want to consume content in different formats, but even people who prefer the written word often like a variety of offerings. Not every piece of content should be a 2,000-word article. Nor should it be an 800-word blog post. Sometimes, a concise 300-word update on a relevant news item is all that’s needed. On the other end of the spectrum, consider dedicating resources to proprietary research and other “tent pole,” flagship content pieces that no one else can create because they haven’t invested the necessary time and resources into their thought leadership programs, or they don’t have the same knowledge about the underlying subject matter that you and your firm have. 6. Staff Your Content Operation Appropriately If you want to become THE DESTINATION for thought leadership in the eyes of your target audience, your content creation can’t just fall on the shoulders of your attorneys. It takes a team to create a steady enough stream of relevant, valuable, and compelling content that would allow you and your firm to be seen as THE DESTINATION for thought leadership. Consider hiring a content manager who can oversee a firm’s or practice group’s content creation from a bird’s eye view. You’ll also want to consider hiring at least one dedicated writer. You should also consider hiring at least one editor who can handle video editing and audio (i.e., podcast) editing. Someday—or even today—your content operations might need multiple writers and multiple editors. If you want to become THE DESTINATION for thought leadership for your target audiences, you can’t expect one or two attorneys to drive content creation for an entire practice group. Just like one or two attorneys don’t handle all the legal work for a practice group, one or two attorneys shouldn’t be expected to handle all the content creation for one. 7. Seek Feedback From Your Target Audiences You’re going to want ongoing feedback from your clients, referral sources, and other people consuming your content. Strive for a regular dialogue with these people. Understand what they like and what they don’t like. Which content topics do they want you and your colleagues to cover more often? Which topics couldn’t they care less about? Are all the formats you’re producing adequate? Are there new formats your key consumers might want you to produce your content in? Feedback helps you create the kind of content that will actually draw in readers, viewers, and listeners—which will help build your audience and your practice. Thrive in the New Era of Content Despite the dynamic and sometimes chaotic nature of content creation and content discovery today, the stalwarts aren’t merely just doing fine, they’re flourishing. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Beast, and Joe Rogan, among many other media outlets and creators, are thriving because they have become destinations for their respective audiences. Take a lesson from them. To survive and thrive in today’s legal marketplace, you and your law firm should strive to become THE DESTINATION for thought leadership for your target audiences. By providing relevant, valuable, and compelling knowledge, wisdom, and insights that boost your and your firm’s authority, you and your firm can become the first places clients and other target audience members go for information about their industry and the areas of law you and your firm practice—and the first choice when they need assistance with legal or business issues arising in their industry and/or within the areas of law you and your firm practice.