You may have heard the golden rule of digital marketing that — Content is King — but in the modern fast-paced landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and digital marketing, that ruler is only as powerful as it is relevant.
The reality is that content is only king when it is consistently updated and refreshed to meet the current needs of your online users. Many people think that simply adding some content to your website once in a while will help improve your online rankings, but content is a key element of a long-term digital marketing strategy. While evergreen topics provide a foundation, it is the commitment to new, fresh, and accurate information that signals to both potential clients and search engines that your law firm can be trusted and is worthy of a top spot in online search rankings.
When you make the decision to employ content marketing and SEO to improve the online brand of your law firm, it is important to understand how new and updated content boosts trust and rankings. We hope that this overview we have created at Civille will help you better understand the value of a long-term content marketing strategy and how it can lead to long-term success for you and your law firm.
READ MORE: What Makes a Successful Legal Blog?
Why Is Fresh Content Important to SEO Rankings?
We have all been there — you type a search into Google and the only results that show up are from 1993 and are no longer relevant.
Fresh and relevant content on your law firm’s website is a key to success for digital marketing and Search Engine Optimization. Not only is updated content — whether blog posts or practice area pages — important to online visitors to your website and more relevant for online searchers, it shows Google and other search engines that your law firm’s website and content are active and relevant.
Law firms that are planning their digital marketing strategies may be asking — why is fresh content so important? Why can’t I just publish my content on the website and let it work its magic? Here is a deeper look at why fresh content is so important to your law firm’s SEO strategies:
Improved SEO Rankings
We all know how important it is for your law firm’s website and content to rank well on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) — but it is not always easy. Refreshed and updated content can help improve your SEO rankings, because it shows search engines that your website is active, and by extension, your content is more accurate and up to date. Updating your content can be as simple as fixing errors, updating meta descriptions, or improving relevant keywords.
Improved Online User Engagement
You always want your website and content to be relevant to online users. If a user reaches your website and finds out that the content they were looking for is outdated or doesn’t answer their questions, they will bounce and may decide that your law firm is not trustworthy. With relevant content, online users are more likely to remain on your website and provide additional engagement, which in turn shows search engines that your content is more relevant and can further improve search rankings.
Improved Content Relevancy
Even the law is subject to change and when it does, it is important that your law firm’s website and content reflect those changes. Without fresh and updated content, your law firm’s content will no longer be relevant and will not keep your users engaged. It is important to refresh outdated content to match current trends and search terms, so that your website remains relevant, engaging, and can be a trusted resource for potential clients.
Why Do Content Freshness and Bylines Matter for SEO?
The freshness of your law firm’s content is an important ranking factor in the Google algorithm and is based on multiple factors — including updated content and even the bylines of your content. The byline is the timestamp element on your blog post or landing page that shows the date when the content was published, updated, or modified, and it is used by Google to determine the recency of your content.
This simple aspect of your content can be a powerful ranking factor, as timestamps impact how Google views the credibility of your content and influences how your content ranks in Google AI Overviews. There are different versions of a byline that each impact your content in different ways — Published Dates, Updated Dates, Schema Dates, On-Page Dates, and Lastmod Dates. Inconsistent use of these different bylines can confuse search engines and users, contributing to lower rankings.
When used properly, bylines can provide a wide range of benefits for SEO strategies. Bylines can work as a freshness date to illustrate to Google and other search engines how recent and relevant your content is. They lend credibility to your content and make it appear more trustworthy to online users, they influence user behavior on SERPs making your content more engaging, and they make your content more viable for SERP Features.
Do not disregard the value of the bylines on your content.
READ MORE: Why Deleting Old Content Can Boost Your SEO
How To Keep Your Law Firm’s Content Fresh and Updated
We have highlighted why fresh and updated content is important to your law firm’s digital marketing strategy — by improving your search rankings, user engagement, and content relevancy — but that doesn’t answer the how.
We know that continuously updating blog posts and content pages all the time is not realistic — so how do you keep your law firm’s content fresh and updated? What changes do you need to make to your digital marketing strategy to improve your content freshness? Let’s take a closer look at how you can accomplish this goal.
Perform Regular Content Audits
Updated content is king and to help you accomplish your goals and keep your content fresh, it is important to perform regular content audits. Law firms should perform a full audit annually to fix errors or outdated content and should consider monthly focused audits of high-traffic blog posts and practice area pages based on data provided by Google Analytics. Use these audits to identify outdated content that may need to be rewritten and find areas to improve.
Update Your Existing Content Pages
The more current your content is with search trends and the legal landscape the more relevant it will be to users and the more visible it will be to search engines. This makes it important to update your existing content pages periodically with fresh media (Images, Infographics, or Videos) and add new information that is relevant to that topic, like updated statistics or supporting legal cases.
Repurpose Older Content
What should you do with older content pages? You should always be adding new content when you can and when it is relevant — but what about older blog posts that have been successful in the past? Repurposing older content in a new format — like a video or infographic — can extend the lifespan of the content and show that your law firm’s content is up to date and relevant.
Include Evergreen Content
Your SEO strategy should include evergreen content when possible. This content highlights topics or search terms for your law firm that do not change, or will not change often. Evergreen content is designed to remain relevant to users over a longer period of time and does not require frequent updates.
READ MORE: How To Build a Law Firm Brand That Stands Out Online
Do you have questions about your law firm’s SEO and digital marketing strategies? Are you looking for ways to ensure your website and content remain at the top of search results? You may want to take a closer look at how new and fresh content boosts trust and rankings for law firms with this quick breakdown created by the Civille Team.
Contact Team Civille today to learn more about our custom law firm websites and digital marketing services!
