As we work with law firms and other professional service firms to design and build websites, we sometimes encounter “other blogs,” written by members of the firm, that exist independently from the firm’s main website. We often get asked if it’s better to keep blogs separate from the firm’s website, or integrate them. In almost all cases, we suggest integration. Here’s why:
Integrated blogs keep readers on your site longer
Getting people to visit your website is hard. Keeping them on your website, once there, can be even harder. Consider this scenario: If a visitor first comes to your firm’s website to read a bio, do you want them to leave after finishing that bio, or visit other pages of your site? By sharing related blog headlines on bio pages, for example, they act as teasers that entice visitors to click to read the full story and then keep exploring. Similarly, if a visitor first comes to your site via a blog article, a link on that page to the author’s bio page and/or related service areas help them learn more about your entire firm’s capabilities. When we design sites, we like to offer these kinds of “cross-links” to other pages of the site. Well built websites are programmed so that cross-links can be added programmatically rather than manually, making administration much easier for marketing staff managing the site.
Integrated blogs make searching and finding content easy
If a visitor to your website searches for a word or phrase they are interested in, they expect the search results to return the most relevant content. But if that content is on a separate blog, they will likely have no idea you are experts in that subject area.
Integrated blogs help cross-sell your services
Getting attorneys and other professional service providers to cross-sell can be challenging. Clients often work closely with one atorney who has a particular area of expertise. Thus, they may not realize the firm has other attorneys who can help them in other ways. The seven words I dread hearing from my clients are “I didn’t know you did that too!” Integrated blogs attract readers interested in a specific topic to that blog, but once there, visitors can see all of the types of work you handle. Your existing clients and prospects become exposed to all of your areas of expertise in a natural, organic way as they explore your firm’s website and integrated blogs.
Integrated blogs drive traffic to your website
A well-written and maintained blog can generate a huge percentage of the traffic to your website. So, if your goal is to drive traffic to your firm’s website, why would you not integrate your blog? As a professional service firm marketer, blogs are your main resource for adding fresh content to your website. If all that good, fresh content is not integrated in your site, all the benefits are lost.
Integrated blogs position you as a thought leader
If a client comes to your website to read a partner’s bio, they will usually skim over that partner’s credentials like you would a resume. But if they are also presented with links to interesting blog posts by that partner, read those posts, “follow” that partner, and subscribe to the blog, your chances of getting a meeting or being shortlisted for their next project improve significantly. If a prospect who has never heard of your firm before happens to Google a few keywords and lands on a blog post on your site, you may get a phone call, an email, or a new blog subscriber. In all cases, you will have increased the reach of your brand and, at minimum, one more person will now say, “Yes, I’ve heard of that firm.” Needless to say, if the blog is not integrated into your main site, the benefits of thought leadership may be attributed to the author, but firm-wide brand recognition gets lost completely.
Integrated blogs improve SEO
I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard clients say “I thought keeping my blog separate improves my SEO?” We all know that inbound links (or “referrals”) from other credible websites are considered a good thing by Google. In the early days of websites and blogs, we thought we could improve our main site’s SEO by creating an external blog and linking from the blog to our main site. Now, that seems kind of silly. As our blog content gets “noticed” by other credible bloggers and websites the world over, we want those inbound links to point to our main site, not an external blog. Think of it this way: What would you prefer — lots of inbound links from websites to your main site, or a few inbound links from your external blog to your main site? If you chose the former, Google would agree with you.
As a professional service firm, we may add a new project or a new bio once in a while, but the vast majority of site updates are made to our blog (or “news”) section. Since 2003, one of Google’s main ranking algorithms specifically looks for the frequency of new content. Again, if your blog is integrated into your main site, all those updates and activity are credited to your corporate site.
A separate blog is a separate website that will rank independently from your main site. So, essentially, you are creating a competitor in terms of organic rankings. Your main site and your blog will fight for the same keywords. If your ultimate goal is to increase your firm’s visibility as a whole, you want your blog and main site to work together, not against each other.
Integrated blogs can be easy in WordPress Multisite
For firms that have their main site on WordPress, WordPress Multisite can be an effective way to integrate additional blogs. In a multisite environment, blogs can appear to be very much a part of the main site but can, if preferred, have unique URLs. Multisite can also make the administration of multiple blogs much easier for the Marketing team tasked with keeping everything up to date. Rolling out additional blogs more quickly and cost-effectively can be easier with multisite. And multisite can help keep blogs looking “on brand” as well.
Integrated blogs help build your brand
At Clockwork, we’re all about creating beautiful, powerful, authentic brands. But to build a brand, it has to be seen. As mentioned above, integrated blogs help drive traffic to your corporate site which in turn helps name recognition, thought leadership credibility, and ultimately, brand awareness. A separate blog serves none of these purposes and may, in fact, fracture and confuse your brand.
Integrated blogs — a few examples:
Bowditch — see their 6 blogs under News + Insights, Bowditch Blogs
Obermayer — see their 7 blogs under News + Insights, Obermayer Blogs
Adler Pollock & Sheehan — see their 4 blogs under Blogs
Sherin and Lodgen — see their 6 blogs under News & Blogs, Blogs
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