Is Your Law Firm Blog Mobile-Friendly? If Not, It Should Be
If your firm doesn't have a blog, it's well in the minority. More than 80 percent of AmLaw 200 firms publish blogs. Some of them publish multiple ones. Fox Rothschild, for example, takes the Danielle Steele approach to publishing, putting out blog after blog after blog. The total now? Thirty nine.
For all the BigLaw blogs out there, though, more than a few have failed to adapt to mobile traffic. Not being mobile-friendly is costly, negatively affecting both views and search results. Here's what you can learn from their failures:
Mobile Is More Than Just Mobile
A third of AmLaw 200 blogs are not mobile ready, according to a study by LexBlog, Bloomberg reports. That means those blogs could be difficult or even impossible to read on phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Blogs that aren't mobile-friendly are turning away a huge amount of potential traffic.
Traffic from mobile devices now accounts for 25 percent of all global Internet traffic and the majority of Google searches. Mobile traffic is expected to grow drastically in the next few years, as smartphones and tablets continue to replace PCs for many Internet users. Don't have a mobile-friendly blog? Say goodbye to much of that traffic.
It's not just mobile traffic that you'll be sacrificing. Blogs and websites that aren't mobile-friendly get less traffic even from traditional, non-mobile users. Why? Blame Google. Google tweaked its search algorithm in April to privilege mobile-friendly content. That means if you're blog is mobile-friendly, its much more likely to be seen in the Google results than the one third of AmLaw 200 blogs that aren't. (Hint: FindLaw's attorney websites are mobile-friendly. Contact our awesome Lawyer Marketing team to get one of your own!)
Niches Are King
After your blog and website are mobile-friendly, you still need to ensure that your content strong. When it comes to having have popular content, niches are king.
Employment and labor are the most common legal blogs, followed by corporate and commercial law, financial, IP, and international blogs, according to the LexBlog report. But, among those broad practice areas, niche blogs are likely to outperform more general blog topics. A blog on California labor law should see more traffic than a general labor law blog. Focusing on medical patents could help you outperform other IP blogs.
While BigLaw twiddles its thumbs, now is the time to get the upper hand by going mobile and developing strong, niche content.
Related Resources:
- What Is Mobilegeddon and The Google Mobile Friendly Update (Search Engine Land)
- Google Invents Unspeakable, Cuddly Terror (FindLaw's Technologist)
- Mary Meeker Report: It's All About Mobile (FindLaw's Technologist)
- The Rise of the Cheap Smartphone is Huge For Lawyers and Marketing (FindLaw's Technologist)