Podcast Ep. 39: Optimizing Attorney Bios With Mary Trice

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 podcast we chat about attorney bios, typically, the highest trafficked pages on a law firm’s website. Mary Trice of Winston & Strawn, shares her experience about the process of identifying the problem, getting everyone at the firm on board, what makes an effective bio, and optimizing each bio for search engines.

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Shownotes

Today’s guest, Mary Trice, is the Digital & Marketing Communications Manager at Winston & Strawn LLP and manages the firm’s digital marketing strategy and initiatives. In 2014, her work on behalf of Winston garnered the Legal Marketing Association’s Best in Show award for website redesign. And In 2017, Mary co-led the redesign of the firm’s attorney bios. LinkedIn: Mary Trice

The Importance of Attorney Bios

Collectively attorney bios are the most visited and viewed sections on Big Law websites. In fact they make up about 80% of a legal website’s traffic. This is why it’s crucial to create great bios. This takes time. Start with a competitive audit and see what other law firms are doing in order to develop the best bios for your own website. Involve a variety of attorneys, marketing staff, and clients to draft compelling bios.

What makes a good bio?

The first step is asking yourself what the client wants and considering what they’re looking for. Typically clients want to see that an attorney has expertise in a certain area and perhaps even more importantly, they want to feel that the bios are personal. Using first names instead of formal titles can make attorneys seem more relatable to prospective clients.

Aim to catch your audience’s interest within the first 150 characters with an impact statement at the top of the bio – think of this as an elevator pitch. Eye-catching bios utilize specific examples and integrate relevant information in the form of internal links that keep users on your website and encourage them to search further.

How does SEO play a role?

SEO is constantly changing. In order to be successful at search engine optimization, one must keep up with new trends and algorithms. Having a keyword strategy for attorney bios is one of the most influential pieces of content development that marketers have to consider. Understand what clients are actually searching for and make sure the keywords that reflect this are found in attorneys’ bios.

After creating and optimizing attorney bios, what’s next?

The best attorney bios are dynamic. Always link new publications, blog posts, and upcoming events to the corresponding attorney’s page.

Another element to remember is social media which has a huge impact that attorneys should leverage. Clients rely on those they trust and when content gets shared and further distributed, it has more validation and authority.

An effective social media strategy also improves SEO rankings as search engines take notice when content is shared and in turn ranks it higher. One of the easiest ways to have a presence on social media is LinkedIn. By adding keywords to your profile and using practice area specific job titles, attorneys can increase the chances that they will be found.