Over the past month or Passle has undertaken a detailed evaluation of the online presence of the Top 200 UK Law Firms. In this research we looked at the company web pages, Linked In and Twitter to get a measure of how much thought leadership content was being created. We defined a 'blog' as an insight, blog or article, or any other piece which demonstrates knowledge and expertise by someone at the firm. 

Here are some of the best practices for putting out your content. After all - if your experts have gone through the effort to share insight, you want to ensure people have the chance to read it.

Make it easy to find your Thought Leadership

. Clearly label your insight section your home page. Give it an obvious name - Thoughts, Opinions, Insights etc. It should also be separate from news & announcements. If people are searching for insights they are perhaps less interested in announcements about recent hires or awards dinners. 

It might sound obvious but put a publish date on the article to let the reader know its a timely and up to date piece.

A name (and face) to the content. 

Include the name, photo and job title or specialist area of the author. This helps to make content more human. It provides a point of contact for anyone wishing to follow up on any content. You can also link in contributing authors or other relevant professionals at the company.

Include a search, filter and archive functions. 

If reader knows exactly what they are looking for search works well, if they want to browse and area they can filter out irrelevant pieces. Tags and Hubs that group content offer the reader a chance to browse a specific area. Some of the top content producers had these on contemporary issues e.g Brexit.

And finally...

Keep it simple.

Don't over crowd the page with hundreds of articles, have a maximum of  9-12 thumbnails / links per page.  This way you can easily navigate and not lose your place when flicking between content.

To find out how your Law Firm ranks, get in touch with the team at Passle - sales@passle.net