Should a blog be included on a law firm website to provide clients a one-stop-shop?

My recent post on why blogs outside a law firm website improve the search performance of the website drew a good comment from Long Island Attorney Frank Pipitone. I thought our exchange worthwhile to share to you, especially since Pipitone thought my reply to his comment was more persuasive than my original post as to why have blogs outside of your law firm website.

Pipitone’s Comment:

This is something I pondered long and hard before finally opting to include my blog on my law firm site.  I agonized over that decision for so long and talked to people on both sides of the aisle.  I certainly agree with all points raised in this post, however, I think there is a balance with having only one site.

I liked the idea of having a “one-stop-shop” for clients.  Somewhere they could find general information as well as more detailed, topic specific  information in the blog section.  I did not want potential clients and/or readers having to visit two different sites to get information.

My reply:

I understand your desire to have a ‘one-stop-shop’ for clients and prospective clients. What you are giving up though is the essence of blogging – enhancing your word of reputation and building relationships with relevant influencers and amplifiers.

Amplifiers/influencers (A-list bloggers, reporters, publishers, editors, association leaders, conference coordinators) are a more important target audience for your blog than clients/prospective clients. It is virtually impossible to engage these folks through a blog inside of a website. You’ll rarely, if ever, get influencers/amplifiers to cite or share your content if it’s inside of a website, and you’ll never get these folks to look at your information/insight/commentary on such a blog as anything more than marketing or advertising.

The number one place people turn for the name of a lawyer is to someone they trust. People then Google the name of the lawyer they receive. Much more important than a website, directory listing, or even a blog that can be seen by a person looking up the lawyer’s name on Google are citations to what they lawyer wrote, how what they wrote is being shared elsewhere, where they are being quoted/cited in blogs, newspapers, and periodicals, where they are speaking etc.

Even when people first find the name of a lawyer on the Internet directly, without first turning to someone they trust, people will go through the same process on Google. They’ll do research and be heavily impacted by how the influencers/amplifiers engage with you and you them.

I believe good lawyers can strive for something higher than a website, and even a website with good content. Lawyers, no matter their area of the law and no matter the type of clients they serve, can strive to be a lawyer’s lawyer who gets their work by relationships and a strong word of mouth reputation, as opposed to advertising, which many people see law firm websites as. Don’t get me wrong – websites are needed by many lawyers, I just see another, and perhaps better, way of getting work.

I left out the exchange between Pipitone and I on whether Mets’ knuckle baller, R.A. Dickey, should have been named the starting pitcher of Tuesday’s All-Star Game. We both agreed Dickey should start. Not that it would have mattered after Pipitone’s National League scored 5 runs in the first inning over my American League on their way to an 8-0 route.