Selecting the best lawyer blog topics for your blog depends on understanding the common pain points and search behavior of your clients.
Too many people plan legal blog content by doing keyword research and then selecting topics that have the most search volume or appear likely to convert.
That “gut instinct” approach can work—but there's a far better way.
We take a results-driven approach to SEO for law firms.
We start by getting as much data as possible and then rigorously processing and filtering those data with our proprietary algorithm.
Before You Start: Know Your Target Audience
This should go without saying, but if you want to select topics for the types of cases that you take on or refer out.
If you don't take on dog bite cases, don't select topics related to dog bites. And don't let any SEO agencies you have creating content for you do so, either.
Make sure they know what you want and do not want.
That being said, don't neglect broad “informational topics” like headaches after car accidents just because they don't include the word “lawyer.” People who search for that are injured and trying to figure out what's going on.
They're the perfect opportunity for you to rank and build trust with potential clients before your competitors do when they realize later on they may want to hire an attorney.
How to Choose the Right Personal Injury Blog Topics
Start by identifying your client's common questions and issues. This will largely depend on what kind of practice your law firm operates. As a personal injury lawyer, you likely have an idea of where the majority of your focus lies. However, remember that increasing online traffic can also generate more leads for practice areas that perhaps you don't see much demand for. So, it's important to think about what your goals are not just in terms of SEO, but as a law firm.
After that, start collecting keyword research data using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to gauge the demand for those topics.
Here's how we help our clients choose the best topics for their personal injury blogs.
1. Create a List of Core Topics
These core topics should be broad terms (usually composed of 2 words) representing a category of concepts rather than a super granular list of topics.
If your marketing goal is to get more motor vehicle accident cases, some broad terms on your list would include things like:
- car accident
- truck accident
- motorcycle accident
We avoid selecting personal injury blog topics with a high degree of overlap, so we don't end up with a bunch of duplicates later.
For example, the terms workers compensation and workers compensation lawyer overlap. We'd remove "workers compensation lawyer" from our list since it fits within the category created by "workers compensation."
Using extremely broad terms or terms with multiple meanings introduces a lot of confusion into things as well.
For example, a broad keyword like "accident" will pull in keywords ranging from "car accident" to "three-mile island accident" to "amber heard bed accident" (a real keyword).
2. Conduct Detailed Keyword Research
With our list of core topics ( what we call “seed keywords”), we're ready to begin exploring the available data out there about them.
Using a tool called Ahrefs, we find hundreds of thousands of personal injury keywords that contain our seed topics.
For example, the seed terms car accident and car accidents alone have over 480,000 unique keyword ideas.
Tip: Note how we include the plural version of our core topics as well.
All of these topics won't be relevant though.
We want as much data as possible to get the full picture and maintain our competitive edge, but we also need to reduce the noise as much as possible so our metrics don't skew.
To do that, we can take one of two routes:
- Using filters to exclude all keywords that contain certain words
- Using filters to only include keywords that contain certain words
This is where most SEOs take the easy way out by selecting a handful of topics that they think are good but never seeing the full picture of how much value a topic really has in the aggregate.
If you use narrower seed terms, your results will be more manageable, but your dataset will contain fewer related terms.
For example, if you change your search from car accident car accidents to narrower terms like car accident lawyer, your dataset will shrink from nearly 500,000 terms to under 1,000.
This leaves you with only bottom-of-funnel topics that everyone else is competing for and completely misses out on all of the lucrative topics you could capture earlier in the funnel when attention is easier to capture and convert.
Once we've collected all of the data we want, we export it from Ahrefs and prep it for processing by our algorithm.
3. Grouping Keywords into Topic Clusters
With hundreds of thousands of keywords, many of them will be so closely related that if we created content for each one, we'd only end up competing with ourselves.
To figure out how to group keywords manually, you'd have to compare search results on Google to see if those topics should be two different posts or one post that covers both ideas by calculating the overlap of similar URLs ranking across each set of keywords.
For instance, the Google search results for the terms "dog bite lawyer" and "dog bite attorney" are 90% similar.
Google's algorithm sees these two terms as the same concept. Because the overlap is so high, you should only create one page for this topic.
Analyzing the search results for the terms in your data set is important because if you create two pages where there should be only one, Google will be unsure which one to rank for this singular topic.
When that happens, neither post performs well. It's like splitting the vote in a primary—they both lose.
Comparing the search results for terms also helps you find instances where two keywords look like they should have the same results but are actually two separate topics because they have distinct search intents.
If two search results share a high degree of overlap, you can and should group those keywords into the same piece of content.
Comparing the results between two keywords doesn't take that much time, but we have potentially millions of results to compare.
As you compare each keyword to every other keyword, the number of results you have to compare grows factorially.
It would take months to manually assess each potential combination.
No marketer has the time to do this manually, so most just go with their gut instincts and listen to the same out-of-date advice they hear the “old guard” repeating on YouTube and in their blogs.
They're just throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.
We challenge that approach, though.
Our algorithm automatically groups the data into clusters for us. This means we spend more time on impactful things that make our clients money instead of manipulating tons of data in spreadsheets all day.
Our tools sort all keyword variations into clusters with main keywords, making it clear how to everything should be grouped and prioritized.
It also shows us how our client's competitors are performing, giving us invaluable insight into areas of opportunity to challenge them while also uncovering all the untapped opportunities none of them have capitalized on yet.
For clients that come to us with a website full of pre-existing content, our algorithm shows us exactly where to focus our efforts to quickly boost their traffic with high-impact/low-effort opportunities.
This is all made possible by a unique formula in our algorithm, which calculates a personalized priority score for each website we work on.
4. Finalize Your Content Plan
Once we've finished grouping the topics, we're ready to select the ones for which we want to create new content.
Most content marketers select topics based on arbitrary metrics like keyword volume, the number of times people search for the topic each month, and keyword difficulty (KD), an out-of-date metric that is primarily based on backlinks and pays no attention to content quality or your website's unique topical authority.
That's the old way.
Folks who rely on these metrics try to find the holy grail of high search volume and low difficulty.
There are two key mistakes with this approach:
- Search volume is not indicative of actual traffic. If either of these metrics gets used, it should always be traffic, not volume.
- Only pursuing low KD terms causes them to miss out on thousands of lucrative opportunities that are well within their reach if only they would try.
We've seen plenty of topics that get 1000s of searches per month but zero clicks or worse, zero conversions.
We've also consistently ranked our clients with “low authority” for “high difficulty” terms against websites with way more “authority.”
In addition to pulling in volume and KD, our tools pull in several other metrics that give us a better idea of why someone searches for each term, the value of that term, potential traffic amounts, and as mentioned previously, a client-specific personalized priority score
Our priority scoring formula looks at over two dozen metrics to assess how easily and quickly your specific website can rank for a particular topic—not just a keyword.
The greater the score, the greater the opportunity.
10 Examples of Personal Injury Blog Posts and Archetypes
This framework is for those who just want a list of topics to tackle.
There's no perfect set of articles that all personal injury attorneys should make. It ultimately depends on the goals of the firm and its current constraints (i.e. what does it need more of right now, this year, etc.).
That said, clear content archetypes often crop up on legal blogs.
Injured people and their families turn to Google Search every day to answer all sorts of legal questions.
These are some of the most common types of things they search for.
If you create content that helpfully addresses their needs and provides solutions to their problems, you're one step closer to new potential clients.
1. Types of Injuries
David Bryant Law - Car Accident Traumatic Brain Injuries: How Common Are They?
When someone is injured, they may search for articles about their specific injury type. These people tend to look for a few different things in this type of article.
For example, a topic like brain injury from a car accident might detail the different types of brain injuries caused by collisions, local statistics about how common these accidents are, how the injury may be treated, whether or not the reader may be eligible for compensation, and—most importantly—how you can help them.
2. State Laws for Personal Injury Claims
Dolman Law Group - Florida Dog Bite Laws You Should Know
As a lawyer, you're the best possible resource when people have questions about how state laws may affect their injury claims. Resources from state governments aren't the most straightforward documents for the layman to read.
Walk readers through topics like "dog bite laws in florida" or "california medical malpractice laws" to show them how their claim may progress in their state. Be sure to highlight any special or important laws people tend to overlook.
3. Statutes of Limitations
The Levin Firm - Wrongful Death Statute of Limitations
This type of article is very similar to the one above but has a more specific angle. Accident victims know that the clock is ticking when it comes to their personal injury cases.
Write articles on topics like "auto accident statute of limitations ohio" to show them the vital importance of hiring a personal injury lawyer to handle their claim.
4. Process
Rosenbaum & Rosenbaum - How Long Does It Take to Get an NYC Personal Injury Settlement Check?
As a personal injury attorney, you know the ins and outs of the legal process.
But, your readers don't. Write articles about specific legal processes or timelines. Don't be afraid to go in-depth as long as you explain things in a way the reader can understand.
For example, many personal injury clients are unlikely to know the difference between an out-of-court settlement and personal injury litigation until they're involved in an accident.
This is an excellent opportunity to show them how you can help and support them through their case.
Process articles include topics like:
- how long does it take to get a settlement check
- wrongful death settlement process
- how does a personal injury lawsuit work
5. What to Do and What to Expect Articles
Shouse Injury Law Group - What NOT to say to an insurance adjuster 5 examples
Topics like "what to do after an auto accident" and "what to expect during a workers' compensation claim" are great ways to build trust with your readers. You can walk them through the legal advice that you would give to a real potential client and demonstrate your expertise along the way.
You can also write articles about what not to do. Think of topics like what not to say to an insurance claims adjuster.
These articles should provide the reader with actionable steps that show them exactly what they should and should not do after an accident or injury and how as their attorney, you will take care of the hard parts of their claim, gather evidence, and most importantly, secure compensation.
6. Types of Claims, Damages, and Compensation in Personal Injury Law
Dolman Law Group - Personal Injury Glossary Terms
What's the difference between "premises liability" and "product liability"? You know it, but your readers don't. Many first-time victims of personal injuries may not know the difference between a personal injury claim and a lawsuit, or what the rules regarding these are in your state.
Write personal injury law blogs that explain legal concepts and define terms to your readers. Teach them the meaning of things like compensatory damages, comparative fault, the attorney-client relationship, or even PIP insurance.
In some cases, you may even want to create a legal glossary so that your readers have a quick reference for hard-to-remember terms.
7. Dealing with Insurance Companies
Stewart J Guss - How to Scare An Insurance Adjuster
Dealing with insurance companies is a fact of life for your reader, even before you come into the picture.
Teach them how they should interact with the company and their claims adjuster and how having an attorney can help protect them from an agency looking to minimize their liability.
8. Average Settlement Articles
Brauns Law Firm - What is The Average Settlement for Medical Malpractice Claims?
Sometimes people want to know if their claim is even worth pursuing. They may think that the time, effort, and energy of suing for compensation may outweigh the amount they stand to receive in a settlement.
By writing articles about the average settlement or verdict amounts for different types of injuries, you can educate them on their chances of being fairly compensated. It's also a great opportunity for you to explain how an attorney can help injured clients maximize their compensation.
9. Other FAQ Topics
Carolina Law Group - Should I Settle My Car Accident Case or Go to Trial?
There are plenty of other topics that don't fall into any of the categories above. These are questions that people frequently ask, such as:
- do I have to go to court
- should I settle or go to court
- how to file an insurance claim
10. Mass Tort Mini-Hubs
Dolman Law Group - Zantac Lawsuit Lawyer
If your law firm goes after national mass tort claims, you'll need content that helps drive these kinds of personal injury victims to your firm. You may need to do some additional keyword research to find the terms people use when seeking help with a mass tort case.
Once you have that data, you can use it to build a hub of content about that case on your blog.
By explaining the various components of a mass tort, you can show the reader that you're the best-equipped person to handle their claim, driving them to contact you for a free consultation.
Final Thoughts
Don't settle for the old way of doing things. If you're ready to take your firm to the next level with more leads and cases than you've thought possible—let us know.
We're experts at making personal injury law firms more money through SEO and content. We did it for these firms, we can do it for you too. Contact us when you're ready to grow.
