A key component of website content is a description of what services your firm actually provides. Although it sounds easy enough, this is surprisingly challenging. Depending on your firm, you may refer to these pages as practices or capabilities (here, we’ll refer to them as services pages). The following article provides tips and practical guidance for your marketing team on how to write service page content as you plan your website content and information architecture. These recommendations apply to professional services firm, regardless of industry – architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), legal, financial or health care consulting – and can also be used in writing content for your industry pages.
Although we do not cover messaging in this post, it is critical that you conduct the proper research to ensure you are reaching your target audience(s) and speaking in a tone and voice that are appropriate for your firm’s client base and brand.
Overview Narrative
Services pages should contain at least 250–500 words of content that provide relevant information and describe how your firm can help solve readers’ problems. Potential clients may enter your website through services pages – and not necessarily the home page – so the content should clearly identify your firm’s value proposition or edge over the competition. Readers have limited attention spans, so where possible make it easier for visitors to scan your content with headlines, subheadings and lists. A few best practices to keep in mind:
- Ensure your service page content resonates with your intended audience. Prove that you understand their needs and businesses.
- Ensure website content is robust and relevant.
- Show, don’t tell. Content should be client-centric and less firm-focused.
Content Sprawl
Does your website contain similar pages that could – or should – be condensed into one? For example, your site might have separate pages for the following services areas:
- Insurance
- Insurance Recovery and Advisory
- Insurance Regulatory
- Insurance Tax
- Insurance Transactions
or
- Intellectual Property
- Intellectual Property Litigation
Consider having one primary landing page cover the main service (e.g., Insurance, Intellectual Property) and incorporating sub-practice descriptions.
If combining all content on one page is not possible, leverage cross-linking. Establish internal links within the content itself and include a list of related services, practices, industries, etc. in the sidebar. This provides readers with a quick, scannable section they can easily click through to, which not only educates them on your offerings but also keeps them on your website longer to consume more information.
A few real-world examples:
- Accordions (headers that hide or reveal content when selected) are used to detail Aluko & Oyebode’s corporate service sub-practices.
- Allensworth & Porter, an Austin-based law firm servicing architecture, engineering and construction firms, lists related industries at the bottom with sidebar links to client types on its construction contracts page.
- White & Case’s intellectual property practice includes litigation, transactions and IP portfolios in a narrative form, clearly delineated by large headers.
- McElroy Deutsch’s industries page provides a list of related practices as links within accordions, each of which readers can click on to read more about the industry or to navigate directly to the related practices. The practices were entered only once in the CMS, making it easy to link a single practice to more than one industry.
Search Engine Optimization
Perform keyword research to ensure your content will rank well in the search engines and, more important, to confirm you are reaching your intended audience. Keyword research should inform your content, but first and foremost, ensure your overall language resonates with your target audiences. People search for information in myriad ways, so the phrase one user types into a browser to search for, say, health care attorneys in New Jersey will not necessarily be the same as the phrase another user searches to seek out the same information. SEO Keyword Research for Law Firms – Steps for Planning, is a quick read that provides a breakdown of the SEO process and some helpful tools you can leverage when developing content.
In support of the overview narrative, all other content should be cross-linked:
Service Page Template
Use this simple outline accordingly and share it as an editable template with the leaders of each of your service areas so they can provide the necessary content to your writing team. This is a guide only. You might choose to include other types of content.
Service Name
Overview Narrative
250–500 words
Additional content should appear outside of the overview narrative:
Related Services (or Industries)
- Clickable list of services relevant to your firm.
- This list should be crosslinked with one click on the backend of the website’s CMS.
Related Content
- Include links to related, relevant content from other key areas of the site. Content should be crosslinked with one click on the backend of the website’s CMS.
- Include the top 1–3 pieces of related content from the following, relevant areas:
- News
- Events
- Insights/thought-leadership
- Resources
Feeds should appear by date and directly on the page (e.g., not in an accordion; don’t make readers click to see the information). Differentiate feeds from the main body copy with scale, color or weight.
Example: On employee bio pages on Allensworth’s site, although much of the content is in accordions, “Related News & Insights” is not contained within an accordion but instead appears below the accordions, thereby giving users opportunities to remain engaged.
Professionals
- Include key contact(s) for the particular service with links to their bios.
- Include a photo, along with the name and contact information so readers have a clear call to action without being required to click through to the bio to locate the phone number or send an email.
- This list should be crosslinked with one click on the backend of the website’s CMS.
Representative Deals/Matters/Case Studies
- If possible, this list should be crosslinked from other areas on the site so that the content can be entered once and linked to from other services pages or employee bio pages. This will ensure that all pages are formatted consistently.
Example: On this Allensworth bio page, the industry experience in the accordion is cross-linked, pulling from here, so the content is entered only once and cross-linked to other pages.
Example: On this McElroy Deutsch page, the cases are not cross-linked but instead are included in a static list on the page.
Awards & Recognitions
Leverage a website feature that allows related awards and recognitions, if available, to be established with one click. This section should appear if content is available and automatically be hidden if there are none.
Testimonials
Leverage a website feature that allows testimonial relationships to be established with one click. This section should appear if testimonials are available and automatically be hidden if there are none.
