When developing a successful SEO strategy, link building is one of the most critical components to consider.

Effective link building doesn’t just mean having a large number of links on your website but instead involves focusing on their quality. This makes it imperative to use quality link-building tactics instead of outdated strategies that may hurt the website instead of getting it to rank higher.

In this article, we’ll discuss what link building is and how you can use it to improve your law firm’s SEO.

If you’ve ever come across an outbound link while reading a blog or news item online, it’s a backlink. Its job is to redirect you to another site that offers quality news, products, media, and other content related to what you were reading about.

You want to set up backlinks that bring people to your website and also set you up as an authority or expert on the topic. Moreover, backlinks can significantly improve your SEO efforts.

Backlinks are a way to signify that your site provides reliable information.

When other site owners link to your website, Google takes that as a sign that the information you provide and your business offerings themselves are legit.

Domain authority is a factor that helps you rank higher on SERPs. When well-established, reputable, and high-ranking websites link back to you, your domain authority score increases. Moreover, the higher your score, the more likely it that Google will trust your website and rank you higher on SERPs.

All links aren’t necessarily good links. Paying ‘link vendors’ may lead to disappointment because their backlink-building efforts may jeopardize your ranking.

That’s because links need to come from a reputable website to be viable. If a shady site that only exists for link building and doesn’t give readers any valuable information links back to you, Google might recognize it as a deceptive practice to fool it. And the search giant might punish you for it.

Moreover, Google’s identification methods are getting stronger, so bad sites quickly come up under their radar. Thus, your site can be penalized if the backlinks are of low quality. Therefore, you should aim to earn links from trustworthy websites, preferably from those belonging to the law industry.

It is time to let go of outdated techniques. Here are some modern link-building strategies law firms should consider adding to their SEO strategy.

Guest Posting

Publishing guest blogs on other websites is an effective backlinking strategy. It also helps potential clients find you and see you as an authority within your niche.

It is pretty easy to do this. First, you will need to reach out to publications and ask them if they would be interested in publishing a guest post by you. Most of them will let you make up the topics, while some will give you a list of topics you can write about.

Be careful about working with sites that want you to pay for such posts. Moreover, before paying for a guest post slot, do assess the site’s authority and ranking (which you can gauge using tools like SEMRush.com) and see if you should go ahead with the publication or not.

In these posts, you are usually allowed to add a link to your website. In addition, some publications will enable you to link your website within the content, but it is typically a decision made by both parties. In some cases, the links may be set to ‘nofollow,‘ which essentially means you won’t benefit from their authority; however, you will be able to divert audiences to your website.

Free Online Directories

Probably the fastest way for a website to build on backlinks is through submitting business information to free (albeit trustworthy) online directories. These will have hundreds of businesses listed for users who come looking.

List your website with directories that work specifically with businesses in the legal industry. Do keep in mind that not all directories or websites are of the same quality. Here are the ones you should consider:

Yelp.com

Even though Yelp isn’t specific to legal teams, you could post your firm’s info on the site and optimize the profile using relevant keywords.

Justia.com

This website allows attorneys to either create a profile or claim one. In addition, your profile will let you put follow links for your blog and website.

Google My Business

Probably one of the most popular free platforms for businesses to post their info, Google My Business helps people find your local law firm if you are situated close to them.

FindLaw.com

This website allows you to create a brand new listing (for some money) or claim an existing profile and update it as well.

LawGuru.com

This is a network where people are free to ask attorneys different questions. Moreover, they also allow you to have an online directory.

Bing Places

Bing Places is the Bing search engine equivalent of Google’s Google My Business. It is a free platform where businesses can post information about their offerings so people can easily find them through search.

Avvo.com

On Avvo.com, you can either create a listing or claim one and add your website link and company information.

HG.org

HG.org lets you create a basic attorney profile for free.

Host Online Events

Hosting an event online can help you improve your publicity efforts and build backlinks. Webinars and virtual conferences are not only popular but quite effective at getting people to check out your services and visit your website.

During event advertising, send details to other businesses and publications and ask if they can promote this event. More likely than not, they will be linking your website or event landing page.

Otherwise, you could host scholarship programs for people within the community or students. This will help you get backlinks from agencies, schools, and businesses that want people to know about your scholarship event.

Paid Directories

Like free online directories, paid directories allow you to create a profile for your attorney’s office. However, these are preferable and exclusive, so they need you to pay to get a spot. Just ensure that you check to see that the site is legit and not just another link farm.

Two of the most reputable directories that require a payment are Nolo.com and Lawyers.com. These sites each have a high DA score and get a lot of traffic.

Keep In Mind

Before submitting business information, ensure that your details are accurate and uniform across all platforms. This prevents Google and potential clients from confusing your business with some other or getting suspicious about its legitimacy. Focus specifically on the physical address, website URL, business hours, business name, and phone number.

Creating ‘Linkable’ Content

‘Linkable’ content refers to engaging, exciting content, so other sites are more willing to link to it. Try creating content that your readers cannot find anywhere on the internet. However, do ensure it is valuable and accurate. For example, if it seems to be answering a crucial industry-related question or can be quoted as a resource, it will be more likely to be linked by other sites.

Here are some content ideas for you to consider:

  • Online libraries
  • Ebooks
  • Exclusive interviews
  • Quizzes
  • Videos
  • Online Tools
  • How-to guides
  • Infographics

Come up with content ideas you know potential clients want to read about. Marketing this content and getting it to rank naturally makes people more likely to link back to your sites. Moreover, you can always advertise your content to these other websites directly.

Unlinked Mentions

There may be instances where other sites may mention your business but not link to your site. So to build backlinks, the easy thing would be to look out for such mentions, contact the publishers and ask for a backlink.

Outreach

Outreach should be considered if you seem not to be getting backlinks regardless of publishing on directories or creating linkable content.

A great way to scout out opportunities for backlinking is to look at how your competitors’ link-building efforts are going. There are tools like Ahrefs.com or SEMRush.com that show you the source of their backlinks. Once you get a clear picture, contact the authorities to ask if you can publish a guest post on their website or if they can link to your existing content within their blogs.

Equivalent to the concept of cold calling, cold outreaching isn’t the great way to get the results you are looking for, as you need to ensure these publishers can trust you. Thus, the outreach emails you send give a detailed explanation of why your content is valuable for their readers.

Online Forums

Popular forums such as Quora.com allow people to ask communities different questions, where subject experts can answer them. Questions related to law are pretty popular on this platform. Thus, law firms can capitalize on this opportunity by helping people, getting recognition, and earning links.

However, your first goal should be to provide users with accurate and valuable information. Ensure your answers are thorough, so readers trust you more. Thus, they will be more likely to click on additional informational resources from the website that you post.

Quora doesn’t always allow people to include their own links in answers. However, users can reference you within their content. This enables you to get more site traffic and even new clients!

To Wrap It Up

Link building is an essential part of a law firm’s SEO strategy, and there are several ways to build high-quality backlinks. First, however, get the green light from high DA publications for guest posting, even though it may take some time.

Also, ensure that when you choose a professional SEO service for your law firm, they know all these link-building practices, so your site is truly optimized for search engines and considered a valuable source of information.