If you’ve been posting on your legal blog, updating your practice area pages, and enhancing your law firm marketing in other ways, but still haven’t cracked the first page of Google, you may be missing a vital piece - links.
While keywords and relevance are essential factors, links are usually the separating factor between a strong law firm SEO strategy and one that’s lacking.
Google and other search engines are increasingly looking for other indicators when deciding how to rank your site compared to your competition. Google’s PageRank algorithm works by counting the number of quality links coming to and from your law firm’s website to gain insight on how “important” the site is.
Essentially, the fewer links pointing to your site, the less likely your page is to rank well.
That’s not even mentioning the internal or outbound links.
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Learn more about internal, inbound, and outbound links related to legal online marketing below.
What is a Link?
Links (sometimes called hyperlinks) are clickable text or objects on your law firm’s website that lead from one page to another. They typically appear as buttons, text, or images. Links are not all created the same.
They can be classified based on where they lead.
Internal links lead to other pages on your site.
Inbound links come from other websites with a different domain name.
Outbound links typically go to helpful or authoritative websites that are related to the topics on your page.
Internal Links
Search engines and users alike use internal links to find relevant content on your website. Potential clients use internal links to navigate through your website and find the content they need. Search engines utilize internal links to navigate your website to understand what your site is about.
There are many kinds of internal links. You can link to pages (i.e., homepage, blog, practice area pages, etc.) as well as content on your law firm’s site.
Links leading to content are called “contextual links.” Contextual links lead potential clients to related content they may be interested in. Additionally, they point search engines in the direction of more relevant content on your site. The more links individual pages receive, the more likely they are seen as important for sites like Google, Bing, etc.
A robust internal link strategy is critical to SEO for law firm websites.
What is an Inbound Link to My Website?
Inbound links (also called “backlinks”) are by far the most important to search engines. They offer the most benefit to your law firm search engine optimization strategy. However, they are also the most challenging to obtain.
Links coming from other relevant and trusted websites are a great way to show search engines that your site has quality content. If your site’s content is good enough to link to, it shows Google that your site is authoritative, credible, and trustworthy.
You can think of them as votes. The more “votes” your page receives from quality sites, the more likely your page will increase in rank. It’s important to note that search engines are not just looking for the number of links. They are also interested in quality.
To receive more inbound links, you can add the following tactics to your law firm SEO strategy.
Write engaging, informative, and comprehensive content
Submit blog posts to reputable legal blogs, magazines, etc.
Create relationships with legal content writers that have a relationship with relevant sites
Create infographics and publish them
Post your blogs on your social media accounts
Build profile links on sites like Avvo, Quora, and Reddit
Link to other websites in your content and inform the webmaster of that site
Building quality backlinks can be time-consuming, confusing, and complex on your own. If you’re unsure of what to do or would instead focus on billable tasks, contact a reputable company offering law firm SEO services.
As mentioned above, specific sites can potentially hinder your law firm’s SEO strategy. Google may deem certain backlinks “artificial” if they come from forums, comments in blog posts, wikis, social media profiles, social bookmarking sites, etc. Too many “artificial links” can hurt your ranking overall.
Why Are Outbound Links Important?
Outbound links are just as they sound. They point from your law firm’s site to another site. Typically, they are used to add more context by linking the reader to an authoritative source that enhances the information you’ve provided.
While outbound links are not as useful as internal or inbound links, they do serve a few purposes to include:
Adding value to potential clients (i.e., linking to your state’s official law statute page)
Helps to build trust
Demonstrates your law firms expertise
The effectiveness of outbound links is a hot topic of debate among SEO aficionados. Some believe they offer little to no benefits and others think they can be incredibly beneficial to your law firm SEO strategy.
Bottom line, use them when necessary and sparingly. A good rule of thumb is to add one outbound authoritative link per 500 words.
Link Building Tips For Your Law Firm SEO Strategy
Link building can be an effective strategy regarding online marketing for lawyers. However, all link building strategies are not suitable for your firm. Check out a few tips below to help you get started.
1. Always link to relevant content: If you’re writing a blog post on your family law site, it’s best to link to other content (internally and externally) related to the subject. Otherwise, you risk a higher “bounce-rate” or lousy user experience. Both can negatively affect your website’s ranking.
2. Check external links: Sometimes, the pages we link to become defunct over time. Keeping those links on your site can negatively impact your overall SEO efforts.
3. Take your time: Link building can take a lot of time. It can be impossible to handle it all in one sitting or one month, for that matter. Create a schedule that allows you to build links over time consistently.
4. Don’t link to competitors: Remember, each link you post on your site potentially helps that page to rank. Therefore, linking to other law firms or legal sites within your practice area may prove to hurt your overall law firm marketing strategies.
5. Have a Sitemap: Sitemaps are essentially a list of the relevant pages on your site. It’s basically a list of internal links that can be helpful for search engines and users.
How Does This Help to Market Your Law Firm?
If you’ve been a lawyer long enough, you’ve likely heard of attorney leads or legal leads offered by legal marketing services. While Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns can be effective, they are also expensive. A lot more costly than inbound marketing and SEO strategies.
Links are an essential part of an overall lawyer SEO marketing strategy. By increasing your organic ranking on search engines, you can eventually decrease your marketing costs. If you’re number one on Google, you have far less of a need to pay for ads because potential clients can find you within seconds of their search.
In the modern age, there’s nothing easy about online marketing for law firms. However, with the right strategy, consistency, and a strong team, you can improve your firm’s marketing efforts while cutting costs at the same time.
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Most lawyers we speak with understand the importance of SEO for their legal online marketing strategy, but they don’t have the time or desire to do it themselves.
At YourLegalContentWriters.com, we specialize in writing accurate, engaging, and search engine optimized legal content for our clients. Depending on your needs, we also provide excellent internal, inbound, and external linking strategies to boost your site’s rank.
Are you looking for a proven legal content writer for your practice area pages or legal blogs? Contact us today to schedule a call. We look forward to working with you.