Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the few marketing channels that offers compounding returns. However, to attain such growth, you’ve to dip your toes in most likely the trickiest facet of lawyer SEO: link constructing.
As an award-winning agency that provides lawyer SEO services, we’re proud of the pace at which we builds legitimate links that move the needle.
In this article, I’ll share around the Map Marketing’s “magic formula” of link building for law businesses (with proven tactics you can implement yourself). Let’s begin with understanding the fundamentals of SEO for laws firms. If you wish the link-building ideas directly, you can jump to the first tactic.
quick primer on key link building concepts and metrics
Here are some areas of link building you need to know about:
Domain rating
It’s a proprietary metric developed by SEO software, Ahrefs. It’s a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100 measuring the effectiveness of a website’s backlink profile. It’s important to notice that this is different from domain authority: a search engine ranking score based on a dozen factors by another SEO software, Moz. Also, none of these are official metrics by Google.
On The Map Marketing’s original research discovered that the normal DR of the best-ranking attorneys in Austin was 35. A domain rating (DR) between 30 to 50 for an attorney website is pretty neat!
Referring domains
The root websites that backlink to pages on your site are referring domains. As links from the same domain generally have diminishing returns (and check unnatural), SEO campaigns for a legal professional website typically integrate building backlinks from different and unique domains.
Do-follow links
This is the default state of links that count as votes for the linked website by the linking website. They pass PageRank, are crawled by Google’s internet search engine spiders, and influence search engine ranking positions.
Nofollow links
These are hyperlinks with a rel = “nofollow” tag. Using these on an external URL means you don’t want Google to associate you with the linked site or crawl it. In 2019, Google announced changing its algorithm to consider these nofollow links as a “hint” for ranking purposes.
Anchor text
These are the clickable words that hyperlink one page to another. They help search engines like yahoo get context on the subject of the linked page, so they are simply a ranking factor.
Black hat link building
Any shady link-building tactics that violate search engine guidelines are categorized as black hat SEO. Typically they utilize loopholes and aim to game the system to rank a site faster. Most such techniques generate low-quality and spammy links, which means you should avoid them.
Link velocity
The pace at which backlinks are generated to your website over a specific period. Typically you may see weekly or monthly SEO reports with a measurement of new links built-in either of such time frames.
Ahrefs has a “Best by links’ growth” report that could help you calculate the link velocity. It shows the pages gaining links the fastest and the amount of links they have made over the last day, seven days, and four weeks.
Typically this involves executing a link-building tactic such as guest posting, link reclamation, and so on. The process consists of finding relevant prospects that could link to your site, finding their email or other contact information, and contacting them.
1. Create a profile on legal directories
Creating a profile on free directories is one of easy and simple ways to make and get attorney backlinks for your attorney’s website. They are also nice to bolster your overall link profile.
You may also consider a few paid directories as they have a barrier to free entry and may themselves be ranking for local keywords – providing your brand additional real estate on the first page.
If you want to review the performance of your citations, you’ll be able to add UTM parameters to your URL and add the campaign source to it. Something similar to:
Now you can track the performance inside Google Analytics. You merely need to find “citation” inside the Source/Medium report.
Remember to use an accurate and regular NAP + W (name, address, contact number + website) across all directories as it confirms to Google that you’re a genuine business. It might also help your local SEO slightly.
There are two caveats as it pertains to directory backlink:
Links may be nofollow: Many of the above directory backlinks will not pass any authority to your site as they use the “nofollow” tag. However, listing on these directories produces a reliable citation as they might send you some referral traffic.
Also, Google considers the nofollow attribute as a “hint,” so such backlinks still help you create a natural link profile.
They are typically low value: If it’s easy to build a link from a particular website, it doesn’t remain as valuable. Therefore the above directory website links are nice for gathering link-building momentum, however the link-building strategies underneath are more likely to go the needle.
2. Contribute as a guest author to industry publications
Do you have insights on how to grow a law firm? Or a solid data-backed opinion on the popular subject in the legal industry? Then high-value legislations websites and websites may be enthusiastic about a guest post by you that will help fellow attorneys.
The SEO benefit in such a one-time guest column is these websites typically give a backlink or two to your website from your author bio. Occasionally links in the torso of your article can also be permitted.
How to find these websites?
Some content websites may explicitly have a “write for us” page (with writing guidelines) visible in their global navigation. However, you can also find it on the contact sites, like in the case of attorneyatwork.com (DR=70):
3. Become a “source” for other content creators
Don’t have time to write a complete article?
Then your next best option is to contribute your opinions to some other article that’s in the making right now. Ecommerce freelance writer, Kaleigh Moore, recommends following writers and content folks authoring things related to your law practice. Then ”jumping in” when they ask for help with their articles: Word image 29
Writers may get a lot of responses. So responding early and sharing original insights will lend you a mention (which backlink) from their article.
If you don’t want to follow people publicly, you can create Twitter lists of journalists and content creators.
4.Create graphics and other quotable resources
Until now, the link-building tactics involved going to the writers to talk about your opinions.
How would you like to have these content folks come to you instead?
Content creators often look for sources of original and insightful information related to their writing subjects. If they can find such resources on your website in their research, they will use them in their article and give credit by linking to your website.
5.Get your law businesses listed on your alma mater’s website
Law schools typically have a dedicated alumni section on their websites. For starters, they may have a set of law businesses with their websites. You can submit your info here and request for inclusion. Additionally, there can be opportunities to contribute to the school blog by sharing your tips with graduating students or sponsoring events.
6.ponsor local events and strike strategic partnerships
Helping your local community through your legal expertise builds trust and brand awareness about your legal professional business in your neighborhood.