Increase your firm’s website search rankings with these 10 tips for building backlinks.
Backlinks are a hugely important area of SEO. They’re also difficult to build, as you’re somewhat at the mercy of other sites. The only backlinks that will help you are the ones honestly given, as bad-faith efforts will only result in penalties as search engines inevitably uncover the deception.
Does that mean there’s no way to reliably build them? If you’ve read the title of the article, you know there’s something you can do.
1. Create Quality Content
File this one under “easier said than done,” but it is a good tip. Quality content will reliably build backlinks as other firms or related sites find what you produced and link to it. The process of creating good content starts with choosing a format, then practicing it. Odds are you aren’t producing good content right out of the gate, but don’t worry. The more you create, the better you get.
Think about the kinds of content you would link to and create that. You’ll find that other firms have the same needs. The more research you can utilize, the more likely you are to generate backlinks as you literally have something no one else does.
Creating useful, relevant content for your potential customers is one of the most effective ways to build your backlinks.
2. Invite Guests
No matter what your format, you can utilize guests. Guest bloggers, guests on your podcasts, co-stars on your videos; anything can benefit from a guest presence. Just ensure that your guests have a good reason to be there—a fellow attorney with their own active social media presence is the best acquisition. As with the previous tip, ensure that the resulting product is interesting, entertaining, and informative, and you will have a better chance of getting some good backlinks out of it.
The best part of having guests comes either from nabbing a high-profile guest star whose fame will inspire a new audience to check you out, or the work your guest will do to promote the appearance. Returning the favor is always a good follow-up and can double the number of new visitors to your site.
3. Build Relationships
The previous tip helps you build relationships with fellow professionals who are as serious about their content creation as you are. The more networking you do, the more you can tap these relationships to guest and the more you can then guest elsewhere.
Additionally, building relationships with influencers and industry experts can bear fruit later. When approaching or being approached by a new contact, do your due diligence. Bad actors are out there, and you don’t want to associate your firm with them. The good do outnumber the bad, and once you’ve vetted a person, you have a great potential relationship.
4. Use Online Directories
Ensure your law firm is in every reputable online directory and legal listing. Most of these will include a backlink to your site. When you find a directory, once again, do your due diligence to verify its good reputation. When in doubt, you can reach out to your contacts that you built in step 3. Focus first on directories that serve your specialty and your area and expand from there.
5. Share on Social Media
As marketing goes, social media can be a powerful tool. It starts free, with options to promote specific posts, meaning the ROI can in theory be infinite. Your client base spends a not-insignificant amount of time on at least one social media platform, meaning that you can engage them where they already are. Building an attractive presence on social media means sharing a variety of original content, from blog posts to videos. Bringing it into contact with more people increases your chance of a backlink resulting.
Social channels are a fantastic way to build an audience for your brand and increase the number of link shares for your website.
6. Become a Go-to Resource
Think about what might be valuable to visitors. A glossary of legal terms, FAQs about your specialty, or roadmaps for how cases unfold are all valuable. Remember, most of your client base is suffering through a uniquely stressful time in their lives and will likely have to seek counsel unexpectedly. Anything that can answer questions or calm jangled nerves is going to be highly sought after.
7. Invest in Press
Talking to the press is no one’s idea of a good time, but it can lead to a good source of backlinks. Whenever a significant event happens for your firm, write up a press release. It won’t always get picked up, but if it does, the articles or write-ups around the events will include backlinks.
8. Gather Reviews & Testimonials
For once, this isn’t your own clients giving you reviews and testimonials – though you absolutely need those as well. In this case, this is you reviewing the services you use. Your office cleaning service, your digital marketing provider, any service you use as a law firm can be a recipient of a review or testimonial. When these are quoted on the site, they will often include a backlink in the attribution.
9. Take Advantage of Internal Linking
No matter what kind of content you choose to create, you will be referencing different pieces. When you do so, include a link, either in the text itself or in the description of a podcast or video. This practice is distinct from creating a private blog network because you are attempting to enhance your visitors’ experience.
They can now gain greater depth and context to the concepts you’re describing. Additionally, search engines will have an easier time understanding your site’s content, helping overall SEO.
10. Monitor and Fix Broken Links
Part of good SEO is ensuring you don’t have broken links pointing in your general direction. If you move something that has backlinks going to the old destination, let the webmaster of the other site know.
Additionally, if you find content on another site that links to a dead page, you can contact the webmaster and inform them that while the old backlink doesn’t work, you have something that will.
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Supercharge Your SEO with Lead Science
Building a library of backlinks is a daunting task, make no mistake, but as these 10 tips show, it’s not an impossible one. As your firm racks up success after success and your marketing efforts bear fruit, you’ll find that accumulating backlinks grows easier. The challenge is getting the ball rolling.
At Lead Science, we have over two decades of experience in digital marketing and we know how to get that ball moving quickly. Our comprehensive SEO packages include:
- Full SEO audits: Our team will analyze your website and quickly identify any issues affecting your search performance.
- Keyword research and optimization: We research the optimal keywords for your website and implement them in custom website content and blog articles created just for you.
- Link building: Lead Science SEO experts strategically develop and implement internal and external link building programs to maximize the search signals and usability of your website.
- Social and reputation management: We work closely with your business to ensure that your social presence and online reputation is as sterling as possible.
- Advanced analytics: Lead Science Beacon Website Reporting (Powered by Google Analytics) provides clear, concise reporting on the performance of your website on a 24×7 basis.
- And many more unparalleled SEO features and services to grow your search traffic.
Schedule your free Discovery Call today. We’ll kickstart your firm’s backlinks and supercharge your SEO.
