Law firm backlinks are one of those seemingly mysterious parts of legal SEO, but they don’t have to be. Of all the optimization strategies that help boost search engine rankings, acquiring credible backlinks has proven to be one of the most effective and enduring. Backlinks are evidence that someone else has reviewed the content and finds it to be an authoritative source. The more quality backlinks pointing toward a piece of content, the more trustworthy search engines deem the content to be and the higher it will rank.
Getting law firm backlinks requires a combination of specialized legal knowledge, top-notch qualifications, and information that is comprehensive, accurate, reliable, and can connect with a particular audience.
- What Backlinks Mean to Search Engines
- Not All Backlinks Have the Same Authority
- Quality Content is the Best Way to Attract Authentic Backlinks for Lawyers
- How to Get Started with a Credible Law Firm Backlink Strategy
What Backlinks Mean to Search Engines
Backlinks are like independent votes of confidence verifying the quality of content for search engines. They can also help determine content relevancy. When other relevant websites include a link back to content on a law firm’s website, it tells Google that the content is both reliable and helpful. Like votes, the more backlinks law firm content has, the more likely it will win at ranking in search results.
SEO expert Backlinko recently conducted a study of close to 12 million Google search results to determine what factors were most closely correlated with landing in the top spot on page one of the search results.
The study found that the #1 search result had an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than the results appearing in positions 2 through 10. The study also found the number of different domains linking to a page (as opposed to the same domain linking to a page several times) had a positive correlation with ranking.
Link building is the process of actively trying to obtain backlinks. Link building is not just about racking up as many backlinks as possible because links open pathways for search engines, and that may not always be appropriate or desired.
Not All Backlinks Have the Same Authority
Making determinations of authority helps Google select the content that it believes will be of the most help to a user. Link authority is the amount of ranking weight a link carries. The more link authority a backlink has, the higher the quality and the more ranking weight it will be given.
The following considerations help determine the authoritativeness of a backlink:
- Authority of the page containing the link
- Number of other links on the page containing the link
- Location of the link on the page
- Whether the link is follow or no-follow
Links from pages recognized as authoritative are given higher link authority. Links from pages with lots of other links will not get as much authority as links from pages with fewer other links. Links that are located within text are given more authority than links appearing in footnotes.
No-Follow Links
No-follow links contain coding that tells search engines not to consider them for ranking purposes. No-follow links developed as a way to keep backlinks from passing authority to low-quality websites.
Google also requires the use of no-follow links in certain situations to avoid violating anti-spam policies. Because of the heavy reliance on backlinks as an indication of content quality, Google wants backlinks to be acquired from other websites because the content being linked to is really that good.
According to Google Search Essentials, acquiring backlinks in an attempt to manipulate search rankings is considered ‘link spam’. The following are some of Google’s examples of what it considers to be spammy link-building:
- Exchanging money for links or posts with links
- Exchanging goods or services for links
- Excessive link exchanges
- Low-quality directory or bookmark site links
- Links in footers that are widely distributed
Does this mean law firm backlinks from legal directories or guest posts are prohibited link spam if they are not made no-follow? Not necessarily, but Google spam policies need to be taken into account when developing a law firm SEO backlink strategy.
No-follow links don’t block the path of a user who clicks on the link. The communication is only to sea.’h engines. The most common strategic use of no-follow links is when there is a need to cite a source but no intention to have any search engine association with the content.
Lest no-follow links should get a bad rap, digital marketing expert Semrush says no-follow links are an important part of SEO. Having a mixture of both follow and no-follow backlinks indicates backlink diversity. Backlink diversity is more suggestive of natural or organic backlink building and is favored by search engines.
Quality Content is the Best Way to Attract Authentic Backlinks for Lawyers
Google doesn’t like spam. The search engine doesn’t want to promote content that could harm or mislead people. Therefore, it uses both automated systems and manual reviews to detect and remove spammy content. During 2020, Google says its systems discovered 40 billion pages of spammy content every day.
At the other end of the spectrum, Google has nothing but love for thoughtful, well-written, reliable content that is intended to help people rather than manipulate search engines. The better the content quality, the more likely another authoritative source will link to it, and that is backlink gold.
Law firm websites with strong core practice pages supported by sub-practice pages and blog content can earn backlinks for lawyers by providing the kind of go-to references that others will rely on as trusted sources. Paying close attention to content quality is the key to building trust with search engines and people and establishing strong brand recognition.
How to Get Started with a Credible Law Firm Backlink Strategy
Law firm SEO backlink building is a long-term strategy because quality trumps quantity, and getting quality backlinks takes some work. The first place a law firm needs to start is with the content on its own website.
Content prepared to be a handy resource or presented as a comprehensive guide is the type of content that gets more genuine backlinks. The following kinds of content can be very link-worthy on a law firm website:
- Ultimate guides – comprehensive documents detailing a procedure, process, or area of law
- List pages – giving steps in a process or a collection of relevant resources
- FAQ pages – providing quick answers to commonly asked questions
- ‘Why’ and ‘what’ posts – these types of posts attract attention and tend to be backlink-friendly
Other strategies for gaining law firm backlinks, such as legal directory listings or guest posting, may still be of some benefit if done without offending Google’s spam policies. However, the main strategy for any law firm looking for long-term digital marketing success is to earn backlinks from other authoritative websites by consistently producing authoritative, reliable content that gives people the information they are looking for.
Written By Mari Gaines – Legal Content Writer