Link building for law firms is essential in 2023, just as it has been for the past several years. Inbound links from relevant websites continually land atop the list of most important ranking factors and this isn’t likely to change anytime soon. As part of a well-planned law firm SEO campaign, high-quality links are a powerful growth accelerator. To rank well you must have good content, a well-structured website, and a plan for earning valuable links. It is also critical to understand the key differences between link building for local (GBP/Map Pack) and organic SEO. In this post, we are going to cover law firm link building tactics that can help you improve both your local and organic rankings. The exact tactics you use should vary based on what goals you are trying to reach and whether your emphasis is on local SEO, organic SEO, or both. Here are some practical examples of link building tactics for local SEO, followed by organic link building tactics.
Join local business associations and organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce. These organizations often have online directories which will allow you to create trusted citations that non-members cannot easily replicate. This works especially well if you can find legal industry-related local organizations.
Build relationships with other local businesses in your area. Since the site topic doesn’t have to be topically relevant, start by reaching out to any contacts you have in the local area with a website and ask for a link. You can also organize some 3-way link swaps between multiple local businesses to return the favor.
Attend local events such as legal conferences, community events, and other local gatherings. This can help you build relationships with other professionals in your industry which can lead to collaboration opportunities that result in links.
Offer local resources such as legal guides, checklists, and other valuable content that is relevant to your local audience.
You can also create informational guides about your city, which tend to attract natural links from other local sites once they start ranking. Remember, these guides do not have to be about legal topics to work for local SEO.
When you sponsor local teams, events, and organizations, you typically receive a link from their sponsor page. In addition, if you are a sponsor for events that get media coverage, you may pick up secondary link placements or mentions on reputable websites like your local T.V. station or newspaper.
The days of using syndicated PRs to improve organic rankings are behind us. However, when it comes to GBP SEO, this tactic still works well as it allows you to create unstructured citations for your business.
In addition, if you do targeted outreach with a locally relevant and newsworthy topic, you could end up with related coverage or interviews from local media.
There are many more tactics that could be used, but those will give you a strong foundation, especially when paired with organic link building tactics.
When it comes to building links for organic rankings, there are three factors that impact the value of a link: authority, relevancy, and topical trustworthiness. We refer to this as the A.R.T of link building. When you are building links to your law firm’s website to boost rankings and organic traffic, topical relevancy is vital. In addition to being relevant, the sites should also have authority and trust signals. When it comes to link building for lawyers, here are 5 additional proven tactics that work. 
Since modern link building for lawyers is heavily content-focused, let’s start by discussing linkable content creation.
Link-worthy assets can be promoted through outreach or they can attract natural links passively, depending on how aggressive you want to be.
Creating linkable assets for a law firm can be challenging, but here are some ideas to help you get started:
Haro and ProfNet are both platforms that connect journalists with sources. By being a source, you can land links from high domain authority sites, including some major media publications.
This method is time-consuming but should be part of your link building strategy unless you prefer to buy links on media sites, which is another viable option.
The downside of this method is that you don’t control which particular website you will get a link from, so the sitewide relevancy could be lower than you would like it to be.
When paired with a tactic like guest posting, the combination of high DA/DR links from Haro and the hyper-relevancy of mid-tier sites found via outreach is very effective.
If you want to learn more about Haro link building, check out this guide: https://stellarseo.com/getting-started-with-haro-link-building/
Blogger outreach and guest post link building are both tactics in which you contribute content to reputable websites in exchange for a link back to your website.
This tactic is usually part of a law firm link building campaign as it allows you to get legal industry-related links pointing to your site that are placed within hyper-relevant content.
Since this type of outreach requires someone from the other site to review and approve your submission, it is known as an editorial link. This type of placement carries more weight than something like a directory submission or a sponsorship link, making blogger outreach links a powerful addition to your law firm link building plan.
Resource page link building for lawyers is a tried and true tactic that continues to deliver high-quality links, especially when paired with assets like tools, templates, and research content.
A lot of resource page link outreach strategies use bulk outreach (a.k.a shotgun skyscraper) to land links. If you plan to use this approach, you need to carefully screen your prospect lists to avoid getting spammy links.
When done correctly, you could end up with dozens of links from a single outreach and follow-up campaign.
As covered here, niche edit link building involved getting links added to existing pages or posts. On the surface, it is extremely similar to broken link building.
Behind the scenes, most companies offering niche edit links are leveraging existing relationships with relevant sites, oftentimes that have been built over years of outreach.
For this reason, it is generally best to work with a company that offers a niche edit service if you plan to leverage this tactic.
Now that we have covered some effective tactics for law firm link building, let’s talk about how to combine them into an effective strategy.
A strategy is the overall plan of action. Tactics are the individual actions that can be taken to reach the goals of the overall strategy.
In order to get the best results from your law firm’s link building strategy, you should design it with a clear outcome in mind.
End State Planning is a military planning strategy in which you start by defining what would be considered a mission success, then work backward to allocate the resources needed to reach the desired outcome.
When you apply this method of thinking to your law firm’s website, content, and link building strategy, it will help you narrow your focus on which elements are most vital to reaching your end goal.
We have found that for our clients, this results in faster rankings, more efficient SEO spending, and a much stronger ROI. Whether you decide to tackle link building on your own or hire an agency to handle it for you, taking the time to create a good link building strategy will pay for itself 10 fold.
In this guide, we have covered effective link building techniques that can help you boost local and organic traffic. We have also touched on the importance of taking the time to create a strategy that aligns with the goals of your law firm.
Even so, link building is a complex and detailed process, so we have just scratched the surface here today. In order to help you advance your understanding of link building, we have put together some great resources.
If you still don’t feel comfortable with link outreach or your internal link building efforts are coming up short, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today to discuss your challenges and goals.
Achieving an exceptional digital presence requires experience, careful planning, and creativity.
