While many lawyers understand the basics of search engine optimization (SEO), link building remains one of the most powerful yet often misunderstood strategies for improving your firm’s Google rankings.
A well-executed link building campaign can substantially improve your website’s authority, helping you outrank competitors and attract more qualified leads to your practice.
However, done wrong, and it can significantly harm your website.
In this guide, I will cover link building strategies for lawyers to help you acquire quality backlinks for your law firm’s website.
Important Things to Understand About Link Building for Law Firms
Before diving into specific techniques, it’s important to understand that search engines like Google view backlinks as “votes of confidence” from other websites.
When credible, relevant sites link to your law firm’s website, Google interprets this as a signal that your content is valuable and authoritative.
This also works in the opposite direction – low quality links can signal that your website is part of their “network”, and too many of these can have a negative impact.
This directly impacts your search rankings.
Law is considered a “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) industry by Google, meaning the standards for content quality and authority are exceptionally high. Building high-quality links is not just beneficial—it’s essential for establishing your firm as a trusted resource in your practice area.
Lawyer-Specific Directories & Citations
One of the most straightforward link building strategies for lawyers involves listing your firm in relevant legal directories. These platforms serve as valuable citation sources while providing backlinks to your website.
Key Legal Directories Worth Pursuing
Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, and Martindale-Hubbell remain the cornerstone legal directories that every law firm should prioritize. Completing your profiles on these platforms not only creates valuable backlinks but also helps potential clients find your services directly through these platforms.
Beyond these major players, consider specialized directories relevant to your practice areas. For example, if you practice family law, directories like DivorceNet can provide targeted exposure. Similarly, personal injury attorneys might benefit from listings on AccidentAttorneys.com.
Local Citation Building
Local citations on general business directories like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Yellow Pages are equally important for law firms with a geographic focus. These citations help establish your local presence and improve your rankings in local search results.
When creating these listings, consistency is key. Ensure your firm’s name, address, phone number, and website URL are identical across all platforms to maximize the SEO benefit.
Press Releases as a Link Building Tool
Press releases can be a powerful link building strategy when used appropriately. They allow you to announce newsworthy developments at your firm while earning backlinks from news sites and distribution networks.
What Makes a Newsworthy Legal Press Release
Focus on truly noteworthy events such as:
- Major case victories (with client permission)
- New attorney hires or partner promotions
- Office expansions or new practice areas
- Significant community involvement or pro bono initiatives
- Publication of substantial legal guides or research
Avoid creating press releases for minor updates or self-promotional content, as this can diminish their effectiveness and may even harm your reputation with distribution networks.
Distribution Strategies
Services like Magic PR, PR Newswire, BusinessWire, and eReleases can distribute your press release to hundreds of news outlets. While these services require an investment (typically a few hundred dollars), they typically provide guaranteed placement on their network sites and potential pickup by other news organizations.
Once published, leverage your press coverage by sharing it on social media and your firm’s blog, creating a ripple effect that maximizes exposure and link opportunities.
Guest Posts on Legal and Industry Publications
Contributing thoughtful, insightful articles to respected publications represents one of the most valuable link building opportunities for lawyers. Beyond the link value, guest posting establishes you as a thought leader in your practice area.
Identifying Suitable Publishing Opportunities
Look for publications in these categories:
- Legal industry publications (e.g., Law.com, JDSupra, Attorney at Work)
- Regional business journals and news sites
- Publications specific to your practice area (e.g., construction law journals for construction attorneys)
- Websites serving your client demographic (e.g., retirement planning sites for estate planning attorneys)
The most valuable guest posting opportunities will have an engaged readership that matches your target client profile, strong domain authority, and editorial standards that ensure quality content.
Creating Compelling Legal Content
When developing guest post content, focus on providing genuine value through:
- Analysis of recent case law or legislative changes
- Practical guidance on common legal issues
- Insight into industry trends affecting your clients
- Case studies (anonymized as needed) demonstrating successful outcomes
Avoid overly promotional content or basic “101” topics that have been covered extensively elsewhere. The most successful guest posts address specific pain points or questions your potential clients are searching for online.
Link Insertions and Resource Page Opportunities
Link insertion involves finding existing content related to your practice area and requesting that site owners add a link to your relevant resource. This approach can be more efficient than creating new guest posts, as the content already exists.
Finding Link Insertion Opportunities
Use these search queries to identify potential opportunities:
- “[your practice area] + resources”
- “[legal topic] + helpful links”
- “[legal issue] + further reading”
Tools like Semrush or Ahrefs can help identify pages linking to your competitors but not to you, presenting ready opportunities to suggest your content as an additional resource.
Creating Linkable Assets
Developing high-quality resources that naturally attract links requires understanding what content performs well in your legal niche.
Comprehensive guides on complex legal topics serve both potential clients and other professionals seeking in-depth information.
These guides should cover all relevant aspects of a topic, anticipate common questions, and provide actionable insights that readers can implement immediately.
Data-driven research or surveys related to your practice area offer unique value that other sites can’t easily replicate, making them particularly linkable.
When conducting original research, ensure your methodology is sound and clearly explained to build credibility with both readers and potential linking sites.
Free templates for basic legal documents provide practical value to readers while demonstrating your expertise. These templates should include clear instructions and disclaimers about their limitations, encouraging readers to seek professional legal assistance for their specific situations.
Interactive tools like calculators for damages or child support estimations engage users actively and provide personalized information, making them highly valuable resources that other websites may want to share with their audiences.
These assets give you a compelling reason to reach out to site owners with a value proposition that benefits their audience, increasing your chances of securing quality backlinks.
In many cases they will also attract links naturally just through the sheer nature of being useful.
Evaluating Link Quality for Law Firms
Not all links provide equal value, and some can even harm your SEO efforts. Understanding how to assess potential linking opportunities is crucial for effective link building.
Key Metrics to Consider
When evaluating potential linking sites, consider these factors:
Authority Score (AS), Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR): These metrics from Semrush, Moz and Ahrefs respectively provide a general sense of a website’s authority. For law firms, aim for links from sites with DA/DR of at least 30+ for meaningful impact.
Topical Relevance: Links from legal industry websites or sites related to your practice area carry more weight than those from unrelated industries. A link from the American Bar Association will typically provide more value than one from a general business blog.
Traffic Levels: Use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to check if the site receives organic traffic. Even sites with moderate DA/DR can be valuable if they have steady, relevant traffic.
Indexation Status: Verify that Google has indexed the site by searching for “site.com”. Sites not appearing in search results offer no value, so don’t waste your time.
Editorial Standards: Review the site’s content quality. Does it publish thoughtful, well-researched content or thin, poorly written articles? Higher editorial standards typically indicate more valuable linking opportunities.
Outbound Link Profile: Check what other sites they link to. If you see links to questionable or irrelevant websites, this may indicate poor editorial standards.
Link Acquisition Strategies
With target sites identified, you’ll need effective strategies to secure those valuable backlinks. Different approaches work better for different types of opportunities.
Direct Outreach
Personalized email outreach remains the most common approach for securing guest post opportunities, resource page links, and link insertions.
Effective outreach:
- References specific content on their site to demonstrate familiarity
- Clearly articulates the value your content brings to their audience
- Keeps initial communications concise and professional
- Follows up appropriately (typically once after 7-10 days)
Building relationships before requesting links can increase success rates. Consider commenting on their content or sharing it on social media before making your request.
Working with Link Building Specialists
Many law firms choose to work with specialized link building agencies or consultants. These professionals often have established relationships with publishers and understand the nuances of legal link building.
When selecting a link building partner:
- Ask for case studies specific to legal industry clients
- Request sample outreach emails they’ve used successfully
- Verify their approach complies with Google’s guidelines
- Establish clear reporting practices and success metrics
Expected costs vary widely, but quality link building services for the legal industry typically start at $1,000-2,000 per month for ongoing campaigns.
Paid Placements
While Google’s guidelines discourage paying for links, the reality is that many quality publications charge for content placement. If pursuing this route:
- Focus on sites that clearly label sponsored content
- Ensure the content itself provides genuine value
- Avoid sites that appear to exist primarily to sell links
Remember that even with paid placements, content quality remains paramount. Poor quality content on good sites still reflects poorly on your firm.
Link Building Pitfalls Lawyers Should Avoid
Understanding what not to do is equally important in link building. These practices can waste resources or potentially trigger Google penalties.
Harmful Link Building Practices
Avoid these approaches entirely:
- Link schemes involving reciprocal link exchanges
- Links from foreign language sites unrelated to your practice
- Comment spam on blogs or forums
- Links from private blog networks (PBNs)
- Mass directory submissions to low-quality sites
- Links with over-optimized anchor text (using the same keyword repeatedly)
These tactics may provide short-term ranking improvements but risk long-term damage to your site’s authority and search position.
Red Flags When Evaluating Link Opportunities
Be wary of websites that:
- Have minimal original content
- Display excessive advertising
- Rank for no relevant keywords
- Offer to place links on multiple sites for a package price
- Have content in multiple unrelated categories
These characteristics often indicate sites created primarily for link selling rather than providing value to users.
Measuring Link Building Success
Effective link building requires ongoing measurement and refinement. Track these key performance indicators:
- Growth in referring domains (total unique websites linking to you)
- Improvements in domain authority score or domain rating
- Increases in organic traffic to targeted pages
- Ranking improvements for priority keywords
- Growth in “branded” search volume (people searching for your firm by name)
Allow sufficient time for results to materialize. High-quality link building typically shows meaningful impact within 3-6 months, with continued improvement over longer periods.
Building a Sustainable Link Profile for Long-Term Success
Consistent effort yields compounding returns as your backlink profile grows and strengthens over time.
Consider creating a quarterly content and outreach plan that includes publication of linkable assets on your website to serve as link magnets for future outreach efforts.
Identify guest posting targets for each quarter based on their relevance to your practice areas and potential to reach your ideal clients.
Plan strategic press release opportunities around significant firm developments rather than forcing announcements when nothing newsworthy has occurred.
Schedule regular updates to existing content to maintain relevance and accuracy, giving you legitimate reasons to reach out to sites that have previously linked to that content.
This systematic approach ensures steady growth in your link profile while avoiding the feast-or-famine cycle that can trigger algorithmic filters designed to identify unnatural link acquisition patterns.
Sustainable link building also involves diversifying your tactics rather than relying exclusively on any single approach.
A balanced profile includes links from directories, media mentions, guest posts, resource pages, and other sources that collectively create a natural-looking link profile.
This diversity not only reduces risk but also maximizes the different types of authority and relevance signals sent to search engines about your expertise and reputation in the legal field.
Need Expert Help With Your Law Firm’s Link Building?
As a law firm, your time is valuable and best spent serving clients rather than managing complex link building campaigns.
Working with a specialized Attorney SEO agency can deliver superior results while allowing you to focus on your practice.
At Dominate Marketing, we understand the unique challenges lawyers face in building authoritative backlink profiles.
Our team specializes in creating and executing effective link building strategies specifically for legal websites.
Contact our team today by filling out the form below to discuss how we can help your firm rank higher online and attract more of your ideal clients.