Lawyers often ask us how they can tell whether their SEO strategies "are working." Ultimately, it comes down to whether you are earning meaningful attention from organic search that is translating into new client relationships. But before we get there, there are some other metrics that can provide useful feedback about what you're doing. As it relates to content marketing, one of the things you should pay attention to is whether or not people who see your pages and posts decide to link to them.
Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do. Let's start with the free version.
Hopefully you've linked your site(s) and blog(s) to a Google Webmaster Tools account. If you care about your visbility in Google results and you aren't regularly monitoring what Webmaster Tools is telling you, you don't really care about your visibility in Google.
Once you're set up with Webmaster Tools, navigate to:
Search Traffic -> Links to Your Site
Under, "Your most linked content" click the More >> link.
Now you should be looking at Overview >> All linked pages
Now click on Source domains to sort your pages by descending number of source domains linking to your pages.
What do you see?
What page is linked to by the most source domains?
It's likely that it's your home page. That's normal. If you have added your site to major legal directories, social networks, etc, those domains will point to your home page.
Where are those links coming from?
If you've hired someone to do link building to your pages, you might see a bunch of lousy domains that:
And it's likely that most of these will link to your home page too.
If you see a lot of domains like this, you might want to click the Manual Actions link to see whether you have a manual webspam action. You should also check out your Google Analytics traffic that is attributed to google / organic. Expand your date range as far back as it goes and see if your traffic looks like it fell off a cliff. If so, you might have an algorithmic search penalty.
What pages come next? Static practice area content pages? Attorney profile pages? Blog posts?
Pay particular attention to individual blog posts. Are they high on the list of pages that are linked to by several source domains?
If so, that's great! Assuming these aren't spammy domains, this probably means that people are reading your posts, finding them valuable in some way and deciding to link to them.
On the other hand, if your individual posts aren't receiving links from a variety of relevant and authoritative source domains, you should ask yourself why this might be happening.
You can click into any particular linked page and see which domains are linking to it.
In terms of SEO metrics, linking root domains to individual pages and posts can be a really good one because it shows that people are naturally linking to the stuff you publish.
Conrad and I recently joined Zack at Lawyerist to record a conversation about AI and marketing. You might think that we spend the whole time on how lawyers can use AI to publish content. You'd be wrong. While AI can certainly support publishing, there are many more interesting ways to use it in legal marketing. […]
As more legal services consumers turn to ChatGPT for local law firm recommendations, a fascinating intersection between AI, search, and maps unfolds. While Google remains the undisputed leader in local business data, ChatGPT is increasingly becoming an entry point for searchers seeking legal representation. But here’s the kicker: instead of keeping users within its ecosystem, […]
When law firms contact us, they usually want to talk: • PPC Ads • SEO Rankings • Lead Generation Very few want to talk: • Brand • Trust & Recognition • Emotional Connection Admittedly, much of this concerns that AttorneySync is known for lead generation across those common digital channels. But even when we start […]
According to an October 2024 study by SE Ranking: "The legal niche triggers the highest percentage of AIOs (77.67%). The average number of links matched between the AI Overview resources and the top 20 search results was 6.49 for legal topics. AI Overviews for legal topics most frequently link to NYCourts.gov (114 links), YouTube.com (48 […]
I'm grateful for my friend, Charley Mann of Law firm Alchemy. If you're a lawyer, subscribe to his Free Email List. In a recent email, Charley calls out bad guru advice on hiring: "Trying to execute a major SEO improvement? You need to find people who will help you, instead of trying to DIY it […]
If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn, you’ve likely seen posts from law firm SEO experts showing off charts with an “up and to the right” trajectory. These screenshots, often pulled from tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, are meant to signal SEO success. And it’s not just the agencies celebrating—𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 […]
Meh, links! All things being equal, links still tend to move the dial more than any other factor in legal SERPs. Maybe links are having a diminishing impact internet-wide. But in my experience, quality links, especially relevant links (both topically and geographically), tend to improve law firm visibility in search more than most everything else. […]
When you think of "marketing," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Ads? SEO? Social Media? What about: Helping others?Taking the lead? Rallying around your community? Need an example? Learn from Bart Siniard at Siniard Law Injury Attorneys efforts to help rebuild Mary's Pit BBQ. These efforts aren't about marketing. They're about supporting a […]
The Beauty of Small Law Firms: Why "Small Is Beautiful" in Legal Practice As you may (or may not) have seen on LinkedIn, 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀. 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱. I recently received an email from a real practicing lawyer requesting the following: "Somebody on Linkedin […]
