Over the years, law firm prospects have sent us reports from just about all of our competitors. Unfortunately, even today, some law firm marketing agencies still mislead their clients via "reporting." One particularly egregious example comes in the form of ranking reports. Which prompted this LinkedIn post. To my surprise, I received a lot of […]
First, I am always impressed with what you publish -- and amazed at the quantity and quality of what you put out for free! Thank you. That said, here's what continues to prey on my marketing mind: As much as I understand the critical need for link-building by a small specialized law firm like mine, I don't have any understanding of how to actually go about it. We have a high-quality site and blog, as judged by content and frequency of publishing. OK, but this does not seem enough to cause "clean in-bound links." (?) Are there concrete things we can and should do? Somehow, I never can make the leap from the discussions of the need and value in doing it to the actual hands-on-the-keyboard activities that need doing and will reap results.
Thanks for your comments! I am glad you find our blog useful. Regarding:
This is becoming one of the most common problems facing legal professionals online.
The simple answer is that, for most of us, simply writing won't attract links. Luckily, there are many other techniques for acquiring new links than simply writing.
While most of these techniques are not that complicated (building link relationships with other lawyers you know, sponsoring local organizations, paying to be listed in a local business directory), it takes time and some skill to execute these strategies.
If "content is king", "publicizing is queen." That means getting your content in front of those who are ready, willing, and able to link to your content. This becomes a little more tricky. Typically, the most difficult part is identifying link targets that are likely to generate the best results.
One of the most effective ways to identify link targets is to perform a competitive back link analysis on your competitors who are ranking in the top spots for your target keywords.
Once you know where your competitors are getting links, you can see if you can obtain those links or similarly competitive links. When your site's back link profile contains the links of your high-ranking competitors, it stands to reason that your site will also perform better (assuming you are publishing frequent and relevant content.
I hope this helps.