| Updated: February 21, 2025
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Link building for law firms and lawyers is the foundation of increasing your online presence. An effective link-building strategy involves a diverse mix of high-quality backlinks, which can significantly boost your law firm’s visibility on Google and other search engines.
You can spend thousands of dollars on an eye-catching web design and publish highly optimized, helpful content, but if your website lacks authoritative and relevant backlinks, it won’t achieve the online visibility you’re aiming for.
Think of it this way: You’ve bought a Mustang Dark Horse—a stunning car with a powerful engine and killer looks. But without high-octane fuel, it won’t move. That’s exactly what backlinks do for your law firm’s website—they provide the fuel needed to rank higher in search results for relevant keywords.
A backlink is a hyperlink from another website that points to your site, whether from text, images, or other elements. It serves as a vote of confidence for search engines, helping them evaluate your website’s credibility and trustworthiness.
Link building for lawyers and law firms is a powerful SEO technique that involves acquiring backlinks from relevant and high-authority websites. This strategy is crucial for establishing your law firm’s authority and expertise in a specific practice area or location.
Law firms with multiple office locations also benefit from link building as it enhances their online visibility and authority within the legal niche.
A popular strategy used by these firms is creating location-based landing pages with helpful, targeted content, which naturally attracts high-authority and relevant backlinks.
Panish, a Los Angeles-based personal injury law firm, began an aggressive link-building campaign in January 2024. As a result, their website traffic surged, attracting qualified leads from industry-relevant keywords and significantly boosting their online visibility.
Their referring domains increased from 775 in January 2024 to over 2,000 in February 2025. This aggressive link-building strategy generated highly targeted traffic from both search engines and authoritative websites linking to their content.
As a result, their monthly traffic grew from 1,920 visitors in February 2024 to 4,653 in February 2025, achieving an annual growth rate of 142%.
Another key benefit of backlinks is their ability to boost rankings for specific keywords. To attract highly converting leads and rank for competitive keywords, focus on building backlinks to location-specific and practice area pages.
A backlink from a high-authority website relevant to your niche will be given more weight than a number of backlinks from general websites. This is why I emphasis on the quality of a backlink and not on the quantity.
A good backlink for a law firm must have the following traits:
The domain authority (DA) of a website linking to your law firm’s website should generally be higher than your website’s DA. However, this rule can be overlooked if the website is highly relevant to your industry—in this case, law.
For example, a backlink from The Washington Post would carry more weight and authority than a link from a generic website. Therefore, aim for backlinks from reputable, high-authority websites and well-known brands to maximize your SEO impact.
Buying or selling backlinks is considered spam by Google and can negatively impact your website’s rankings in SERPs. In the worst-case scenario, it can even result in your website being de-indexed by Google.
The second factor of a high-quality backlink is website relevance. In some cases, relevance is more important than domain authority, as a link from a website related to the legal industry provides dual benefits:
To put it simply, I would prefer a backlink from a legal blog with a DA of 40 over a link from a generic website with a DA of 55. The contextual relevance of the legal blog carries more weight and better supports your law firm’s SEO strategy.
After domain authority and relevance, the next most important factor in law firm link building is the organic traffic of the website from which you plan to get a backlink. Ideally, a healthy website should have a minimum of 5K to 10K monthly visitors.
However, traffic requirements vary by niche. For instance, a blog or news site may attract 100K monthly visitors, while a product or service provider might receive less than 5K visitors per month. Despite the lower traffic, a backlink from such a site is still valuable if it operates in a relevant niche—in this case, law.
Example: Amberlo is a law firm management software with all the essential features needed to grow your practice. Although their organic traffic is 3.6K per month, which seems low, the brand is highly relevant to the legal industry.
A backlink from Amberlo or a similar website/brand would significantly enhance your law firm’s online visibility and ranking because of its niche relevance and authority.
This is one of the most important factors in SEO for law firms and can significantly enhance your website’s authority for specific keywords that attract potential clients.
Google and other search engines prioritize contextual backlinks as a strong ranking signal compared to links from images, forms, or other web elements. Therefore, focus on acquiring contextual backlinks from high-authority websites that are relevant to your legal niche.
Another crucial aspect is the anchor text used for the hyperlink. Optimize anchor text with lead-generating keywords like “Personal Injury Lawyer NYC” or “Divorce Lawyer Chicago” to improve your rankings and attract more qualified leads.
Backlinks from images and other web elements are also acceptable if acquiring a contextual backlink is impossible. While contextual links are more powerful for SEO, image-based and element links can still pass link juice and boost your website’s authority.
Link anchor or anchor text is a backlink naturally integrated into the content of a website, blog, article, or research paper to support and reinforce the argument being made. It typically appears in a different color and is often underlined for easy identification.
Anchor text is crucial for SEO and user experience because it provides valuable context to search engines about the linked page’s content, helping it rank higher for targeted keywords.
It also guides users by clearly indicating what they can expect from the linked page, ensuring a seamless navigation experience. Furthermore, well-matched anchor text builds credibility and trust by ensuring relevance and reliability, reducing bounce rates, and enhancing user satisfaction.
Here are a few examples of anchor text:
I’ve placed this factor last, but that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. The content quality and link profile of the website backlinking to you are crucial for effective SEO.
A website with a natural backlink profile amplifies the value of a backlink, making it more credible in the eyes of search engines. Additionally, the content on the website should be authentic, user-focused, and genuinely helpful.
If the content appears manipulative or low-quality, it can negatively impact your rankings and harm your law firm’s online reputation.
An effective SEO link-building strategy for law firms involves acquiring backlinks from high-authority websites with a natural link profile, stable organic traffic, and helpful content. Ideal sources include legal directories, blogs, news websites, government sites, and educational platforms.
Aim for a balanced mix of these high-quality sources to create a natural and relevant backlink profile. This approach enhances your law firm’s credibility and authority.
Here are the nine proven strategies I’ve used over the years to increase law firm traffic and brand mentions.
Journalists and reporters are often looking for expert opinions from industry leaders or those in management roles. As a lawyer, you can provide insights and expert commentary related to your practice area, supported by data and personal experience.
Your chances of being mentioned in high-authority news websites or magazines are significantly higher due to your professional expertise. These high-domain authority backlinks can’t be bought—they must be earned through genuine contributions.
To connect with journalists, use platforms like Qwoted and Featured, where you can pitch your expertise. Although this requires time and effort, and the success rate is low.
If you’re short on time, consider hiring us to manage this outreach and secure high-quality backlinks for your law firm.
Who doesn’t appreciate a well-researched, valuable piece of content backed by stats and numbers—especially when it comes from an authoritative source like you?
Guest posting is one of the oldest and most effective link-building techniques in SEO. It involves offering high-quality, relevant content to another website for free in exchange for a backlink to your website. Most webmasters and site owners gladly provide a backlink in the author bio or within the content itself.
Before shortlisting websites for guest posts, make sure to evaluate their relevance, domain authority (DA), and organic traffic using the criteria mentioned earlier. This ensures that your guest posts not only provide valuable backlinks but also enhance your authority in the legal industry.
Linkable assets are valuable pieces of content that inform, educate, or help consumers, making them highly shareable and attractive for backlinks. These can include infographics detailing court procedures or the prerequisites for a successful personal injury case, as well as research papers backed by credible data or videos/podcasts sharing your expert insights on divorce cases.
The goal is to create content so valuable that other websites naturally link to it. You can also actively seek backlinks by contacting editors or webmasters via email. If they find your content useful and relevant for their audience, they’ll often link to it for free.
Additionally, once your linkable assets rank on search engines, they attract natural backlinks as other sites reference and share them, boosting your website’s authority and online visibility.
Scholarship link-building is an effective SEO strategy that can attract hundreds of high-authority backlinks from colleges and law schools. The process involves introducing a scholarship program on your website and reaching out to educational institutions, informing them about the opportunity.
These colleges and universities are usually eager to feature scholarship offers on their websites, providing you with a high-authority backlink while giving students a chance to apply and benefit from the scholarship.
Although this method is costly, it offers two significant benefits: increased brand awareness and valuable backlinks from .edu domains, which are highly trusted by search engines.
Before launching a scholarship program, make sure to research the costs, expected outcomes, and budget requirements to ensure they align with your law firm’s marketing strategy.
You can use Google Alerts or Brand24 to track brand mentions online. Once you’ve identified unlinked mentions, reach out to the webmaster or website owner with a polite email, requesting them to hyperlink your website’s URL.
This method has a high success rate because your brand is already mentioned in the content, making the author more likely to link back as a credible source.
Community mentions involve asking people in your network or past clients to link to your website. It’s an easy way to get relevant backlinks for the work you’ve already done.
Here’s when to ask for a link:
Legal directories are an excellent way to boost your local SEO in your legal practice area. There are hundreds of legal directories available, which can be easily found by Googling them along with your location and practice area.
I recommend registering your law firm on both free and paid legal directories to build local presence. Focus on directories relevant to your location and practice area, and avoid registering on directories for other states.
A great way to find legal directories is by analyzing your competitors’ backlinks using SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush.
Keep in mind that about 90% of legal directories provide no-follow backlinks, which don’t pass link juice but are still relevant and counted as positive votes by search engines, enhancing your credibility and authority.
Podcasting is an excellent way to engage with potential clients while also earning high-authority backlinks from platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
To stand out, choose a unique topic that isn’t widely covered. Invite a relevant guest and ask thought-provoking questions to offer new perspectives.
For example, if you’re a divorce lawyer, you could host a podcast on “Top Reasons Women Filed for Divorce in the Last Five Years.” To add depth, invite a psychologist to share their insights, and share your experiences from handling similar cases.
This approach not only builds credibility and authority but also attracts backlinks and increases brand awareness.
Building connections with influencers, bloggers, and legal publications is key to successful link-building. Attend industry events and webinars, write guest articles, and collaborate on research projects to show your expertise and get backlinks.
Engage on LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with influencers who might share your content, leading to organic backlinks.
As mentioned at the beginning of this guide, link-building is crucial for law firms to increase brand awareness, enhance online visibility, and rank higher on search engines.
If you don’t have the time or expertise to manage a high-quality link-building campaign, contact us to handle it for you. However, if you decide to do it yourself, make sure to acquire backlinks from websites with high domain authority, relevant content, a natural link profile, and decent organic traffic.
I’ve outlined the nine link-building methods I use for law firms and explained the types of links you should aim for. Focus on obtaining contextual backlinks to achieve the best SEO impact for your law firm’s website.
I’m Micheal Clark, an experienced SEO consultant specializing in law firms and attorneys. With over seven years in SEO, I help legal professionals rank higher on Google, attract clients, and grow their practice. From technical SEO to local optimization and content strategy, I provide tailored solutions to dominate competitive legal searches.
