The Best Outbound Links for a Law Firm Blog, from a Reader’s Perspective

Even if you are a complete beginner in SEO, even if this blog is the result of your first ever Google search for how to optimize your law firm’s website for Google searches, you have probably already heard that links are an important part of SEO.  This article by Benj Arriola on Search Engine Journal does an excellent job of describing the various types of links found on a website and why each one is important for SEO. 

​You are not just writing a blog for search engines, though, and you are also not adding links to your blog simply for the benefit of Google’s bots.  Links are an important part of a law firm’s website, just as they are for any business website. Some links, however, really add value to your blog from a prospective client’s perspective.  Here are some categories of sites to which you should link from your law firm’s blog. Readers will want to follow them, and the SEO boost you will get from Google is just a fringe benefit.

Applications and Other Official Forms

In some practice areas, help preparing and filing official forms is a major part of why clients hire a lawyer.  If you link to these forms, then prospective clients might find your blog when looking for advice about how to file them that is more straightforward than the fine print on the instructions page to the forms.  It’s best if you include the links in a post full of helpful advice about the forms. You will not lose clients by doing this; rather, they will feel empowered and appreciate that you respect their intelligence. 

The ones who decide to contact you will do so knowing that they have already tried to navigate the process and realized that their situation is complex enough to require professional legal advice. For example, if you are a patent lawyer, you can link to the official patent application form.  If you are a family lawyer, you can link to your state’s parenting plan form for couples with shared custody of minor children.

Primary Sources, Within Reason

While it may help you generate good link vibes with your colleagues, linking to other law firms’ sites or to for-profit sites with general information about the law is counterproductive from a reader’s perspective.  You should be the authority, and that means only linking to sources more authoritative than you. Explain the subject in understandable language, and then link to the real thing.

The real thing can include statutes, bills in the legislature, and court decisions.  These texts are not easy reading, and perhaps not all readers will click on them, but they are the most authoritative sources you can get. The readers who do click on them will appreciate that you are not leading them on a wild goose chase through the over-commercialized Internet.

Let Law Blog Writers Do the Writing

Does linking to other sites sound more tedious than reading through volumes of legal texts?  You can count on Law Blog Writers to create user-friendly, original content with high quality links.