You can increase inbound link traffic on your website in a huge variety of ways, but Google now has some detection algorithms that can throw off your plans.  Google doesn't particularly like when websites increase inbound links inorganically, and has in the last year penalized over 15 percent of web pages for appearing to be over optimized.  If you want to increase inbound link traffic today, you'll have to be very careful to make the increase appear natural and organic.  If you don't know how to do that yet—keep reading, and you'll find out before this guide is over.

What Are Inbound Links—And Why Do I Need Them?

Any time a website links to your website, it does so in the form of an inbound link.  When someone clicks on the anchor text of the link, they'll arrive at your website and be able to look at your content.  In the early web, it was relatively common for most websites to have few links, except the ones that went to the websites of personal friends or websites that pertained to an interest or related industry.

Today, inbound linking has become big business.  That's because when you increase inbound link numbers, your search engine rankings get better across the board.  Search engines make an assumption that when you increase inbound links, it means that your website has more authoritative and trustworthy content.

If you're working hard to increase inbound link numbers for your website, though, you should know that Google has created some red flags.  If you increase inbound links in the wrong way, these red flags get tripped and your website's rankings go right back down to where they started from.  Knowledge is power—by knowing exactly what kind of inbound links will lead to trouble, you can avoid common pitfalls and keep your rankings rising.

Why You Should Increase Inbound Links Slowly

When a company starts trying to increase inbound link traffic using inorganic techniques, it shows.  One of the first ways that it shows is in a sudden increase in the sheer number of inbound links appearing for a particular website or specific web page.

When this sudden spike happens, search engines red flag your website.  Even if you're in a rush to increase inbound links, you can't do it too quickly or you'll be wasting your effort.  Increase inbound link numbers gradually, preferably in concert with any traffic that you've gained.  The more traffic that your website gets, the faster you can increase inbound links coming to you per day.

Where Your Links Come From Matters

A link coming from Joe Schmo's Discount Legal Blog isn't going to be worth as much as one that comes from Above the Law or The Volokh Conspiracy.  They're all blogs, so what's the difference?  The difference is in a number that Google calls PageRank.  

If you increase inbound link numbers at a good clip, but they're only coming from websites that are low visibility, Google may not take kindly to this.  While it's possible for an organic link building effort to yield these types of results, the more usual reason is that someone has tried “black hat” link building techniques—things that spam other websites and make the internet less usable for most users.

Because of this, Google weights rankings much more highly if you increase inbound link traffic from high PageRank websites.  By increasing inbound links in this way, you'll build better quality links—even if they're more difficult to obtain initially.

Increase Inbound Links With Your Blog

By using your blog in the right ways, you can increase inbound link numbers in a variety of ways.  One of the most obvious ways is in generating publicity for your firm organically.  As long as you're creating great content, even if you're not sharing it all that often, it's likely that your blog entries will be noticed and linked by at least a few other bloggers.

Of course, if you want to increase inbound link traffic even more, you can help the process along.  By talking to other blog owners, you can get put onto their blogrolls, which will give you new inbound links.  You could even get a guest posting gig, which is a great opportunity to increase inbound link traffic.

If you're not using blog comments for real discussions, you should start.  Some of the best ways to increase inbound links involve using blog comments.  As long as you're making relevant comments on other people's blogs, and as long as your link is at least somewhat relevant, a new inbound link usually won't be removed from a comment section.  Don't just spam post to blogs with no moderation.  Google can easily detect this method, and will know you are trying to increase inbound link traffic with black hat techniques.

Increase Inbound Links on Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking websites, including Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit are great ways to build new inbound links and get more attention to your website.  However, while these sites can increase inbound link numbers, it's actually somewhat uncommon for a lawyer to get much new business from them.  This is because you'll have tried to increase inbound links on a website that is being used by people worldwide, rather than just in your community.

This doesn't mean that it's worthless to increase inbound link numbers on social bookmarking websites.  On the contrary, these websites have high PageRank values and can make your rankings soar.  Just don't expect to get direct conversions—you'll see your results coming through in the changes to your SEO results.

Increase Inbound Links with Local Websites

The other strategy you can employ to increase inbound link numbers is to go local.  Instead of using only big, high PageRank, global websites, focusing on sites that matter to your community can be a great move.  First of all, there isn't as much competition for links at these websites.  Second, Google can identify when you're being linked by local sources, and will dramatically increase your rankings in geolocational searches for law firms.

The reputation of website owners often depends on the reputation of their website.  With tens of thousands of new attorneys graduating in 2012 and hundreds of thousands already working, you need to keep your website reputation great to stay competitive.  But how do you maintain a great reputation in website listings?  Keep reading this guide to find out 8 simple rules for protecting the website reputation you've worked so hard to build.

Rule #1: Think Like a Client

Your reputation for website quality depends largely on your ability to give clients what they need, when they need it, in an easy to understand format.  If you want a great website reputation, you can't spend a lot of time with jargon and posturing.  Instead, a reputation for website quality will come from having quality narrative and good information that helps potential clients come to a decision to talk to an attorney for the first time.

Thinking like a client also means that you should avoid risking your reputation of website quality just to get some extra links.  If clients find that your links are posted all over the web like spam, your website reputation will undoubtedly suffer and you may see your search rankings take a plunge.

Rule #2: Skip Out on Shortcuts

It's easy to automate the linking coming in to your website, but how will it impact your website reputation if you do?  The reputation of website quality you're trying to build isn't based on fooling people, it's based on being able to give real, quality information.  Forget trying to use automation to game the system.  Google will find out, and you'll end up wishing that you had tried to secure a reputation for website quality in some other way.

Rule #3: Accept Responsibility

At some time, every website and every business makes a mistake.  The thing that will determine whether your reputation of website quality remains the same or takes a nosedive is how you respond to that initial mistake once you learn about it.  The worst website reputation you can get is as a company that lies and fabricates new data.  Some people give up on any pretense of a reputation for website quality by using “astroturfed” comments and blogs to make it look like their position is stronger than it really is.

Instead of hiding from your mistakes, embrace them as learning opportunities.  If you show that you are sincerely sorry for the mistake, the reputation of website quality you've built will not just stay—it might even improve.  Website reputation tends to be quite high when companies take decisive responsibility for their actions and are honest about the factors that led them into making the initial error.

Rule #4: Know Your Marketing Contractors

Your reputation for website quality can be tanked faster by a bad web marketing contractor than just about anybody.  If even one of the companies you're outsourcing marketing services to decides to use a spammy marketing tactic, you could find that your website is suddenly being penalized and you're in a lot of trouble.

Make sure that any contractor you're using for marketing is reputable and comes with several firm recommendations from other professional organizations.  Law firms simply can't afford to risk their website reputation on an unproven contractor.  To maintain a reputation for website quality, you'll need to get people on your account who are understanding about your need for consistently high quality content and inbound links.

Rule #5: Go With the Flow

If you're trying to maintain your website reputation with a website that is basically doing things in the same way you did them ten years ago, you're barking up the wrong tree.  The web is changing from year to year, and a reputation for website quality is much easier to build when you change along with it.

For example, in 2012 and 2013, the mobile web is really coming into its own.  If you're not watching your website reputation for mobile customers as well as desktop ones, you may be missing out on a big target market that is ready for conversions.  If you're not going with the flow, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Rule #6: Have Good Hosting

One of the fastest ways to lose a reputation for website authority is to have your website start failing to load.  If your hosting provider is inconsistent or has been having too many technical difficulties, it may be time to migrate to a new hosting provider who can give you the service you need.

Google actually bases some of its rankings and quality ratings on the speed at which your website is served to viewers.  Because of this, it's absolutely critical for you to make your speed fast if you want to be on the first page of search results.

Rule #7: Update Your Links

Periodically, in order to make sure your website reputation stays good, you should check the outbound links that lead away from your website and the inbound links that bring people to it.  If any of these links aren't working, you can update them with redirect pages or by changing the URL your outbound link is directing to.

Having outdated or missing links looks very amateur hour to seasoned web users, so be aware that poor linking practices can be one of the easiest ways to give yourself a poor website reputation.

Rule #8: Keep Content Fresh

You won't maintain a great reputation for website quality if your site maintains the same content year after year with no meaningful changes.  A constant flow of fresh content that uses links and sources from across the web will make it much easier for you to build a website reputation with authority.

Consider adding new content to your website at least on a weekly basis—two or three times a week may be an even better target if you're wanting the very best for your website reputation.

Before social media and other types of Web 2.0 sites became the norm on the internet, it wasn't really necessary to check your website reputation.  Today, however, a website reputation check has become a critical tool in the web marketing arsenal of many law firms.  If you haven't tried to check your website reputation yet, this guide will teach you why you need to and what you might find out.  Keep reading to learn why a website reputation check can be very valuable for search engine optimization, and how to check your website reputation in several different ways.

How a Web Reputation Check Can Prevent Problems

It's important to know what people are saying about you before a few isolated comments become the dominant narrative.  Understanding your online reputation gives you an advantage in talking to critics and fans.  By performing a website reputation check, you ensure that you're able to anticipate when, for example, a negative review might be impacting your site negatively.

When you check your website reputation, you're likely to find out that some areas of your reputation are already doing quite well while others could use more help.  A website reputation check can make it much easier to prioritize your expenditures of both time and money.  What's more, you may be able to identify defamatory information and make sure that it is taken down before it has a significant negative impact on your web traffic and conversions.

If your website is currently being blocked by antivirus software because the software has detected a problem, you need to know right away.  Only by choosing to check your website reputation can you actually find out what is causing the problem.  A website reputation check can help you improve the safety and security of your website so that it can be trusted by your clients.

Can I Check Website Reputation For Free?

Yes!  One of the best parts about doing a web reputation check in 2012 is that many of the resources to help you are completely free of charge.  Some of the best tools to check your website reputation actually come from the same companies that produce anti-virus software.  These companies, like AVG and PC Tools, can help you run a web reputation check completely free of charge.

However, if you want to check your website reputation beyond just whether your site is trusted to be free from viruses or security threats, you'll need to dig deeper.  Some programs that help you understand exactly what your website's reputation is can cost money.  You'll need to decide for yourself whether the features they offer are worthwhile for your firm.  Many of these tools are more important for retailers and others dealing with high volume sales transactions.

Doing a Website Reputation Check For the First Time

The first time that you check your website reputation, you can find out several key pieces of information.  Let's say that you start with Trustedsource.org, a website created by McAfee virus protection to help people do a website reputation check.  When you check your website reputation with this website, you'll find out not only whether the site considers your website to be the possible victim of fraud or malware, but also what kind of patterns your links are showing.

If you are seeing a pattern of fraudulent links or links that appear artificially created, you may want to use new strategies.  Your web reputation check may also reveal many older links that no longer work to take people to a valid URL on your website.  Knowing this can help you revise your site in a way that will make it more user friendly to future users.

Why One Website Reputation Check Isn't Enough

Just because you check your website reputation and it comes up clear doesn't mean that you're out of the woods.  You should make sure that you run a website reputation check at least once a month.  This will alert you very quickly if any virus or malware should ever take over your website, or if some program began to use your website as a place to create automatic links.

Doing a consistent check of website reputation statistics can also make sure that you're tracking trends in your website.  If you're not keeping track of how your website's traffic and trust levels are changing, you're missing out on valuable data that could help you shape your website for months or even years in the future.

Help!  My Reputation Is in the Gutter!

It's all well and good if you check your website reputation and it comes up green.  But what if there are alerts all over the place?  How do you clean up the mess that has been left behind by viruses or malware?  It's true that in some cases you may need to contact a professional to do this cleanup after running a website reputation check, but you may also be able to do it yourself.

Some website reputation check programs, especially those that require some payment up front, will actually help you to remove any problematic pages from your website.  These programs to check your website reputation can work automatically so that you don't have to worry about the details of how to remove each piece of offending software.

Reputation Management and Services

Sometimes, running a website reputation check can be a good reminder of just how hard it can be to keep your reputation online looking as good as it can.  If you're having trouble, consider showing the results of your website reputation check to a reputation management service.  These services can check your website reputation so you don't have to, and can make sure that any problems are taken care of immediately.  Because these services specialize in reputation management, you can rest assured that your reputation is being monitored more frequently and more closely than it would have been if you had handled it personally.

Less than a third of marketing professionals are currently using a backlinks checker.  Using one of these tools can be the best way to make sure that your website will be safe from changes to Google.  With so many options for a free backlink checker, finding the right one can seem tough.  Keep reading this guide and you'll find out not only how a backlinks checker can make your life easier, but also how to choose a backlink checker that will solve the right problems for your firm—possibly even a free backlink checker.

Why Do I Need Backlinks?

In the very earliest days of search engines, the biggest factor in website rankings was keyword density.  While websites that used a keyword over and over would see their search engine rankings decrease, attaining a good keyword density made it much more possible to be seen by anyone searching the web.

As time passed, the biggest factor for ranking websites changed.  Now, backlinks account for more than half of the total ranking that your website will receive in searches.  If you don't have any backlinks coming to your website, or have very few, you will appear far too low in searches for anyone to find you with a reasonably sized search string.

What Is a Backlink Checker?

A backlinks checker works by looking all over the web for websites that are linking to your domain.  You can obtain a free backlink checker either as a standalone program, an add-on or extension for Firefox or Chrome, or even by just loading up a website.  There's no one right kind of backlink checker, and usually, any individual backlinks checker will miss some links.  You may want to use more than one free backlink checker just to make sure that you're seeing all of your backlinks instead of just a small selection of them.

A backlink checker can't help you with other SEO tasks, like telling you which keywords to insert more frequently in order to get better search rankings.  Usually, each free backlink checker is designed for only one task, and should generally be used only if you know at least a little bit about what you're doing and how to differentiate high value and low value links.

What Can a Backlink Checker Help With?

Depending on what kind of backlinks checker you're using, you can use these tools for a wide range of purposes.  The most common reason that people want to use a free backlink checker in 2012 is that new Google updates have caused their website to fall out of favor in the search rankings.  These users usually want a backlinks checker that will analyze the quality of the websites where their backlinks come from.  

If a website appears to be low quality based on the analysis of the backlink checker, internet marketing specialists can send an email to the webmasters of the websites where the bad links are hosted and ask for them to be taken down.

Another way to use a free backlink checker is to find one that allows website comparisons.  You may want to investigate, using a backlinks checker, where your competitor's backlinks are coming from.  If the free backlink checker reveals that you have a competitor who appears to be doing much better than your law firm at getting search rankings, this kind of backlink checker tool can be your ticket to working on an equal footing.  Often, you can use the same kinds of websites they're using to build your own backlink presence.

Another reason that you may want to use a backlinks checker is to make sure that all backlinks leading to your domain still work.  If you've recently changed the layout of your website, it's possible that a number of your backlinks now just give 404 errors to would-be visitors.  By running a free backlink checker that monitors whether these backlinks are functional, you can tell which webmasters to ask to update your links.  If a webmaster is unavailable or refuses to edit the link, you can always add a redirect page for any links flagged by your free backlink checker.

Is a Backlink Checker Still Important?

In some ways, a backlinks checker is a more important tool than it has ever been before.  Because free backlink checker tools abound, there's no reason not to get one.  Backlinks are now the single most important factor for your search engine rankings, and what's more, search engine rankings count more every day.

Why is that?  Because mobile traffic is driving more and more of the web today.  Mobile customers, even more than traditional desktop users, are likely to click on and convert with one of the very first results they see.  Because their screens are smaller and scrolling can take longer, it's very unlikely that mobile traffic will come to your website if you're on even the second page.  This means that even though Google is penalizing “over optimized” websites, you need to optimize your backlinks as much as possible without incurring this penalty—and a backlinks checker is the best way to do that.

Finding the Right Backlink Checker For the Job

You've read the writing on the wall and decided you need a free backlink checker.  But which backlink checker will do the best job for you?  First, you need to decide what it is you're trying to do with your backlinks checker.  If you want to find out which of your links work currently (and which now direct to invalid URLs), ScrapeBox (www.scrapebox.org) can help.

For those wanting a tool to just show them all of their current backlinks, try backlinkwatch.com.  This online tool can help you to understand exactly who's linking to you, what their Google PageRank is, and what the anchor text is that is bringing people to your website.  Just identifying these trends can make it much easier to avoid any unnecessary loss of search rankings on Google.

Your website reputation should be one of your most prized business possessions when you work in a law firm.  Having a great reputation can get you new clients on a consistent basis—but if you lose that reputation, the clients will dry up.  It's no longer enough to sit back and take a passive approach.  Website reputation management services work with you to make sure your website is working and looking great for everyone who uses it.  Here are seven reasons that website reputation management services can be great for lawyers and legal marketing professionals.

#1: Keep Bad Reviews From Killing Your Business

One of the ways that a website reputation management service can help you is by keeping an eye on review websites.  Client reviews are a big way for people to find attorneys today, and you'll do well to make sure that you're listed on several different review websites.  Studies have shown, however, that consumers tend to pay significantly more attention to negative reviews than positive reviews—perhaps due to the perception that a complaint is generally honest while a compliment could be from a biased source.

Website reputation management services know that bad reviews aren't always a sign that you're doing poorly.  In some cases, they may be planted by your competition to drive more clients toward their offices.  Depending on what state you live in, this may or may not violate ethical rules for attorneys.  If you do find that a review has been posted fraudulently, your website reputation management company can help by requesting that it be taken down.  Most websites with client reviews are sensitive to these issues and can make sure that negative reviews are removed promptly.

#2: Manage Your Social Media Presence

Another way that a website reputation management company can make your life easier is by taking the reins on your social media strategy.  Many reputation management companies specialize in making social content for businesses.  Your website reputation managers can help you design a strategy for your social media websites that takes into account your unique brand image and your performance goals.

Many attorneys don't want to spend a lot of their day posting to Facebook, making connections on LinkedIn, and putting up links on social bookmarking websites and Twitter.  Why not let a website reputation management firm take care of it for you?  You'll get most of the same benefits as if you had done it yourself—without all of the hassles.

#3: Correct Missing or Incorrect Directory Information

Speaking of hassles, is there any bigger one than looking through dozens of directory websites for potential errors?  This is one of those chores that is perhaps better when it's just done by someone else.  If you want your directory entries checked, updated, and corrected, you need to talk to a website reputation management agency.

By using reputation managers, you ensure that your directory information will be changed any time your web address, company name, phone number, or physical address changes.  Having these changes made by your website reputation management company is much less tedious than doing it yourself every time the phone extension list changes.

#4: Keeping Search Results You Want On Top

Maybe there are some reviews of your law firm that are so glowing, you want them to be the first thing that people searching for your firm see.  A website reputation management firm can help you get your favorite results into Google's top pages when people search for your brand name.

In addition, you can actually generate good content that can drive out bad content.  For example, if someone has started a website that says your law firm is terrible and unprofessional, you can create new websites and web pages to simply outperform the offending page.  Since most web searchers don't look past the first page, it's unlikely that many people will see the negative result after it has been driven to page two or three.

#5: Finding Out What People Are Saying

If you've recently had a public relations issue, hiring a website reputation management company is a great idea.  Your reputation manager can investigate what the “buzz” is about your company and whether you seem to be improving or declining.

In some situations, your website reputation management agency will also try to actually influence that buzz.  If negative things are currently being said about your firm, your agency can help you find a way to spin them positively.

#6: Submit Takedown Requests for Defamatory Content

Of course, if someone insists on defaming you online, you have legal recourse.  Your website reputation management company can help you to distribute cease and desist letters to anybody promoting content that is defamatory or libelous.  As a lawyer, it is much more likely for you than most other people marketing online that your takedown request letters will be followed, so you will usually see results with just a letter.

If you've tried unsuccessfully to have defamatory content removed, you may have to sue for defamation in civil court.  This can get even trickier—or impossible—if the website defaming you is in another country.  If this happens, the best thing that your website reputation management company can do for you is to help you post more positive content to drown out the defamatory accusations.

#7: Create a Better You

By giving you a better understanding what people already think of your reputation, your website reputation management agency can help you to better establish your brand.  Your reputation can give you a very good idea of what distinguishes you from your most similar competitors.

Once you have a very strong brand awareness and identity, you can create marketing campaigns that take advantage of that confidence.  Being the best you that you can be is much better than trying to do everything that your competition is doing.  What's more, by having continuous monitoring of your reputation, you ensure that you hear what's being said about your newest marketing moves as soon as they take effect.

Everyone in law marketing today wants to talk about niche markets.  But what is a niche market, really, and what niche market will provide you with the biggest profits in both the short and the long term?  When you're trying to compete against hundreds or even thousands of other law firms in your area, you need a way to differentiate yourself from the competition.  That goes double once you decide to market online.  In this guide, you'll not only learn about a history of legal niche markets, but also about how to find a niche market that helps your bottom line and your career satisfaction.

A Brief History of Niche Markets for Lawyers

Just a hundred years ago or so, most attorneys didn't have a particular niche market in mind when they started their practice.  In that much more rural America, being able to be versatile and flexible, handling all types of cases, was more important than asking what is a niche market.

Even in that era, though, some attorneys learned about niche markets and specialized in particular kinds of cases.  Some attorneys became private criminal defenders and began to carve out a niche market in the criminal court system.  As divorce became more common in the United States and no-fault divorces exploded, many attorneys started finding niche markets in family law.

The internet changed the answer to what is a niche market.  While a niche market used to just describe attorneys who'd chosen to specialize in a particular legal field, that's no longer enough.  In just your area, there may be a hundred other people working in, for instance, personal injury plaintiff's litigation.  You'll need to figure out niche markets to successfully compete against people who are already marketing heavily online.

What is a Niche Market Today?

Today's niche markets are smaller and more specific than ever before.  It's no longer enough to just answer “what is a niche market” with a basic practice area.  Instead, you're going to need to think about narrowing your field further.  For instance, instead of just practicing personal injury law, or even using vehicle accident plaintiffs as your niche market, you need to be more specific.

Consider specializing in a particular kind of vehicle accident: for instance, accidents that occur at stoplights, or drunk driving accidents.  This kind of specialization can make it much easier for you to generate web traffic for so-called “long tail keywords,” which happen when people type a very long list of search terms into a search engine.

Can Niche Markets Help Even if I'm a Solo Practitioner?

Sometimes solo practitioners in today's competitive market feel a need to try to take literally any new business that comes through their door.  When this is your legal philosophy, your question isn't so much “what is a niche market” as “why would I want one?”

What you may not realize is that by trying to be all things to all people, you may actually be cutting off your own best routes of getting new business.  You're never going to be able to compete with your biggest firm competitors in every area of the law—why not develop niche markets where you can be the big fish in a small pond?

A great niche market can be the foundation of a highly profitable solo practice.  While other solos are still trying to be generalists and haven't even asked “what is a niche market?” yet, you can be well on your way to niche success.

Getting Help Choosing Niche Markets

Marketing consulting agencies and computer tools can both help you to find a niche market if you're not confident about your niche marketing ideas yet.  Using an agency is usually the better idea if you have a large budget for your niche marketing, but if your budget is smaller you may have to rely on inexpensive or free tools.

Niche market finder tools are becoming popular with businesses all over the country who want to know what niche markets are in high demand and short supply in their area.  Remember, though, that computer tools don't always tell the whole story, especially if your niche marketing idea involves populations without a lot of computer use.

What if My Niche Market Gets Less Popular?

Sometimes, you can actually choose niche markets that you know won't be as popular in a few years.  What is a niche market with this kind of short period of viability?  Let's say that you want to make a niche in plaintiff's law for people who've been hurt by, for instance, a recently recalled vehicle or prescription medication.  If that vehicle or medication has been pulled off the market in response to lawsuits, you won't have that niche market forever.

However, that doesn't mean that these are bad niche markets.  What is a niche market good for if it doesn't last forever?  Well, you can make a lot of money in the meantime as one of the few attorneys operating as a specialist in those niche markets.  Just keep an eye on the market, and when it starts to run dry, start a new website for a closely related niche market (for instance, another recalled car or medicine).

Choosing Niche Markets Through Demographics

Another way to choose a successful niche market is to look at demographics.  What is a niche market that is demographically based?  Well, let's say that your law office is in or right next to a neighborhood with a high population of an ethnic group.  If that group tends to speak a different language than English, they may have a difficult time finding competent legal help when they have a problem.  If you're fluent in the language already, or can at least hire a translator to help you, you'll have much better success with the niche in your area.

You can also use age demographics to successfully target your niche marketing ideas.  For example, if you're in an area where many people are retiring, you may want to develop a practice based on asset management, wills, and trusts.

282 million Americans—nearly the entire population of the country—will be using the internet at some point this year.  Today, more than eighty percent of consumers report doing research on products and services online before deciding on one.  Finding the best link building service for your needs can make the difference between mediocre search results and top results.  Keep reading this guide for six easy to use tips that can help you compare link building services and pick a good link building service for your law firm.

Tip 1: Not All Links Are the Same

When you're starting to use a link building service, you need to keep in mind that search engines don't rank all links in the same way.  Building inbound links is part of the puzzle that link building services can help you solve, but the best link building service will help you to create quality links, not just any links at all.

What does a quality link look like?  A quality link is from a website that generally is considered to have a great reputation—people tend to post links from that website and it is generally popular.  However, the more outbound links that a website has, the less weighting any individual link will give you.  

For example, a website like Youtube has a good reputation online and used by many people.  However, with so many links on Youtube, each new link to your website only helps your search engine results pages a little bit.  On the other hand, if your law firm's website was linked by a major online magazine that only has a few links every day, you might see a significant jump in SERPs.

Tip 2: Not All Link Building Services Are The Same

Because links are weighted differently by quality, the best link building service will always emphasize quality over quantity.  You should be wary of any link building service in today's internet world that tries to tell you about the sheer number of links that will be generated for you.  Many of these link building services fall under the old “article marketing” category, which reposted articles on many websites.

A link building service that wants to just copy your articles and put them all over the web isn't the best link building service you can use.  You should be on the lookout for link building services that offer innovative ways to build your web presence, like setting up guest blogging opportunities or other ways to trade links with other real attorneys.

Tip 3: Know How Link Building Services Can Hurt You

While the best link building service you can hire will certainly help you to improve your SERPs, using a bargain basement link building service can actually harm your website's rankings.  Why?  Because many of these link building services are actually using seriously unethical ways of posting your links.  Some of them will post links as comments to completely unrelated articles on completely unrelated blogs—a terrible way to bring in new web traffic, and a tactic likely to get your website labeled as spam.

In some cases, if your link building service is trying to include terms about other attorneys in your website or links, you could even be subject to disciplinary action.  State bar associations are still working out their rules for advertising online, and link building services have periodically come under fire as unethical.  You should consult with your state bar association if you have any questions about best link building service practices or any practices that may be prohibited.

Tip 4: There's No One Best Link Building Service

While of course there are higher and lower quality link building services, the only best link building service is the one that is best for your law firm.  For example, the first link building service you contact may be able to show you great case studies that make you feel confident that you'll improve your SEO results.  However, if they've never done link building for lawyers before, they may not know how to make link building work in a legal services context.

The best link building service for you will usually be one that can show you some real results from other law firms or similar service-oriented industries (for instance, a link building service that has worked extensively with CPAs or medical professionals).  Link building services without this kind of experience may be more focused on selling products, not services, and are unlikely to give you good results.

Tip 5: Track the Progress of Your Link Building Service

Don't just take the word of your link building services that their package is working.  If you've gotten the best link building service available, the people working for the service will usually show you an analysis of your web traffic, as well as the search engine results pages your website now displays on, and how those two things have been influenced by the link building efforts they've handled.

While link building services can't give you overnight results, you can expect to start seeing changes within a few weeks or months.  Keep in mind that even the best link building service won't be able to increase your conversion rate—keep your website content high-quality so that the people driven to your website by your new link building efforts are impressed.  If your link building service hasn't delivered within six months, it's time to try a new strategy or a new service.

Tip 6: Find Link Building Services That Use Best Practices

One way to find the best link building service, whether it's 2012, 2013, or beyond, is to investigate the current state of best practices for link building.  Because these best practices are constantly changing, understanding the latest state of the art link building techniques can help you decide which link building service is best for you.  Keep in mind that any link building service using techniques that are even a few years out of date is sacrificing your web traffic.

Today, the world wide web contains about 9 billion pages—about one and a half for every man, woman, and child on the planet.  In that kind of crowd, standing out can be tough.  Building a link presence on the internet isn't easy, but it can bring incredible financial rewards to your firm.  Whether you are just beginning to ask “what is link building?” or you've decided to change your law firm's link building strategy, keep reading this guide to learn about today's best practices.

What is Link Building?

It's not easy for search engines to determine which website should be ranked #1 for a particular search.  The first, primitive web searches used information like keyword density to determine how early a page would appear in search results.  The problem with using keyword density metrics is that they're easy for spammers and other unethical web designers to game.

Now, keyword density is one part of where search engines put your results.  However, a more important factor is building a link presence online.  What is link building?  In the most general sense, it's simply the act of getting more inbound links to your website.  However, just asking what is link building won't get you to the real heart of the matter: building a link presence of real quality links.

Why does quality matter, and what is link building quality?  Quality has to matter, because if it didn't, all you'd need to do to get top-page results would be to have a service generate millions of links on bogus, barely-used web pages (some services still do this exact thing—more on that later).  When you start building a link presence online, today's best practices include making sure that your content is shared by as many quality websites as possible, not just as many websites as you can.

What is Link Building Good For?

Effectively building a link presence online will make it much more likely that your web pages will appear early in search results.  That's good news, because more than 95 percent of web searches never even result in the searcher looking at the second page of results.  Mobile searchers are even less likely to continue past the first page of results, so as mobile traffic gets more popular, it's important to learn what is link building and how to use it effectively.

If you're building a link presence in an organic way, you'll also be able to bring in people with your link building efforts who aren't coming from search engines.

Unethical Forms of Link Building

When they hear the question “what is link building?” some SEO firms today groan.  Why?  Because many early efforts of law firms to start building a link presence were based in paid article marketing services.  These link building services preyed on companies that didn't understand what is link building or what makes a quality link.

Building a link presence online with article marketing is cheating and spamming—it's making the web fundamentally worse.  As an attorney, you should never use an SEO firm that answers “what is linked building?” by directing you to an article marketing service.

Ethical Link Building: Social Media

Just because not all answers to the question “what is link building?” are ethical doesn't mean that there are no ethical options.  Most law firms today are already using social media websites in some way, but have you considered using your social media presence to help you with building a link reputation for search engines?

When you're trying to implement a link building strategy on your social media pages, you should include a number of links back to your website.  However, if you use too many links, you're no longer really link building, just spamming your Facebook friends and fans—and Google is likely to take notice.

What is link building looking like in the Facebook world?  Mostly like “shares.”  When people share your link, they're also posting it to their feed and will contribute to your number of inbound links, especially if a large number of people follow the link.

Ethical Link Building: Guest Blogging

What is link building with guest blogging?  Essentially, this is the nice guy's version of spamming your links in people's blog comment sections.  Instead of looking like spam (and being disregarded by people who might otherwise have been interested in your services), a guest blog post can help you with building a link presence.

One of the most common ways for attorneys to use this kind of link building is to trade guest blogging spots.  If you and another attorney have blogs about things that occasionally overlap or have an interesting intersection point, you may want to work on building a link to their website with a guest post in exchange for guest blogging on their site.

If you really want to get creative and collaborative, you might even begin a guest blogging series, in which you invite several different prominent attorneys to write on your blog.  This will also help to attract new readers to your blog who previously read these other bloggers.

Ethical Link Building: Getting Press Coverage

Now that most media has gone online, building a link presence doesn't have to be done with exclusively online sources.  Instead of just talking to other bloggers, try writing real press releases about interesting legal topics.

Your blog can also help you to do this kind of link building.  Often, when a reporter is trying to find an attorney to interview for a legal perspective on a news story, they'll come across law blogs.  If your blog seems articulate and intelligent, you might be tapped for a news story quote—and your firm may be linked from the story when it's published in the online version of the newspaper.

Getting real press coverage of this kind is great, because press websites already have a good reputation.  For the very same reason, you shouldn't release your article on fake press release websites.  While these websites offer a very low barrier to entry, they're also regarded as spam havens with little redeeming value and very low overall quality.

When you've started the process of website link building, you'll need to know which link building strategies actually work and which ones you can leave behind.  Today, Google Penguin (the search engine's new ranking algorithm) determines your SERPs based not just on the number of your links, but also on their quality.  This guide will go over link building strategies, starting with the best strategies and working our way to one strategy that most law firms are probably better off avoiding.  Keep reading to find out whether your existing website link building strategy is a great idea or if you should consider other alternatives.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #1: Produce Great Content

The first and best of the link building strategies, and one that almost any SEO specialist will tell you, is to create content that people want to read.  If your content isn't good, it's unlikely that you'll be able to do the kind of organic website link building that leads to the best search engine page results.

Great content doesn't just mean one thing, and it doesn't have to just come in one form.  Your link building strategies may rely on, for instance, producing a blog.  If you're blogging, you can do a lot of website link building just by creating interesting and informative blog entries.  If you're creating blog entries that are using good search engine optimization, you can attract blog visitors relatively quickly and some of them may pass your entry along.  If you make Youtube videos, people can watch and comment on those videos, as well as share them.

Essentially, producing great content puts your best foot forward when you're doing website link building.  It shows that you're willing to go the extra mile in your link building strategies, and that you're not opposed to giving away real, informative content for free.  Don't think of your content as a giveaway—think of it as an investment in your website's future.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #2: Make Something Different

With the market so saturated with legal blogs, it can sometimes be difficult to get attention when you're trying to use blogs as part of your link building strategies.  Instead, consider doing website link building with some other type of medium.

Today's computer use studies show that a large number of users are currently spending more time using mobile apps than they are browsing the web.  You may want to make a mobile app of your own that could help your typical clients.

Even just changing the structure of what you're doing can make your website link building more successful.  For example, while many link building strategies call for using blog entries, why not make a blog that's about some different topic in the law—or even a blog for other attorneys that uses a lot of humor?  That kind of content is likely to be reposted, which is the biggest rule for link building strategies.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #3: Use Social Media

In 2012, social media is one of the biggest question marks in designing link building strategies.  Why?  Because most of the major search engines, including Google, are keeping quiet about how much weight they're assigning to links made from major social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

While some website link building professionals believe that social media links will help your SERPs dramatically, and can point to examples of firms with good search engine placement and good Facebook pages, this correlation doesn't confirm that the Facebook links caused the high SERPs.  Even so, link building strategies today would be incomplete without at least some social media presence.  Whether or not this is one of the best link building strategies today, you should learn it for future use.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #4: Media Coverage

It can sometimes be difficult to get bona fide media coverage for law firms, but incorporating press coverage into your link building strategies can be a great idea.  One of the biggest reasons for this is that typically, daily newspaper websites are considered a relatively trustworthy source with high quality content.  This means that when your website is covered by a local newspaper, you're more likely to rise in Google rankings.

The bigger the coverage you can get, the better your results will be.  If, for example, your intellectual property law firm was able to get name-dropped and linked by a blogger on Wired.com, you would very likely see your search engine results skyrocket.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #5: Local Directories

Since over one fifth of searches today include a local geographic search term, you'll want to do some link building with local directories.  An example of a local directory that is easy to get access to is a chamber of commerce directory.  Once you've been linked by several local directories, Google will associate your website more with your local area, and your search engine results for people making those geographic searches will become higher.

It's also key to include a complete profile on Google+ Local to make this website link building strategy work.  It will be much easier for your website to appear early in local search results when you take steps to increase your local visibility.

A Website Link Building Strategy To Avoid: Article Marketing Services

A few years ago, many law firms started using article marketing services, or article “spinners,” as part of their link building strategy.  These services took one piece of content and either copied it completely or copied large pieces of it to reuse on hundreds of unrelated websites all over the internet.

Needless to say, these sites weren't really producing quality content, and Google has recently made several algorithm changes to crack down on this form of search engine optimization spam.  If you use an article spinning service today, at best, you'll be wasting your money.  At worst, Google will think that your website is spam and lower its page rankings accordingly.

More than three in four Americans have used the internet at some point in 2012, and even the most technophobic lawyers are getting on board with search engine optimization strategies.  Link building, or the practice of getting new links going to your website, can help to improve your search engine results.  Legitimate link building is harder than ever today, but there are still many link building tools that can help you to get your links online fast.  Here are ten that lawyers can use today.

Link Building Tool #1: Blogs

If you're a lawyer without a blog, what are you thinking?  Almost any attorney can start a blog—it's free, and it's fairly fast to set up, especially if you're not focused on making your blog's visual appearance completely unique.  Blogging is one of the best link building tools that you can use, and what's more, it brings in new clients all on its own.

The topics of your blog are limited only by your practice areas and your imagination.  You can comment about publicized cases happening right now in the court system, or about the likely effects of a new or proposed law.  You may also want to talk about the process of hiring an attorney, or the costs of attorneys, if you often seek cost-conscious customers.  This makes blogging one of the most versatile link building tools, as well as one of the most effective.

Link Building Tool #2: Press Releases

Press releases are link building tools that can help you garner media attention and new website viewers.  However, not all press releases are equally effective.  To make good use of press releases as a link building tool, they need to be from a legitimate public relations source and announce something genuinely interesting.

Many “press release websites” aren't actually public relations companies.  They're just places where anyone can post an article online.  While these link building tools may seem easy to use, they're also not particularly effective.  They contain a high amount of spam and other low quality content, and aren't really read by web users.

Link Building Tool #3: Facebook

Facebook—the one thing that unites your great aunt, your co-workers, and your third best friend from high school in addiction—can be more than just a time sink.  Because it's so easy to share links on Facebook, this social media website has become one of the best link building tools of 2012.

To use Facebook as a link building tool, you'll want to have more than just generic status updates.  Try doing something creative, or linking to a blog entry.

Link Building Tool #4: LinkDiagnosis

If you want to see how your linking stacks up to the competition, one of the best online link building tools you can use is LinkDiagnosis.  This tool lets you run reports to analyze the biggest inbound links that are affecting the traffic of your website and the websites of your competitors.

LinkDiagnosis is a great way to see how the other law firms in your area are handling link building, and whether they're using any link building tools that you haven't started using yet.

Link Building Tool #5: Ratings Websites

Whenever you have a client talk to someone else positively about your legal services, you're getting a good recommendation.  But what if you could make sure that your clients' reviews were seen not just by their friends and family, but also by anyone looking for information about your firm or your website?

Ratings websites are great link building tools because they not only give you a new inbound link, they give you new ways to show potential clients what you're capable of.

Link Building Tool #6: Local Directories

Don't neglect local chambers of commerce and city government websites when you're looking for link building tools.  These websites often have local directories of businesses, and if your law firm is included among them your website can bring in more traffic.  These link building tools may be of limited effectiveness in some areas, but particularly in smaller towns and cities they are one of your best link building tool options.

Link Building Tool #7: Youtube

Videos can be fantastic link building tools that also work hard to drive conversions.  Youtube is one of the easiest video platforms to use as a link building tool.  Youtube makes link building easy by helping you to get your video hosted and providing an easy to use form so you can enter a search engine optimized description and title for your video.

Link Building Tool #8: Social Bookmarking Sites

Using “bookmarking” sites doesn't just mean adding a website to a personal list of favorites.  Rather, it refers to the process of posting a link for viewing and user comments.  On many social bookmarking websites, like reddit and digg, users determine which links are most prominent and which ones will be seen only by a few people.

Link Building Tool #9: Forums and Question Sites

By entering internet forums or question websites and answering questions for other people, you'll be able to build inbound links while providing a valuable service.  For example, you may want to try using Yahoo Answers as a link building tool.  Try answering a few questions that are very closely related to your expertise.

When you answer questions, make sure that you're including a link back to your website.  This is what makes question sites effective link building tools—without a link, you'll be wasting your time and effort.

Link Building Tool #10: LinkedIn

To round out this list, we have to talk about the link building tools available on LinkedIn.  Not only can you have links to your website in your profile, but you can also use LinkedIn Answers to answer the questions of other real professionals and build networking connections locally, regionally, and globally.  Using LinkedIn as a link building tool is particularly powerful for law firms that primarily have a B2B focus.  If you're B2C focused, Facebook and Yahoo Answers may provide you with better leads and link building.