The Importance of Site Authority in Attorney SEO

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The more authoritative your site is, the better it is likely to do in regards to attorney SEO. 

For a law firm, an authoritative site is one that is a true authority on the law, on what you practice. 

In this context, “authority” means “a source people can trust.”  

This authority is not something that you can just grant yourself. 

However, you can work towards it. 

Authority is determined by multiple factors, user experience, and specific, unique content chief among them. 

To see an example of how authority works, type “when to call an attorney after a car accident” into Google. 

It’s likely the first result will be a snippet of an answer from an attorney’s website. 

Google sees that site as an authority, someone that its users can trust. Google “Authority Scores” range anywhere from 100 to 1, the higher the better. This doesn’t happen overnight. But, with some work, you can improve your site’s authority. 

 

Backlink Audits and Other Ways to Improve Your Site’s Authority for Attorney SEO 

When it comes to improving your site’s authority, a link profile is a great place to start. 

You want other sites to link back to your site. You’ll have better odds of Google acknowledging your site’s authority score with more high-quality links linking to your site. These links could come from practically anywhere. For the most part, directories, blogs that relate to your site, and article references are some of the most common for lawyers. 

To know where you’re going, you have to see where you’ve been. 

Should your site have been around for a while, auditing your backlinks is a good idea. 

There may be broken links attached to your site, which could negatively affect your authority score. 

That doesn’t mean you have to lose the links forever, not necessarily. 

If a link is broken, reach out to the website they’re connected to. Should they still be in business, you could update them. 

Remember: A Law Firm is a Local Business 

Content writing is an important part of boosting your site’s authority. 

But, you don’t have to just write content for yourself. 

One of the best ways to build your backlinks (as well as your authority) is to write for other sites as well. 

However, they can’t just be any sites. 

Send guest articles and posts to blogs related to your niche, your practice. 

You want to show them that you can provide value. You can do that through your writing and your knowledge of pertinent subjects. Additionally, you can make other mutually beneficial deals as well. 

A good place to start here: locally. 

Yes, backlinks from nationally recognized sites can be a great benefit to your site, your SEO, and your authority. 

But, as you’re serving your community, you may want to start with them. 

It’s likely there are local websites that could build your authority while better connecting you to your community. 

Your local, community education sites, blogs, newspapers, nonprofits, and others – they’re all around you, likely looking for content. 

Do some research. See which ones stand out to you. Then, take their authority score into account. Prioritize accordingly. 

One way to tell if you’re doing this right: you see some of your direct competition as well. 

Building backlinks from sites in your community can give you a strong foundation to start from. 

Legal Directories and the Next Steps Forward 

The next step for many law firms is to write for legal directories. 

These can be a genuine boon. When your law firm is on some of the most reputation lists, your authority score can absolutely skyrocket.

Keep in mind, however, that an authority score is not stagnant. 

It is never frozen in place. 

You’re building this authority score to get links back to your site. 

So, you want to have great content on your site as well. 

This means quality, consistent blog posts. These must provide real value in every post. Email marketing can be greatly beneficial here, as it keeps people up to date on what you’re doing. 

Hire Experts in Attorney SEO

At Website Depot, we’ve helped so many of our lawyer clients with everything above and much more. 

As you have so much to do in the course of a day, you may not have the time or the inclination to do everything that it takes to grow your site’s authority score. 

We can work with you to do exactly that. 

For help with growing your firm’s authority score, keeping it high, and more, you can reach us at: (888) 477-9540.