Every law firm website contains internal links, but why are they often ignored? One of the simplest things you can do to improve the health of your law firm website and its overall performance in search rankings is internal link building. Internal linking is a marketing power move that is often underrated, largely because it is misunderstood. If you have been neglecting the inclusion of internal and external hyperlinks in your website content, follow the guide below for best practices on internal linking that can make a huge difference in the success of your online legal marketing.
What Is Internal Linking?
Internal linking is the practice of adding links from one page of your website to another page on your own website. Internal links (as seen below) are embedded throughout the content of your webpages to show search engines how your website’s various pages interrelate and to guide your visitors to related content.
How Internal Links Affect Websites
Internal linking strengthens the overall value of your website and will affect your website in the following ways:
- Crawling and Indexing: When Google “crawls” your website, it scans all your webpages, including going from link to link, and stores the information in Google’s search index. Every word is cataloged and/or indexed. If your website contains a robust internal linking strategy, this makes it easier for Google to find and index the content you publish. Only once a website and each webpage within that site is indexed, can it appear in search results.
- Page Authority: Page authority refers to how well a single webpage ranks in search engine result pages (SERP’s). Interlinking the content of an established webpage with high page authority with struggling webpages that are on the cusp of ranking in search results can help pages with lower page authority rank higher in organic search results. Why is this important for your law firm website? The higher each webpage ranks in search results, the more exposure your law firm receives.
- Content Value: When you link webpages of related topics within your website, you strengthen the value of your content. If you have written several articles on a specific topic, consider linking for the benefit of both search engines and users. Offering engaging content encourages users to stay on your website longer, which has a better chance of persuading them to use your services.
Ten Best Practices for Internal Linking:
Since your law firm search engine optimization efforts remain incomplete without an internal link strategy, it is highly recommended to audit existing internal links and to develop ongoing strategic practices for continuing with this on-site optimization technique, including:
- Diversify your anchor text or link text to mix things up.
- Link new pages to evergreen or established content.
- Link content with high page authority to webpages that need a ranking boost.
- Link to pages with high performance, including high conversion rates.
- Make sure your internal links are not broken.
- Links should be contextually relevant to each other.
- Links should be natural and make sense within your content.
- Place internal links in the content in such a way that they add value to readers, usually where the subject matter overlaps.
- Internal links should not connect to “nofollow” pages or pages that are set to not be indexed by search engines.
- Use optimized keywords as link text and refrain from using “click here.”
Law Firm Digital Marketing
Internal link building is not an easy task for those who are unfamiliar with on-site website optimization. If your law firm needs to improve its website – regardless of your practices areas, size, or geographic location – the digital marketing experts at Stacey E. Burke P.C. can help, so contact us for more information today.
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