Dan Shure is right, “People like to link to people.”
And this is true for lawyers. Don’t believe me? Look around. Go to almost any law firm website and you’re likely to find links to other lawyers. Why? There are several reasons.
In some cases, it’s because the SEO agency that they’re working with simply links all of their client sites together.
In other cases, it’s because someone told the lawyer that it’s a good idea to go out and solicit links from people you know. And lawyers tend to know other lawyers.
Whether it’s through resource pages (yuck), blog rolls (less yuck), guest posts (meh) or natural editorial links (yay), lawyers prefer to link with lawyers.
But not always.
Some lawyers prefer not to link to other lawyers at all. Their primary concern is that someone that visits their site might click through to a competitor’s site and hire them instead. Is this a valid concern? Maybe. Is there some chance that a visitor to lawyer A’s site clicks on a link to lawyer B’s site and decides to contact & hire lawyer B? Yes.
However, weighing the costs and benefits, there’s a lot more to be gained by participating, linking with, sharing, etc, with other lawyers than there is from taking an internet isolationist strategy.
If you’re unwilling to link to other lawyers, or for that matter, other sites in general, you’re severely handicapping your ability to attract new visitors.
No please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating willy-nilly linking for the sake of linking. But if you read something that another lawyer writes and you have something to add to the discussion, you should link to the source. That’s just good internet citizenry. And for the selfish among you, it’s going to pay dividends.
When you link to someone, there’s a decent chance that the author is going to find out about it. If they follow your link, and they find something worthwhile, they might comment. They might add you to their feed reader. They might share what you’ve written in their online social networks. And that’s good for you.
What lawyers specifically, and people more generally, are less likely to link to are nameless, faceless blogs, posts, sites, etc.
In other words, if the author of your post is “admin” or “insert law firm name,” it’s much less likely that someone is going to take your post seriously. And it’s extremely unlikely that they’re going to link to you. Unless of course you’re participating in some sort of artificial link scheme.
