This blog post is part of a series on beginning content creation tips for law firms. To see all the posts in this series, visit our series introduction page.
Creating high-quality law firm website content is the first step in attracting more potential clients to your law firm from the web. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to connect your content effectively — and keep your potential clients engaged with you — through the use of internal links on your law firm’s website.
What are internal links on law firm websites?
When you read content on the internet, you’ve probably noticed clickable, highlighted bits of text in any passage. That highlighted text is a link. If you click on that link and it takes you to another page on the same website, that’s called an internal link.
An internal link is any link that connects one page or blog post on your website to another.
The importance of internal links on your law firm’s website
Internal links on your law firm’s website are important because they provide additional context and information for your potential clients. Potential clients are information-hungry, particularly when they’re in the legal research phase of their case or matter.
The more access to information your firm provides, the more information they have to decide what to do next. Strategically placed internal links on your law firm’s website are an excellent way to give potential clients all the information they need to conclude that they should contact your law firm.
Internal links on law firm websites can also establish an information hierarchy that, when done right, is useful for potential clients.
Internal links can help guide those potential clients from basic practice area pages to more detailed subtopics in a way that helps them learn without feeling overwhelmed.
Not only is more information good for potential clients — it’s also good for you, the attorney. The longer a potential client stays on your law firm’s website, the more information they engage with. The more information they engage with, the more likely they are to decide that they should contact your law firm.
An example of why internal links are effective on law firm websites
To demonstrate the effect of using internal links, let’s use the example of a family law firm website that uses internal links well.
Perhaps a potential client is searching for what to do if they’re considering a divorce. Maybe they ask Google a query such as, “What do I need to do before I file for divorce in [my state/city/county]?”
A local divorce attorney has written a blog post about that topic. Because it is a well-developed educational piece of content, Google decides to return it in the search results for this query. The potential client clicks on the link in their search results and reads the information in the blog post on the family law firm’s website.
Well-written law firm website content can whet the appetite of the potential client to consume more information. In this example, a potential client wants even more information about divorce after reading the attorney’s blog post. Where does a potential client go from here?
If there’s no obvious path for them to take on your law firm’s website (and they’re feeling ambitious), a potential client might find his or her way back to the attorney’s blog index page to read more posts.
But most people aren’t that driven.
They may be more likely to go back to a search engine to ask new queries. The solution to this problem is to link to other valuable information in the post they chose to read.
Let’s use the divorce attorney as an example again: Within that blog post, the attorney has placed internal links pointing to other relevant posts. Now the potential client has access to more information on divorce-related topics:
- How to handle family vacations with minor children during a divorce
- Why anyone should be careful when sending text messages to their soon-to-be-ex-spouse
- How to manage taxes with an impending divorce
All of these informative extras help a potential client answer the questions they have and may answer aspects of their problem they hadn’t yet considered. Adding internal links keeps potential clients on your site longer, and increases the likelihood that they conclude their visit to the website by contacting the law firm.
Best practices for using internal links on law firm websites
To have reason to create internal links, develop content that warrants internal links. To create lots of internal links, you’ll need lots of pages with rich content. The first step to an excellent internal linking strategy is to have a good content marketing strategy. When attorneys create lots of content, they have lots of linkable content.
Use links that are natural for the reader. Don’t place internal links on your law firm website’s pages just to put them there. Think about how your potential clients might engage with your law firm’s website, and you’ll likely find places that are natural fits for internal links.
Avoid creating hypertext with nondescript anchor text. Sometimes, attorneys will create internal links that look like:
“Learn four ways to beat a traffic ticket in Maryland. Click here.”
Links that use non-descriptive anchor text are generally unhelpful, both for people and for search engines. Avoid creating anchor text that says something like “click here” or “visit this page.”
Instead, create descriptive anchor text, which lets both users and search engines know what they can expect to find when following that link. In the above anchor text could be improved by writing something like:
“Fighting your traffic ticket can help you avoid fines, license suspension, and increased insurance premiums. A traffic ticket attorney is a significant asset in that fight. Visit our page on four ways to beat a traffic ticket in Maryland to learn more.”
Good anchor text is:
- Succinct
- Relevant to the linked-to page
- Not overly keyword-heavy (It reads naturally)
- Not generic
How LawLytics makes creating internal links easy
LawLytics makes content creation — including the creation of internal links — easy. With our turn-key law firm websites, attorney-friendly software, and support, you can easily add to and edit your web pages, blog posts, case results, office locations, attorney profiles, and recommendations. To learn more about using LawLytics for your law firm, schedule a free, interactive demo.
