Expert Guest Posting Practices for Law Agencies

Let’s be honest: Many attorneys and law firms are unaware of what it takes to thrive in today’s increasingly competitive digital world. Potential clients are now searching for solutions online, exploring websites and LinkedIn profiles, and making decisions based on what they discover. 

With that in mind, your law firm websites must appear on platforms where your target audience is active. Numerous factors, such as SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing signals, influence how your law firm is discovered online. However, with client consultation services and other marketing priorities demanding attention, staying current with all the latest digital marketing techniques can be challenging.

So, how can lawyers maintain a strong online presence and stand out from their competitors?

The answer is guest posting. 

Without a doubt, guest posting is one of the most effective strategies for law firms to enhance their online visibility and establish themselves as authorities in their field.

This blog post will walk you through some of the essential guest posting and outreach tips for your law firm and help you identify ideal guest posting opportunities.

But first, let’s cover the basics!

Guest Posting and Its Benefits for Law Firms

Guest blogging involves creating content, like an article or post, authored by your law firm and published on an external/third-party site. This approach allows you to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge to new audiences. 

When you develop a guest blog, it’s crucial to include your byline, indicating it is credited to you or your law firm. Although not every website permits guest posts, it’s beneficial to look for those that do. 

Having your law firm’s article featured on reputable websites within your practice areas can boost your firm’s credibility and position you or your firm as a trusted expert. Additionally, this can drive traffic to your website and enhance your search engine rankings.

Guest posting can greatly improve your law firm’s digital marketing efforts in various ways. Here’s how:

• Publishing guest blog posts can broaden the reach of your content by sharing it across relevant and reputable publications and websites. This exposes your law firm’s content to a larger audience and may attract more potential clients. 
• Guest blog entries can help bolster the number of referring domains and backlinks to your website, thus enhancing your firm’s overall SEO performance. 
• Guest posting is also vital in building your website’s domain authority, which is key to improving your law firm’s visibility and trustworthiness in search engine results.

Let’s discuss each aspect in detail.

Expanding Audience Reach

Contributing content to another website allows you to attract followers for your law firm through referral traffic or other opportunities, such as news stories or podcast invitations. This enhances your “authority” as a guest expert on someone else’s platform.

Additionally, gaining access to a new audience is beneficial. Consider it as leasing an audience from someone who has already invested effort in attracting followers and established its credibility in the industry.

Remember, targeting high-authority, well-reputed websites with a broader audience might still be worthwhile for guest posts due to the SEO advantages. This is because only a smaller proportion of their readership might align with your target demographic.

Increasing Backlinks and Referring Domains

Backlinking refers to the hyperlinks incorporated in your guest article that formally connect your website with the hosting site. For SEO purposes, this helps in improving your rankings as it conveys to Google’s algorithm that other sites recognize you as a reliable source of information.

With backlinks, you may only be entitled to one pertinent hyperlink directing to your law firm, so make sure you select the anchor text carefully. If the website owner restricts links within the article content, your author bio offers another valuable opportunity to link to your law firm.

Furthermore, not all backlinks hold the same value. Google distinguishes between dofollow and nofollow links in terms of PageRank. Google’s criteria for PageRank scores determine how valuable a website is in their view for ranking.

Dofollow links provide SEO advantages by indicating a stronger connection between the two websites. While a nofollow link lacks any “SEO juice.” They were developed for indicating non-endorsement, but some website owners also use them in regular posts.

Participating in guest posts on sites that provide a dofollow link is preferable, although both types of hyperlinks will function the same way for readers who click on them.

Establishing Domain Authority

Creating and publishing quality content on a high-authority website enables you to build your credibility and authority in your specific practice area. This is an effective method to position yourself as a thought leader in your field.

Guest posting creates a compounding effect, as demonstrating prior links to high-quality guest posts facilitates pitching to larger and more distinguished websites as you progress.

[Also read: Link Building Basics for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide for SMBs]

Key Considerations While Choosing a Guest Posting Site

When selecting a website or publication for proposing a guest post, it’s essential to focus on relevance and evaluate domain authority. Make sure you target websites that closely match your law firm’s specific practice areas so that their content and audience align with your intended target audience. 

Additionally, review their domain authority to assess their credibility and impact within the industry. It’s also advantageous to find websites that not only possess high authority but also offer backlinks from their blog to outside sites, including your law firm’s website. This can enhance your site’s visibility and trustworthiness within the legal sector and direct interested readers back to your site, providing them with an opportunity to learn more about your firm.

Keep these factors in mind:  

• Strong domain authority/domain rating (not less than DA 30+ or DR 25+)  
• A reasonable amount of monthly website traffic (1000+ visits per month)  
• Other quality posts and guest contributions already featured on the site  
• Clear guidelines for submissions  
• A good following on social media, assuming the site owner shares their posts there as well

How to Kickstart Guest Blogging for Your Law Agency?

Guest posting offers a wealth of potential. If your law firm is just beginning its content marketing journey, it’s an excellent way to cultivate an audience and improve your own website’s ranking in Google search results.  

Here are some strategies to help you get started on guest posting:  

Identify the Appropriate Platform: Start by considering, “What is the primary platform where my target audience engages with content?” This doesn’t mean you should solely target the platform with the largest audience. Publishing in The Wall Street Journal would be impressive, but a smaller platform tailored to your niche could be effective for showcasing your expertise.  

Pitch a Unique Idea: To capture the attention of an editor at a site with high standards, you need to present an original concept. Conduct thorough research. Observe the types of content and subjects that are popular on the site you’re targeting. Keep an eye on the news and stay current with trends in the industry you’re concentrating on.  

Produce High-Quality Content: This should be obvious, but when writing for a reputable site, you must deliver your best work and create exceptional content. Tailor your writing to the blog’s audience. Cite reputable sources and use data from research to support your arguments. And, of course, communicate in simple language, avoiding legal jargon.

[Also read: Content-Length vs. Quality: Striking the Right Balance]

Discover Guest Posting Opportunities

Develop a spreadsheet for tracking your guest post opportunities to avoid repeating topics and to simplify follow-ups.

Use tools like Ahrefs for backlink building and locating guest posting opportunities for legal professionals. Starting with search queries like [practice area] “write for us” or [topic] “guest article” can be effective.

Here are some tips to follow:

Present Your Ideas Effectively

Conduct thorough research and maintain professionalism when reaching out to website owners to maximize your chances of having a guest blog accepted. Understanding the preferences of site owners will help you optimize your efforts.

Begin by examining the original posts as well as guest contributions on the website. It appears careless to propose topics that have been covered on the site recently. Instead, identify several well-crafted examples of related content and explain in your pitch how your idea would effectively build on those discussions.

This approach allows content editors to easily recognize a content gap and simplifies their process by highlighting potential internal linking opportunities if they choose to accept your article.

Some websites will outline specific guidelines for what to include with a guest post proposal. Adhering to these guidelines is crucial; otherwise, your submission may be disregarded. For instance, some may request that you propose a title for your article first, while others may prefer you submit a full outline or a completed draft.

Be Considerate in Your Outreach Emails

Using a standard template to reach out to bloggers is discouraged, as many receive similar and generic emails requesting the same thing.

The only way to differentiate yourself in a blogger’s inbox is to craft a thoughtful pitch. Aim for an email that feels personal rather than a copy-paste guest post request sent to numerous recipients.

Start by explaining how you discovered their site. It’s always nice to begin with a genuine compliment if you’ve been a long-time reader. Mention their guest blogger guidelines (if applicable) and clarify why you believe your article would resonate with their audience.

Guest Blogging Tips for Your Law Firm

When creating guest blog content for your law firm, it is important to remember the following writing recommendations.

• Make sure that your guest blog offers valuable and educational material so that any typical reader can gain information from the post. The primary goal of guest blogs is to draw the audience of the host website to your law firm’s site, giving them a chance to see your expertise and credibility and helping them assess if your firm is the right choice for them after they visit your website.

• Identify the keywords or phrases that your law firm aims to rank for. Conducting keyword research will enable you to understand the type of information your target audience is searching for online, allowing you to generate content that addresses their needs. If you want your content to appear in search results, it is vital to focus on specific keywords or phrases that your firm is realistically able to rank for.

• Avoid being excessively promotional by omitting direct calls to action at the conclusion of your post, as many websites may decline your guest blog submission if the call to action is too overt and disrupts the focus of their site or the subject matter. Instead, incorporate links to relevant content on your site when suitable. 

• Customize your guest blog post to the specific audience of the website according to the content guidelines provided by most of the websites.

Final Thoughts

When engaging in guest blogging, it’s important to keep in mind that it requires a significant investment of time and expertise. To excel in guest blogging and outreach, your law firm must tackle these tasks with a strategic mindset. If your objective is to boost your firm’s online visibility on search engines, an effective strategy is to increase the amount of content published on reputable websites.