Here’s a riddle: what’s low-cost, locally relevant, and long-game? It’s link building! Believe it or not, link building, an OG SEO strategy, still hits as hard today as it did in 2010. If your law firm is focused on organic visibility, you need a plan that includes a solid link building strategy. Done right, authoritative links actually move the needle and compound over time, providing long-term value in visibility, branding, and real conversions.
When we say link building is low-cost, we mean relative to paid search and digital advertising (and the legal industry can be particularly competitive and expensive). When we say it’s locally relevant, we mean a targeted, geographic approach is one of the most effective, especially for firms with specific service areas. And when we say it’s a long-game strategy, we mean that its real impact builds over time, growing stronger as links accumulate authority and relevance. Like a fine wine.
In practice, link building means earning references from other sites that point back to your law firm website. And not just any old links—the kind that search engines understand and trust. But knowing which links to pursue and how to actually earn them isn’t obvious. Asking nicely won’t do the trick.
As Nifty OG and link-building expert Devin Harper puts it:
“From a ton of trials, tests, and experiments, I have come to the conclusion that you need to have a solid local content strategy to even begin worrying about links. Once your content strategy is rolling, when you develop tactics you with then be able to match your content with the type of outreach, asking, begging, and stealing it takes to get local links.”
The bottom line: any law firm SEO strategy worth its salt still has a robust link building plan at its core. Here’s our argument why.
8 Reasons Why Link Building Still Matters for Law Firm SEO
1. Links help search engines discover and understand your content.
Backlinks are one of the primary ways search engines navigate, contextualize, and connect entities across the web. Google itself has stated many time that if Googlebot, Google’s proprietary web crawler, sees a valid <a href> link pointing to one of your webpages, that link may be factored into how Google evaluates your site within its ranking systems. That ranking system treats these backlinks as pathways that help Google understand how pages, entities, and topics are related and clarify topical relevance between the source page and the linked page.
Take into account the emerging AI-powered search environment and backlinks carry even more weight. Google now relies on semantic search, which is less about keyword matching and more about using relationships and clear connections to interpret meaning, intent, and context. Links are one of the most effective ways to establish those topical relationships, connecting your firm as an entity to specific attorneys, practice areas, jurisdictions, and related trusted sources. Strategic links reinforce clearly show the search algos how your firm’s content fits into the broader legal ecosystem.
2. Internal linking maximizes the impact of earned backlinks.
Okay, this point is not entirely about the value of actually earning backlinks and more about whether the backlinks are capable of doing anything once you have them. Earning links is only half the equation—your firm’s website needs a clean technical and structural foundation to receive value from those links.
The webpages earning backlinks need to be both accessible and clearly connected to your site at large. That’s easy enough for the homepage, but it can get tricky with attorney, practice area, and blog pages. This is where internal linking comes into play. Consistent, intentional interlinking ensures your site is structured to get the most from those external links. Attorney pages should connect to practice areas. Practice areas should link to FAQs, guides, and related content. Pages that aren’t linked internally or don’t clearly relate to practice areas, attorneys, or supporting content limit how much authority those links can pass through your site.
3. Backlinks add value, even when the page isn’t indexed by Google.
We covered basic link crawlability under #1, but whether or not a page is actually indexed by Google is its own element. An indexed webpage means that Google has crawled, analyzed, and stored (or indexed) the page for reference, and that that page can be visible in relevant search results. A non-indexed page is one that cannot be found by web users via search, i.e. invisible. Just because a page is crawlable doesn’t mean it will automatically be indexed—low-quality, spammy, or “thin” content may result in non-indexation.
The good news is that backlinks still add value, even when not indexed! While indexation is ideal—it both confirms that Google has determined the content relevant and potentially provides some search visibility—links can still pass value from crawlable yet non-indexed pages. Google can and will extract link equity even if a page isn’t in search results. Bottom line: focus on crawlable pages. For a more in-depth analysis of indexation and link value, check out our full case study here.
4. Links are a significant local ranking signal for law firms.
The most secure, efficient, and easy-to-scale links today are local links. For law firms, locally relevant backlinks act as trust confirmations in geographic markets and signal credibility to search engines. They also reinforce your firm’s reputation, both with potential clients and with AI-powered search systems that synthesize authority signals from across the web.
Links from local directories, bar associations, practice-specific organizations (like a real estate attorneys association), community organizations, chambers of commerce, local courts, public records systems, property registries, law enforcement sites, libraries, community centers, and regional media act as “votes of confidence.” They reinforce geographic relevance, business legitimacy, and prominence in local search results. These links also drive locally qualified referral traffic, not just rankings.
5. Links support practice-area visibility, not just your homepage.
Backlinks don’t always have to point back to the homepage. As alluded to earlier, any of your firm’s core pages can earn backlinks—an attorney bio page linked from the state bar website or from a guest-post spot on a legal blog or news site; a practice-area page linked from a local library, community center, or public resource page where your firm has provided guides, workshops, or informational sessions; your homepage linked from a reputable media outlet reporting on a case you handled.
Think of it as targeted authority distribution. A backlink to a single attorney or practice-area page strengthens that page’s visibility and relevance, while also reinforcing the site’s overall authority signals. Law firm SEO succeeds or fails at the practice-area level, and links pointing to core service pages send relevance signals tied to services, not just your brand.
6. Some links matter even if Google ignores them entirely.
Links aren’t just for algorithms. Ideally, they’re also useful and valuable for real web users. Certain backlinks provide value even without direct impact on your firm’s search rankings because they drive qualified referral traffic, support multi-touch attribution, and boost brand recall during long consideration cycles.
For lawyers specifically, visibility in the right places often influences client decisions before search rankings ever come into play. Mentions and links from relevant sites (like an informational article about the specific legal service they’re interested in) can lead to increased branded searches (e.g., “Firm Name + City”), which convert at higher rates. We all know that in the legal industry, clients’ hiring decisions unfold over weeks and sometimes even months, and this link-based exposure improves client conversion likelihood even if the final visit comes through a different channel, like direct web traffic.
7. Citation reinforces credibility and trust with potential clients.
It’s gotten real technical up in here, but we’d be remiss to not mention how backlinks also signal legitimacy and authority to real people. When your law firm is cited by authoritative publications, professional organizations, or respected local or legal institutions, it reinforces your perceived credibility and trust with potential clients. Lawyers know that reputation alone is half the battle, and accessible, user-facing backlinks lend confidence to your leads and make conversion and inquiries more likely, independent of any SEO and search ranking benefits.
8. A strong backlink profile protects you from search changes and algorithm shifts.
A strong team knows you can’t win with offense alone. Link building is one of the more defensive law firm SEO strategies, too. A healthy backlink profile includes a mix of do-follow and no-follow links, varied source types (media, directories, blogs, institutions), and editorial or earned mentions in addition to official citations and directory listings. This diversity of links protects your firm from algorithmic devaluation (Google is constantly updating their search functions) and future ranking and SEO-related updates. In other words, strategic link building safeguards both your credibility signals and SEO stability.
Wondering if your link building strategy is working for your firm? Let us run a full audit to see if and where you’re leaving opportunities on the table.
Hannah Bollman is Nifty’s talented and dynamic Content & Brand Manager. She develops compelling content across blogs, newsletters, social media, and ad campaigns, ensuring alignment with Nifty’s voice and mission. With a background in SEO, content marketing, and stand-up, Hannah brings a unique mix of creativity, strategy, and humor to everything she does. When she’s not shaping Nifty’s brand or growing visibility for legal clients, she’s on a run, on her bike, or enjoying a delicious falafel sammich.