A Link Is A Link, Right? Wrong!
One of the many consulting and SEO services we provide for law firms involves link building, link removals and link clean-up. Even attorneys foreign to SEO best practices know that a link should be a good thing and law firms are constantly paying for new services to showcase their practice. With your search engine optimization or marketing agency/team talking about links all the time, you as an attorney innocently assume that these services will “increase your visibility/rankings/traffic” as they claim they do. But do they?
In the Post-Penguin World, Always Ask an Expert
Buying links is a risky business in the world after Penguin and you should never try to go about link building of any kind without strong knowledge of the Penguin updates. Is buying a profile always a bad idea? Of course not. Some sites have high maintenance costs to meet and are constantly updating their website and legal profiles to best suit their users and they are attaching a fee to have a presence at their great website. Websites like the BBB.org provide a listing at a cost that holds great value to your business, both from a search perspective and otherwise. In some areas such as here in Nashville, Moz.com found it to be a top citation source. You will find a variety of services on that top 10 list that have costs associated with them.
So How Do I Know Which Ones To Pursue?
The sad truth is, in most cases you won’t know which ones are good and which ones could land your domain in the Google penalty box. You need to consult with an expert. So many sites have been penalized that it’s created a brand new industry within search engine optimization, called “link cleanup.” Services like linkdetox.com can help clean up your backlink profile and create a disavow file to help resuscitate your website.
Have you been hit by a Google penalty?
Were you able to climb back out of the penalty box? Are you still struggling to recover? Share your story in the comment thread or on our social media channels! Would you like us to take a look at your site and give you some information free of charge? Feel free to give us a call.