Why You Should Post Content On Other Websites

Hi, I’m Annette Choti, an attorney of 20 years that created Law Quill, a marketing agency for small and solo law firms. Join me to learn how to grow your law firm through digital marketing strategies, SEO, social media, and more. Let’s get that law firm of yours more online visibility, a larger digital footprint, tons of organic traffic, and more clients. I’m so excited. You’re here, click that subscribe button and join me in the legal marketing lounge.

Hello, friends, how are you? I am so excited that you are back with me in the legal marketing lounge. And today’s episode is going to be one that can exponentially help your law firms website grow online. It’s a big deal. And it can really move that SEO needle. But before we get into that, I would like to thank our sponsor, which is Click Magnet, the Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms. It’s a best-selling book on Amazon and one that I happened to have written myself. And it has already met with critical acclaim. And it’s a bestseller and I’m just very honored. Let’s listen to what one review says it’s from Faye Gal who does her Legal Global Podcast. “And if you haven’t checked that out, you should face as a resource you’ll want to refer to time and time again, written by an attorney for attorneys. Well done.”

Thank you Faye for that review. And again, you can check that out on Amazon and a link will be in the show notes. Let’s get to today’s episode, which is about How Posting Content On Other Websites Can Help Your SEO. What am I even talking about as if you don’t have a million things to do on your own website and your own social media. Now I’m telling you to post content on other websites, just wait hear me out, don’t turn it off yet.

Introduction

The Internet is a big, noisy, busy party. And you can probably feel at times that it’s difficult for your law firm to be heard in that cacophony and all of that noise. And that is why your law firm has to use certain SEO techniques that are going to grow your law firm online, grow your domain authority and enable your business your law firm as a business to stand out in a crowd and be noticeable to the individuals who need your services. While building out your website is very important. And that is something that you need to do. You also need to consider employing other methods that are going to increase your website’s rankings and attract potential clients to your website.

And one of the ways that you can do that is by posting content on other websites. Now, let me break this down. posting content on other websites is basically like having a guest post on another website. Or you can also find certain websites that are authoritative and ask to be a contributor to those websites. So the nomenclature is a bit different, depending on the circumstance, but at the end of the day you are writing content. For other websites, almost anyone can write a guest post, you can even hire digital marketing agencies cough cough, to do these for you. And if a guest post is going to generate traffic and be shareworthy, then it’s going to have to follow the same exact standards that you would want to apply to your own website, which means that whatever content you’re writing should be helpful, relevant, well written and give potential client some information that they did not know before. Guest posts can be various lengths. But the truth is just like on your own website, longer articles mean more content, more value, and Google rewards longer content. And I’m just going to say right now, if you ever hear from a digital marketing agency, or someone claiming to be an expert in SEO, that 350 to 700 words is enough for a blog post, just go look at your competition and see what they’re putting on there. Because the truth of the matter is, Google rewards content that is longer. And that is really typically 1000 words or more and we are even finding now that writing content 1500-2500 add words and more, is really propelling people to the very top of Google quickly. Because if you remember, Google really wants to put on the top of their search engine, the very best content. And longer content is typically more informative, and therefore it wins in the search engine game. Now, guest posts can be difficult to find. We’re going to talk about that as well. Writing a weekly guest post with some embedded links back to your own law firm website is going to do wonders for your SEO.

How to Post Content on Other Websites

So how do you actually go about this, you need to select a quality blog, a quality website that is relevant to your legal niche, this is really important, there are a lot of really spammy websites out there that are going to offer you opportunities to guest post on them. Now, what’s happening is not only are you guest posting on this website, that’s just part of it, the important, the critical part of it is that you are getting a link from that website back to your website.

Pick a Website with a Higher Domain Authority

So you don’t want to post on any website that has a lower domain authority than yours, you want to hook yourself to a bigger, stronger ship in the ocean. So the best thing to do is go look up what your own domain authority score is. And you can just do that on numerous free tools online, you can just Google Free Domain Authority tool or search.

Then you want to look up the domain authority of the place that you will be doing a guest post. And if their domain authority is higher than yours, then go ahead and do it.

There is a Link Back to your Website

The next thing that is extremely important, is you want to make sure that they will allow a link back to your website, because if they don’t offer a link back to your website, there is no point in doing this really, in my opinion, of wasting your time and effort or money. If you’re having a digital marketing agency do this for you. Not only do you need a link back to your website, it doesn’t actually have to say your law firms name, it can just be let’s say the article is the five ways to prepare your teenager to drive you’re a personal injury attorney, let’s say. So you write this article, the five best ways to teach your teenager to drive or whatever it is. And then towards the end of the article, you say and make sure to always teach your teenager that if they are ever involved in any kind of a personal injury accident that they need to call you. And they also at some point are going to need to talk to a personal injury attorney in order to understand all of their legal rights. And within that is where you are going to hyperlink back to your law firms website.

Make Sure the Link is a No-Follow Link

One more thing on this that is critical. Make sure that the agreement that you have with this other website is that your link back to your website is a no follow link. You want to make sure that it’s not a no follow link. Because there are ways to code this. And if you have a no follow link, it tells the Google bots that they’re not supposed to follow and link this piece of content with your website. That’s the exact opposite of what you want to do. You absolutely want a follow link, a do follow link. So make sure of that.

Offer the Website Owners an Idea for an Article

So I digress a bit, but along with selecting a very quality website, you want to perhaps contact the owners of that website and offer them an idea for an article. You want to get the okay to do that. And then go ahead and submit the article to them and ask them if it would be something that you could do on a more consistent basis, maybe once a month, offer them an article that links again, back to your website.

If your law firms website and blog, are not generating the traffic that you would like it is definitely really worth investing more time to consider writing guest articles. The reason is because these links back to your website are called backlinks. And these backlinks are extraordinarily helpful for your SEO. It is telling Google that websites that have more authority than you that have a greater Domain Authority score are linking back to you. It’s kind of like the popular kids in high school. have invited you to their party on Friday night. And Google looks at that and says,

Well, if XYZ law firm is actually being quoted and linked to this other website that I already feel is authoritative. That must mean that XYZ law firm is also authoritative. It’s an incredible way to boost your law firms website online. Now, there is an option that you can go to digital marketing agencies and pay a company to write these articles for you, and then also place them on other websites. In fact, Law Quill does this as a service, I will encourage you to use caution, and to do your research before you hire a digital marketing agency to do this for you. Because a lot of times they will say, oh, we can get you on 10 different websites a month, and your domain authority will increase by this much. And you will get this many overall backlinks.

The Website Linking is to Quality Websites

I would just really ask for some case studies on that. Because the truth is, backlinks can be a more expensive option within a digital marketing strategy. So you want to make sure that the websites that they are linking to are ones that are truly quality websites, and authoritative. Again, the reason that this is so important is because it’s enriching your website’s authority overall, in the eyes of Google, and then will eventually increase your domain authority and your rankings, which is why you may see online different places, if you’ve done research, that guest posting and backlinking is good for SEO.

Again, it can build your reputation, not only with Google, but other people will see you linked on other more authoritative websites, it can absolutely promote awareness of your brand, which is your law firm, it’s going to establish your authority in the practice area that you have, it will grow referral traffic, it will increase your ability to contact potential clients in a venue outside of your own website and outside of social media. It can allow you to network with other people that are doing guest blogging potentially on that same website. And it can introduce you to a new audience, that frankly, you would not perhaps have captured on your own website on your own social media.

And speaking of social media, it’s also incredible because it gives you the option to then post on social media that you have written for this other website or this other company’s website. And it shows that you are an authority in your field. It gives you more things to say on social media, it gives you the ability to enhance your social media influence, because you’re saying,

Look, I’m not just an authority on my own website, look here, I am actually also writing for all of these other authoritative sources. Now, just so that, you know, I practice what I preach, I am actually a weekly contributor to above the law online. And I have a weekly column there as a digital marketing expert for law firms. I also write for Attorney At Work Online, and was featured in their very first inaugural print magazine.

So this is a tactic that not only I tell law firms to do, I do it as well, and I enjoy the benefits of it. I know that there are people that have contacted me, because they see my article and my column in above the law every week. So this is absolutely something that you can look into, to try to grow your own authority, your own influence, to showcase you as an expert, to showcase that you are trustworthy because these other larger companies or websites are showcasing that expertise on their platform.

How to Get Started?

Now you know about the benefits of posting content on other websites now, okay. Perhaps you’re wondering how in the world do I even get started with this? It is important that if you are going to spend time or money having someone else write this for you, you need to make sure that you are going to Post this again, on somewhere that is worthy of your attention, frankly.

Post Content on Website with Large Audience

An ideal website to post content on is one that has a large, dedicated audience, one that appeals to your target clients, one that has online authority, and one that has topics that are related to your industry.

So let’s just use me as an example for a moment, right? I write articles every week for above the law, that is a large, dedicated audience. It appeals to my target potential clients, law lawyers, and law firms. Clearly Above The Law has online authority, and they have other topics that are related to the legal industry. So that is really a perfect platform for me. Consider also reaching out to your colleagues that might host their own websites or blogs, who might be glad to exchange guest articles with you. Now, this is not going to work for your competition, you are probably not going to be able to call up your competitor and ask if you can guest post on their blog on their website. But I am certain that you have people in either legally adjacent companies or either law firms that do complimentary work to yours that you do referral business with, those might be good options for you.

Write an Article for your Law School

Another option is to write an article for your law school. So they are always looking for alumni success stories, or a way to showcase to their potential law students and then the law students that they’re that are there that there is success right around the corner if you attend this law school, so you can write articles for online law school websites. And again, you can embed a link back to your website.

You can also start a Google search with law firm blog and see what you discover. Just type in the practice area that you practice that your law firm practices and type in, let’s say personal injury attorney law firm blog, see what you discover.

Contact The Manager of a Blog You Follow

Another option is to contact the manager of a blog that you regularly read. Perhaps you actually read a lot of blog posts on a particular practice area or an industry magazine, look to see if you can write articles for them as well. You always want to read the blog that you are interested in posting on you want to read that content and make sure that it is again worthy of your time, you want to make sure that you are aligned correctly with the right space online on the right websites.

Once you determine that you have a really good fit, you want to start out with a strong pitch. And just know what that blog what that website offers to its readers. And then write a personalized email with your article idea. And with many offers being sent their way in many cases, this is going to help your stand out.

Showcase that You will Provide Value

Next, make sure that you are showcasing that you are going to truly provide value for the reader. And it’s not just going to be 1000 word advertisement for your law firm. The example that I gave before. driving tips for teenagers can be really informative for parents that are facing that in their life. And frankly, then that is something that a website would want because it’d be interesting to their readers.

And then frankly, that article is then going to get shared throughout social media as well. It just helps them as well. Make sure that your content is original, make sure that it is plagiarism free.

Don’t Post Unethical Content

Besides that being completely unethical. Posting duplicative content can actually damage your reputation marketing efforts, and it can harm their website. So you don’t want to do that. You want to always abide by the guest posting guidelines if they have certain guidelines that say that you can’t mention your law firm, or that you can only mention it one time you want to make sure to always follow those guidelines. And then this is great.

Adding an Apt Profile

A lot of times when you do these guest posts, they will allow you to include a headshot and a bio. And this is great. You get the opportunity in this little bit of real estate to talk about who you are about your law. firm and why you are better than all of your competitors. So your bio is really the first introduction you have to this fresh new audience and, frankly, pool of potential new clients, it’s very possible that some readers will scroll down first to read your bio before reading your article, I know I’ve done it.

So write a really interesting but brief bio about yourself, include a professional headshot, and it can even be helpful to create a special link that leads the readers from the host blog to a unique landing page. And then that way, you will be able to track which people come to your website, specifically from those articles that you’re writing or a single article that you’re writing on a different website. But the bio itself is going to give readers a quick handy bit of information about you and your law firm. without them having to actually wonder about the expertise of who it is writing this article, or actually travelled to your website. This gives them everything they need to know in a short snippet.

Share Links to Your Article on Other Platforms

Also, you want to share links to your article on other platforms, as I’ve discussed earlier, because you are going to want to add value to your hard work. By sharing that link to social media sites, this helps not only your social media, you have something to say it’s showcasing you as an expert. And then frankly, if that particular article gets a lot of traffic, you will have a better standing with that website to write even more articles for them in the future.

Backlinking

And remember, the most important part of all of this, although the rest is important as well, is that you need to include a link to your own site called a backlink. Those high quality links that originate from those other trusted websites, again, can be tremendously beneficial for your own SEO, and your own domain authority score.

Conclusion

There are several different points that I could go through right now about how to write a great article. But I’ve already done that. I have blog posts on my website. And then I also have a podcast about how to create really great content. And those bits of information. Those pieces of content that I have are relevant not only for your website, but also if you are writing for other websites.

So I hope that I have convinced you in today’s episode, that it is an important piece of your digital marketing strategy to consider putting posts and articles on other websites. And of course, as always, I would love it if you would hit that subscribe button so that you never miss an episode. And of course, I would like to ask if you could please leave me a nice little review on iTunes that only helps the algorithm and helps other law firms find this valuable information. And once again, I would like to thank our sponsor, Click Magnet, the Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms, which is a best-selling book on Amazon that you can get and gives you a complete step by step strategy to grow your law firm online and get more clients.

Thank you so much for listening today. I appreciate all of you so much. If you ever want to get in contact with me directly, please feel free to do so on LinkedIn at my website or just directly with my email at annette@lawquill.com In the meantime, have a great day. And I’ll see you the next time in the legal marketing lounge.