Net Q & A: 11/99: Should Sites Link to Other Sites?

This question is timely because a recent article in the Law Marketing Association (LMA) newsletter criticizing external links has given some law firms the impression that links to external sites are always a mistake.

This is not exactly a new idea; for years I've been making the point that external links have a downside. After you have spent so much time and money building and publicizing your web site, do you want to show your visitors the exit immediately?

Although there can be drawbacks to including external links, it's important not to go to the other extreme, either. Links CAN BE extremely good if they are thoughtfully integrated into your firm's strategic plan.

Are you trying to position yourself as a leading expert on advertising law, tax law, or some other specialty area? If so, then a well-chosen and maintained collection of links can be another type of "credential" that you can present at your web site.

Other examples that are appropriate if they fit into your overall marketing plan:

	Links to selected sites of your clients (with permission of the client).
	Links to favorable news coverage of your law firm (the Visalaw site used to have a large collection of these).
	Links to articles written by your lawyers that are posted or reprinted on the Web, especially at respected industry web sites, or reprinted from industry trade journals likely to be respected by your target market.

On a more sophisticated level, it's important to understand that it is much more important what other sites and how many other sites have built links TO your firm's web site. Such links are critical, for reasons partly explained in an article called "Client Centered Web Sites":

http://www.llrx.com/extras/client.htm

This has become even more important since I wrote that article, because more and more search engines, including the highly popular Google, http://www.google.com, have begun ordering their rankings in large part by how "popular" a site is. The search engine software measures how many other sites have built links to you. The more popular your site is, the higher you are likely to rank in the result list when a prospective client types in a request like "estate planning lawyer Minneapolis" for example. Some search engines give extra credit for links built to your site from sites it considers "important."

How does this tie into your own linking strategy? Often, you have to give links in order to get links. A time honored way to do this is to offer a reciprocal link. Just remember, when following this strategy, don't give the resulting external link list so much prominence that it will be a detriment to your site for the reasons explained in the LMA article mentioned previously.

My book, The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers, contains a more extensive discussion of linking strategies.

Jerry Lawson

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