Citation Building Strategies for Lawyers

LOCAL SEO FOR LAWYERS

When looking at the Local Search Ranking Factors, citation are one of the most important factors for local businesses to rank and be found online. There are a lot of  lists of citation directories and tools to help you find citations (WhiteSpark  is an amazing tool).

All lawyers should find ways to get citations.  What is a citation you ask?

A citation is when you have your business name, address, or phone number listed online. Any of your business information is considered a citation and does not need to link to your website.  SO these are not links we are talking about, its just your business info, your NAP….. Name…. Address ….. Phone #…. These should all be the same on all citations and can help improve your local SEO rankings.

Citation Building Strategies

Ways to get Citations for Lawyers

Sponsorship Citations

It is common for businesses to support and sponsor events, charities, and local organizations. The following are sponsorship ideas that will work for any industry.

Sponsor Charity Websites

There are a lot of great charities out there that could use business support. To find the right charity for your business check out Charity Navigator. You can use the advanced search to find specific type of charities within your zipcode.Be sure to check out the charities websites to see if they cite their business sponsors, some of them do not.Resource: Charity Navigator

Charity Event Profile

Along with sponsoring charities, if you have anyone in your company supporting a charity doing any kind of fund raising, be it for a 5K, bike race, etc. Check to see if they have a “help me raise money” page. If the fundraising domain allows you or your employee to drop in a citation why not give it a try?

Sponsor A Student

Creating a scholarship is a great way to help students in your community & can gain your business citations from high schools & colleges. There is no set amount of what the scholarship has to be, but in my experience colleges do not really share scholarship opportunities that are less than $500.

Look For Sponsorship Opportunities

There are literally hundreds of different sponsorship opportunities available in every community. A few to get you started: Examples:

Sponsor a little league team

Sponsor a pet shelter

Sponsor a food kitchen

Online Mentions

You likely have relationships that you don’t even know about. Find people who have mentioned or talked about your business and find ways to work with them.

Examples:

Google Search – “Company Name” -site:yourdomain.com

Check reference visits in your analytics

Ahrefs – finds sites that are linking or recently mentioned your website.

Associations & Organizations

Are you apart of any local or industry legal organizations? Do these organizations have websites that list their members? Double check these sites to make sure you are listed.

Law Firm Employees

Your own employees can be a great way to gain citations for your business. Ask if they would include the business in their online bios.

Examples:

Social network profiles (Linkedin, Facebook, Google+)

Organizations they support or work for

Speaking at events

Connect with the media

Local newspapers, media, and news sites are always looking for news especially from people within the community. Research your local media reporters and connect with them to see what they are looking for. Often times you can find & connect with reporters on Twitter.

Give Quotes

Reporters across the nation are always looking for experts to quote and cite in their articles. Answer their questions to get a great citation is a win/win. Here are a couple of ways to find reporters looking for:1) HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a website where reporters send out requests for expert sources. Sign up for a free account and get emailed when someone is looking for an expert in your field.2) Watch Reporter Hashtags on Twitter – As mentioned earlier a lot of reporters are on Twitter and use it to find sources for articles to cite. Some of the popular hash tags to follow are:

#URGHARO – HARO hashtag

#journorequest – Journalist request

#prrequest – PR Request

Hiring New Legal Help?

If you are looking to hire new employees there are a lot of citation opportunities.

Job Board sites

There are a lot of online job boards! Depending on your budget and the position you are trying to fill you might want to use national job board sites or industry specific job boards.

Resources:

Job Board Site – CareerBuilder, Indeed, SimplyHired

There are many other ways to get citations and for a complete list visit Local Stampede for a great article.