JC Serrano
- Aug 17, 2021
- 3 min read

4 Internal Linking Mistakes Law Firms Should Avoid

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

The Major Don'ts of Internal Linking In Lawyer SEO

Internal link building is a vital Lawyer SEO component that can affect your entire website. Link building, when done right, can help your website rank much faster than your competition. Unfortunately, anyone can make mistakes. Since these mistakes can drastically affect your rankings, they must be addressed immediately.

Why Is Internal Link Building Important For Law Firm SEO?

Google does not rank your entire website from a glance. Instead, what happens is it ranks each page individually, and the data taken from them contributes to your overall domain authority and ranking.

To make each page rank, you must work on each one separately. This is where internal link building comes in handy.

Remember: Internal links direct a user from one page to another within the same domain.

Not only are your internal links used by site visitors, but search engine crawlers also use them. When a search engine bot "crawls" your pages, it follows all the links—external and internal. This also means that linking your pages makes it easier for search engines to find your pages.

Additionally, internal links can tell crawlers the following:

Which pages are related to each other.
Anchor texts give context to what the linked pages are.
Where pages are and what they're for.
Which among your pages are the most important.

These all provide data that ultimately contribute to the rankings of all linked and crawled pages.

Common Internal Link Building Mistakes That Needs Fixing

Now that you know how important internal links are for crawls and rankings, we can now list a few common mistakes that might become detriments to your Lawyer SEO strategy.

Below are mistakes you need to address immediately:

1. Not Fixing Broken Internal Links

Nothing is more frustrating than broken internal links, both for site visitors and your page rankings. Most site visitors leave once they come to a dead-end, especially if the pages they wanted to access promised what they needed in the first place. A few of them might click on another link, but if that also ends up on an error page, your site is going to start looking very suspicious.

Check each page or internal link on your domain to make sure everything's working. If you find any errors, address the problem as soon as possible.

Remember: External links can also be broken, and when a user encounters one, it might also directly impact your user experience and rankings.

2. Too Many Internal Links

When it comes to internal links, quality should always take precedence over quantity. That said, don't stuff a page with too many links. Instead, only link pages and citations only when necessary.

You should also avoid linking the same keywords over and over. And, of course, don't link unrelated posts and pages. This can make your pages look too spammy.

Remember: Search engines like Google are trying everything to eliminate SEO tactics that try to cheat the system by spamming links and keywords. So be smart about your internal links to avoid getting penalized.

3. You Have "No-Follow" Internal Links

A no-follow tag tells crawlers not to follow and crawl links. This is employed for different reasons and can easily be used by anyone. So if you have any important pages that you want search engines to see, make sure their links are do-follow.

Everyone wants their links to be found, so if you're employing no-follow for any of your internal links, it's time to get rid of it.

4. Links To Abandoned Or Unnecessary Pages

You created several pages right after you built your law firm's website or started your blog. Unfortunately, some of those pages might not be performing well or aren't generating you any leads and conversions.

You have two options to address these pages:

Refresh and optimize the contents of the page, so it ranks better or generates more leads.
Get rid of useless pages.

Your law firm's website is your calling card. It has to contain important information and content that's associated with your law firm. If there's no need for these pages, then you should take them down. However, in the case of a page ranking well but not generating enough conversions, a refresh might be the best option.