The other day I was asked by a client, a law firm, whether or not we should aggressively pursue a backlink program for his law firm. When I replied ‘no’ you could have heard a pin drop. You see, he has been getting emails from SEO ‘specialist’ after SEO ‘specialist’ who are all pitching an aggressive backlink program to grow his firm’s presence. When he Googled it himself he sees dozens of websites saying the same thing. Never did he bother to notice that almost every website that came up in his searches markets what? Backlinks of course!

Now before you think I am totally crazy, links ARE important, but they need to be strategic and of a high quality. I would rather secure a client five or six important links, from places like legal marketing groups, educational institutions or from public relations efforts, than dozens or perhaps hundreds of links from commenting or posting on a variety of blogs. Let’s think about that law firm for one moment, in this case a local law firm that targets specific practice areas with half a dozen attorneys. Were they to start gaining dozens of links from blog commenting or posts in a relatively short time does anyone actually believe Google would receive that favorably? Sure, there might be a bounce in numbers, but it will not last.