How to Build the Perfect Legal Industry Listing on Google, Avvo, and Other Platforms

[Garrett Sussman]

How to Build the Perfect Legal Industry Listing on Google, Avvo, and Other Platforms

Like most businesses, lawyers need to have a presence on a host of directories. Google and Avvo lead the pack in terms of giving lawyers the visibility they need. There are also other somewhat less accessible directories.


To get the most mileage out of your presence on any directory you need to pay special attention to your profile. An incomplete or poorly-designed listing can hurt you more than it helps you! It takes a lot of time and effort to set up all these profiles, so it pays to do it right the first time.

Carmen goes on to provide additional insights for an excellent listing on these legal industry review sites, with a few excellent examples.

Read the full post here.

And please feel free to share any tips you have for a great listing for your lawyer clients.

 

[Pam Weber]

Is the paid version of Avvo necessary?

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Is the paid version of Avvo necessary?

Hi Pam!

Good question. I do think it depends on how competitive your area and practice are, but that said, in terms of local search, having a profile that's filled out with a few recent 5 star reviews will provide a ton of value for the practice. Claiming your listing will be the most important first step.

There are some legal marketing experts on the forum as well though. @gyitsakalakis and @Brian Barwig might be able to provide additional insights.

 

[Pam Weber]

Thank you @Garrett Sussman.

 

[mborgelt]

This is great info for SMBs and agencies that have budgetary constraints on their clients' campaigns. The barnacle strategy is extremely effective at getting leads and traffic for clients in competitive spaces and this article shows you how to do it really well. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Garrett Sussman]

This is great info for SMBs and agencies that have budgetary constraints on their clients' campaigns. The barnacle strategy is extremely effective at getting leads and traffic for clients in competitive spaces and this article shows you how to do it really well. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Michael! Carmen did a great job on these industry posts

 

[gyitsakalakis]

Is the paid version of Avvo necessary?

Purely from an "SEO perspective?" IMHO, no. But there are a variety of other reasons you might consider a paid listing.

 

[CaseyMeraz]

An Avvo listing won’t help with SEO and with their recent acquisition, it makes me wonder how they will further monetize it in the future.

That being said Avvo has a place especially when it comes to share of search or barnacle SEO. If Avvo is ranking where your clients are looking (specifically in your market) you might see a benefit from it.

However, IMO this should not be your primary source of leads for your firm because they will trickle in at best. Even then they may not be the greatest leads.

Most of my clients have wasted a lot of money on Avvo with no ROI. This case study from last year needs to be updated, but it does provide some great insight on how effective they are (or not): https://jurisdigital.com/is-avvo-paid-advertising-worth-the-money/

 

[Pam Weber]

Really helpful @CaseyMeraz. Thank you.

 

[AndySimpson]

Is the paid version necessary? It wasn't until AVVO switched to the "pay to play" model.

The free attorney profile offered at least one link to the attorneys main website, now there are none. A link to the attorneys main site appears to be only available on a paid listing. So from an "SEO perspective" it appears we may now have to pay for that website link to appear!

I have seen referral traffic from AVVO drop to zero since June when AVVO switched over to it's paid platform (I think it was around May / June).

Before this, an AVVO profile was an excellent profile to claim and update, now...not so much. Although it's a good looking profile for the attorney so helps with their online identity. As an agency we currently do not pay for the new AVVO profiles so cannot comment on how effective this new paid profile is.

Additional

Lawyers.com (LDC) - good platform if you use the features that come with the different packages. One is being able to post blogs on the site giving you the opportunity to post links to your sites internal content. However, LDC have added "nofollow" to all external links from blogs...which is dumb!

Martindale.com - profile again is very good, you can still post blogs to link to content within your site, links are currently not set to nofollow!