Ever wondered why we recommend utilizing lawyer and law firm directory profiles as an integral part of your comprehensive legal marketing strategy? Take a look post out for answers, as well as tricks for getting the most reap the benefits of these profiles.
You should implement a systematic approach to claiming these profiles.
Types of Digital Directories & Online Profiles
Online Directory on Computer
First and foremost, it is important to understand that there are several types of online directories that attorneys and law organizations should have on their radar to maximize their digital footprint. Each of these directory types may have its profile features and benefits, but them all have the potential to help legal professionals increase exposure, reach more leads, and enhance their reputations.
In general, the most common directory types are:
Legal Directories (Lawyers/Law Firms): These are the directories specifically designed with legal professionals at heart. These are essentially catalogs of lawyers and companies that allow users to find the right lawyer with regards to legal matters.
Bar Association & Lawyer Association Member Directories: These directories are essentially membership lists maintained by state bar associations and other legal organizations. Some examples of this type of directory range from the State Bar of California Attorney Search, Florida Bar Member Directory, and Louisiana State Bar Association Membership Directory.
Popular Consumer Directories: Apple Maps, Bing Places (Microsoft), Facebook Business Pages, and Google My Business are directories commonly employed by potential clients that all those legal representatives need to be on. Of these, Google My Business is the main online directory for consumer law businesses loalrighting for contacts through search.
Business Directories: Business directories aren’t specific to the legal industry. Instead, they accept all types of businesses, including law firms. Some, but not absolutely all of them directories have laws organizations categorized by their practice areas. Sites commonly considered general business directories include YP, Yelp, Citysearch, eLocal, and DexKnows.
Social Profiles: Information created on social media networks are also a form of directory. For example, sites like Facebook and Instagram also function as a nearby business directory and can help law businesses leverage social proof and interactions with clients for marketing purposes.
Other Directories: Not every directory fits into one of these categories. As an illustration, there are directories for expert witnesses, legal forms, referral services, and even specific practice areas, such as employment law.
Why Should Lawyers and Law Firms Get Online Profiles?
Many directories and directory profiles rank well browsing results. When someone looks for the name of a particular lawyer or law firm, directory profiles from legal, business, and other directories is going to be in the top results. This increases the lawyer’s footprint in Google search results, where visibility is a competitive process.
Profiles can often rank for the legal professional or lawyer name in search engines. Fully completing these profiles can help the profiles themselves list higher and improve your online visibility, thus assisting you better command your namespace and effectively manage your reputation. Likewise, because you have control of your messaging and visuals (to an extent) on these various directory listings, you can use these to reinforce your brand with potential clients and everyone.
In addition, directories can often help legal representatives be uncovered by new clients. For example, if you are a Michigan medical malpractice lawyer, getting a profile in directories that rank well for those keywords (and related keywords) escalates the odds a potential client will find you therefore of their Google search. This increased visibility may lead to more leads from clients that might not exactly have found you but also for your account in this well-ranking directory.
Directory profiles often also provide option to add links to other websites related to the lawyer, such as a law firm website or legal blog. Non-paid, editorial backlinks can be considered a critical part of the strong SEO (search engine optimization) strategy for those properties. Thus, the benefits of online directory profiles reach beyond a lawyer’s visibility in a specific directory site and even beyond the search visibility of the directory profile itself.
Attorney online directory provide measurable benefits well beyond exposure
1. Exposure
The most obvious reason why you should list yourself and your firm within an online legal directory is exposure. Think about this: 97% of folks start their search for an lawyer online, and 87% of folks who contact an lawyer go on to employ that attorney.
Put simply, a listing that includes your contact information generates direct leads that can offer an instant return on a relatively small investment.
Facing facts:
2. Backlinks to your website
Backlinks (also known as “inbound links”) are critical to your website’s domain authority (DA). Your domain authority, in turn, is critical to your search-engine-results-page rank. Your search-engine-results-page list is important to how many clients view your website.
Whenever you enter a search query into Google or any other internet search engine, the search engine returns a page of results matching your query. This page is named the search engine results site (SERP). As you might imagine, the higher a site appears (or “ranks”) on the SERP, the more clicks it receives. Studies show that as much as 55% of clicks go directly to the first 3 sites listed.
So, how can you get your website to appear higher on the SERP?
There are a number of factors that determine how highly an online site ranks, but one of the most crucial factors is your domain authority. The bigger your DA score, the greater your website will rank. Backlinks are key to increasing your DA report. Both number and quality of backlinks (links on a site that point to your site) impacts your DA score.
3. Local search visibility
When a person submits a search query which includes a location modifier (e.g. “workers’ compensation legal professional in Athens, Georgia”), Google returns a page of results which includes something called a “local 3-pack.”
The local 3-pack appears near the top of the SERP in a box that includes a map and the names and locations of 3 businesses related to the query.
One of the main factors is a steady name, address, and phone number over the web. Online legal directories provide a fairly easy way for legal representatives to check this box and increase their chances of appearing in the local 3-pack.
4. Credibility
Listing your lawyer within an online directory-particularly if the directory is integrated with another and respected web resource-gives the impression that your firm is credible and has a reputable standing. It is imperative as more and more possible clients run online searches to verify the trustworthiness of a lawyer, even when the prospective client hears about the law firm through word of mouth.
An online legal directory is an effective, inexpensive tool that should be part of any lawyer’s marketing plan.