According to one recent survey, about 32% of Internet users say they leverage the Internet to find new local businesses on a weekly basis. If you needed a single statistic to help illustrate the importance of digital marketing in general in 2024, let it be that one.
Even though you may not think of yourself as a “traditional” small business as a law firm, you absolutely are. You’re likely a young organization that is looking to grow strategically, which depends on a steady stream of new clients coming in the door. You’re likely facing significant competition. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that there are over 445,000 people employed in the legal services profession alone.
A strong online presence can help your law firm stand out in a crowd. It can attract the attention of the right type of prospective client. Local business listings management strategies for lawyers are a big part of that, especially when it comes to the impact it can all have on search engine optimization (SEO).
Understanding the Impact of Directory Listings
In a general sense, a directory is just like any other business directory or listing. Users can go directly to them to find contact information for specific types of businesses, like lawyers. But more importantly, search engine algorithms can find them, too. The more reputable business directories your law firm is a part of, the more it helps with SEO. A business directory will link to your website and the more that happens, the more authoritative you’re seen as in the eyes of engines like Google.
As stated, users also find directory listings, too – which is why you need to make sure that all information is accurate and consistent across all directories. That includes not only the name of your law firm but also your phone number, address, and other contact information. Inconsistent information creates confusion. Plus, people are unlikely to want to embrace a law firm that has one name on Directory A and an entirely different name on Directory B.
Another study estimated that about 75% of new business will come from directory listings (as well as review websites). That statistic alone should be more than enough to start taking these listings seriously.
Steps to Localize Your Online Presence By Managing Directory Listings
Local business listings management strategies for lawyers are exactly that – strategies. Success will be less the product of any one major move and more about a series of smaller ones. They all work together to create the type of digital marketing foundation you need to wield resources like directory listings to your advantage.
Claim and Verify Business Listings
Start by identifying relevant directories for your business – in this case, those that pertain specifically to law firms. Think about where someone might go to find out more information about local law firms, in addition to the widely used (but more general) directories.
Claim and verify your law firm’s listing on all these major directories. You can’t take ownership of those directories if you don’t go through the process of claiming them. Do so before someone else does.
Ensure Consistency in Business Information
As you go over your listings on those business directories, be sure to update and maintain consistent NAP at a bare minimum. This means “Name, Address, Phone.” Your law firm should be listed under the exact same name across all directories, right down to the punctuation. If you have more than one address or phone number, pick which one you want to emphasize everywhere.
If you do find any discrepancies or flat-out inaccuracies across directories, take care of them as quickly as you can.
Optimize Business Descriptions for Local SEO
As you work to update the content on business directories, emphasize relevant and high-quality descriptions of your law firm’s services, overview, and other qualities. There are two reasons for this. First, you always want to paint a vivid picture for prospective clients of who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. Provide as much detailed, relevant information about your law firm as you can.
But these descriptions are also a perfect opportunity to incorporate location-based keywords and local “lingo” whenever possible. Location-based keywords are a great way to boost your local SEO in particular. It’s been estimated that as many as 87% of people who look for local businesses end up reaching out within just 24 hours.
Utilize Additional Features of Directory Listings
You can enhance your directory listings and really help them stand out in a crowd by adding photos, videos, and other types of multimedia content. Simply going to the effort to do this will leave a great impression on prospective clients and can also help you stand apart from the majority of your competitors.
At the same time, encourage your existing clients to leave reviews on your directory listings. Don’t promise them anything in exchange for positive reviews – that would be unethical. But remind people when they leave your office that they can leave you a positive review on Google, Yelp, or a similar directory, and it will help you enormously.
Leverage Industry-Specific Directories
Again, you should never overlook an opportunity to claim your position on an industry-specific directory whenever possible. As a part of local business listings management strategies for lawyers, pay particular attention to directories like LegalZoom and FindLaw. Yes, you’ll want to work on the more general ones, too. But those can happen once the legal-specific ones have been taken care of.
Use these listings to highlight any unique offerings that you may have, too. Don’t just say that you’re a personal injury attorney. If there is a specific area of the law you cover that nobody else does in your local area, be sure to call attention to that.
Monitor and Update Directory Listings
To help make all this as easy and as efficient as possible, establish a regular schedule for monitoring and updating your directory listings. Obviously, if your law firm’s phone number changes, it needs to be updated everywhere immediately. But there are also tools and services that you can use to help streamline the management of directory listings as much as possible so you can make fast, easy updates whenever you’d like, such as adding new photos, updating featured messages, and sharing promos.
Analyze the Impact on Local Search Rankings
Finally, always track improvements in visibility and search rankings over time. If you make changes to your local business listings management strategies for lawyers, and you start to see an increase in search rankings, make a note of what you did so that you can easily do it again.
Adjust your strategies based not on gut instinct or intuition, but on analytics and performance data. Make decisions based on facts whenever possible – just like you would in a courtroom.
Increasing Your Law Firm’s Exposure With Directory Listings
In the end, directory listings are a perfect opportunity for law firms like yours to stand out in a crowd – provided that you handle the process properly.
After you claim and verify your business listings, you need to ensure consistency in the information across them. Optimize those descriptions for local SEO and always utilize additional features like photos, videos, and other multimedia content. Make it a priority, and it is an investment that will pay for itself by way of new clients coming through your door.
At Surefire Local, we’re honored for the chance to help law firms and other small businesses like yours establish their online presence in the most efficient way possible. We do this by helping you establish local signals across platforms and profiles that make it easier than ever for people to find you.
Naturally, one of the big ways we do this has to do with directory management. The Surefire Local platform helps you by automatically claiming your law firm across 80+ online directory listings platforms and allowing you to edit and publish new content like photos or special offers.
But our platform can also help you manage other areas of your online marketing, including content marketing, analytics and reporting, educational resources, and more. Publish a steady stream of high-value, relevant content to places like your website, your social channels, and beyond. Not only is this a great way to attract the attention of new clients, but it can keep it for as long as possible. Track all elements of your strategies so that when you make a change that has a positive impact on things like your traffic or customer acquisition costs, you’ll know about it immediately so you can lean into that as much as possible.
Everything you need is condensed under one easy-to-use platform, so you can finally stop battling against your technology and can devote more attention to putting it to good use for you.
If you’d like to find out more information about the power of directory listings for lawyers, or if you’d just like to see what our solution can do for you, click here to attend a Surefire Local demo in your area. You can also contact us to get answers to any additional questions that you might have.