By Tara Bailey
As Account Managers, we are often asked whether or not paid law directory services like Avvo, Findlaw, and Lawyers worth the investment. When deciding if these paid services are right for your firm, there are a number of benefits to consider.
BRANDED SEARCH
From an SEO perspective, one of the most important benefits of these directory listings is having control over an item in your branded search. Several of the top directory sites, including Avvo, Lawyers.com and FindLaw, appear above individual firm and attorney results in the search engine results page (SERP). While many of these services allow you to claim and update your listing for free, paid services often provide better placement on these sites as well as additional features to further customize and control your profile.
BACKLINK VALUE
Backlinks are one of the top factors for SEO success. Not all online directories are not a quality source for backlinks, however these top niche directories have a high domain authority and are indexed by the search engines, indicating that these backlinks are higher quality than other directories. While you may be able to get backlinks in the free version, some listings require payment for a link to your site.
SESSIONS AND CONVERSIONS
At the end of the day, the main goal of all marketing efforts is to get leads. If use paid services, you should have an understanding of your ROI. You’ll want to consider the leads coming directly from the listing as well as the leads that come through your website, both phone calls and form requests. To determine this you will need to set up lead tracking goals in your site analytics and phone tracking.
Conversion data varies across regions and practice areas, but we can conclude that clients who pay for these services have more referral traffic from these sites, and those referral visitors convert at a much higher rate when compared to traffic overall.
SO IS IT WORTH IT?
Everyone’s experience is different. Our advice is to try it out and track it. The SEO benefits of additional branded search control and backlinks should also be considered in the value of these services. At minimum you should claim and optimize the free services offered by many of these online directories. This is even more important if you’re going to pay for the services. If you pay for these services or have tried them in the past, let us know how they worked for you.