Protect Your Referrals Challenge Day 14: Look Back on Your Snapshot

Welcome to Day 14. A quick recap on what you have done so far:

• You have spent time working on your template so can be very consistent in your directory listings
• You submitted updates to the big data providers like Acxiom and InfoGroup
• You claimed (or requested a postcard if needed) your Google My Business Profile
• You claimed and optimized your Facebook page
• You claimed and optimized your Avvo profile and other legal specific directories if you did some extra credit
• You claimed and optimized your local profiles in your local bar association, chamber of commerce, etc.
• You searched Google and created a list of remaining directory listings that were showing up on Google for your name or your firm name
• You worked through claiming directories from that list over the last few days

Phew, that is a lot in 14 days! Good news is that we have just one more step related to directory listings. Hopefully, the fact that we have spent almost half of this challenge focusing on claiming, editing, and optimizing your directory listings shows you how important this step is in your effort to “Protect Your Referrals”.

Today we will go back to your Snapshot report that you received when this challenge started (if you still don’t have one, request one now). The Snapshot report showed you a number of listings that we consider to be typically very important. While these may not show up on the first three pages, they are often used by Google to influence their local search data for your firm. In fact, in claiming and optimizing some of these, you might start to see them appear on the first couple of pages of Google for your name.

Look at your Snapshot report and find any directory where your name, address, phone number, or URL was shown to be incorrect. Compare that with your spreadsheet of directory listings that you have already worked through. If you find one not on your list, add it. One that you might not have seen in your list but is often on the Snapshot is Bing Local. That is because the search engine you used so far to clean up your directories was Google.

While Google still dominates most searches, it is a good idea to claim and optimize your Bing Local profile. So many law firms forget this and anyone with a new Windows 10 OS might end up using the default Bing search on those devices.

Another directory that we didn’t talk too much about yet but worth adding on your list is Yelp. Yelp influences the reviews and details on Apple Siri listings which helps with voice searches now happening on iPhones.

Once you have your list of directories from the Snapshot report added to your spreadsheet, divide the effort up over today and tomorrow and begin working through the list.

By the way, the Snapshot report is a static document that we ran when you joined the challenge. If you have not taken advantage of using our tools yet, this is one area where they really help. We have a reputation management dashboard that monitors and show you directory listings that do not match your name, address, or phone number and give you a link in the dashboard right to that directory listing. It really streamlines the process.

We will send you a reminder tomorrow to continue working on this list.

After tomorrow we will move off of directory listings and begin to take a look at your website.