Law Firm Directories FAQs

The legal industry is competitive, but setting up a successful SEO campaign can help your law firm climb to the top. An important element of a campaign is ensuring your online listings are in tip top shape. Legal specific directories are priority since they are highly relevant to the industry (and thus your keywords), but there’s a lot of questions you may have about managing these listings. Here’s a look at many common questions we get asked.

What Legal Directories Should My Law Firm Be Listed On?

The following legal directories are the most well known in the industry. If you’re an attorney, having a listing on these sites is highly recommended.

• Avvo
• Justia
• Findlaw
• Martindale, Lawyers.com, Nolo
• SuperLawyers (If selected)
• BestLawyers (If selected)
• Your State Specific Bar Association
• Any Additional Legal Associations You’ve Joined

There are a long list of directories that exist beyond these, but we recommend you review each one accordingly to ensure it is high quality and makes sense for you.

Can I Add My Lawyer Profile or Law Firm to Legal Directories For Free?

In many cases yes, but some websites may require additional payment either to add a listing at all or to enhance it further. This can include adding items like hyperlinks to your website, images, expanded descriptions, more practice areas, and other advanced features. Almost all mainstream directories allow you to have some type of listing for free. Justia and Findlaw both allow you to include links to your website at no additional cost. SuperLawyers does as well, but you must be nominated in the first place to even qualify for a listing.

Which Legal Directories Require Payment?

Most directories have some type of paid feature. What each plan covers varies per site. For example, the only way to include a link to your website on Avvo, is to upgrade to an advanced listing. This is the same for Martindale and its partner websites. Most associations will require you to pay for a membership, but then usually the listing comes as a benefit for joining. It’s best to view the individual packages on each site and reaching out to their support team if you still have questions.

Why Does My Avvo Profile Have a Phone Number I Don’t Recognize?

This is a call tracking number that Avvo places on all paid listings in order to track leads. It is one way that they can show you the results and ROI you are getting for your paid placement. This is the same for some of their partner websites such as Martindale/Lawyers. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there is an option to remove the call tracking number if you wanted to use your local firm number instead. If this is something you’d wish to do, you could still inquire with their support team since their rules and site change from time to time.

How Can I Update Or Remove My Avvo Rating?

Avvo gives all lawyers a rating automatically which is based on several factors. However, you may have the ability to request this rating to be removed and not shown publicly. To do this, it is required that you have not been disciplined and are not seeking legal clients. If this is true for you, then you can reach out to their support team to request the rating removal. Their site states “If approved, you will not be included in practice area search results, though licensing details and client reviews will remain visible on your individual profile.”

How Do I Get Listed On SuperLawyers?

You must be nominated and then selected. They have a pretty extensive process for vetting attorneys and deadlines for nominations are on a regional basis which you can find updated in real time on their website.

Who Can Help Me Set Up And Update My Online Legal Listings?

Most listings can be set up and edited by the lawyer themselves or their internal admin team. However, it can be very time consuming to tackle and if not handled carefully, inconsistencies and errors could impact your SEO. We recommend contacting an Internet marketing agency if you need assistance. We at PaperStreet handle these types of tasks daily and are more than happy to discuss how we can create an online listing plan for you. Contact us for more information.