As a lawyer, legal professional or work in law practice management you may have heard of online legal directories and might even be registered to one or more yourself. This article will highlight important information about online legal directories and provide alternatives to the most popular legal directory for lawyers, Avvo.com.
Table of Contents
What are Legal Directories and their importance?
Legal directories are organised lists of lawyers and law firms that allow prospective clients access legal services and contact local lawyers. They often sort lawyers into categories based on their legal practice area and or/location for the convenience of users, and provide the legal firm’s address, phone number and contact form. Nowadays, the most popular and widespread legal directories are hosted on the internet as online legal directories and there are many options available for lawyers looking to attract clients through the internet.
How do Legal Directories help lawyers and law firms?
Appearing in a legal directory increases your chances of being found by prospective clients, and therefore potentially acquiring them as paying clients. By increasing the possibility of being found and acquiring clients more frequently, you help your legal services business grow.
In some ways, registering to appear in directories is like a cost-saving form of advertising that is quite traditional for legal services professionals. However, there will be many prospective clients that may benefit from your legal services who neglect to check a directory, meaning your legal business can benefit greatly from appearing in other channels.
For information about our services that help law firms grow, including online advertising and Search Engine Optimisation, call or fill out a contact form to get in touch with Marketlytics, your law firm marketing specialists.
Avvo and Avvo Alternatives for Lawyers
Avvo.com:
Avvo is an online legal directory that lists over 1.5 million lawyers (In the USA) and enables users to search by legal practice area and city. Avvo users who hire legal professionals can leave ratings and reviews to describe the quality of their experience with them. Avvo then mathematically combines these ratings to give lawyers a quality score out of 10.
On their website, Avvo attests to the effectiveness of their scoring system based on four key Factors
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- How the Avvo Rating is calculated. The rating is calculated using a mathematical model, and all lawyers are evaluated on the same set of standards.
- The Avvo Rating cannot be bought. At Avvo, all lawyers are treated equally. We don’t play favorites, and attorneys can’t pay us to improve their ratings.
- It was developed by legal professionals and people looking for legal services. The model used to calculate the rating was developed with input from hundreds of attorneys, thousands of consumers, and many other legal professionals who deeply understand the work attorneys do. We created the Avvo Rating to reflect the type of information people have identified as important when looking to hire an attorney.
- It’s as simple as counting to 10. Ratings fall on a scale of 1 (Extreme Caution) to 10 (Superb), helping you quickly assess a lawyer’s background based on our rating.
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They also provide a guide on how to interpret the out-of-ten ranking.
- 10 – 9.0 Superb
- 8.9 – 8.0 Excellent
- 7.9 – 7.0 Very Good
- 6.9 – 6.0 Good
- 5.9 – 5.0 Average
- 4.9 – 4.0 Concern
- 3.9 – 3.0 Caution
- 2.9 – 2.0 Strong Caution
- 1.9 – 1.0 Extreme Caution
Lastly, Avvo also hosts a platform for users to publically ask for information or advice, and for lawyers to answer questions. This not only helps the public find where they should look to access lawyers’ services but also provides proactive lawyers with a channel to get in touch with prospective clients and discuss legal services.
Why should Australian Lawyers consider alternatives to Avvo?
Despite the popularity and features of the Avvo platform, Australian Lawyers and legal professionals should consider utilising different online legal directories, because Avvo’s presence is based in the United States. The following directories provide similar valuable features but are much more appropriate for lawyers in Australia.
Alternatives to Avvo
LawyersFirms.com.au
LawyersFirms provides a streamlined and simple legal directory for Australians searching for legal help. The site allows users to search via postcode or by legal practice area with a host of categories, from criminal law to alternative dispute resolution. LawyersFirms allows users to leave reviews and to rate their experience with a lawyer out of 5 stars.
Lawpath
Lawpath has more to offer than being a simple directory, however, it does provide one and should be an alternative to consider. Lawpath’s directory provides a lawyer directory accessible by potential clients and features an out-of-five-stars rating system.
Beyond Lawpath’s standard directory features, they also offer Australians and Australian businesses direct solutions relating to:
- Starting a business
- Running a business
- Legal documents
- Hiring a lawyer
If your legal business could suit prospective clients in any of these areas, consider being registered in Lawpath’s directory.
Findlaw Australia
Findlaw is another legal directory that Australian lawyers should consider. The website is quite traditional and therefore simple for customers to navigate. Be aware that FindLaw is simply a directory that puts potential clients in touch with nearby lawyers and lacks a number of the bright features of some directories, for example, there is no system for clients to rate the quality of their experience with their lawyer.
JustAnswer (Australia)
Whilst JustAnswer is not an exclusively Australian platform, it does have a section dedicated to Australian lawyers and clients. JustAnswer is also different from the other platforms featured in this article because its purpose is not to provide a list of lawyers but to provide a very streamlined legal question-and-answer experience for customers seeking legal information or lawyers.
Savvy lawyers should consider registering on JustAnswer and occasionally checking for recently asked questions, as providing high-quality answers boosts the visibility of your legal brand.
Australian Lawyers Directory
Our last suggestion is Australian Lawyers Directory, which provides a simple directory similar to FindLaw. Australian Lawyers Directory is best for lawyers and law firms looking to be connected with local clients (and vice versa). This is because the location-search feature only searches a maximum radius of 10km.
Summary
To summarise, lawyers and law firms can benefit from registering on online legal directories, because it provides another avenue for potential clients to find their business. A popular example in the United States is Avvo, however, Australian lawyers will benefit from seeking out an Australian alternative, as location is a factor for many law firm clients.
The ability for directories to get you clients is valuable for growing a law business, but there is a limit to the number of clients who will find you via a directory. Therefore, law businesses that are interested in growing will benefit from seeking other methods of growing their business, including modern digital means like Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing.
If you are interested in growing your law firm, reach out to Marketlytics to find out how we can grow your law firm, with our wealth of industry experience and technical expertise.
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