Looking for a list of sites where attorneys can be reviewed? We did the work. Here you go.
Now let’s get to the good stuff; which of these sites is most trusted? We conducted the following test and found out that most people just do not regard these lawyer-specific review sites as trustworthy. That fact has some interesting, and actionable, implications.
This survey is in compliment to our earlier survey on where attorney’s should focus their online review efforts. Here we seek to identify the top lawyer specific review sites that people trust most when they search for an attorney.
Methodology:
This survey, which we conducted in 2013, targeted people who had recently searched for an attorney online. The core finding has aged well: people still don’t know about these legal-specific review sites, and when they find them, they don’t trust them.
Respondents to this survey were first asked a question.
Of those who answered “Yes”, or “Yes more than once”, the question, “Which lawyer specific review site do you trust?” was posed, and the responses that were recorded are heavily pointing towards a lack of usage (or at least trust) for lawyer review sites.
The sites we tested included the major legal directories active at the time: Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell, Super Lawyers, FindLaw, Lawyers.com, and Justia. Each appeared as an option in the survey, with respondents able to select any site they trusted or indicate they did not trust any of them.
The most common response, by a wide margin, was that respondents had never used a lawyer-specific review site at all. That was the plurality answer. Among those who had used one, trust was spread thin across every platform we tested.
What can we learn from these Results? Most lawyer review sites are typically unknown, unused, or distrusted by the general public (ie. those who do not work in the legal sphere or online marketing).
This information should not in any way be construed to mean that you should not take the time to list yourself and your firm on these sites. They still provide numerous search benefits, including:
1. Referral Traffic – while people may not trust the reviews on these sites, the can still find you and click through to your site, where you should provide plenty of reasons to trust you.
2. Links – these are high authority sites, and easy/legitimate places to drop a link to your site.
3. Citations – most of these sites will allow you to list your business Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP), helping with your local search rankings.
Of the sites we tested, none dominated the trust rankings. No single legal directory captured more than a fraction of respondents as most trusted. Part of that is a structural problem: many legal directory reviews are submitted by other attorneys, not clients. When searchers figure that out, trust collapses fast.
Actionable Takeaways:
When it comes to customer reviews, spend your time getting Google reviews.
The gap in trust between Google reviews and the legal directories is real. In our experience working with law firms, clients shopping for an attorney check Google first. Legal directories come last, if at all. A firm with 50 strong Google reviews will typically outperform one with 200 Avvo reviews on both trust and local search rankings.
Having a profile established on these review sites still drives traffic, so do not totally neglect them.
Think of Avvo, Justia, and Martindale-Hubbell as background work. The profiles help keep your NAP listings consistent and give you a solid link back to your site. The reviews on them? Don’t count on those to move a client to call you.
If you’re looking for a SEO agency for law firms that can help you build a stronger Google review strategy, improve your local search rankings, or close the gap between your firm and the competition, we’d love to talk. Contact us today.
If you have any more takeaways yourself, let us know in the comments below!
