Login | June 17, 2025
Local citations to connect with more potential clients
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: March 31, 2023
When this column first started, it probably surprised people when it quoted surveys that said that 30 percent of people looking for lawyers looked online. That was a while ago.
Now, a study by BrightLocal puts the figure at 93 percent and—and pay attention here—91 percent of them read online reviews.
Not to put too fine a line on it, but, at this point, online presence means everything for your business, especially if you can’t afford TV ads (or don’t have the eyebrow for them).
Well, sure, you are online. But so what? What are you doing there? A website? A little social media?
Not enough! You need the widespread online presence called local citations. Done properly, local citations can have a huge impact on your SEO and, thus, your page rankings. Neglected, and the opposite is true.
Local citations are little tidbits on other websites and such, which include your accurate name, address and phone number (called NAP in the trade) that point people to you. They include attorney listings like AVVO, your Google business profile and Yelp and other review sites.
So take a weekend and work on your local citations.
You need to claim and fill out every possible place your firm name could be, including getting any possible web addresses.
Fill out all legal directories. They have your name and a blankness if you haven’t claimed the page.
Claim your NAP! Besides AVVO, look at https://www.legaldirectories.com/, Nolo, Findlaw, Lawyer.com and Lawyers.com, LegalZoom, Justia, HG.org, Superlawyers.com, and Martindale.com (oldie but still goodie).
If you belong to a niche practice group of any kind, make sure you are on its directory. And don’t fill the directories with irrelevant keywords or lonks. Keep it short and to the point.
Check out and respond to all reviews, positive or negative, on review sites and on your own social media feeds and your Google Business Profile (make sure you have one in the first place). Do not ignore negative reviews.
Consistency is the hallmark here. Remember—all this is in addition to your web and social media presence.
Do it all the same across the board, make sure your NAM is accurate, and you’re local citations will be fine.
Thanks to Uptime JurisPage for the overview.