So there are tons of lawyer directories out on the web. There’s larger ones like Findlaw, Lawyers.com, i-Lawyer Source Lawyer Directory, iLawyer Directory (that one’s a Southern California directory) and then there are tons of other small directories organized by either geographic location or practice area. So which ones should you list your practice in? Well, that depends on a few things. Most importantly, what is the goal of getting your firm listed in these lawyer directories? Is it to get traffic to your website or is it for link building purposes? Of course the bottom line is you want to generate more cases for your practice, but let me talk about those two reasons for getting a listing in an attorney directory.

1. You want to generate more traffic to your law firm’s website

All lawyers get calls from companies who offer marketing for lawyers on a daily basis. These companies are selling law firm website design, law firm directory listings, search engine optimization services, etc. etc. When it comes to the directories, how can you tell which ones are right? Simple. Do some searches on Google and Yahoo and see if those legal directories are showing up. For example, if you’re a Seattle divorce lawyer, do a search for “Seattle divorce lawyers” or “Seattle family law attorney” on Google. Now, it’s always better if the directories show up in the organic (unpaid) search results. If you can find directories in the organics, those will get better traffic than legal directories that only show up in the “sponsored” listings on the very top (shaded in light blue) or on the very right side of the screen. However, people still click on the sponsored listings on the top and right as well so as long as it’s the 1st page of results than people will still find those directories. Now, just becase a directory is on the 1st page that doesn’t mean it will work. The most important question is how easy is it for a visitor to find your listing if you get placed in one of those directories? Take for example Findlaw’s listing. In Findlaw’s directory, they place 5 law firms at the top of their page. Those top 5 results appear in random order each time the page is visited. If you’re not in the top 5 however, the situation is not as good. If you’re not aware, Findlaw has 3 different tiers. “Top spots” which allow up to 5 law firms, then the 2nd tier listings are called “spotlights” and then general listings. Spotlights appear below the “topspots” and also appear in random order. The reality is you probably won’t get too much traffic in the 2nd and 3rd tier listings. However, it all comes down to ROI. If a 2nd tier listing costs $150 a month, we’re talking $1800 a year. You just need to pick up one case to make it worth while right? Probably worth the cost then. Take the same evaluative approach with the other directories you see (Findlaw is one of the more expensive directories so you can usually find better directories at a cheaper price).

2. You want directory listings for link building purposes

Link building is important if you want to improve your website’s rankings in the search engines. Many companies offer link building services, but few actually do a good job of link building. The reality is that most links out there are virtually worthless from a standpoint of improving your rankings. Why? Many pages that your link would be listed on are not cached (part of the index) of Google or Yahoo or they have no “link juice” (a link that gives your site a boost in the rankings). I don’t want to get into the technicalities of this on this post, but I will say that many links are not direct links to your website. Sure, click on the link and you will end up on your website but that doesn’t mean that’s how a search engine spider sees it. Many links are redirected links (take for example the links in Findlaw’s directory). If you’re looking for links that will give you a boost in the rankings, make sure that # 1 the page you will be listed on is cached by Google and # 2 the link is a direct link. You can determine this by right click on the link and selecting “properties”. Look at the “Address (URL)” and this will reveal the actual URL a search engine spider sees.

Hopefully this helps you in choosing the right law firm directories to list your firm in.