Why a Legal Directory Might Not be the Best Choice for Your Firm

Is a Legal Directory the Best Place for Your Firm to Advertise?

For a variety of reasons, including costs, overwhelming choice, and a variety of alternatives, Legal Directories may no longer be the most cost effective way to advertise your firm online.

Costs

Legal Directories can be extremely expensive, especially if you desire a listing that stands out. Furthermore, it may not be possible to get listed appropriately if your practice area is in a small niche. If you are a general practice firm, your listing will face too much competition. Most listings are in addition to having a website. Designing and maintaining a website can be a large cost in and of itself. Optimizing the site to do well in search engine results (SEO) is also expensive but necessary. You must decide whether a listing with a directory adds anything to your marketing strategy.

Benefits

Legal Directories have some good features that should be pointed out. Often, they fit well into a small firm’s advertising budget. They allow for filtering by location and specialization. They allow you to put your name right next to the names of your competitors with very little effort. They are easier to set up and maintain then websites and no SEO is necessary.

Legal Directories Present Potential Clients with Too Much Choice

Most legal directories present consumers with a vast array of choices. A single page on Findlaw will display 20 law firms. HG can display more than 60 choices on one page and Justia.com displays a staggering 100 attorneys PER PAGE. Choice can be good, and it is important that potential clients are presented with choices, but 100 per page is simply too much. As Barry Schwartz explains in his TED talk “The Paradox of Choice,” when people are presented with too many choices, they often avoid choosing at all. A more obvious consequence of advertising in a list of hundreds of lawyers is that each lawyer on that list is less likely to stand out. It becomes hard to justify paying so much to be listed in a directory when you could end up on the bottom of the third page of listings in just one of the many directories available.

Alternatives

There are many alternatives to directories. Companies sell everything from turn-key websites to advertising space on websites full of legal information. Social media, blogs and newsletters may all be viable options for advertising your firm. Placing a greater emphasis on word of mouth referrals can also boost business.

Tell us what is working for you

We are curious to know what is working for your firm. Have you used directory listings? Are they working? How easily can you find your own directory listing? Do you keep track of where your clients come from to do a cost-benefit analysis later?

Featured image courtesy of Tulane Public Relations licensed under creative commons.

Samuel Ballen

Samuel Ballen is Social Media Manager for DotCO Law Marketing. He graduated from Tulane Law School in 2010 with a certificate in Maritime Law. He is a member of the New Jersey Bar. Samuel currently lives in New Orleans and spends his free time exploring with a camera.

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