The Ultimate List of Law Firm Directories For 2022

Law firm directories come and go, but as of 2022 (January 13, to be exact), there are over 130 that your firm can be featured on. Roughly half have a nominal fee and the other half should be free, and they are all great opportunities for additional online exposure.

What Are Legal Directories?

A legal directory is a searchable database of attorneys sorted by location, practice area, and other attributes. An entry might include a lawyer’s firm affiliation, contact information, and a bit about their experience. Many legal directories today also offer additional benefits such as rankings, publications, and customized marketing opportunities. There’s a significant amount of well-known legal directories on which law firms and attorneys can get their particular companies listed. Being registered on one of these sites can help legal groups improve their local SEO rankings and authority.

Joining legal directories is one of the simplest and most effective ways for attorneys to grow their online presence while also building links. Directories like Justia, FindLaw, and Avvo, among others, can help law firms expand their visibility in search results pages, collaborate with other professionals, get authoritative links to their site, and grow their online credibility. Many legal directories require an interview and additional fees in order to join.

Why Is It Important to Be Listed on the Best Legal Directory Sites for Attorneys & Law Firms?

Among other reasons, consistently updating your law firm on directories has the following benefits: 

• Backlinks, of course, are very helpful in increasing site authority and, in turn, increasing the likelihood of ranking for the keywords your website is optimized for. Backlinks from legal resources are even more helpful because the LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) should be very similar.
• People use all sorts of random directories for finding services (like Yelp for lawyers, right?). The more legal directories you’re on, the more random but pleasantly surprising chances you will be found here and there. Also keep in mind that there are directories going up all the time that are trying to compete with Avvo, FindLaw, Nolo, and so on. All it takes is one with the right backing and team to become prominent, and if you’re already there, you could be trendsetting in the right direction.
• Legal directories also confirm your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) in a way that a general citation would. The more cohesive your NAP, the more you benefit from a local standpoint.
• Some of these directories will offer accolades and badges for signing up with them—who doesn’t like adding those to their website?

As mentioned before, these lists can change and adjust over time with one going down and another starting up. Being on as many legal directories as possible won’t always be a gamechanger for a law firm, but it can certainly give you the edge over competition. Need help getting your law firm on this entire list? Our agency has a team in place just for that: to get you on every directory that matters specifically to you.

How Can Legal Directories Boost Your Marketing?

Whether you’re a solo practitioner, small law firm, or much larger firm, it’s important to employ the most competitive legal marketing trends of today, and that includes being part of a key source for information that people are using. Research that Google compiled through FindLaw offers us some guidance here. Their research found that: 

• 96% of people use a search engine to get legal advice or find an attorney
• 87% of people who contact an attorney decide to hire one

That’s why you want your law firm’s name and contact information readily available where you know people are searching; the exposure you get from being listed on an online legal directory is crucial.

Today, law firm directories are eager to have you onboard, and they’re constantly looking for new ways to meet your needs. So, rather than simply being an online version of the yellow pages, they’re a source for law firm advertising, a place to post content that your firm created, a site providing links to your website, and a place that hosts forums where you can answer questions on legal topics and demonstrate expertise.

How Do Directories for Law Firms Enhance Search Engine Results?

Equally important is that law firm directories can give your law firm the ability to appear in search results pages more often. In 2014, Google significantly improved the ranking of legal directories through a search algorithm update that became known as the Pigeon Update, intended to give users more relevant and accurate local search results. This update improved the rankings and visibility of online directories, including legal directories. With those high rankings in search results, it’s become clear that referrals from these directories can definitely help you generate leads and take on new clients. Online legal directories are useful for that kind of local search visibility.

Let’s say someone does a search query for “personal injury lawyer in Orlando, Florida.” Google then provides that viewer with a local “3-Pack” displaying the top three results for that SERP. Google checks the user’s location to ensure the results are relevant to the location where the query was submitted; in this case, Google would display Orlando law offices that practice personal injury law. Legal directories also allow your firm to include your firm’s name, address, and telephone number, increasing your chances of appearing in the local 3-pack.

As a resource, legal directory listings collect information about your firm, including your practice areas, to be certain a potential client can find what they need. Since these sites can help lead prospective clients directly to your website once they’ve discovered you in a lawyer directory, it’s important to do some research and find the directories that have demonstrated authority with users and can do the same for you. Being listed on the most trusted sites is also a way to build your own credibility. Some online directories will allow for reviews by satisfied customers, which also helps to demonstrate how your firm has a reputable standing.

How to Make the Most of Your Company Listing

If you do decide to register the company name in a legal directory, it’s important that you maximize your listing by including a few vital pieces of information. First and foremost, you should confirm that your name, address, and phone number are consistent and accurate. Likewise, if you’re able to add or update your company on multiple legal directory listing websites, be sure you’re providing the same business information across each directory so that you remain consistent. On that same note, verify the link to your law firm’s website. Backlinks are extremely important to your website’s online domain authority.

In addition, you may want to include a brief, accurate, and understandable description of your law firm that accurately reflects your firm’s mission statement, company culture, and core values. Depending on the directory, you may also want to add multimedia. Photos and videos will give directory searchers and potential clients a visual projection of your law firm. Multimedia that showcases your firm’s main office, your employee team, or your everyday business operations may be a nice addition. However, avoid overusing this type of media, and make sure to keep it professional.

Taking full advantage of your opportunity with legal directories will help you deliver substantial results quickly. As soon as your legal directory listing goes live—assuming that you’ve included all the necessary and correct information—the office phones could start ringing with potential new clients. This alone makes legal directories one of the quickest and most lucrative ways to generate new customers and clients.

Get Started with Being Featured on the Best Law Firm Directories for Your Specific Practice

The bottom line is that if you know prospective clients are using these law firm directories and may be more likely to start their search there—and ultimately find you there—why not go directly where the searches begin? 

A Top Legal Directory Gets Massive Traffic, Most of Which Is from Qualified Google Searches

Legal directories get almost all of their traffic from people looking for specific legal services, not getting information or educating themselves about a topic. This is especially important for lawyers with practice areas where the legal issue may be more pressing, such as criminal defense or personal injury. At the end of the day, a firm that pursues different legal marketing channels and understands the value of different approaches to visibility will benefit from a number of available law firm directories.

How Much Should an Attorney Directory Cost?

It seems like every year the prices change. From a financial standpoint, as long as the return is there, it technically wouldn’t matter. For example, if for every dollar you spend, you get $5 in fees back, it shouldn’t matter if a legal directory is $500/mo because it earns you $2,500/mo. A top diamond platinum position is $2,500/mo but earns you $12,500/mo.

Generally, you can expect standard directory positions to start in the low hundreds and maybe max out at a couple thousand in a competitive market. Long-term contracts can be tricky on the high end, especially if the directory is prone to ranking fluctuations.