10 Steps to Get the Most Benefit From Your Avvo Listing
Saturday, May 3, 2014

Avvo is now a major force in Internet marketing for attorneys.
 
Here's my advice: You don’t have to like Avvo to benefit from Avvo. They are here to stay so learn how to use them to build and influence your law firm’s Internet presence and generate more business!

Here are the 10 steps you should take to get the most benefit from your Avvo listing:

1. Claim your profile. This process is free and allows you to update your contact information and add information about you and your law firm.

2. Put your ENTIRE resume into Avvo. Work experience counts and can improve your rating.  Be sure to list any professional involvement in the legal community as well.

3. Add all the seminars you have given, awards you have received, and articles you have written.These items can also improve your rating. 

4. Add your photo! I have heard reports that profiles with a photo are clicked on up to 10 times more than profiles without photos.

5. Add videos. If you have videos, put them into your Avvo profile. While they won't improve your rating, it will give potential clients who are checking you out online an opportunity to see who you are and will position you as more of an “expert.” The production quality of your videos does not matter nearly as much as the information you include in them. It's all about education-based marketing—educating your prospects.

6. Answer user’s questions. Thousands of consumers every week ask legally related questions on Avvo. Please be sure to put a standard disclaimer on each response, i.e., that your reply does not constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship, etc.

7. Create Avvo Legal Guides. If you're like most attorneys, you constantly get asked a common set of questions. Make each question and your answer into a legal guide that Avvo will post for free on their website. Keep the questions and answers highly focused on a specific topic. Be sure to add a disclaimer on each guide.

8. Get more peer endorsements. This can make a big difference in your rating. Just like a referral from another attorney in the real world makes a big impression on a prospect, so having a reference from another attorney or a judge on your Avvo profile can improve your rating.

9. Ask your clients to write a testimonial for you on Avvo. Client testimonials do NOT have a positive or negative impact on your rating. However, I assure you, potential clients read them! I know that several states, like Florida, do not allow the usage of testimonials by lawyers. However, the Florida bar has agreed to exempt online directories like Avvo from most of its ad rules because attorneys cannot control endorsements posted on third party sites like Avvo.

10. Put your Avvo badge on your website or blog. Avvo allows you to create a “badge” with your profile score on it that links directly to your Avvo profile.

 

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