Why Online Reputation Management Should Be Lawyer’s Priority

What people say about your law practice is an essential reflection of your brand’s service quality and trustworthiness. Regardless of the location or size of your practice, more than 50 percent of your clients are likely to trust online reviews before doing business with your practice. Online reviews of your practice are the new word-of-mouth for attracting new clients and retaining existing ones.

With cutthroat competition, your priority must be to establish and maintain a positive online reputation for your legal practice. This is because most of your online marketing activities, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing and email marketing, will lead the potential client to the Internet to learn more about your brand image and service offerings. Once a potential customer starts searching online for your practice, your strained reputation may drive him or her away.

Negative online reviews can cause severe damage to your online reputation. The real damage comes in the form of revenue loss when a potential client sees negativity surrounding your brand image and chooses a competitor’s services instead.

Here are some simple yet effective tips for protecting your online reputation:

1. Search the Internet for your brand mentions: The first step toward improving your online reputation is knowing where to look. Reputation management experts recommend that professionals conduct Google searches on their practice name and see what people are posting about their services. This will help you avoid or handle a potential crisis. You can consider setting up a Google Alert for your brand name and services. Online reputation management tools that are available online can help you track mentions of your brand name.

2. Establish an active presence on legal online directories: Although most potential clients will use search engines to find information about legal professionals in their area, online legal directories can also be a viable resource for locating attorneys. A lot of directories allow individuals to search by the attorney’s name, practice name or specialty. Legal professionals can boost their online presence by creating a profile on these websites and filling out the details as thoroughly as possible. Some of the most popular online directories are Avvo, FindLaw, Lawyers.com and SuperLawyers.

3. Leverage social networks to your advantage: Social networks have high domain authority, which can help your legal practice page appear higher in search engine results. However, it is critical to post regularly on your social media profiles and manage reviews and customer queries appropriately. Your social media page is a reflection of your practice and service. You must ensure the information provided on your social media pages is accurate and updated. Asking your clients to post positive reviews of your practice should be an important part of your reputation management strategy.

4. Monitor online reviews: You cannot fix a reputation problem if you do not know it exists. It is important to stay on top of what is being said or posted about your services online and how people perceive it. For instance, clients could be posting negative comments about your brand on social networks or popular review sites. If you are not aware of what people are saying about your brand, you will never realize how critical the problem is and how much it is harming your business and reputation. You can set up a Google alert that will notify you whenever your brand is mentioned online. This will help you instantly take the necessary action.

The best way to address reputation management issues is to follow a proactive approach. You can consider hiring an online reputation management expert for keeping an eye on your online presence and search results. People will be more comfortable doing business with your firm if they find it trustworthy. Acquiring and sharing positive online reviews may boost your law firm's online reputation.

Managing your online reputation is a worthwhile investment that will pay off sooner or later. Your online reputation will position you as a thought leader in your industry, determine the success of your practice and help you connect with peers and clients.