Online reviews are playing an increasingly important role in the success of a law firm’s internet marketing plan.

Think about your online interactions with businesses and products. If you go to Amazon to buy something, you pay close attention to its review score. You may even read through the reviews to see if there are any defects in the product and ensure that your money is being well spent. Increasingly, the same is true for people shopping for anything, including an attorney.

Keywords, such as "Atlanta attorney reviews," are used more often as more people realize the power of reviews for weeding out the bad apples. Because of this, it is crucial that you implement a review strategy for your law firm.

Got a Review Strategy?

What is your plan for getting reviews for your law firm? Don't have one? Then follow our step-by-step plan for harnessing the power of online reviews:

Step One for Your Review Strategy

  • Get to know popular review sites in your niche and geographic area. To do so, try searching the name of your law firm. See what review sites pop up on the first page or two of the results. Also search for keywords that apply to your firm, and see if any review sites surface.
  • Look for review sites in Google Analytics. Through Google Analytics, you can see how people are getting to your site. More than likely, at least a few people found your site through a review site.

Step Two

  • Visit the review pages for your law firm. Now that you have a list of review sites that appear to be popular in your region, ensure that you have profiles on all of the sites. Check that any information—address, phone number, website URL—on these sites is accurate. 
  • Respond to reviews. If there are already reviews on any of your newly targeted sites, respond to them. Thank anyone who left a positive review, and address the concerns of anyone who left a poor review. Be tactful when responding to bad reviews for your law firm. You don't want to come off as abrasive or dismissive.

Step Three

  • Understand ethical review acquisition. The key to a successful online review acquisition campaign for attorneys is to keep it natural. Review sites—especially the big dogs, like Google and Yelp—are hyper-vigilant about filtering out suspicious reviews. To make sure your reviews aren't yanked, NEVER offer an incentive for reviews, set up a computer in your office for clients to leave reviews, or accept an offer from a company that offers to get you loads of positive reviews.
  • Create a review acquisition strategy. Now that you know what not to do when getting reviews for your firm, it's time to get legitimate, organic reviews. One way to do so is to make better use of you social media accounts. If you get a nice note on your wall or a kind tweet, thank them for their kind words and mention that your firm is always happy to get feedback. If desired, you can use your list from Step One to offer up review site suggestions. Also, if you get positive feedback via e-mail, suggest that the client use the engine listed as their e-mail. So if they wrote to you from a gmail.com email, address suggest they use Google Local to review your services.

Are You Protecting Your Good Reputation Online? If Not, Foster Web Marketing Can Help!

Are you doing everything you can to build on your already stellar reputation? Do you need to get more positive reviews and testimonials for your law firm or business but it seems too "hit and miss" for your liking? No worries, Foster Web Marketing can help with our Reputation Management service. Please contact us online or call our office directly at 888.866.0939to schedule your free consultation with our experienced marketing team. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach, but exceed your goals.

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