With so many good marketing folks to follow on social media, who should you choose? I previously featured two of my favorites here.  Another great contender is Edmund Yan of Yan Media.

I like Edmund because his posts are concrete: he gives you specific content you can act on now. For example, Free Legal Directories Every Law Firm Should Exploit for SEO.

Boost Your Website Ranking

In this post, which is an update of an earlier piece, Edmund talks about how you can boost your website ranking on Google by creating free profiles on legal directories. You may have heard this before, and true enough some of the directories will be ones you already know like Avvo or Findlaw.  But others were new to me.

As Edmund points out, Google’s ranking system is all about popularity.  Add your link to a popular site and ta-da!  You’re popular in Google’s eyes too.  Or at least more popular.

The more popular you are, the more credible you’ll appear in the eyes of Google and the higher you’ll rank on organic search result pages. It’s that simple.

Read the full post on using free legal directories for SEO here.  At the end are six suggestions for must-include content in your directory profiles.

Why You Should Claim Your Directory Profile Even if You Don’t Care About SEO

Even if you don’t need an SEO boost from online legal directories, you should still claim your profile.  Notice I said “claim.”

Whether you set up a profile or not, I can just about guarantee that Avvo has a listing for you.  The same is true for other popular online legal directories.

• If you want to control what is being said about you, claim your profile.
• If you want to remove inaccurate information or scurrilous reviews, claim your profile.

This worked for at least one Oregon lawyer who Googled herself and was shocked to discover a bad Avvo review.  She was shocked because she’d never set up an Avvo account.  By claiming her profile she was able to get the information removed.

Thankfully this experience isn’t a recurring one.  Nonetheless, this is one lesson that many lawyers have yet to learn: you need to control (and know) what is being said about you on the Internet.  You may have Google reviews, Yelp reviews, Facebook reviews, or other reviews you don’t know about.

Set Up Alerts When Your Name is Mentioned

A good place to start is by setting up Google Alerts for your name and your business name.  This allows you to receive an email anytime you or your business is mentioned on the Web.

You may also want to try some of the alternatives to Google.  In recent years users have complained that Google Alerts wasn’t working as well for them.  Some prefer Yahoo! Either way do something to learn what is being said so you can take better charge of your online presence.

All Rights Reserved Beverly Michaelis 2017