8 Ways to Improve Your Avvo Rating – Attorney Marketing

This is an opportunity to generate awareness among users. The fact that users have a space to review your firm or services opens up a conversation with past and potential clients. You now have a chance to know what’s being said about your firm. A few negative reviews aren’t going to weigh in, but if there is an ongoing complaint, whether you want to address it or not, you’re going to have to address it.

The Avvo’s Ask a Question feature will provide users with information focused on their needs. This brings an educated potential client to your door. This same feature will also allow you to address questions yourself and gain credibility with an audience that is receptive to your expertise. This allows you to provide enough information where you are helpful and kind enough to provide the information for free.

Furthermore, the ability to ask questions, read reviews, and get a better understanding of what to expect can help make the user experience more purposeful and pleasant altogether.

Finally, now that we’ve established why Avvo is a useful tool for your career advancement, it’s important to mention why you should care about the rating provided to attorneys on the platform. The rating is generated by algorithms, so your Avvo rating will depend on various factors: the information that is available on the internet and public sources, and the information that you provide.

That said, it’s imperative that you contribute.

How To Optimize Your Avvo Profile

Avvo’s dominance of organic search continues to prove that users will be finding your profile whether you are investing time into it or not. With this increased visibility, the most rational next step is to invest in your profile and take advantage of the opportunity to guide this conversation.

Filling out the sections will not only increase your rating, but it can also strengthen the conviction by which someone reaches out to you.

Here is what a top-rated profile look like on Avvo. Let’s use this profile as an example of what your profile should look like.

Professional Headshot & Info

Upload a professional headshot or picture of yourself as well as your office space. These formalities and snippets into your work will tell a story to users.

• Social Proof in the form of reviews and Avvo ratings
• Clear and concise information
• Years in practice
• Multiple ways to reach out

Profile Information

A great deal of the information that you will provide will be a series of basic terms and phrases that help the user decide if you are the right person to assist them with their issue. This is what the basic text that is featured on your profile should be informative and clear.

Practice Areas & Experience

Inform users of your speciality, that way when a user sets a practice area filter, your name comes up. If you have more than one speciality, make sure to add them to your profile.

Fill in criteria by adding awards, legal associations, publications, work experience, and other elements. Make sure to update your profile as it shows your attention to detail and contributes to painting an honest picture of your standing as an attorney.

Including transactional information can allow the user to assess the situation prior to contacting you. Mentioning endorsements can be weighed on how you work with others and providing payment options or plans can allow inform users of how they can approach your services.

Filling out information on your cases is important because it will be where your work will speak for itself. You can sell yourself up until it’s time to talk business and this is when your experience will set you apart.

Contact Information

Make sure to include all of the contact information so that users can reach your website. Linking your Avvo profile to your page will drive traffic and conversions. Finally, though not influential to your rating, make sure to request a review of your work on your Avvo profile to continue to provide relatability and confidence to users who have arrived on your page.

Just as in other platforms, quality content is a basic requirement for a great profile. Therefore, to achieve one will require to focus on improving scope of the information that you are providing. All of these will raise credibility with users and contribute to your Avvo rating.

Avvo Rating

Your Avvo rating is automatically generated by advanced algorithms. Your rating is scored on a scale of 1 (Extreme Caution) to 10 (Superb). According to Avvo, this rating depends on multiple factors.

…calculate the rating based on public data we’ve collected on each attorney and the information they have provided in their profile. Information not supplied by the attorney comes from a variety of sources, including public records (state bar associations, regulatory agencies, and court records) and published sources on the internet (including attorneys’ websites).

Like Google’s ever-changing algorithms, Avvo does not openly share how ratings are calculated. However, a number of attorneys came together and pooled data to figure out how the algorithm works.

Building Out Your Avvo Profile

If you’re excited about how Avvo could improve the way you acquire clients and your business all together, I’ve included the step by step on getting started. Below are 7 steps to take to get started:

1. Claim Your Profile

First, claim your profile! Remember that your attorney information has been pulled so you’ll want to visit the Avvo website and click on “Find Lawyers.” Search for your name and click on “Is this you? Claim and update your profile for free.” Of course, there will be a verification process which will lead you to create an account. Here’s a quick guide on claiming your profile.

2. Make Corrections

Once you are logged in, it is likely your profile may have inaccurate or incorrect information. This is where the fun begins!

• Check for inaccurate information.
• Fill out any credentials that are incomplete.
• Correct anything that seems vague or outdated.
• Add dates to everything to provide transparency.
• Add licenses to strengthen your expertise.
• Add awards, involvement within your community and anything that can show you are committed to your work and helping others.

3. Fill Out Your Experiences

As mentioned above, bulk up your profile; add headshots, a video introducing yourself, answering FAQs, and other content that can make you more reliable to your audience.

4. Add Links

If you have used your voice to inform others of legal matters, be sure to include these events or links to your profile.

5. Connect With Members

Like many platform forums, Avvo allows users to ask questions. Participating in answering these questions can help boost your profile as Avvo awards contributors with points. You can earn points by:

• Connecting with the Avvo community
• Helping Avvo maintain quality forums and information
• Educating others through Avvo

You can get a serious profile boost if you invest the time to answer questions asked regularly on the site.

The site features a whopping 9.8 million searchable questions and answers and has 20 different contributor levels based on how many points you’ve accumulated.

Another way you can contribute quality content to the site is to create legal guides that provide your expertise to users on any given matter. Aside from the fact that it is helpful and gains authority in the space, this act of service improves your Avvo rating. If your guide is chosen as a Staff Pick, it can be featured on different pages. This will influence your rankings on Avvo and search engines. The Avvo Contributor page has more information on this subject.

6. Request Testimonials & Endorsements

What others have to say about your services is important. Soliciting reviews and endorsements helps your ranking and has the ability to validate those claims you’ve made on your profile. In order to see a difference in ranking, you’ll want to acquire up to 14 endorsements. This should include contributions from opposing counsels and judges.

Though client reviews don’t contribute to your ranking, it will weigh in with users. The Avvo platform requires attorneys to manually request reviews and will not make changes once they are up.

7. Add Licenses

While claiming your profile, be sure to add your past and current licenses so that Avvo can verify you are who you say you are.

8. Add Cases To Your Portfolio

Adding the details of your most impressive case work is one of the best things you can do to help people understand your expertise. It’s also necessary to continue increasing your Avvo rating.

A final note on adding cases to your portfolio will be to remember to showcase positive outcomes on your most remarkable cases.

Conclusion

Highly rated Avvo profiles all have one thing in common: they are frequently updated. Avvo wants to see whether you are active in the community or not, and accordingly reward you based on your efforts.

With over 97% of US lawyers listed on Avvo, it’s a no-brainer that Avvo can be a key component in marketing your legal practice online.

So, claim your profile and get to optimizing.