Latest / Sharp Strategies Sweet Success / Have You Updated Your Directories Yet?
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_01: Thanks to everyone who's joining this impromptu live.
- 0:05SPEAKER_01: Realistically, a lot of you are probably watching this later.
- 0:07SPEAKER_01: I wanted to set up this video to talk about an important topic,
- 0:13SPEAKER_01: or at least a topic that keeps coming up here lately, Which was...
- 0:17SPEAKER_01: is directories.
- 0:19SPEAKER_01: And there's a bit of confusion surrounding directories and what needs to be done and
- 0:26SPEAKER_01: who should do what.
- 0:27SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to make this video to provide some clarity for all
- 0:30SPEAKER_01: the law firms out there who are wanting to Do you rank better?
- 0:35SPEAKER_01: Better We're in Google.
- 0:36SPEAKER_01: Google and the organic results,
- 0:38SPEAKER_01: who want their name to show up more often in AI search,
- 0:41SPEAKER_01: and who just overall wants to have a better brand presence on the internet.
- 0:46SPEAKER_01: And so So anyone who.
- 0:48SPEAKER_01: Who's in any of those areas right now in marketing is telling you to update your directories.
- 0:55SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the much needed clarity on directories and what we're trying to do.
- 1:01SPEAKER_01: So But first, first,
- 1:03SPEAKER_01: having consistent directory listings has pretty much always been important for SEO.
- 1:10SPEAKER_01: Back in the day,
- 1:11SPEAKER_01: we used to talk a lot about name,
- 1:13SPEAKER_01: address,
- 1:14SPEAKER_01: and phone number,
- 1:15SPEAKER_01: and how your internet directory should have a consistency among those things,
- 1:19SPEAKER_01: name, address, phone number.
- 1:21SPEAKER_01: And the more consistent...
- 1:22SPEAKER_01: consistency you had on the internet regarding your law firm's contact information,
- 1:27SPEAKER_01: The better potential.
- 1:28SPEAKER_01: Potentially you were able to rank in a service like Google Maps.
- 1:34SPEAKER_01: Now, Well, part of the confusion.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: Confusion that's coming in today when we talk about directories This is law firm.
- 1:40SPEAKER_01: It's law firms.
- 1:41SPEAKER_01: Firms Customs aren't realizing they're - there are two primary kinds of directories.
- 1:45SPEAKER_01: The first type are these general internet directories, which Lists many different.
- 1:51SPEAKER_01: Different types of businesses.
- 1:53SPEAKER_01: Those are going to be your Yellow Book, your Better Business Bureau, Your math.
- 1:59SPEAKER_01: MapQuest, Apple Maps, Google Maps.
- 2:02SPEAKER_01: All of these are general internet directories.
- 2:06SPEAKER_01: Any business could be listed on there.
- 2:09SPEAKER_01: And it's important on these directories to have that consistent name, address, and phone number.
- 2:15SPEAKER_01: And I'll even expand upon that to say it's actually also important for you to have
- 2:19SPEAKER_01: an updated and accurate description,
- 2:21SPEAKER_01: list of practice areas, updated photos, business hours.
- 2:27SPEAKER_01: Essentially, you want to look at these It's a directory profile.
- 2:30SPEAKER_01: Profiles and say, is all this information up to date and accurate?
- 2:34SPEAKER_01: What are our main practice areas?
- 2:36SPEAKER_01: When are we saying we're open to take calls?
- 2:39SPEAKER_01: What are we saying in our description?
- 2:41SPEAKER_01: All of those things on your general internet directory profiles need to be accurate
- 2:46SPEAKER_01: and consistent.
- 2:48SPEAKER_01: And generally, I'm using Google Business as the key.
- 2:52SPEAKER_01: So Google Business is the It's the main
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: Main internet directory for We're all intense and perfect.
- 2:59SPEAKER_01: Purposes.
- 3:00SPEAKER_01: And all these other general internet directories need to match the name,
- 3:05SPEAKER_01: phone number, address, description that you're using on Google Business.
- 3:11SPEAKER_01: And creating this kind of consistency
- 3:13SPEAKER_01: among those general Internet directories This is going to help.
- 3:17SPEAKER_01: Help in the long term with your brand visibility on the Internet.
- 3:21SPEAKER_01: Now, So those are just.
- 3:23SPEAKER_01: General Internet directories.
- 3:25SPEAKER_01: Those are directories that,
- 3:27SPEAKER_01: by and large, it's easy for SEO companies to update without involving the law firm.
- 3:33SPEAKER_01: And in fact,
- 3:34SPEAKER_01: there are a lot of services that already hook
- 3:37SPEAKER_01: into these general internet directories and will update those listings on behalf
- 3:43SPEAKER_01: of your business.
- 3:44SPEAKER_01: Some of those are going to be like Yext.
- 3:46SPEAKER_01: I use Bright Local.
- 3:49SPEAKER_01: There are many others.
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: Those are the main two that I can think of at this moment.
- 3:53SPEAKER_01: And those tools will basically connect all of these directories and sync
- 3:59SPEAKER_01: the information so they're matching your main Google business listing
- 4:02SPEAKER_01: or Whatever business information you use to set up that account or profile.
- 4:08SPEAKER_01: That's actually a tricky one with Yext.
- 4:10SPEAKER_01: If you set up Yext and I can tell it to you.
- 4:13SPEAKER_01: To use a particular phone number for your business listing, then And you forget, you have us.
- 4:18SPEAKER_01: Subscription to Yext And you go on change.
- 4:21SPEAKER_01: Change the phone number associated with that listing.
- 4:23SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, you keep wondering why that phone number gets switched back to the old number.
- 4:28SPEAKER_01: It's because Yes, just sing.
- 4:30SPEAKER_01: Syncing information on that listing and they have an outdated phone number.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: So if you've ever had that problem, that's probably what's happening.
- 4:39SPEAKER_01: And SEO companies have They both made it a part
- 4:42SPEAKER_01: of their - their standard service package to Update the.
- 4:45SPEAKER_01: Those generalized directory listings on behalf of their clients.
- 4:50SPEAKER_01: Now, what a lot of us.
- 4:52SPEAKER_01: SEO companies don't say
- 4:54SPEAKER_01: when they start this process is there are some directories they can update.
- 4:59SPEAKER_01: Without any help from the law firm,
- 5:02SPEAKER_01: there are some that they do need help from the law firm to update.
- 5:07SPEAKER_01: Primarily because at some point,
- 5:09SPEAKER_01: somebody at your business created an Apple Maps,
- 5:13SPEAKER_01: Bing Places, Yellow Pages profile for your business and saved the login page.
- 5:20SPEAKER_01: And the SEO company needs that login to be able to log in and update those pages.
- 5:26SPEAKER_01: And so it becomes a task for your team or your internal team to find that login
- 5:32SPEAKER_01: or reset that password to send it to the SEO company.
- 5:35SPEAKER_01: A whole lot of work and it tends to be annoying.
- 5:37SPEAKER_01: Um, and And And there are some websites.
- 5:40SPEAKER_01: Website generalized internet directories that don't accept automated updates.
- 5:45SPEAKER_01: And so no matter if the SEO company has all of the information or none of it, But they still...
- 5:53SPEAKER_01: couldn't actually make an update to that listing unless they were to log
- 5:58SPEAKER_01: and manually update each field.
- 6:01SPEAKER_01: And by and large,
- 6:02SPEAKER_01: when these SEO companies are updating listings,
- 6:05SPEAKER_01: they're not directly editing each listing unless they absolutely had to
- 6:11SPEAKER_01: or they specifically told you they would.
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: Most of the time,
- 6:14SPEAKER_01: they're using a third-party tool like Yext,
- 6:17SPEAKER_01: like Bright Local, I mentioned before, to update on their behalf.
- 6:20SPEAKER_01: And so there's a lot of that falls through the cracks.
- 6:24SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the law firm is expected to pick up and update the directories that
- 6:29SPEAKER_01: the SEO company couldn't.
- 6:31SPEAKER_01: And sometimes,
- 6:33SPEAKER_01: more often than not,
- 6:34SPEAKER_01: the SEO company updates what they can,
- 6:37SPEAKER_01: and everyone moves on until
- 6:39SPEAKER_01: The law firm does another local directory citation report and finds
- 6:43SPEAKER_01: that their score is There's still not a hundred.
- 6:46SPEAKER_01: 100%.
- 6:46SPEAKER_01: Okay, so those were the general internet directories.
- 6:52SPEAKER_01: Um, Yeah.
- 6:53SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the legal directories,
- 6:58SPEAKER_01: which are their own separate category of internet directory.
- 7:03SPEAKER_01: So these legal directories include actually a long list, Justia, Martindale, Uh, Avvo.
- 7:11SPEAKER_01: Avvo, Super Lawyers.
- 7:13SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to think of the other.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: Others because there are so many.
- 7:16SPEAKER_01: And And they're just great lawyers.
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: Justgreatlawyers.com.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: There are a ton of these dedicated legal space directories is
- 7:25SPEAKER_01: that their whole whole job is listing lawyers And or listeners.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: Listing law firms.
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: And some of these directories, you could even purchase leads through them.
- 7:37SPEAKER_01: Because believe it or not, these Legal Director.
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: Directories often rank better for high -end intent keyword searches than small law firms.
- 7:48SPEAKER_01: So if you were just to do an And incognito.
- 7:50SPEAKER_01: Incognito Browser server.
- 7:52SPEAKER_01: Search for best personal injury attorneys near me,
- 7:56SPEAKER_01: the results aren't going to be exactly the same person to person,
- 7:59SPEAKER_01: but most likely you're going to see something like Yelp.
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: I almost said yes.
- 8:04SPEAKER_01: Something like Yelp.
- 8:05SPEAKER_01: Something like Justia, where they're listing, They have a list.
- 8:09SPEAKER_01: Listicle of attorneys,
- 8:10SPEAKER_01: top 10 personal injury attorneys near Warrington, Virginia, or something similar.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: And there they're going to rank better for those high intent search terms than
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: the actual law firms.
- 8:24SPEAKER_01: And if you were to look in a tool Like, AHA.
- 8:27SPEAKER_01: Ahrefs or SCMRush, And check the domain rating for those legal directories.
- 8:33SPEAKER_01: What you'll find is those Legal Directory.
- 8:36SPEAKER_01: Directories have a very high domain rating.
- 8:39SPEAKER_01: And that's because by and large,
- 8:41SPEAKER_01: Google sees these And I think that's one of the things as trustworthy.
- 8:43SPEAKER_01: Trustworthy Authorities.
- 8:45SPEAKER_01: Authoritative websites on the internet that talk about legal and law.
- 8:51SPEAKER_01: And so they outrank the law firms themselves.
- 8:54SPEAKER_01: Um...
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: And...
- 8:56SPEAKER_01: And ChatGBT.
- 8:57SPEAKER_01: ChatGPT, Gemini per play.
- 8:59SPEAKER_01: Perplexity, and the rest all We'll lean on these.
- 9:02SPEAKER_01: These legal directories for reviews, for Educational and.
- 9:07SPEAKER_01: Information about the attorney, their Um, uh...
- 9:12SPEAKER_01: work history, Basically, what we're doing.
- 9:15SPEAKER_01: What practice areas they practice,
- 9:16SPEAKER_01: all of the information you might list on these legal directories and ChatGPT and all
- 9:22SPEAKER_01: the other AI LLM tools, they go to the directories first.
- 9:27SPEAKER_01: And by and large, they consider these directories More authority.
- 9:32SPEAKER_01: Authoritative sources of information about attorneys than your own website, let's first say.
- 9:39SPEAKER_01: And it's unfortunate, but it's true.
- 9:41SPEAKER_01: And I actually really understand why Justia That is going to to be more honest
- 9:47SPEAKER_01: and accurate And I think it's a little bit about
- 9:49SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 9:50SPEAKER_01: a particular law firm is going to have better information than what
- 9:53SPEAKER_01: the law firm says about themselves on their own website.
- 9:57SPEAKER_01: We've known for a long time that Google actually ranks more than your website.
- 10:01SPEAKER_01: It ranks your brand and so Google looks at your website and says,
- 10:07SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 10:07SPEAKER_01: this is good,
- 10:08SPEAKER_01: this is good information, but it's all information provided by the business.
- 10:13SPEAKER_01: And very much like a social media profile, it's information framed And in the best.
- 10:19SPEAKER_01: Best possible light to make the law firm look as good as possible.
- 10:21SPEAKER_01: That's what us marketers do.
- 10:24SPEAKER_01: And so, So, you know, the way website is marketing.
- 10:27SPEAKER_01: But Google and the other LLMs and the AI tools,
- 10:32SPEAKER_01: they have the legal directories,
- 10:34SPEAKER_01: which act as kind of a fact check for the information that our website provides.
- 10:39SPEAKER_01: And one of the It hacks and it was was an early hack with these AI tools, is recognized.
- 10:45SPEAKER_01: Recognizing that these AI tools leaned on these directories
- 10:48SPEAKER_01: and sites like Super Lawyers and Justia.
- 10:51SPEAKER_01: And then And SEO companies.
- 10:53SPEAKER_01: Companies figured out that, hey, if we tell our law firm clients to Update directory.
- 10:59SPEAKER_01: Directories and claim as many of their directory listings as they can,
- 11:04SPEAKER_01: and like what we were doing with the local Legal Directories.
- 11:08SPEAKER_01: Directories, the Yellow Books, the Google Business, the non -industrial.
- 11:13SPEAKER_01: Non-industry specific directories,
- 11:15SPEAKER_01: We'll have the law firms update their legal directory profiles and make that a part
- 11:21SPEAKER_01: of what we're doing to build citations.
- 11:24SPEAKER_01: And then the more citations naturally,
- 11:27SPEAKER_01: the more likely we're going to be referenced in AI Search.
- 11:31SPEAKER_01: But the reason I wanted to make this video and
- 11:37SPEAKER_01: the reason this gets confusing is We already talked
- 11:40SPEAKER_01: about how SEO companies might update the generalized legal directories.
- 11:44SPEAKER_01: A lot of times they're doing it from a distance using third-party tools.
- 11:48SPEAKER_01: Legal directories don't yet have a similar tool that will log in on your behalf
- 11:55SPEAKER_01: and update information on that listing based on the information you provided.
- 12:00SPEAKER_01: There's no Yext for legal directories, not yet.
- 12:03SPEAKER_01: Maybe I should make it.
- 12:04SPEAKER_01: That would be cool, actually.
- 12:05SPEAKER_01: Um, so.
- 12:07SPEAKER_01: So unlike the generalized directories, Because somebody has.
- 12:11SPEAKER_01: Has to manually log in to the legal directories and update the information provided there.
- 12:19SPEAKER_01: And it really does have to be a human being.
- 12:22SPEAKER_01: I don't believe these legal directory websites allow autonomous agents to log in
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: and make edits and changes.
- 12:29SPEAKER_01: Some might, but I don't believe that's common right now.
- 12:32SPEAKER_01: And so it it You can't necessarily necessarily be,
- 12:36SPEAKER_01: I guess it could be, but it's usually not the SEO company making these updates.
- 12:41SPEAKER_01: And the big reason for that is because the legal directories usually require
- 12:46SPEAKER_01: a law firm email to set up a profile.
- 12:51SPEAKER_01: And usually at some point, it was the lawyer themselves who set up their profile.
- 12:57SPEAKER_01: And so at that time, they created a username and login, saved it, lost it.
- 13:03SPEAKER_01: Forgot about it.
- 13:04SPEAKER_01: And now we have to recover that to come back in to update their legal directory listing.
- 13:10SPEAKER_01: And again, there's no third party tools that's going to do this on our behalf.
- 13:14SPEAKER_01: There's only,
- 13:16SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 13:17SPEAKER_01: our record of saved logins or the recover password process that's going to get us
- 13:24SPEAKER_01: into These directories.
- 13:25SPEAKER_01: Directory tools.
- 13:27SPEAKER_01: And sites like Super Lawyers and Avvo and Martindale, they fall under internet brands.
- 13:37SPEAKER_01: And so there's actually one unified portal you can log into to update Many directories.
- 13:43SPEAKER_01: Directory listings at once, but it's a part of the premium subscription And with that.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: particular, the.
- 13:51SPEAKER_01: Those particular companies.
- 13:53SPEAKER_01: Now, So like the general internet directories, Your legal director.
- 13:58SPEAKER_01: Directories need to have of matching business.
- 14:01SPEAKER_01: Business name, address, and phone number and business description.
- 14:06SPEAKER_01: But unlike the general internet directories,
- 14:09SPEAKER_01: which are purely listing businesses,
- 14:11SPEAKER_01: the legal directories are actually usually listing specific attorneys.
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: And so if you're at a law firm that has multiple attorneys,
- 14:20SPEAKER_01: it behooves you from an SEO perspective To make sure all of those attorneys have Um,
- 14:26SPEAKER_01: um, updated.
- 14:27SPEAKER_01: Updated directory lists.
- 14:29SPEAKER_01: Listings where their current workplace is updated
- 14:34SPEAKER_01: with accurate information matching them to our law firm.
- 14:38SPEAKER_01: And as anyone who.
- 14:39SPEAKER_01: Who's Just had to...
- 14:41SPEAKER_01: to work with a With Affirm,
- 14:43SPEAKER_01: with a a bunch of attorneys,
- 14:44SPEAKER_01: some of them who care very little about the marketing side, that can be hard to do.
- 14:50SPEAKER_01: But it's a very good quick win you can get for a firm from an SEO or AGO,
- 14:57SPEAKER_01: GEO perspective if you can And then access each of
- 15:01SPEAKER_01: the - these individual directories And update the
- 15:05SPEAKER_01: The listing so we have that name, address, phone number, description, consistency.
- 15:10SPEAKER_01: Um, and And this is really hard to do because there are a lot of legal directories
- 15:17SPEAKER_01: and there seem to be a growing number Added each day.
- 15:20SPEAKER_01: I I learned about new leaders.
- 15:22SPEAKER_01: Legal directories all the time.
- 15:24SPEAKER_01: It always makes me sad because I feel at this point in my career,
- 15:26SPEAKER_01: I should know all of them by heart.
- 15:28SPEAKER_01: But there's so many that get created and some of them become successful websites
- 15:34SPEAKER_01: that surprise you in a few years when you're like, oh, that's still around.
- 15:37SPEAKER_01: And some, you know, quietly die off.
- 15:40SPEAKER_01: But even for those that quietly die off
- 15:42SPEAKER_01: that their legal directories you've never heard of,
- 15:46SPEAKER_01: they actually still have value because they're Again,
- 15:49SPEAKER_01: Google isn't just ranking our website.
- 15:51SPEAKER_01: ChatGPT isn't just ranking our website.
- 15:53SPEAKER_01: That's not the only thing these tools are judging when they're evaluating whether
- 16:00SPEAKER_01: or not they're going to recommend our business.
- 16:02SPEAKER_01: These tools are judging our brand and what is said about us on the internet.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: So even an old legal directory.
- 16:14SPEAKER_01: That Nobody uses the web.
- 16:16SPEAKER_01: Website anymore, but it still exists.
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: It has a somewhat high domain authority and it still points back to our website.
- 16:23SPEAKER_01: Having enough of those adds value to your SEO, to your AGO.
- 16:29SPEAKER_01: But But going back to why I want.
- 16:31SPEAKER_01: Wanted to make this video, So the legal director.
- 16:34SPEAKER_01: Directories aren't something easily outsourced to the SEO companies because Because
- 16:39SPEAKER_01: the SEO company.
- 16:41SPEAKER_01: Companies to update these, there's no third party tool that can do it on their behalf.
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: Each profile has to be logged into and manually updated.
- 16:52SPEAKER_01: Some of them require two factor authentication.
- 16:55SPEAKER_01: Some of them require a law firm email address that matches your domain to be able
- 17:00SPEAKER_01: to create a profile.
- 17:01SPEAKER_01: So it's not something.
- 17:02SPEAKER_01: Something that your SEO company can easily absorb without Having a to request
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: a bunch of information from you,
- 17:10SPEAKER_01: which kind of negates delegating it to the SEO company in the first place.
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: So this is one of those like very specific and special instances
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: where I tell law firms,
- 17:21SPEAKER_01: this is one of the reasons you need a marketing assistant or somebody in house
- 17:26SPEAKER_01: who can network And network and interface.
- 17:28SPEAKER_01: Interface directly with your teams.
- 17:31SPEAKER_01: Follow up about logins needed, headshots needed, descriptions needed, And get those.
- 17:37SPEAKER_01: Those two-factor authentication codes by text or by email and make those needed updates.
- 17:43SPEAKER_01: And it's a boring project.
- 17:45SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to lie to you.
- 17:47SPEAKER_01: Updating internet directories is not the kind of work I dreamed about when I wanted
- 17:51SPEAKER_01: to go into marketing, but it is It's still important.
- 17:55SPEAKER_01: Important work.
- 17:56SPEAKER_01: It's still important to do.
- 17:57SPEAKER_01: It's still necessary to do.
- 17:59SPEAKER_01: And when you think about it,
- 18:01SPEAKER_01: It's exactly what we're trained to do as marketers,
- 18:03SPEAKER_01: which is making sure everything is on brand.
- 18:06SPEAKER_01: Except in this case,
- 18:08SPEAKER_01: we're specifically making sure the brand information on all of these many dozens
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: of websites It matches the...
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: brand information that we're putting out there on the internet,
- 18:19SPEAKER_01: that we're using on Google Business, that we want people to know us for.
- 18:27SPEAKER_01: So I'm debating whether or not to lengthen this video to talk about the paid portion
- 18:33SPEAKER_01: of this because some of these directories You know, we'll say, hey.
- 18:38SPEAKER_01: Hey, pay us a little bit each month to be a platinum member or a premium member.
- 18:45SPEAKER_01: And some...
- 18:46SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the - those contracts are worth it, sometimes they're not.
- 18:50SPEAKER_01: And it wholly depends on the detail within the contract.
- 18:53SPEAKER_01: I can tell you currently...
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: I don't believe lead generation through any of these platforms is valuable.
- 19:00SPEAKER_01: Um, The leads that come through the So the Fine Laws,
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: laws, the no laws of the world, They're not as good as they are.
- 19:07SPEAKER_01: As the leads you could get direct, potentially.
- 19:09SPEAKER_01: Um, But,
- 19:12SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 19:13SPEAKER_01: is it worth it to pay them a few hundred bucks a month to be
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: the first law firm listed in your county anytime somebody searches
- 19:22SPEAKER_01: for personal injury attorney?
- 19:23SPEAKER_01: I believe yes.
- 19:26SPEAKER_01: Thank you guys so much for joining with me on this unscheduled sudden live call.
- 19:31SPEAKER_01: I just felt like this would be a good thing to discuss because the directories,
- 19:35SPEAKER_01: they come up a lot.
- 19:36SPEAKER_01: They come up a lot when we're talking about marketing and it's kind of new for some people.
- 19:40SPEAKER_01: Um, Thanks again.
- 19:43SPEAKER_01: We'll talk to everyone soon.