Avvo is an online listing website where lawyers can create profiles, get reviews from peers and clients, and showcase their skills and achievements.
It’s also a place where potential clients can go to search for attorneys and ask legal questions.
So it’s a no-brainer for solo and small firm attorneys to take advantage of the free listing option, and to make the most of it.
You may have already noticed that Avvo gives all attorneys a rating between 1 and 10. The rating is based on an internal algorithm drawing from the information in your profile – so getting to as close to completion as possible is the best way to increase your rating.
Note: You can only actually get to 95% completion when it comes to filling out your profile. The other 5% kicks in whenever you add your Avvo badges to your website.
1. Claim your profile and fill in as much information as you possibly can
To claim your profile for the first time, start here.
Fill in your name and state, then click “Find your profile.”
Find your name in that list, click on it, then click “Claim my profile.”
From there you can follow the steps to officially claim your page via your LinkedIn, Facebook, email or phone number.
Once your profile is claimed, it’s time to get started filling it out:
After you’re logged in, you’ll automatically land on your dashboard.
From your dashboard, you’ll be able to see your overall completeness score, and Avvo will coach you through getting additional points to arrive at 95%.
Some of the input categories include:
- Publications
- Awards
- Associations
- Education
- Cases
- Speaking Engagements
Basically: Avvo wants to know absolutely everything about your legal career, and there are A LOT of questions to fill in before you arrive at 95%.
You don’t have to do this all in one sitting.
In fact, keeping your profile active and updated influences how often you will be seen in search results.
So I recommend setting aside an hour or so per week (go ahead and put it on your calendar, so you don’t forget), to log into your Avvo profile, check your stats, answer some questions, and input the next prompted info to increase your profile completeness.
After a month of this weekly activity, you’ll see a lot more profile views, and potentially even new client leads.
2. Get at least 3 Reviews & 3 Peer Endorsements
Unlike LinkedIn, Avvo has two different types of reviews: Client Reviews and Peer Endorsements.
There’s even a section with pre-populated request language so that you can send multiple review requests at once:
Tip: If your goal is to get three reviews in each category, you should send requests to at least 12 people for each category to increase your odds.
If you want to make the request more personal, you can also modify the text before sending. Just be careful about what you add/remove, as the provided text is bar-approved.
Note: Client reviews do not impact/increase your overall Avvo rating, but they do add overall authority and could make a big difference in potential clients deciding to reach out to you.
Peer reviews DO increase your overall Avvo rating.
3. Answer questions
If you click the button for “Answer Questions” from your dashboard, you’ll arrive at the “Free Legal Advice” page. Answering questions won’t add to your overall star rating, but it does reflect well on your experience and acts as further confirmation of your expertise in that practice area.
Answering questions here boosts your contributor level, and can also generate new leads from potential clients.
How to be most effective when answering Avvo questions:
Focus on newer questions. Older questions have probably already been answered, either on or off Avvo, so answering those aren’t likely to gain new leads…HOWEVER – complementing or agreeing with responses posted by other attorneys could end up landing you a solid peer endorsement.
Stick to answering questions within your practice area. You can use the keyword search bar at the top to filter results that are relevant.
Avvo provides the disclaimer that attorneys answering questions do not qualify the interaction as entering into a client-attorney relationship. If you’re super paranoid you can still add your disclaimer, but it isn’t necessary.
Make sure you aren’t directly soliciting clients within your response and don’t include direct contact info as this could count as soliciting since they haven’t asked for it. But don’t worry: your response will be clickable to your profile, so if they want to contact you, they will be able to do so easily.
Because Avvo is one of the most in-depth profile-listing sites, it is very time consuming to set up initially.
Remember that you can always go back to add / update your information. The important thing is just to get started!
CHALLENGE: If you are really serious about leveraging this tool to grow your practice, I challenge you to block out 1 hour a day for a full week to work on your profile. Bookmark this post for reference/guidance.
After your week is up, share your profile link + any additional tips you learned in the setup process in the comments below!
Parting Thought…
Do you want your law practice to be exponentially more profitable using powerful, proven marketing strategies that go beyond tweaking your Avvo profile?
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