With the “real estate” for search results getting tighter and tighter for the legal industry, who is maintaining the most coveted positions? AdWords has made its way to the top 4 spots in the past couple years, Maps is down from the “3-pack” from as much as the “7-pack,” and there’s as much content and as many websites as ever. One question lawyers tend to ask themselves is “Do I go out and do it myself?” or do you rely on the visibility already created by many other massively established and authoritative websites, most likely directories? We’ve compiled data on this subject matter, taking a sample from the most common practice areas in some of the most competitive markets to get a feel for who is making their stand and what to make of it.
We coupled the following cities:
- Houston
- Philadelphia
- Fort Lauderdale
- Phoenix
- Portland
- Seattle
- Kansas City
- Tampa
- Nashville
- Savannah
With these practice areas:
- Criminal Defense
- Personal Injury
- Car Accident
- Divorce
- Bankruptcy
- Family
Here are positions 1-10 on the first page of Google based off an incognito search. As you can see, several lawyer websites and directories appear organically. In fact, in this sample, 57.5% of all 600 potential positions were non-directory. So, most results are law firm websites, but not by a huge margin. The most important spots, which are arguably the top three spots of any given result, are only comprised of law firm websites (34.44%.) That means directories are starting to get some of these spots on lockdown.
| Site Per Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Justia | 21.67% | 13.33% | 16.67% | 15.00% | 3.33% |
| Findlaw | 15.00% | 8.33% | 16.67% | 10.00% | 16.67% |
| Avvo | 25.00% | 11.67% | 11.67% | 5.00% | 11.67% |
| Lawyer Website | 26.67% | 45.00% | 31.67% | 58.33% | 58.33% |
| Thumbtack | 0.00% | 8.33% | 10.00% | 6.67% | 5.00% |
| Yellowpages | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Expertise | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Superlawyers | 10.00% | 6.67% | 11.67% | 3.33% | 1.67% |
| Attorneys.com | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1.67% |
| Yelp | 1.67% | 5.00% | 1.67% | 1.67% | 1.67% |
| Lawyers.com | 0.00% | 1.67% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
From this perspective, you can see that the main legal directories these days (Justia, FindLaw, Avvo) are starting to monopolize the top 3 spots for thousands of results.
| Site Per Position | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Justia | 0.00% | 5.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Findlaw | 13.33% | 10.00% | 6.67% | 1.67% | 1.67% |
| Avvo | 5.00% | 3.33% | 6.67% | 0.00% | 3.33% |
| Lawyer Website | 61.67% | 65.00% | 70.00% | 75.00% | 83.33% |
| Thumbtack | 8.33% | 10.00% | 6.67% | 6.67% | 6.67% |
| Yellowpages | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1.67% | 0.00% |
| Expertise | 0.00% | 1.67% | 5.00% | 5.00% | 1.67% |
| Superlawyers | 8.33% | 1.67% | 3.33% | 6.67% | 0.00% |
| Attorneys.com | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Yelp | 3.33% | 3.33% | 1.67% | 1.67% | 1.67% |
| Lawyers.com | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1.67% | 1.67% |
As we move along to the end, we see some lesser directories pick up a share, but legal websites basically completely take over the rest of the page and beyond.
| Site Per Overall | |
| Justia | 7.50% |
| Findlaw | 10.00% |
| Avvo | 8.33% |
| Lawyer Website | 57.50% |
| Thumbtack | 6.83% |
| Yellowpages | 0.17% |
| Expertise | 1.33% |
| Superlawyers | 5.33% |
| Attorneys.com | 0.17% |
| Yelp | 2.33% |
| Lawyers.com | 0.50% |
So, what can we learn from this? What directories are viable options for more exposure? Can organic long-term with websites still compete with huge directories? Perhaps it is a little of both.
Breaking It Down by Practice Area
It is also important to observe what practice areas work for your area – since the ROI for lawyers and car accidents is so great, lawyers tend to spend extreme amounts of money on SEO and consultants to make their websites powerhouses. The table below compares directory presence based on the most common practice areas.
| Site Per Practice Area | Criminal Defense | Personal Injury | Car Accident | Divorce | Bankruptcy | Family |
| Justia | 9% | 5% | 0% | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Findlaw | 11% | 10% | 10% | 9% | 7% | 12% |
| Avvo | 10% | 6% | 4% | 9% | 9% | 9% |
| Lawyer Website | 58% | 63% | 75% | 47% | 57% | 47% |
| Thumbtack | 3% | 5% | 3% | 12% | 12% | 7% |
| Yellowpages | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| Expertise | 1% | 0% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| Superlawyers | 8% | 8% | 2% | 7% | 2% | 9% |
| Attorneys.com | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| Yelp | 0% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% |
| Lawyers.com | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% |
Above, we can see that just because Justia has a good overall percentage, doesn’t always mean it’s good for a specific practice area. Using an attorney that handles bankruptcy and personal injury as an example, Justia might be a good option for bankruptcy, but not personal injury. Or, in the instance of perhaps Divorce/Family, going the route with a stronger directory presence may be a viable supplement.
Sorry Yelp, you just aren’t going to compete on the legal scale…but devout Yelpers will frequently go straight to Yelp to find their most important services.