Why are client reviews important?

Before an individual chooses a law firm, they will often look at reviews posted online by past clients. These reviews will impact the prospective client’s view of your firm – regardless if it is a positive or negative review.

What do People Look for in Reviews?

There are countless law firms to choose from. With this being said, clients look for help to understand which option is best for them and which law firm to trust. With so many choices now available at our fingertips, reviews can help people narrow their search. Research from Bright Local states that 91% of people regularly or occasionally read online reviews, and 84% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. According to the website RevLocal, there are a couple reasons why people seem to be attracted to online reviews to make decisions. First, they are looking for business transparency. Legal help is often sought out to relieve a stressful situation, and they want to make sure the law firm is there to truly help them. They also want to ensure that this firm is honest and treats their clients with respect. Another reason people look to online reviews is that they rely on opinions of others to influence them. If a potential client sees a review that states they hated their experience, they will be hesitant to use that service. Inversely, a strong set of reviews will encourage them to use your services.

Potential clients see reviews as a small conversation. They want to know if the law firm helped, if it is reliable and if it is transparent. Clients are looking for a business to trust with vital information that can largely impact their lives. Ultimately, people trust their peers to tell them if a law firm is one they can feel confident choosing.

Why are Online Reviews Important?

Positive or even neutral reviews paint a firm as trustworthy. An agency can gain and build significant trust from a steady stream of reviews. If potential clients see that a law firm has a large amount of reviews, they can gain a better understanding of the firm. In turn, this will create a small relationship. However, if someone sees a law firm with exclusively bad reviews, they will naturally deviate from them. Reviews are also relevant to digital marketing because they expand the conversation about the law firm and increase Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When customers have good things to say about a law firm, they are more likely to share their reviews on sites like Yelp and Google. Unfortunately, the inverse of this is also true. Therefore, it’s important to gather a large quantity of good reviews to counteract the bad. The more a client positively shares about a law firm on the internet, the better. This will positively impact the specific algorithm Google uses when people search for reviews about certain topics, like law firms or attorneys near me. Google heavily relies on SEO factors for their advertising algorithms.

SEO can get complicated, but it stems from basic principles. Search engines want to provide the best service for their users. This means delivering results on the search engine pages that are not only high quality, but also relevant to what the searcher is looking for. In order to do this, search engines will scan different websites to better understand what the site is about. This helps them deliver more relevant results to those who are searching for certain topics or keywords. When someone uses a search engine data base, the search engines will look at the keywords used by the person searching and go on a hunt for them. After matching keywords, the search engine will consider reviews and geographical information. Relevant keywords and positive reviews will translate to a higher rank in the search engine. When a law firm has a higher calculated rank, it will be one of the first links that the search engine will show. In turn, this will create more traffic for the law firm’s website.

Reviews are a vital tool that search engines use to create a ranking. As your ranking increases based on keywords and reviews, your law firm may become a top result. As more potential clients see positive reviews, resulting in them using your services and writing their own reviews, your firm will steadily see its SEO ranking rise. This chain reaction created by reviews will make your firm more recognizable and trustworthy.