An attorney’s reputation is everything. But while many law firms have a great reputation among their clients and legal peers, it doesn’t always translate to their online presence.
If you want to attract more clients to your estate planning law firm, monitoring and managing your online reputation is essential. Let’s explore what online reputation management means and how your law firm can improve its credibility online.
What Is Online Reputation Management?
Online reputation management (ORM) involves monitoring everything that’s being said about your estate planning law firm online, and then responding appropriately to the feedback.
Encouraging and responding to Google reviews of your law firm is a significant part of online reputation management. But ORM also includes monitoring your mentions in social media posts and comments, as well as any references to your law firm in the news.
Why Estate Planning Law Firms Need Online Reputation Management
A strong online presence can help you attract and retain more clients. But without practicing online reputation management, it’s easy for negative feedback to spread and affect your business.
Even one dissatisfied client who posts their complaints on social media platforms and review sites can do a lot of damage. But responding to their issues in a timely, professional manner can help prevent that from happening.
Cultivating a positive online reputation also goes hand in hand with maintaining good SEO. Because search engines want to promote websites that are trustworthy and useful, optimizing your content can improve your rankings and your online reputation.
If you have a lot of positive reviews and a strong online presence overall, search engines will be more likely to give your website a high ranking. And because most web users typically click on one of the first three search results, boosting your search engine rankings can help you attract more clients.
Four Online Reputation Management Tips for Estate Planning Lawyers
1: Claim Your Listing on Review Sites
There’s a whole host of websites where clients can review your law firm. You don’t have to check them all, but you should be monitoring the most popular ones. The easiest way to monitor and respond to reviews on these sites is by setting up a profile and claiming your listing.
The top sites where you should claim your business listing are:
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- Bing Places for Business
- Yellowpages
2: Write Attorney Biographies
Showcasing the backgrounds of your law firm’s attorneys is another great way to build a positive reputation. Sharing detailed profiles that feature the prestigious universities, degrees, awards, and professional experience of your team will build credibility.
Photos also go a long way toward building trust online. High resolution, professional portraits of each attorney will make your firm seem genuine and more approachable.
3: Respond to Negative Feedback Promptly
If someone leaves a negative review or comment with legitimate complaints, it’s important to respond quickly and politely. Acknowledging their concerns and providing a convenient way to resolve them, such as by phone or email, can help save the relationship.
In the best-case scenario, the dissatisfied client will either withdraw their negative review or change it into a positive one. But even if the negative feedback stays up, your response shows potential clients that you care about their satisfaction.
4: Encourage More Positive Reviews
It’s a fact that happy clients are less likely to voice their opinions than unhappy ones. Having more negative reviews than positive ones can easily sway potential clients, even if those reviews don’t accurately reflect your current client relationships.
It’s important to encourage your satisfied clients to leave positive reviews of your law firm, and then acknowledge those reviews with a prompt response. All you need to do is ask—according to a survey, 34% of people would leave a review if asked by email, 33% if asked in person, and 31% if asked through social media.
It’s also a good idea to share these testimonials on your website and social media pages. Potential clients will be able to see that you have a positive reputation, even if they aren’t actively searching for reviews.
We’re Here to Help
Continuously building and maintaining a positive reputation online is no easy task. The team at New Wine Digital can help by building you a professional, user-friendly website, writing authoritative content, managing your social media posts, or improving your search rankings.
Give us a call at 480-516-1819 to find out how we can help you manage your online reputation with SEO, content marketing, web design, and more.
Images used under creative commons license – commercial use (5/4/2023). Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels