Local Citation Sites for Lawyers: 130 Great Options
Depending on what type of clients you serve, it may be a struggle at times to attract new clients to your law practice. Thankfully, you no longer have to rely solely on word-of-mouth to get the job done. Now, you have citation websites on your side.Â
In this article, we’ll cover our top 130 recommended citation sites for lawyers, attorneys, and law firms. We’ll also give you information to help you compare your options—such as domain ratings, approximate traffic, and backlink count.
What is an online citation?
An online citation is a web reference to a business, typically found on online directories. These references include important information about the company—including addresses, phone numbers, business websites, relevant photos, and videos. All of these key data points make it easier for potential clients to find your practice—and make the information more accessible to searchers in general. In this aspect, citations can play a primary role in improving your local SEO; this can benefit your business in a variety of ways.
What are the benefits of business directories for lawyers?
In addition to the general benefits listed in the section above, featuring your law firm or practice in a trusted directory can benefit law industry practitioners in three specific ways:
1. Improving your firm’s visibility.Â
Many clients will spend more time choosing a lawyer or attorney than they will on many other big decisions. This is because people often feel that an attorney or lawyer’s expertise, trustworthiness, experience, and know-how have a direct effect on their own success. Due to this fact, they are often more likely to choose a firm that is more visible online, since it implies experience or popularity with existing clients.Â
2. Enhancing your online search ranking.
Citations are a great way to boost your business’ online presence by improving local SEO. If potential clients are more likely to find you, they are more likely to hire you; it’s just that simple. That’s where SEO comes in to help your business show up on relevant search results.Â
3. Increasing your referral rate.
Often, other reputable law firms will search online directories for other similar businesses to refer clients. This helps them maintain their client relationships, even when they need to turn clients away due to a heavy caseload. By making your business more visible on trustworthy directories, you will be more likely to receive referrals from other firms.
Why should lawyers use a business directory?
Citations that follow certain criteria (as detailed in the following sections) can increase the change of your business being discovered online—usually more frequently and more often. They may even increase your practice’s visibility in comparison to your competitors. In fact, the more often your business is discovered via local directories, the more likely your practice will be featured as a “Popular” option on search engines.Â
So, why does this matter? Well, achieving a spot in one of the top results on search engines can increase the online presence for your business—sometimes without you needing to spend a single dollar. This is because search engines (like Google or Bing) will investigate the information provided online regularly. Since a search engine’s main goal is to provide accurate, consistent, and relevant results, they typically search for sites and other references that fit those criteria. Because of this, search engine visibility is actually one of the main goals of creating citations for your business.
Best 130 Directory Submission Sites for Local SEO for Lawyers
What are the key factors to consider for local citations for law firms?
If you want to ensure that your citations are presented to your most relevant potential clients, you’ll want to keep these key points in mind. They are especially important if you plan to feature your citations in multiple directories, since that will make them more likely to be considered by search engines.
- Consistency. Especially when you post your citations on multiple sites, it is crucial that any information you choose to provide is as consistent as possible—down to the very last detail. Since search engines take consistency into account, you should make sure that you provide the same information, in the same way, no matter how many directories you use to feature your citation.
- Quality. Don't just post a bunch of irrelevant information in the hopes of getting your business discovered. Instead, focus on carefully curating relevant information that would be important to potential clients, other businesses that might refer to you, and search engines that might reference you. It's also a good idea to make sure that you're only listing your citations on directories related to your service area, since overgeneralization can cause search engines to provide misleading results to the wrong audience.
- Quantity. When choosing directories to feature your citations, select those that are most relevant for your industry, service offering, service area, and other relevant criteria. It is better to choose the few highest quality resources rather than over-posting on more, less relevant ones. We've included a list of suggestions, specific to law practices, in the section below.
- Priority. When you write a citation, always keep your client in mind. Think about what information they want, need, or might search for that could bring them to your business. Remember to choose only the highest quality, most relevant data for each citation—and keep the information consistent across every directory you use, as this will be more likely to attract potential clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make a citation for attorneys, lawyers, or law firms?
You can create a citation yourself, use a service, or hire a freelancer. If you create citations on your own, you can use other reliable sources such as this reference from Brightlocal to create a listing. Brightlocal also offers a professional-grade citation service. Alternatively, you can use freelance marketplaces, such as Fiverr or Upwork, to hire someone to create your listing. All of these options are valid; it just depends on the time and money you are willing to invest, and the kind of results or specialized service you want.
How much will it cost to list my practice in a directory submission site for lawyers?
Overall, listing your business in a directory can be very affordable—ranging from $0 to $5 to create the listing—plus whatever the directory charges to feature your information (usually a very small amount, if anything). Writing your own citations can cost as little as $0. A professional citation service, such as Brightlocal, usually costs about $2 per citation to create. Freelance service providers usually charge a minimum of $5 per citation.
What are the different kinds of business citations?
There are two main types of business citations: structured and unstructured. Each of these two types has four subcategories: global, national, local, and industry-specific. Structured citations should be used for industry-specific directories, since they’ll be listing practices and businesses similar to yours and/or located in your same service area. Unstructured citations are designed for general directories, which may feature a variety of businesses and industries.
What is local citation management for lawyers?
Local citation management is all about choosing sites that will draw in local customers, encouraging your customers to come to you—with confidence that you can help them. Directories that have high authority usually have the highest traffic, since they are considered more trustworthy by potential clients. The list we’ve provided in this article includes information on the top sites with this criteria in mind.
