Law Firm Reputation Management

Before the Internet, law firms could primarily rely on word of mouth from satisfied clients to keep the leads coming in. Nowadays, however, you can expect the majority of people to research your firm before they even consider signing up for a consultation.

Most of this research will involve reading through your online reviews on sites like Facebook, Yelp, and Google+, although some will also run an Internet search on your firm’s name and read through any articles that mention you.

In effect, you’re interviewing with prospective clients without ever speaking with them directly—instead, your online reputation is representing you. And if your online reputation is negative, you’ll lose a lot of leads to competing firms with positive online reputations.

Cultivating a Positive Online Reputation

Whether you’re lacking positive reviews on major online platforms or need to bury negative articles in the search results, ApricotLaw can help you build the online reputation that convinces prospects you’re the attorney they need.

We have a dedicated promotion team that will constantly monitor your online presence and how your firm is being perceived across the Internet. When something negative makes an appearance, we’ll help you determine the best way to deal with it.

Negative Reviews? No Reviews? No Problem!

Online reviews are critical to how prospects vet your firm. If a prospective client visits your Facebook or Yelp page and sees overwhelmingly negative or middle-of-the-road reviews, he or she will probably continue searching for a lawyer until finding one with mostly five-star reviews.

Of course, the occasional negative review is inevitable. Most people are reasonable and understand that you’re not going to make everyone happy. However, if you don’t have a significantly larger number of positive reviews to drown out the handful of negative ones, prospective clients will probably assume there must be something to those negative ratings.

When these negative reviews pop up, we’ll help you determine how to respond. In some cases, contacting the individual and offering to work things out can be effective. In others, a public response that politely and discretely details your side of the story might be necessary.

Our promotion team will also help you syndicate your positive reviews so that they appear on all the major platforms prospects might visit while vetting your firm. ApricotLaw will provide you with a link you can ask clients to leave a review on, which will then distribute that review so that it appears everywhere else.

Drowning Out Negative Press

Negative articles are less likely to occur than negative reviews, but they can have a significant impact on your lead flow when they do appear. Sometimes it’s possible to persuade the website hosting the article to take it down, but it’s often necessary to push the article down in the search results instead.

ApricotLaw’s promotion team will identify positive press opportunities for you so that you have plenty of options for getting your name out there in ways that portray your firm in the best light possible. Burying a negative article is similar to drowning out negative reviews. If the good press outweighs the bad, prospects will assume the negative article was out of the norm.

Positive Reputation Is Crucial to Success Online

An effective online marketing strategy is comprehensive—and it must include managing your reputation. Prospects won’t just visit your site; they’ll also read up on what your past clients say and incorporate that into their decision-making process.

ApricotLaw will get you more than just rankings. When you dominate the search results, you need the endorsement of satisfied past clients to back it up. Our team will make certain that your firm’s history of success is on full display all across the Internet.