When it comes to promoting your law firm and its services, it’s important to consider the firm’s overall reputation. While you may think your opinion of the firm’s work is all the general public needs to know, the opinions of your clients actually carry much more weight. Because of this, having multiple quality client Google reviews of your firm’s work is incredibly important. Learning the processes to take to get better and more valuable client reviews on Google can help take the digital reputation of your firm to new heights (and correspondingly increase its appearance in search results).
Why Google Reviews Are So Important
While there are many different websites and social media platforms – such as Yelp or Facebook – where businesses can acquire reviews, Google reviews are particularly important to have because the more reviews your law firm gets through Google, the more these reviews can actually help accomplish objectives for the firm, such as:
Increased Quality Leads
Just like looking for a new restaurant to try out, most professional services consumers look to customer reviews to get an idea of what their experience was like prior to trying it out for themselves. According to a study from Invespro, 88% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations from family or friends. By building up your firm’s Google reviews, you can increase the likelihood that potential new clients will choose to engage with your law firm.
More New Clients
According to a Bright Local survey, consumers are more likely to research and read reviews prior to making purchase decisions. Most often, a minimum of 10 previous reviews are read before a potential client is confident enough to make a decision. Because of this, the more positive Google reviews from previous clients that your firm has, the more likely that potential clients will contact you.
Better Search Engine Rankings
If you’ve ever wondered why your firm isn’t ranking the way you’d like in search engine results, the answer could be that your firm just doesn’t have enough reviews. Search engines actually reward businesses with more frequent positive reviews, as they are a factor in ranking in local search engine results.
How To Obtain More Google Reviews
In order for your law firm to obtain additional valuable Google reviews, the following methods should be taken into consideration:
Talk With Clients About Reviewing Your Firm
One of the best ways to get the word out about getting reviews for your firm is to simply discuss it with your clients. Going through the process of searching for the business on Google, scrolling to the reviews section, and clicking ‘leave a review’ with a client can make them more likely to leave one. However, if you are not comfortable directly discussing the review process with a client, creating a ‘leave a review’ card (similar to a business card) can come in handy. It allows you to give the client a physical card letting them know the reviews allow others to better find the firm and for the firm to continue to provide its services to the best of its ability.
Use Link Shortcuts
While the Google review process is fairly straightforward, it does require several steps, which may be more than a client is willing to do. On the bright side, Google has a tool that creates a link shortcut that takes users directly to a business profile with just one click.
Take the following steps to create a link shortcut:
- Go to the Place ID Finder on Google Maps and type in the name of the firm
- Copy the Place ID that appears as a result
- Paste the ID into the brackets of this link: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=[paste your place ID here]
Once the link shortcut is created, it can appear to be a pretty lengthy URL. Luckily, law firms that have Google Business Listings can easily shorten the link even further to reduce the character count and can even customize the link to your firm’s Google reviews page. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Google My Business account
- Scroll down the home page until you see the ‘share review form’ button on the right-hand side of the page.
- Click the button and copy the link.
In order to customize the link so that it displays the name of the firm, you’ll want to click the pen icon to the right-hand side of the displayed link. Once clicked, Google will allow you to create a customized link for your law firm. It’s important to note, however, that if your law firm has multiple locations you’ll want to ensure you are creating the link for the desired location. You wouldn’t want to provide a link for clients to review your law firm’s San Antonio location if you’re trying to get more reviews for a location in Houston or those clients live/operate nowhere near that office.
Link To The Google Review Page on Your Law Firm Website
Another way to obtain reviews for your firm is to link to the Google review page directly from the firm website. If a current or former client wants to leave a review for the firm, they are likely to check the website first. Because of this, it’s best to provide a clear call to action that is easy to find, such as ‘leave a review here’ that utilizes the link shortcut you created that takes the user directly to where they can leave a review.
Respond to Existing Reviews
Among those that read the reviews of a business, 97% of people also read the responses from the business as well. When a business responds to reviews, it allows potential clients to see they care about the feedback they receive. Because of this, it’s incredibly important to respond to existing law firm reviews, whether good or bad. Responding promptly and politely to any negative reviews that may crop up can help resolve the reviewer’s issue, which can sometimes result in the conversion of a negative review to a more positive one.
Use Social Media
Social media platforms are great to use to further the conversation. By creating social media content thanking reviewers for their words, while also including the shortened link you created to the firm’s Google review page, your followers are reminded to leave reviews of their own experiences with the firm.
Need More Law Firm Marketing Help?
While talking with clients about leaving Google reviews may seem like a straightforward process, it can sometimes be complex and require the nuanced insight that a law firm marketing agency can provide. At Stacey E. Burke, P.C., our team of experienced digital marketers can help your firm with Google reviews. We’ve worked with many small and medium sized law firms in a variety of different practice areas across the country. If your law firm would like to learn more about how we can assist with Google reviews, contact us today for more information.
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