Don Silver, COO of BoardroomPR.

The internet has created an overabundance of legal directories, many aimed at generating advertising revenue through sponsored positions, ads and expanded listings. Why? More than one in four consumers find an attorney through online legal directories, according to a Clio's Legal Trend Report. Another third search the web for an attorney.

Legal directories expend time and money to push their results to the first page of search engine results in hopes of funneling prospective clients through their websites. The more referrals they generate, the more money they can make from selling premium access to those eyeballs.

Avvo ranks fourth and Lawyer.com fifth among the ways people looking for legal help find it, according to a 2018 online survey by ReviewTrackers. Google finished first, followed by Yelp and Facebook.

Are those two legal directories the best, or just the most popular? Avvo ranks in the top 2,000 websites in the nation. It generates 1.6 million monthly inquiries, according to SEMrush. That's a lot of potential clients in one place.

Along with having attorneys answer consumer and business questions, the site offers reviews and the Avvo score, which pleases some attorneys and annoys others. While layperson evaluations may not be accurate, they are popular due to their widespread use online. Three in five people surveyed by iLawyerMarketing valued Google reviews the most, followed by Facebook and Yelp.

Law firms and attorneys can spend a lot of time and money putting themselves atop the listings of directories. A Miami law firm with 10 attorneys would spend $9,000 on a yearly contract for a prime listing on Findlaw.com. A Statewide Authority Package on lawyer.com starts at $12,000 per year.

Which brings us to the question, why list—and likely pay for prominent exposure—in a legal directory? It's the Yellow Pages of the 21st century, the modern way to make your name known. While more than 60 percent of clients come from referrals, nearly all of those people and businesses will look you up online before hiring you.

Finding directories is easy. Getting a good deal is becoming more difficult. One company owns Martindale-Hubbell, lawyers.com, Ngage, and Avvo. Thomson Reuters owns LawInfo, FindLaw and Super Lawyers. That leaves a handful of respected sites such as lawyer.com, and it has no free listings.

Thus, you must resign yourself to paying to play in the legal directory world if you want more than a basic listing buried on the last page of a website or search engine result. What you pay and how you structure your contract varies widely, from prominent listings to pay-per-click programs similar to those on Google AdWords.

Why bother? Because the benefits extend beyond having your smiling face in an ad. By the way, a seeing the lawyer's photo is one of the seven most important reasons people choose an attorney, according to the iLawyerMarketing survey.

The online value comes from the directories themselves and how the search engines value them. Google and Bing highly respect the top directories. Advertising on a respected directory puts you in good company, which boosts the search-engine ranking of your website. The search engines also see that you're listing yourself in the right place on the web. While that may seem obvious, it matters.

Consumers feel the same way. If you're in the same directory as attorneys they know and respect, they perceive you as equally legitimate.

Reviews in legal directories matter, because the more good ones you have, the more credible you are. Be careful, though. If directories and search engines discover that you and 10 of your colleagues are stuffing your profile with five-star reviews, you'll be penalized.

The rest of the benefits come from what you make of your listing. Write smart articles that people like and share, and search engines will reward your website with a higher ranking. Provide valuable answers to legal questions on sites such as Avvo, and you will receive high marks.

When you're solicited for advertising in a legal directory, start by seeing whom among your respected competitors and legal connections is advertising. If you find only a few, that's a sign that the directory lacks credibility.

Remember, it's not enough for attorneys to be listed. A number of directories copy entire state bar listings and post them. Others publish incorrect information that's easily spotted because the law firm names, attorney affiliations and addresses are out of date.

Ask the kinds of questions your clients would ask you: How many years has the directory been operating? What results has it produced for an attorney practicing in your field in your market?

Examine the testimonials of two or three lawyers you know. Are they accurate? Do they seem genuine or were they manufactured to make the attorney seem more successful?

When you see a paid listing of a noncompeting attorney you know well, call her or him and ask: Is the ad producing results? Are you happy with the quality of service? Are you seeing a good return on your investment?

Only after you have done your homework should you consider talking to a directory's sales representative. And just as your clients probably did before they hired you, shop around.

Don Silver is COO of Boardroom Communications, a statewide PR and integrated marketing agency. He co-leads the firm's busy crisis communications and online reputation management practice group. Silver can be reached at 954-370-8999 or [email protected].