Are paid lawyer directories worth it? How to check with your own numbers

A paid directory listing is worth it only if it signs clients at a price you’d pay anyway. You can find that out with your own numbers in a few months. This guide shows how, and what you keep if you stop paying.

What does a paid directory listing buy you?

A place on a list of lawyers, and sometimes a better spot or extra features. Some directories also sell leads or calls. What you pay for is the spot, not new clients, so the only fair test is how many clients the listing signs and what each one cost.

What stays when you stop paying?

Nothing from the paid part. The listing loses its upgrades or disappears, and reviews left on the directory stay there. Compare that with what you own: a Google Business Profile, a website and reviews in your own name keep working whether or not you pay anyone that month.

How do you measure a directory listing?

Give the listing its own phone number, ask every caller how they found you, and count signed cases from your own case list. Divide what you paid by the clients it signed. Wait a few months, because some clients sign weeks after the first call.

Three habits make the number honest:

• A tracking number used only on that listing, so every call is counted.
• One question at intake: “How did you find us?”, logged for every caller.
• The same sum for every source, so the listing is compared fairly with your other marketing. The printable rent-or-own worksheet has a column for it.

What do the bar rules say about directories?

Paying for a directory listing is generally treated as paying for advertising. The model rule bans paying for a recommendation, not for ads. Watch what the directory says about you: words that suggest it picked or ranked you on merit raise the recommendation question.

Illinois spells this out. Its comments say a lawyer may pay for advertising, “including the costs of print directory listings, on-line directory listings” (Illinois Rule 7.2). It also treats “a lawyer directory, referral service, matching service” and similar sites as intermediary connecting services with their own rules (same source). If a directory sends particular people to particular lawyers, some states, such as Texas and Missouri, may treat it as a referral service with its own rules. Check your own state’s rule in our state rules library.

Should you spend the money on your Google profile instead?

Often the first dollar is better spent on what you own. A complete Google Business Profile with real reviews is free to list and stays yours. Make sure someone at your firm is its primary owner: Google allows “only one primary owner” per profile (Google).

Our Google Business Profile guide shows how to set it up. Then judge any paid listing against it, on the same sum.

What this means for your firm

• Give each paid listing its own tracking number and ask every caller how they found you.
• Judge it on cost per signed case, from your own case list, after a few months.
• Spend first on what you own: your Google profile, your website and reviews in your name.

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