In order to rank your legal practice on Google Maps, you need to have a combination of the best legal citations. A legal citation is a listing on a website related to law, that allows you to place your Name, Address and phone number (NAP) just as Google has this information stored in Google Maps. You want to create a consistent NAP across the web so Google can easily see where your legal practice is located, which in turn will give you a better chance of ranking in Google maps. This short video gives a real world example of the importance of having your information listed accurately across the web.
When you build your business citations online, you want to have a mixture of legal, geographic, and general business listings. For example, you want to be listed on general websites that almost all other businesses have such as:
Securing General Business Citations Online
Yahoo, Facebook, Bing, Foursquare, Yelp, White Pages, 411, Mapquest, SuperPages, Dex Knows, Citysearch, Local Stack, Localpages, CitySquares, just to name a few. This is going to allow you to create relevant backlinks to your website from trusted sources online. Google realizes that most businesses are getting listed here, and companies like Yext will do this for you for a fee of $400 to $600 a year. We obviously build these as well but have our own source of listings we like to use compared to paying to fee to other companies.
Capturing The Best Legal Citations Available
The second type of legal citations you want are legal listings. You want to connect the dots for Google, and show that you are business is related to the legal industry. You want to theme out your website in order to make it clear you are who you say you are. I know that may sound basic, but at the end of the day, Google is nothing more than a computer trying to understand all of the information around the web. If you legal citations are coming from websites like AVVO, Justia, Findlaw, DUI Lawyers Near Me, Lawyer.com, Lawguru, LawyerCentral.com, and LawyerLegion.com. These are just a few of the sites we capture at Manic Metrics for our DUI attorney clients, and they make a significant difference in overall rankings on maps because it supports the theme of your practice.
Citations In Your Geographic Area
The last and most often overlooked citations are those coming from your geographic area. If your practice operates out of Houston, Texas, you want to get local listings in newspapers, local businesses, local television and radio stations. These are going to solidify your location with Google, and help the crawlers understand exactly where you are located, and remove any of the guesswork.
