You can't delete your attorney profile from Avvo's directory.
Avvo says the site has listings and online reviews for about 97% of all licensed attorneys in the United States. Your Avvo profile may appear in search results when potential clients look up your name or your law practice.
Once a premier directory for lawyers in the U.S., Avvo has seen a significant decline in traffic since 2018. Removing lawyer profiles has become a common question as Avvo has lost some of its stature over other legal directories. Avvo owns its legal directory and won't let you delete your law firm's listing.
Why Can't I Delete Myself From Avvo?
According to Avvo, they do not remove profiles from their site because the information in each lawyer’s profile comes from public records and is publicly available information. In other words, they don't think they need your permission to post your public records.
If your information is incorrect, they will fix it but not remove your listing. If you are concerned that the public data they share on their website is incorrect, you might also want to check with your state bar association to ensure that the information in your public record is up-to-date.
This policy has everything to do with their monetization strategy.
Avvo’s goal is to have a complete listing of every lawyer in the U.S. This way, Avvo can show up in every search for any law firm or lawyer across the country, driving traffic to the site. Keeping traffic high allows them to sell ads and premium listings to law firms who want to leverage the platform to be found by potential clients.
You can see how this strategy would become less and less effective every time a law firm was allowed to opt-out of their listing.
Over the last few years, Avvo’s website traffic has declined significantly. We do not recommend paying for ads or premium listings on this directory.
A better tactic to invest in to improve your online presence is to commit to other types of digital marketing, starting with a fantastic website and SEO-friendly content. In the end, this type of investment is long-lasting. Your website will continue to be used to attract new potential clients as long as you continue to maintain it and generate fresh content.
Is There Any Way To Get Around This And Remove My Listing?
No, there is no way to remove your listing from Avvo, and there is no workaround for removing the publicly accessible data they have collected.
Some people will tell you that there are workarounds involving feeding Avvo incomplete or incorrect information, but no one should try this method.
Avvo may not be the most powerful of directories anymore, but Google still uses links from directories to determine a business's legitimacy. Feeding fake info to a directory can interfere with Google's understanding of who you are and what your law firm does. Fake information can negatively impact your website's ability to rank on search, which works against every other online effort and investment you make.
Is Avvo Still Worth It For Attorneys?
Maintaining a free and up-to-date Avvo profile is worth it because it provides a valuable directory backlink to your website. Paying Avvo for advertising or a premium profile may not be worth it.
Data from Ahrefs.com shows that Avvo’s traffic and rankings have been declining since at least 2018. From 2017 to 2020, the site received an average of over 1 million visitors per month. Since mid-2020, monthly traffic has been much lower, at about 500,000 users per month.
It is no longer the powerhouse directory that it once was for attorneys. Fewer people visiting means fewer potential clients will see paid ads or premium profiles on the site.
Many lawyers are skeptical of the website and have even taken legal action because they feel the Avvo rating system is dishonest.
The existence and quantity of peer endorsements are one of the numerous criteria used by Avvo to determine its ratings. The website makes it quite simple to ask for ratings from within the program, but before your coworkers can recommend you, they must first claim their own Avvo account.
The inability of attorneys to regulate the information on their accounts is another frequent issue. Avvo creates your record from public information, so the data displayed may be inaccurate. This includes a lawyer's history of facing disciplinary action from the state bar organization.
Lawyers who have received a reprimand for minor infractions of the standards of professional conduct are not permitted to appeal the decision or give a justification on their profiles. Only by joining Avvo.com and claiming the profile will erroneous information be updated or removed.
By the way, that Avvo profile will remain there forever because they will never delete an attorney's profile.
What Makes Legal Directories Important?
Having an internet presence is essential to developing a successful company. Listing yourself in legal directories helps your firm develop a presence in Google searches by providing Google’s algorithm with important signals that help it determine when and how to rank your website.
Client reviews on these websites can also impact potential clients’ feelings about your firm and help them decide whether or not they should contact you about their case.
Lawyer directories are collections of attorney profiles that allow clients and law firms to look for attorneys by company, practice area, or region. Today's digital versions of these directories also enable legal professionals like you to raise your Google ranking and expand how you sell your services.
While some directories charge a fee to be listed, others offer free listings. While some law directories focus on practice areas of the law, such as bankruptcy or personal injury, others cover the whole legal sector.
Here are some of the biggest benefits of listing yourself and your practice in a reputable legal directory:
Create a relationship of trust with your clients. Some directories call attention to your credentials by requiring that attorneys have verdicts totaling over a specific sum. Additionally, you might be able to boost your reputation by displaying a digital emblem on your website that indicates your ranking with a reputable legal directory.
The Levin Firm prominently displays their awards on their homepage
Help clients find you. It's more likely that a potential client will find you on the first search engine results page (SERP). Your chances of being discovered and selected by clients rise if you are listed in numerous prominent directories.
Make your company website easier to find. Backlinks, links from a referring site to your own, are commonly found in lawyer directories. Your website's search engine optimization (SEO) will improve if you can obtain backlinks from numerous reliable legal directories.
Backlinks from reputable sources act as endorsements and make it simpler for Google’s search algorithm to understand who you are and what type of law you practice. This makes it easier for Google to determine when and where to rank you in search results.
Make it easier for other law firms to locate you. More than just prospective clients use legal directories. Law firms use lawyer directories to discover qualified attorneys like you when they refer cases to other law firms.
Develop your area of expertise by publishing legal articles on your directory listings. Many legal directories permit lawyers to guest post on their sites. Publishing articles can be a good way to develop your authority and promote your services because many people visit these directories for free legal resources.
Which Legal Directories Should I Use?
Submitting your law practice's website to reliable legal directories is crucial for developing citations and valuable links.
No two legal practice directories are made equal, and their quality and reputation with Google differ. We put together this guide to help lawyers discover more about legal directories, how to use them for marketing their firms, and determining whether a directory is reliable.
Below is the shortlist of the top 5 law firm directories based on SEO metrics gathered from Ahrefs and their premium features. Each of these directories offers free listings you should claim if you haven't already.
FindLaw
FindLaw is one of the most prominent and largest legal directories. It’s also had consistently high traffic since 2016, with over 3 million users per month as of this writing.
Legal consumers can use FindLaw to locate attorneys and learn more about a legal subject. The website provides advice on choosing an attorney and comprehending various state legislation.
Lawyer.com
Lawyer.com offers premium memberships that elevate attorney profiles above generic profiles and boost their visibility in the directory. On Lawyer.com, attorneys can also place advertisements to promote themselves as sponsored attorneys or law firms.
Super Lawyers
Potential Clients can use this legal directory to find attorneys and law firms by practice area and geographic location. Additionally, Super Lawyers provides a site where top attorneys respond to inquiries from prospective new clients about the law. Being included can increase your law firm's prestige since the directory contains only the top 5% of attorneys in each state.
Justia
Justia provides a free profile listing in its legal directory for licensed attorneys that they can claim and complete. You can appear in the Legal Information Institute (LII) directory by claiming your Justia profile.
According to Justia's website, they receive more than a million visits each month from those looking for the legal services they provide. Ahrefs estimates that they see over 4 million visitors per month. For more visibility, you may also purchase a premium membership.
NOLO
There is a network of 30,000 local attorneys in this legal directory. Visitors can provide information about their legal cases in addition to visiting NOLO for its DIY legal products and free library of in-depth legal materials.
After that, NOLO will locate and identify competent attorneys for the case, allowing prospective new clients to select a lawyer or company. Different sorts of subscriptions are available for purchase by law firms to market their practice on NOLO.
The Bottom Line
You cannot delete your profile from Avvo's legal directory because the listings on the site come from publically available information. If your Avvo profile contains incorrect information, you should contact the site to request changes.
Legal directories are important to your business because they can help more people find you online and help boost the results of ongoing digital marketing campaigns.
Making sure your firm is listed on reputable directories makes sense for increasing your leads, but it isn't the only way to grow. A full SEO campaign can ensure that the right directory citations are in place and that you have even more options at your disposal for developing a steady stream of new cases.
