Are legal directories worth it?
Claim every free legal directory listing and keep it up to date - that takes twenty minutes and gets you most of the value. Treat paid upgrades as a ninety-day test with their own tracking number, never a twelve-month deal. And know this before you bargain: FindLaw, Avvo, Nolo and Martindale are all owned by Internet Brands. So playing them against each other doesn't work the way you'd expect.
Four of the biggest legal directories are owned by the same company. Legal directories are websites that list lawyers so people can find and compare them. Most firms don't know about the shared owner. It quietly undoes what they think they're doing when they compare one against another.
So are legal directories worth it? Here's who owns what and what a paid listing really gets you. Then we'll show how to find out in ninety days if yours is earning its money.
Are legal directories worth it?
Claim the free listings, all of them. Treat the paid upgrades as a test with an end date, not something you sign up for forever.
A free profile is a real page with your name on it. It will show up when somebody searches for you. That's worth twenty minutes. The paid level is a different question. The answer depends on numbers you can measure, not on whether the listing looks good.
Who owns what
On December 2, 2024, Thomson Reuters closed the sale of FindLaw to Internet Brands. Internet Brands already owned Nolo, Avvo and Martindale. Its own announcement says those three together are the largest consumer information provider in the legal market, and now FindLaw has joined them.
You can read that in Thomson Reuters' own press release[1].
So when you weigh FindLaw against Avvo against Martindale, you're mostly choosing between products from one company. That doesn't make any of them bad. But it does mean two things to keep in mind:
Playing them off each other doesn't work the way you'd expect. You may be counting on them to compete for your business and give you a better deal. That pressure isn't really there.
Spreading your budget across three of them isn't spreading your risk. If the traffic comes from one company's network, you have the same risk three times.
What you're actually buying
A paid directory listing is a rented spot on a page that already ranks. That's the whole product, and it's a real one. Those pages do rank, and the people reading them are looking for a lawyer right now.
Those pages rank because the sites are huge and have been collecting links for twenty years. It's not because your listing is good. You're renting a spot that the directory's size earned. That's why the listing stops working the moment you stop paying: none of that strength was ever yours.
What it isn't is something you own. Stop paying and it's gone the same month, and you keep nothing. A page on your own site that ranks for the same search keeps working whether you renew anything or not. That's the honest trade: the directory is faster, but your own pages belong to you.
There's no price list. You get a quote after a sales call, and it changes by practice area and city. So ask these questions, and get the answers in writing, before you get too far into the deal:
- Who owns the content? If the directory writes pages for you, ask what happens to them when you leave. On some plans the content stays with the seller, and you start over from nothing.
- How long is the contract, and what does it cost to cancel? Deals that last several years are common. Argue against a twelve-month minimum for a channel you haven't tested. That matters more than the monthly price.
- Is my listing the only one in my practice area and city? Often it isn't, and your competitor is buying the spot next to yours.
- What decides my rank on the page? Some spots are bought. Others are scored by the directory's own formula. Know which one you're paying to move.
When paying does make sense
Here are three cases where we'd tell you to buy the listing.
- You're brand new and you rank for nothing. Your own pages will take months. A directory page already ranks today. Buying a spot while you build your own pages is a fair trade. Just know that's what you're doing, and set a date to check on it.
- You're testing a practice area you haven't worked in before. Say you're thinking about family law. Before you spend a year on writing and links, try three months of directory placement. It tells you if you can turn those people into clients at all. It's a small cost to help you make a big decision.
- Your market is one you can't win any time soon. Maybe the firms above you have been building for fifteen years. Then renting a spot on a page that ranks above them is sometimes the only way onto the first screen this year.
All three have two things in common: a reason, and an end date. Paying for a directory isn't the bad part. The bad part is paying for one for six years because no one ever made time to cancel.
Directories rank because they have pages that answer what people search. You can have those too, on your own site, under your own name. They keep working the month you stop paying anyone. That's most of what we build.
Free 20-minute demo. No contract, cancel anytime.
How to test one in ninety days
Give the listing its own phone number. Use a tracking number that you use nowhere else. Without it you're guessing, and every directory's own dashboard will show numbers that make it look good.
Then do the same math you'd do for any paid channel. Take what you spent and divide it by the cases you really signed from it. Compare that to what you can afford to pay: the math in what a lead is really worth to you.
Ninety days is long enough to see something. It's also short enough that a bad result costs you three months, not a year. That's exactly why the twelve-month contract is the part to argue about.
There's one thing the test won't catch. People look you up after they've heard your name: from a referral, a billboard, or a friend. A profile that looks abandoned costs you cases, and no one will ever trace them back to a directory. That's a reason to claim the free listing and keep it up to date. It isn't a reason to pay for the upgrade, and sellers mix up the two.
The free version, done properly
Claim it. Then fill in the parts that are often left empty:
- All your practice areas, not just the main one.
- A real photo of you.
- Your current address and phone number.
- A few sentences that sound like you.
Then check that the address and phone match your Google Business Profile exactly. Details that don't match across the web make you harder for Google to place.
That's most of the value, for free. The paid upgrade has to earn its cost on top of a free listing you already did right. That's a harder test than the sales call will suggest, and it's the right one.
Then look at the number again next quarter. Whether legal directories are worth it for your firm can change. Directories change owners, change formulas, and change what a listing is worth. Keep what brought in signed cases, cut what didn't, and refine it as you go.
Questions about legal directories
What is the best legal directory to use?
Start with the free listings on the directories that already rank for your practice area and city. Add your Google Business Profile too, since it sends most firms more calls than any legal directory does. There's no single best paid directory. The answer depends on what a signed case is worth to you and what price you're quoted.
Who owns FindLaw and Avvo?
Both are owned by Internet Brands. Internet Brands already owned Nolo, Avvo and Martindale when it bought FindLaw from Thomson Reuters. That sale closed on December 2, 2024. So several of the directories firms compare against each other come from the same company.
Are free legal directory listings worth claiming?
Yes. A claimed listing with your correct name, address, phone and practice areas is a page that shows up when somebody looks you up after a referral. It costs nothing but your time. Make sure the details match your Google Business Profile exactly.
How much does a paid legal directory listing cost?
There's no public price list. You get a quote after a sales call, and it changes by practice area and market. The terms matter more than the monthly price. Ask who owns any content they write, how long the contract runs, and what it costs to cancel.
How do I know if a directory listing is actually working?
Give it a tracking phone number you use nowhere else. Then divide what you spent by the cases you really signed from it. Directory dashboards show their own numbers in a way that makes them look good. A number you control is the only one worth trusting.
Should I pay for a directory listing or invest in my own website?
A directory listing rents a spot on a page that already ranks, and it stops the month you stop paying. Your own pages keep working after that. The directory is faster, but your own site belongs to you. Most firms should do the free listings, then put the budget into pages they own.
Sources & references
The numbered links in this article point to the sources below.
- 1Thomson Reuters sells FindLaw business to Internet Brandsthomsonreuters.com
