If you are a lawyer, you should definitely be on Avvo. With over 8 million monthly visitors, you will be missing a chance of your life if you aren’t on this platform filled with high-income, well-educated visitors looking for attorneys they can trust for their legal needs.

And when you are on the platform, collect as many Avvo reviews so you are attractive to prospective clients.

What are Avvo reviews?

Avvo reviews are feedback left by genuine clients after working with a particular lawyer.

The reviews are similar to those you will find on Google, Facebook, or any other review site. They feature star ratings averaged at the top of the profile, then lengthier text explaining the reason for the rating.

As a lawyer, you should strive to accumulate as many positive reviews as possible so you can be attractive to those seeking legal services.

What about Avvo ratings?

When you visit the Avvo website, two things will get your attention: Avvo reviews and Avvo ratings.

We have already explained what Avvo reviews are (although we will dig deeper into this), so let’s look at Avvo ratings.

Avvo ratings are numerical scores calculated using Avvo’s proprietary algorithm based on what you include on your profile and what the system can collect from reliable sources, such as state bar associations, regulatory agencies, court records, and others.

The rating runs from 1 (extreme caution) to 10 (superb).

To help you understand the rating better, here is the rating scale:

• 10 – 9.0 Superb
• 8.9 – 8.0 Excellent
• 7.9 –7.0 Very Good
• 6.9 – 6.0 Good
• 5.9 – 5.0 Average
• 4.9 – 4.0 Concern
• 3.9 – 3.0 Caution
• 2.9 – 2.0 Strong Caution
• 1.9 – 1.0 Extreme Caution

Are Avvo reviews reliable?

Yes, the reviews are 100% reliable as real people that have worked with you leave them.

While this is the case, it doesn’t mean that someone (most likely a competitor) can’t create an account and give you or your business a bad review solely to make you look bad.

Besides reporting these negative and malicious reviews, you should address them immediately after you notice them. An excellent way to approach it is to say that you never worked with the reviewer, and they are just trying to tarnish your image.

If they respond that they have worked with you, ask for proof, such as the case number, receipt, or any other thing.

What do you get from collecting Avvo reviews?

The same way technicians, plumbers, and other contractors try to get as many reviews as possible for their business, you also, as an attorney, strive to get as many Avvo reviews as you can, as doing so comes with plenty of perks that include:

You appear more legit

Even if your first interaction with a client is face to face, most of them will go online and search you and/or your business.

This is because they want to know what other people have to say about you and your business.

When they search your name and plenty of reviews pop up, they have more confidence in you and your business, increasing your chances of getting more jobs.

For a person in need of legal services, the last thing they want is someone that will bring on more drama—they want someone that will help them out, and they want to work with the best attorney that will bring value and solutions to the table.

When you have plenty of Avvo reviews, your prospect views you as an experienced attorney that has handled similar cases before, so they trust you more.

You improve your ranking and visibility

Since Avvo.com is a strong domain with plenty of referring domains, having a link pointing to your website improves your website’s ranking, making you more visible to potential clients.

Of course, this alone won’t make your website rank at the top for your target keyword, but it will help with the ranking.

As mentioned above, Avvo has over 8 million visitors a month, some of which might be looking for attorneys in your local area. When you have many positive reviews, you stand out from the rest, and many people get to see you.

You make more money

It goes without saying that when your clients view you as knowledgeable and a problem solver, they hire you, and you make more money, which is good for you and your family and your entire community.

How to get Avvo reviews

To get Avvo reviews’ benefits, you have to collect as many reviews as possible. How do you go about it? There are plenty of ways to do it, and they include:

Ask your past clients to leave you a review

Are there clients you have worked with before, and you are sure you made them happy? Get in touch with them through email, message, social media, or use lawyer review management software and ask them to leave you a review on Avvo.

If it has been a long time since you communicated with them, remind them who you are, then explain how the review will benefit you and your practice.

Leave a link pointing to your Avvo profile to make their work easy.

Ask your friends and family

If you have a family member or friend that you have helped with legal services, ask them to leave you a review.

Like your past clients, explain the benefit the review will have to your business.

The cool thing is that the friends and family members are already close to you, so they will most likely take up the request without hesitation.

Leave a link on your website and social media pages

The chances are high that you won’t have records of all the clients you have worked with before.

To ensure that all grounds are covered, have a message on your website asking the clients you have worked with before to give their feedback on Avvo.

A simple message such as, “Have I/we given you legal services, and you loved it? Let the world know about your experience by leaving your feedback on Avvo. It will go a long way towards building the reputation of my/our business so I/we can offer better services to more deserving people,” is enough. 

Again, leave a link to your Avvo profile.

Ask your current clients to review you.

You can get more reviews by asking your current clients to review your business.

Once you have completed a project, send a thank you note to your clients and ask them to let the world know about their experience by leaving a review of your business.

Best practices when dealing with Avvo reviews

For the best experience collecting and growing your reviews, you should observe several tips. These tips include:

Ask for Avvo specific reviews

When you want to accumulate as many reviews as possible, it’s tempting to ask your clients to review you on Facebook, Google, and other review sites.

While there is nothing wrong with trying to hit several birds with one stone, sending too many links to your clients will overwhelm them, and they end up not leaving any feedback at all.

To increase the chances of your clients reviewing your business, ask only for Avvo reviews.

You should then send them a link to your Avvo profile and let them know it won’t take much of their time.

Respond to the reviews

Most people will spend a lot of time asking for reviews but fail to respond to them, which makes the clients feel unappreciated for their effort.

To show that you care about your clients, always respond to the reviews. And the beauty is that you don’t have to come up with witty remarks.

If the client has left a positive review, a simple thank you is enough to show that you care about their opinion.

You might think that you should only respond to the positive reviews, but this isn’t the case—you also should respond to the negative ones.

When dealing with negative reviews, always try to resolve the issue.

If you can’t fix the mess, compassionately explain in the review what went wrong and how you will prevent a similar issue from coming up in the future.

If you can fix the issue at hand, get in touch with the disgruntled client and try to solve the issue.

After fixing it, ask the client whether they would like to give an updated review. In most cases, when the client is satisfied with the resolution, they will be more than happy to update the review.

Be persistent when asking for reviews.

You should note that simply because you gave excellent legal services, your clients won’t jump through hoops for you. Most of them will ignore your message, but this shouldn’t demoralize you.

There are several reasons a client might fail to respond to your message: they might be sick, busy, among many other reasons.

To increase the number of reviews you get, you need to be persistent in your asking.

If a client doesn’t respond to a review, wait a week or two, then send them another message reminding them to leave a review.

Ask for the reviews at the right time.

When you ask for reviews goes a long way towards determining the number you get.

The right time to ask for the reviews is immediately you have won a case or completed an important legal process.

Since the issue is still fresh in the client’s mind, they have a high chance of taking their time to review your business.

When you are asking for the review, ask exactly what you want.

You can ask them whether they were happy with your work ethic, the way you handled yourself in the courtroom, the questions you asked, or any other thing.

How do you increase your Avvo rating?

As you increase your reviews, you should also improve your Avvo rating. And the good news is that there are plenty of ways to do it. These ways include:

Claim your Avvo profile

By claiming your Avvo profile, you unlock your Avvo rating, you can customize your profile, and respond to the existing Avvo reviews.

To claim your profile, you need to visit the lawyer marketing page on Avvo.com, then fill out your details such as your name, city, state, and zip code.

After accepting Avvo’s terms of use and privacy policy, use LinkedIn or Facebook to verify your identity. You can also use a phone number or email to verify your identity.

Update your Avvo profile

Since Avvo pulls data from online records, chances are they won’t have your complete details, and for you to improve your ratings, you need to add them.

After claiming your profile, update your work experience, awards, peer endorsements, publications, and other relevant details.

Remember that the more details you add to your profile, the more qualified and experienced you appear in Avvo’s eyes, hence the higher the rating you get, so, strive to add as much relevant information as possible.

Get quality Avvo reviews

With millions of visitors a month, half of which have urgent legal needs, it would be absurd not to be on Avvo.com.

The unfortunate thing is that being listed there isn’t enough—you need to have enough reviews that will get the attention of new clients.

You also need to claim and update your profile to increase your Avvo rating.

The cool thing is that you can easily grow both your Avvo reviews and rating with a bit of determination.

It’s tempting to take shortcuts and pay people to review your business on Avvo, but don’t do it.

This is because, besides not having an authentic picture of your business, you also risk being banned from Avvo and it being the leading marketing website for lawyers, not being there will be a big loss.

There is also the risk of the word leaking out that you bought the reviews. As a lawyer, you are held to high standards, and when your clients can’t trust you, you have no business.

To avoid the risks that come with it, trust the process and build your Avvo profile one day at a time. As long as you are doing the right things, regardless of how minor they are, you are heading in the right direction.