Someone asked me the other day if listing in online legal directories was a good idea. I of course said yes because I run a legal directory but I have many law firm clients that have had great success with legal directories and it really depends on the directory.
I have clients that list in many different directories and they usually want to know which directories drive the most traffic. I have reviewed stats and usually I have found that most legal directories do produce traffic, but some more then others.
Usually the bigger directories like Martindale Hubbell and Findlaw didn’t really bring as many visitors as other smaller legal directories, like Attorney Find or Attorney Locate. It does depend though on the type of listing you have, the number of categories your listed in and other factors.
It helps if the legal directory is well ranked at the search engines for terms like "find a lawyer", "legal directory", "law firm directory" and also for more specific geographic keyword terms like "Chicago appellate lawyers" or "Illinois tax attorneys".
Some directories are ranked well in the organic listings, while others just rely on pay per click advertising for traffic. Getting traffic from the legal directory listing is a good benefit and an added benefit can be the value of the link pointing to your site.
Its good when you have links from other legal related web sites, especially if they are also well ranked, this can boost your web sites legal link popularity score.
Overall I think that legal directories are a good value because usually if you get just one new client per year, it will more then pay for the listing. Research the directory though and make sure they have some search engine exposure, then test them out for 6-12 months and see what kind of traffic they produce.