Do Client Reviews Affect my Avvo Rating?

By Gina F. Rubel

When we wrote recently about the lawyer rating website Avvo, and what it means for a law firm’s practice, one of the follow-up questions we heard repeatedly was, “Do client reviews affect my Avvo rating?”

It’s a logical question. An Avvo profile includes space for client reviews and ratings, and even has a feature whereby attorneys can email clients to request that they submit a review. If the website goes to such lengths to encourage client input, it would seem to follow that that input would affect an attorney’s numerical rating.

According to Avvo, however, client reviews do not affect an attorney’s rating.

As we previously discussed, Avvo uses a proprietary algorithm to calculate a numerical rating for an attorney on a scale of 1 to 10. The formula takes into account the professional information that an attorney has entered into his or her Avvo profile, including career history, scholarly writings, speaking engagements and industry-specific memberships and awards. Each of these types of information in the profile contributes to an attorney’s overall rating.

Reviews from other attorneys do boost a lawyer’s rating. Those from clients do not. Avvo says: “Peer endorsements do affect your Avvo Rating, though client reviews do not. This is because peer endorsements – one lawyer endorsing another’s skills and experience – are a way to assess industry recognition, which is a factor in how we calculate an attorney’s Avvo Rating. Client reviews do play a very important role for people looking to hire an attorney, but we have chosen to not include that information when calculating the Avvo Rating.”

That doesn’t mean that attorneys should ignore client reviews. Particularly for lawyers in some consumer-facing practices, such as family law, reviews from past clients can influence a potential client’s choice of attorney. Avvo’s client rating is a way for an average consumer to rate how they feel their attorney handled their case. And consumers seeking an attorney often consider input from previous clients to help them decide which attorneys to approach regarding a similar legal issue.

As with any rating a consumer gives to a service or product online – think Amazon, eBay, or TripAdvisor – a client review can be superb or not so superb. Avvo’s client ratings are displayed as stars on the attorney’s profile page, with five stars being the highest and one star being the lowest.

So what is Furia Rubel’s advice regarding Avvo client ratings? We do advise lawyers to claim their Avvo profiles and fill them out as completely as possible in order to boost their rating. (Avvo invests heavily in marketing and Avvo profiles tend to appear high in search engine results.) For attorneys who work primarily in-house or who deal with corporations, municipalities or other entities, soliciting client reviews may not be worth an investment of effort. For lawyers who work directly with the public, however, positive client reviews can help influence a consumer’s buying decision, and seeking them out may be worth the time and effort, regardless of their lack of influence on Avvo’s overall lawyer rating.

How Can Lawyers Boost Their Avvo Ratings?

By Gina Rubel

As we discussed last week, Avvo is an attorney directory website that aims to “match consumers with the best possible fit for legal representation.” It also “rates” attorneys with a number from 1 (indicating “extreme caution” to 10 (Superb).

As we also discussed last week, that rating does not necessarily reflect an attorney’s actual prowess. Even Avvo admits as much, noting that, “The Avvo Rating is based only on the information we have collected and that the attorney has provided, so we don’t recommend the Avvo Rating as the only piece of information you use to evaluate whether an attorney is right for you.”

What is in the ‘Secret Sauce’?

Much like the formula for Coke or the 11 herbs and spices in Kentucky Fried Chicken’s seasoning, the precise factors that Avvo uses to calculate an attorney’s rating are kept secret. Avvo maintains that the information it uses is the same information displayed on an attorney’s profile.

“However, we do not disclose the weight we give to this information so that no one can game the system, boosting their rating through unfair advantage,” it says. “Much as Google doesn’t share its search engine secrets, we don’t share the inner-workings of the Avvo Rating so we can maintain the neutrality and integrity of the rating.”

Whether you agree with the fundamental premise behind Avvo’s ratings or not, the site still probably has a profile for you. Because it appears so high in search engine results, we advise our clients to take control of their Avvo profiles and to fill them out as completely as possible.

6 Tips to Boost Your Avvo Rating

After years of experience helping clients improve their Avvo ratings, here are six areas of the Avvo profile that we have seen correlate to a higher overall rating.

Attorney endorsements: We have found that endorsements from fellow attorneys significantly increase an attorney’s Avvo rating. However, there is a limit to how many endorsement points you can receive. To receive endorsements from your peers, you need to proactively request those testimonials. It’s the same as asking someone for a reference, and it is rare that other attorneys will endorse you without being formally asked first.

Work experience: The Avvo Rating factors in the type of work experience as well as the number of years you have practiced law. This can include leadership positions that you have held with legal associations (e.g., state bar). And be sure to include your current employer. If your current employer is already listed on your Avvo profile, check to make sure that information is correct such as your employer’s address and contact information.

Awards and honors: Awards from recognized groups such as Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, Martindale-Hubbell, etc. will positively impact your Avvo Rating. The weight from these awards will decrease over time, however, so be sure to update each year that you receive the award.

Associations: Avvo also is interested in your professional involvement in the legal community. This shows that you take your law practice seriously and that you are committed to improving yourself as an attorney. The boost to your rating will be even bigger if your peers have elevated you to an office or position within that group.

Publications: If you have not published any articles, now is the time to do so. We highly recommend submitting an article in your area of expertise to a legal journal or other media outlet. If it is published, you will have a publication credit to add to your Avvo profile. If you already have published law-related articles, then you are ahead of the game; just list them on your profile. This is also a great place to include media mentions if you or your cases have garnered positive media coverage.

Speaking engagements: Lastly, be sure to list prior speaking engagements. This can include events where you have given a talk, such as at the annual bar association conference, or if you have led any continuing legal education (CLE) programs. If you haven’t yet taught a CLE program, think about what expertise you have to offer. In addition to expanding your knowledge of your chosen practice area, it's a good way to increase your Avvo Rating.

Has your Avvo Rating affected your business? Share any thoughts and/or experiences in the comments below.

What Goes Into an Avvo Rating, and Why Should You Care?

By Gina Rubel

As legal marketers, we field questions from attorneys all the time about Avvo – what it is, what its lawyer “ratings” are based upon, and whether attorneys should pay it in any mind.

Founded in 2006 in Seattle by former Expedia general counsel Mark Britton, Avvo is an attorney rating and directory website that aims to “match consumers with the best possible fit for legal representation.” It enables potential clients to research lawyers by city, state and practice area and to submit requests for legal advice, among other things.

Lawyer referrals go high-tech

Britton and co-founder Paul Bloom raised millions in venture capital to launch Avvo, which they envisioned becoming a name brand nationwide resource.

“When you are looking for a book, there’s Amazon; when (you) travel, you have Expedia; for jobs, there’s Monster; and when it comes to search, there’s Google. But when it comes to legal, there’s nothing,” Britton told the Seattle Times in a 2007 interview.

In the years since then, Avvo has raised millions in funding, including $71.5 million in 2015 to expand its product offerings, boost its headcount, and increase its marketing efforts. According to Bloomberg Business, the site is valued at $650 million.

Attorney ‘ratings’

By far Avvo’s most contentious offering is its ratings system, which assigns a numerical value to attorneys in its vast directory. Shortly after the site’s launch in 2007, it found itself in the legal crosshairs of two Seattle attorneys who took umbrage at the site’s ratings, alleging it engaged in “unfair and deceptive practices by falsely claiming to be objective, reliable and factual.” The suit was dismissed by a federal judge who wrote, “Neither the nature of the information provided nor the language used on the Web site would lead a reasonable person to believe that the ratings are a statement of actual fact,” Lasnik wrote.

So what does all of this mean for attorneys? Should lawyers care about their Avvo rating?

In short, yes, but first, it is helpful to understand how those ratings come to be.

Avvo calculates a rating for a lawyer, with 10 being the highest, using a mathematical formula based upon the information provided to Avvo in a lawyer’s profile and from public records such as state bar associations and law firm websites. Therefore, an Avvo rating often has little to do with an individual attorney’s prowess, and instead is based upon how thoroughly an attorney has filled out his or her Avvo profile. That sometimes leads to situations where well-regarded attorneys who have practiced for decades will have lower Avvo ratings than less experienced attorneys who have claimed and updated their Avvo profile.

Avvo’s marketing investment can benefit your practice

Remember that $71.5 million in funding we mentioned? Avvo is pouring some of that money into advertising its site, which now claims 8 million unique visits each month. Attorneys can benefit from that traffic in various ways:

• Individual Avvo profiles appear very high in Internet search results. If you’re an attorney, Google your name and see if your Avvo profile appears on the first page of results; there’s a good chance it will.
• Avvo provides free online real estate of which attorneys should take ownership. If your name is on it, you want to be able to exercise as much control over it as possible.
• Avvo ratings are important to consumers (just like Super Lawyers).
• High Avvo ratings can be used for firm marketing efforts.
• Avvo profiles allow attorneys to link to their firm’s website, boosting the traffic to the website.

Although claiming your Avvo profile sometimes can be tedious, we advise clients to invest the time in doing so. But don’t stop there; a surprising number of lawyers claim their Avvo profile and then do nothing with it. It is important to fill in an Avvo profile completely in order to ensure it accurately reflects a lawyer’s credentials and experience. It’s also just as important to maintain that profile and keep it updated.

Adding relevant, current information to a lawyer’s profile can translate into “points” toward Avvo’s calculated rating. We advise attorneys to fill out as much of their Avvo profile as possible, to help achieve as high a rating as possible.

In a future blog post, we will share tips on ways attorneys can boost their rating, looking at the factors that influence an Avvo rating – and those that don’t.