Are you getting new business from your professional business directories?
Many of my clients are professionals who list themselves in highly credible professional directories. For example, Avvo is a directory and rating system for attorneys that many potential clients pay attention to when seeking a credible professional. Even if you don’t use the directory search function, these profiles come up in a standard Google search and boost your website’s search visibility.
Psychology Today runs a similar listing with a search function, but without the rating system like Avvo. You can search for a psychologist with a certain specialty in a given geographic area.
I had been working with this one client for only three or four months when I received a plaintive email saying, “These are sad numbers. What can we do?”
It took me only a moment to review the directory report included in the email:
Traffic update – Jan 1 to date
- 5373 Searches for help in your city and zip
- 1399 Views to your profile
- 20 Clicks to your website
- 5 Phone calls to you
What is the first thing you see? “What? Out of 5373 searches in my city and zip code, I only got 5 phone calls??”
That represents the very top of the funnel—leads entering—and down to the final conversion to a phone call. What my client overlooked were the three measurable conversion rates that really tell the story. To be clear, a conversion rate is a percentage calculated from the number of prospects in a given set that answer the call to action, i.e. land on your website vs complete a form or call for business.
First Conversion
Of the 5373 searches in the right city and zip code, 1399 of the seekers chose to click on my client’s profile. I celebrate that. It’s a 26% conversion rate. That’s really not so bad given all the competition even if I would like to see that come up a bit.
Second Conversion
Isn’t it exciting that 1399 seekers spent time on my client’s profile? The analytics provided don’t tell me how many simply bounced right out after a couple seconds. What I do know is that the numbers show a paltry 1.43% conversion rate on click-through views of my client’s website. The first thing I want to do is take a look at that profile and then take action to strengthen the odds and conversion rate.
This is what I would look for:
- Is the profile filled out completely? Does it include images, contact information, credentials, areas of expertise, bio, additional media, etc.? Is the content enough to intrigue and hook the viewer?
- Do the “top-of-the-page” summary and list of services/areas of expertise match the one line description and/or categories on the search result listings? Is the viewer going to be surprised because the profile is not what they expected or were looking for?
Third Conversion
The last set of numbers made for a quick calculation. Of the 20 website viewers, 5 of them followed the call to action to call for an appointment. Again, a 25% conversion is pretty good. But not good enough for me.
My client and I will revise and test calls to action, forms, and educational content to nurture the leads who are not ready to call just yet.
How do your business profiles look? Are they getting you any business? Try analyzing the results as we did here to locate the kink in your online sales pipeline.
Professional Directories for Lawyers
If you happen to be an attorney or law firm, here are the top 10 directories in order of authority for the legal profession.
Findlaw.com
Avvo.com
Justia.com
Lawyers.com
Nolo.com
Martindale.com
LegalMatch.com
SuperLawyers.com
LawyerCentral.com
BestLawyers.com
Professional Directories for Psychologists and Therapists
Psychologists and therapists of all kinds would be smart to have strong profiles in these top 8 directories.
Psychology Today
Theravive.com – PsychCentral
GoodTherapy.org
Find-a-Therapist.com
TherapyTribe.com
AAMFT.org- American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy
TherapistLocator.net
NBCC Directory- National Board for Certified Counselors