The Critical Nature of Reviews for Local & AI Visibility
There’s this romantic sentiment in the media that a law firm builds its reputation on its prowess in the courtroom, that all you need to do in order to build a reputation that attracts clients is have the stereotypical “if the glove doesn’t fit” moment often enough for word of mouth to spread about your excellent legal services.
But, as a law firm SEO agency with over a decade of experience we know that simply isn’t true. Your reputation to potential clients who don’t know you isn’t only built in courtrooms or legal conferences. It’s not even really solely built on your past client’s successful cases. The tip of the spear is entirely digital testimonials, ratings, and the opinions of you and your firm that others publish on online platforms.
In other words: reviews.
Some opportunities may never come if the review environment for your firm isn’t on par or better than the local competition. Those potential clients might never click on your website to learn about your awards, accomplishments or prior successful outcomes if they’re turned off at the start because you have a 3.9 rating on Google.
So, if that’s the case, then we have to ask the questions: Are your reviews working hard enough for your law firm? Are you missing opportunities? Are you absent from visibility because of a lack of positive reviews?
Reviews Are a Make It or Break It Factor for Google Local & AI Search
In today’s digital landscape, your potential clients aren’t only looking for a lawyer on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overview or other tools to compile a list of attorneys who specialize in their specific need.
And can you guess what one of the biggest metrics these systems place an emphasis on? Online reviews.
A 2023 industry survey from Whitespark found that review signals accounted for roughly 16% of the ranking factors determining which businesses show up in the Local Pack. Ignore your reviews at your own peril.
But if we are going to optimize our reviews, what factors do we need to pay attention to?
1. Your Star Rating
A high average star rating, ideally between 4.5 and 5, is not just a badge of honor; it’s a wildly important trust signal to both potential clients, search engines, AND AI platforms.
It’s no different than choosing a restaurant to eat at: a law firm with a 4.8-star rating with 50-100 reviews on Google is not only more likely to appear prominently in local search results, it is drastically more likely to be clicked on than a firm with a 3.9 star rating with 11 reviews.
Bottom line: In legal services, where trust is paramount, even a 0.2 star difference can significantly affect a client’s decision to click and consider you further.
2. Quantity & Quality of Descriptive Reviews
The number of Google reviews a firm has — especially reviews that contain a positive review of a specific service — adds depth and context to a firm’s online reputation. These “descriptor reviews” are often highlighted on Google in results when they match the query. Google and AI search tools value reviews with written content more highly because they provide additional information that its algorithm can interpret.
For example, when someone searches for “estate planning lawyer” a review containing “estate planning” will likely be surfaced in search results because it reinforces the firm’s relevance for the related search query AND an endorsement from an actual human. In essence, each descriptor review acts like a mini-endorsement that contributes to your firm’s SEO (and now its AI-optimization).
3. Review Consistency Over Time
Getting 10 reviews in one month is fantastic. Getting 10 reviews in one month and then none for the rest of the year isn’t ideal. Google values consistency. A regular stream of reviews signals that your firm is active, relevant, and continuously providing value to clients and is a better approach than a sudden influx.
We always recommend building review acquisition into your ongoing client follow-up process. Encouraging satisfied clients to leave reviews on a monthly basis ensures your profile stays fresh, which benefits both ranking and credibility.
Strike when the iron is hot and when you’ve reached the height of goodwill with your client — usually once the case has been closed and you are making your final calls. This is when they are most likely to have stellar things to say about your services.
4. Review Recency
Admittedly, this is related pretty closely to the previous point, but I feel like I need to drive this point home again: Recency matters. A five-star review from last week has more influence on your current visibility than a five-star review from six years ago. Google wants to show users businesses that are not only reputable but also currently active and relevant.
Fresh reviews also reassure potential clients that your firm is still operating at a high standard. Even if you had years of steady reviews coming in, if your most recent review is over a year old that might not be enough to maintain trust or top placement.
5. Reviews From Google Local Guides
Not all reviewers are equal in Google’s view. Google rewards reviews from its Local Guides (users in the Local Guides program) and other highly active reviewers with greater visibility.
A study by Joy Hawkins at Sterling Sky found that reviews written by a Google Local Guide stayed at the top of a business’ Google listing longer than reviews from non-Local Guides.
In practice, this means a review written by a Level 5 Local Guide with 200+ contributions is likely to be considered more “authoritative” — Google might rank it as more relevant, causing it to appear prominently on the firm’s Google profile for a long time. Think “Elite Yelpers”.
This means that it may be beneficial to not only seek out reviews from Local Guides, but encourage current reviewers you have strong relationships with to join the Local Guides program (it’s free and just requires contributing to Google Maps).
The Yelp, Facebook, Bing & Copilot Review Ecosystem
While Google is the dominant player for local search, don’t overlook other platforms. The landscape of search is changing more rapidly than ever, and potential clients might find your law firm via Bing, voice assistants, AI agents, or simply from seeing ratings on Facebook and Yelp.
It’s important to also understand that Bing’s local search ecosystem aggregates reviews from many third-party sources – primarily Facebook and Yelp – rather than having its own native review platform.
In recent years, Microsoft’s Bing made a shift away from solely using Yelp reviews. Instead, it now often primarily pulls in Facebook and Foursquare reviews as the main sources for local business ratings.
A search below in Microsoft’s Copilot considers review sources from virtually everywhere except Google.
In Bing’s local listings, you’ll often see an average rating and a count sourced from Facebook (for many service businesses) or from Foursquare (for venues, restaurants, etc.), sometimes even showing the source’s logo instead of the typical star icons.
Yelp hasn’t disappeared entirely from Bing – it’s typically relegated to a “Reviews from the web” section with a link out to Yelp, but it’s no longer the primary displayed rating for many businesses.
So, while all your attention might be focused on Google and Google reviews, there is an entire other economy of review and review aggregation happening on other parts of the internet that you simply cannot afford to ignore.
How Ratings Are Used in ChatGPT Results
ChatGPT is arguably the biggest player in the AI industry right now, amassing nearly 800 million users each week.
While ChatGPT was originally limited to a static training database, recent versions now include real-time browsing capabilities, allowing the model to pull, aggregate, and reference up-to-date review information from across the web.
This makes it increasingly relevant in the local business discovery process, especially for legal services.
When a user asks ChatGPT a question like:
“Who is the best divorce lawyer in Rancho Cucamonga?”
ChatGPT can now use its browsing tool to search Google Business Profiles, Yelp, Facebook, Avvo, law firm websites, and directories like Justia or FindLaw. It can reference star ratings, review counts, and even specific excerpts from client testimonials it finds on those pages.
Take a look at this ChatGPT query:
(Not to brag, but the #1 spot on this list is a client of ours.)
If we take another look at the example we above, we can see that even the simple list we were provided included some context into each law office’s online reputation based on their reviews.
So, not only are reviews used as a ranking factor for AI-based search platforms, they are also used to provide context to the user about the general experiences that people have with your office.
This means, in a lot of ways, online reviews impact your AI-search visibility at least as much, if not more than SEO when someone is at the bottom of the decision making funnel and looking to hire a lawyer (not just research).
And… that is a really big shift that requires future-readiness.
President & Founder – Everest Legal Marketing, LLC
Doug Bradley is the Founder and CEO of Everest Legal Marketing. Doug has over a decade of experience specifically in legal marketing, and foremost with expertise in Search Engine Optimization for law firms. Doug has been quoted on numerous websites, co-hosted many MCLE sessions, and has advised law firms of all sizes on the topic of effective marketing and ethical SEO strategies.
