What Your Referrals See When They Google You (And Why It Matters)
If you’re like most referral-based professionals, you’ve spent years building trust.
Clients send families to you. Colleagues recommend you. Other professionals say, “Call them, they’re good.”
But today, almost every referral now goes through one extra step:
Referral → Google search → Decision.
That middle step – what shows up when they Google you – is often where good opportunities quietly slip away.
In this article, we’ll walk through:
What people actually see when they Google you
The most common “quiet problems” with online presence
A simple self-check you can do in 10 minutes
How a focused visibility audit can help you fix the gaps
1. “Referral + Google” is your real first impression
When someone is referred to you, they almost never pick up the phone immediately.
They usually:
Type your name or your firm name into Google
Glance at a few things on the first page
Decide whether to call you, “research a bit more,” or look at someone else
That quick scan shapes how they feel about you before they ever speak to you.
What they see is usually a mix of:
Your website (often the homepage or About page)
Your Google Business Profile (map listing, reviews, photos)
One or two directory profiles (Avvo, Justia, etc., if you’re an attorney)
Any reviews that stand out – good, bad, or missing
If these pieces look unclear, outdated, or incomplete, some people hesitate.
And in that hesitation, a portion quietly ends up talking to someone else.
2. Common “quiet problems” with online presence
Most professionals don’t have a terrible online presence.
They have an “okay” one that doesn’t really help them.
Some very common issues:
1. Outdated website that doesn’t sound like you
Old design that looks generic or templated
Language that feels stiff, vague, or copied from somewhere else
No clear explanation of what you actually focus on or who you help
2. Mixed or confusing practice areas
For law firms, this might look like:
Probate, estate planning, elder law, plus a long list of unrelated areas
Everything squeezed onto one page
No sense of what you’re really built to handle
For other professionals, it’s similar: too many scattered services, no focus.
3. Google Business Profile that’s half-done
Wrong or missing categories
Very few reviews, or reviews with no response
Old photos, or none at all
4. Profiles that don’t match each other
Different descriptions on the website, Google, and directories
Old office addresses or phone numbers still showing up
Different ways of describing your services
Each of these alone might seem “small,” but together they create friction and doubt.
3. A 10-minute self-check you can do today
You don’t need any special tools to get a first impression of your own online presence.
Set a timer for 10–15 minutes and try this:
Step 1 – Google yourself like a client would
Search: Your Name + city
Search: Your Firm Name + city
If you’re an attorney: search things like "probate attorney [city]" or "estate planning lawyer [city]" and see if you appear.
Ask yourself:
Am I proud of what shows up on the first page?
Would a person who doesn’t know me understand what I actually do?
Does my website look like it belongs to the practice I’ve built today, or to an earlier version of it?
Step 2 – Click your own website
Is it clear, within a few seconds, what you do and who you serve?
Can someone easily find your key services and how to contact you?
Does the tone match how you actually talk to clients?
Step 3 – Look at your Google Business Profile
Are the categories correct?
Is your description up to date?
Do you have reviews? Have you responded to them?
If you feel a little proud and a little uncomfortable at the same time, you’re not alone.
That “I know this isn’t quite right yet” feeling is very common.
4. Where AI fits into all of this
More and more, people don’t just use Google. They also use AI-powered tools to ask:
“Who is a good probate attorney near me?”
“What should I look for in an estate planning lawyer in Florida?”
“How do I choose the right professional for [problem] in [city]?”
Those tools don’t invent their answers from nowhere.
They rely on what they can understand from your:
Website content and structure
Profiles and directories
Public information about your practice
If your online presence is unclear, scattered, or outdated, AI may not fully “see” what you actually do – or it may show someone else instead.
5. How a focused “Google & AI Health Check” can help
If you’re already busy and don’t have hours to untangle all of this, that’s normal.
That’s exactly why we offer a Google & AI Health Check.
In plain language, it:
Crawls your site (up to 100 pages)
Checks how clearly your key services are being understood by Google and AI tools
Flags gaps, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities
Summarizes what a referred client or family is likely to see when they look you up
You get a simple readout of:
What’s already working in your favor
What may be quietly causing good matters to slip away
2–3 practical improvements that can make a real difference over time
No jargon. No long report you’ll never read. Just a clear picture of where you stand today.
6. If you’d like a second set of eyes
If you’ve done the quick self-check above and you’re thinking, “This is important, but I don’t have time to figure it all out,” you’re exactly who we built this for.
At Evoltra Solutions, we help referral-based professionals (starting with trusts & estates law firms) make sure that when someone Googles them:
What shows up is clear, current, and trustworthy
Their online presence supports the practice they’ve worked hard to build
If you’d like, we can:
Run a complimentary Google & AI Health Check on your existing site
Share a short summary in plain English
Walk through it together on a brief call so you can decide what, if anything, you want to change
You can contact us through the website or book a short call here.
