The AIO Audit for Lawyers (Chapter Eight of AIO for Lawyers Book)

Note: This chapter is being built in public, one brick at a time — just like we do for clients through the Authority Chapter Plan™. Welcome to Chapter Eight. Read the entire AIO for Attorneys book here.

In the last three chapters you learned about the importance of the three pillars of AIO strategy: authority assets (the gift you will give AI), on-site technical signals (the wrapping paper for the gift), and real-world validation (the bow and delivery system).

By now, you are hopefully no longer seeing AI as a threat, but as a once in a career opportunity. This is the chapter where we delve deeper into taking action. Don’t let this be another book of big ideas that you do not execute upon. Reading this book and not taking action will have no more positive impact on your career than the weight loss books I have read in between lunches at the local pizza shop. The key is taking the knowledge and integrating it.

To help you with get into the spirit of taking action, I have included this handy chapter that will provide a proper AIO audit. I can’t provide you with absolutely everything, because this is based on our proprietary system and I know our competitors are watching, but once you review and implement these systems into your firm, you will know more than 99.99% of attorneys regarding AIO and probably more than 99% of marketers.

That which gets measured gets done. Let’s get your AIO on the right track.

Your AIO Rating™

Just as you have a credit score, you have an AIO rating. Yes, even if you’re not yet familiar with the phrase. Used in a general sense, this is the internal score AI platforms use to rate your dossier, which is to say your digital twin. Although actual AI ratings systems are not completely known, as they too are proprietary, it’s easy enough to know much of what they are considering in making referrals.

What the Authority Intelligence Optimization Rating™ (AIO Rating™) I created ultimately measures is authority, in both the real world and the digital world. The goal is to provide lawyers with a single, quantifiable number from 0-100 providing an instant, clear understanding of where they currently stand as an authority before AI. Because it is the credible authorities with strong reputations who will reap the most referrals in the age of AI.

Our AIO Rating™ is the first and only comprehensive diagnostic tool designed to measure what matters in the new, AI-driven referral economy.

No doubt there will be imitators, but we will work to stay ahead not just of competitors, but the technology. You can find your AIO Rating™ at www.booksforexperts.com, and that rating will be updated with regularity to ensure compliance with AIO best practices. The AIO Rating™ we make publicly available, and which is summarized below, currently has 20 distinct measurements incorporated into a final score. The internal AIO Rating™ we maintain for those law firms who retain our services for a formal AIO Rating™ and action plan is far more comprehensive. This way we both inform the public and protect our proprietary systems from seagull-shaped sludge marketers who scour our site for content and ideas to “borrow.”

The AIO Rating measures a lawyer’s AIO dossier but can also be used to measure a law firm’s AI authority. The pillar two technical signals will remain largely the same for attorneys across your firm. The weighted score for your firm would be to take the average rating of all attorneys and divide by the number of attorneys in your firm overall. If you’re interested in firm consulting, I will come in to your firm and discuss AIO, the AIO Rating™ for the firm overall and each attorney and then provide firm management and individual attorneys with plans to improve their AIO. Feel free to inquire about this service if you believe it would be beneficial.

But enough of me falling back on comfortable legal type disclaimers. What exactly does the AIO Rating™ measure?

The three pillars, of course, just down to a granular level.

AIO Audit: Pillar One Strategies – Authority Assets

We will not only ask if you have published a book, we will analyze its quality, distribution, and integration into your digital presence. The quality and placement of your blogs, whether they are recycled churn or human written is important. We will determine if your Authority Philosophy™ is readily apparent, and ensure the philosophy of your digital twin matches your actual, real-world ambitions.

To self-audit an attorney regarding the Pillar One Authority Assets, consider:

1. The number of books you have published as a primary author and their success and reach.
2. The chapters you have contributed to anthologies or in collaborative publishing projects.
3. The publication of your long-form articles and the quality of the placements.
4. Whether your firm utilizes a signature lead magnet or guide to incorporate effective email lead capture.
5. Are you a podcast host with at least ten episodes on an active pod, and have you been a podcast guest within the past five years? The quality of the placements and the number.
6. How many CLEs or keynotes have you presented within the past three years?
7. What is the quality of your blog posts? Are they keyword stuffed and written for outdated SEO or do they incorporate real knowledge like with our Authority Chapter Plan™ system for building a book via blogging over a year?
8. Do you contribute to a firmwide newsletter or magazine?
9. Do you have a publicly documented Authority Philosophy, and is it featured on your website bio? The public and AI loves to know the “Why” behind an attorney.
10. Do you incorporate case studies and narrative write-ups?
11. Do you have video assets demonstrating your expertise, even your own YouTube channel?
12. Have you incorporated original research and white papers?

To self-audit your firm as an entirety, consider the answers to the above for individual attorneys to get a weighted average, and then consider your firm’s overall:

1. Firm-level books/anthologies owned (firm-wide intellectual property).
2. Existence of a firm newsletter or magazine, its publishing cadence and quality.
3. Firm blog or authority chapter plan(s).
4. Firm podcasts/video series owned.
5. Firm lead magnets/guides.
6. Thought leadership campaigns.
7. PR Engine (press kits, media list, pitch rhythm)
8. Training/Writing culture (partners and associates)
9. Articles produced for third party sites.
10. Event assets such as summits, webinars, and are they archived and indexed?

AIO Audit: Pillar Two Strategies – Technical Signals

Here you need to determine how you’re packaging your authority assets to AI. If AI has a hard time putting together your dossier, then it may be missing critical information, and it may lose trust in your credibility.

Note that in most instances, the lawyer and law firm ratings are the same when it comes to technical signals. This is the low-hanging fruit that helps your firm as a collective. It’s not as important as pillars one or three, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

To self-audit your firm’s technical signals for AI, consider:

1. Are the attorney bio pages crawlable, fast, and mobile-first?
2. Is Author Schema and Person Markup implemented?
3. Are Content Provenance Signals present (originality, byline, timestamp)
4. Is there proper internal linking on the website, such as between bio, practice areas, and authority assets?
5. Is there cross-platform consistency such as with Avvo profiles, Martindale, bar associations, and social media?
6. Is there evidence of social media optimization?
7. Have profiles been claimed such as with Avvo and Super Lawyer’s?
8. Does the overall site architecture show practice pages depth and clarity?
9. Are the firm website’s core vitals such as security, speed, and mobile performance strong?
10. Is the website well organized for LocalBusiness Schema and Review markup?
11. Regarding AI Indexing, are the pages clean, with crawlable content? Are there proper policy pages and sitemaps?
12. Is there a unified internal linking structure with hubs/silos that surface authority assets?
13. Is there Domain Authority with quality backlinks and zero-link farms? Have you avoided keyword stuffing and is the website copy strong and aimed at humans of today rather than search engines of yesterday?
14. Is there NAP consistency & Local signals such as for maps and citations?
15. Is there firm review velocity & distribution such as with Google, Avvo, and other niche review sites of importance to your niche?
16. Are there structured author pages and contributor graphs?
17. Are there content provenance/watermarking issues by using AI content?
18. Is there Accessibility and Compliance with the ADA and WCAG where applicable?
19. Is there proper security, HTTPS, uptime, and hosting quality?

AIO Audit: Pillar Three Strategies: Real-world validation

This is where you need to measure your mentions and real-world activities, which are important in establishing AI credibility.

To self-audit an attorney’s real-world validation consider:

1. Board certification and specialization where applicable.
2. Bar Association leadership roles, current or recent.
3. Client reviews (quality, recency, response)
4. Peer endorsements.
5. Notable case outcomes, especially searchable outcomes such as in Federal or Appellate cases.
6. Media mentions, quotes, and stories.
7. Community, pro bono, and charity involvement. Make sure these are highlighted on your website, such as under firm news.
8. Awards with substance, not pay-to-play directories.
9. Reputation trajectory.

To self-audit your firm as an entirety, consider the answers to the above for individual attorneys to get a weighted average, and then consider your firm’s overall:

1. Firm-level awards and rankings with substance.
2. Publicized wins and landmark matters (ethically presented)
3. Media coverage and owned press page.
4. Community presence, sponsorships, scholarships, and clinics.
5. Recruiting and Retention of Brand (talent magnet signals).
6. Referral Network Strength (cross-discipline partnerships)
7. Year-over-year reputation lift (composite) and overall firmwide social media strategy.

Audit Summary

Before a doctor can prescribe a cure, they must run the diagnostics. The above provides you with the proper diagnostics to beat out 99.99% of your competitors and 95% of current legal marketers in the AIO game. The overall comprehensiveness of this, along with our action plan and additional, proprietary markers, lead to accelerating AI referrals.

This creates a system of authority, in a world where most marketers are selling tactics. This is not about “hacks” or tricking the system, just being the kind of lawyer you imagined you might be all those years before when you first applied to law school. Someone who lectures, writes, and thinks, publicly. An attorney who is generous with time and donations to the community they serve. A respected, quoted, followed, leader.

In other words, an authority.

And it all starts with an honest audit.