Someone searches "do I need a lawyer after a car accident." Nolo's article ranks on page 1. The person reads the article, decides yes, and clicks through to Nolo's lawyer directory. Nolo sends the lead to 3 law firms who pay for placement. Your firm was not one of them. But if your firm had its own article ranking for that keyword — with a click-to-call button, voice AI answering at midnight, and CRM capturing the intake — that client would be yours. Every lead Nolo sells is traffic that should flow directly to firms investing in content and SEO.
TL;DR
Nolo ranks for your keywords and sells you the traffic. Rank for those keywords yourself. The Webevo platform builds content that captures legal search traffic directly — no middleman, no lead fees.
The Content Arbitrage Game
Nolo's business model is content arbitrage: create legal content that ranks, capture the traffic, and resell it as leads. The markup between Nolo's cost to create content and the lead price firms pay represents pure arbitrage. Law firms can eliminate this markup by creating their own content. Compare: Avvo, FindLaw, Justia, Martindale.
Lead Arbitrage vs Direct Content
| Approach | Nolo | Webevo Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Who ranks | Nolo | YOUR firm |
| Lead cost | Per-lead fees | Zero marginal cost |
| Traffic ownership | Nolo's | Yours |
| Content creation | Nolo writes it | AI creates for you |
| Voice AI | ❌ | ✅ 24/7 |
| CRM | ❌ | ✅ AI intake |
| Reputation | ❌ | ✅ Review AI |
Lead Marketplaces Sell Your Leads to Competitors: Lead marketplace platforms sell the same lead to 3-5 competing businesses simultaneously. Your conversion rate on shared leads averages 8-15%. With exclusive leads generated through your own SEO and reputation — conversion rates reach 35-45%. The Webevo platform generates exclusive leads that only your business receives.
Every keyword you rank for eliminates a lead fee you would pay to a directory.
When Nolo Provides Value
Nolo's free legal content (books, guides) provides genuine value to consumers seeking legal information. Law firms can leverage Nolo's content to educate clients pre-intake. But paying Nolo for leads that content marketing would generate directly is paying a markup on traffic that belongs to you.
Build direct traffic through the Webevo platform. AI generates practice-area content, optimizes for local search, and converts visitors through voice AI and CRM.
