October 6, 2021

How Google’s Ongoing Fight Against Misinformation Affects Your Law Firm’s Online Identity

At the Attorney Marketing Network, no one knows better than our clients how important it is to counter misinformation in the legal industry. Whether you are a family, criminal, personal injury, bankruptcy, or corporate litigation attorney, your clients must be fully informed of their legal rights and options to ensure they are making educated decisions about their futures. That is why they hire you. Because you are going to provide the legal advice and solutions they need to move forward with confidence — no matter how ill-informed they were when they began their search for an attorney in your field. Google has the same idea. Google’s priority — as the world’s foremost search engine — is to provide each searcher with intelligent responses to their queries, so when they type in, “The best personal injury attorney (in your city)” they will actually get the information they are searching for. Providing that service on a global scale — without the ability to see, review, or understand the person, content, or intent — comes with its share of challenges. The foremost of those challenges is tackling the intentional spread of misinformation across the Google network of products and over an open Internet that has enabled people to create, connect, and distribute information like never before. For your law firm that means publishing and maintaining a website that contributes to your prospective clients’ legal research, education, and resources. It has also led to the opportunity for millions of people to organize false or misleading information. While attorneys would certainly never think to publish information that is not helpful or factual — as it is counterproductive to their services — there is much more to it than simply having a law firm URL. Google is designed to sort through immense amounts of material and deliver content that best meets user needs by delivering quality information on each Search Engine Results Page. Here is why that matters to your law firm.

Quality Content is the Key to Your Law Firm’s Online Ranking Success

Google’s information is organized by ranking algorithms that begin with quality content, which means the quality of the content you publish is paramount to your law firm’s online ranking, website traffic, and conversion rates. When Google’s intricate network of spiders begins to crawl your content, things like keyword stuffing, low-quality content, duplicate content, overusing H1 tags, broken links, slow loading speeds, unsecured connections, and poor mobile website conversions will end with your law firm’s website being penalized by the leading global search engine. Simply put, the content on your website must be factual, well-written, useful, and completely original. When it is not your ranking can take a serious hit, leaving you virtually out of reach to anyone who is looking for your legal services in their area. This is important because even though you are not spreading misinformation, you will find yourself penalized, which can be disastrous for your marketing objectives.

Google Ranking Algorithms Elevate Relevant, Authoritative & Trustworthy Information

Google assesses web pages and websites that are directly related to its users’ searches to provide the best search engine results page and authoritative rankings for each query. While this will vary wildly for topics like current events, there is high-quality information that their ranking algorithms can detect and elevate. The same is true for your law firm’s website. When Google surfaces high-quality results for attorneys in your field and area, the lower quality or outright deceptive legal pages are relegated to less visible positions, allowing users to begin their journeys by browsing more reliable legal resources specifically designed to identify sites with high indicia of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Google will actively look for and act against attempts to deceive their ranking systems or circumvent their policies, which connects their goals to ours, and ours to our clients: We publish high-quality content because we want it to be discovered by users who are searching for legal services across the United States and want to give them direct access to the resources they deserve to improve their quality of life.

Is Your Content Hurting Your Google Ranking? We Can Help.

If your law firm is looking for fresh new ways to get in front of your target audience, contact us today to learn more about our customized search engine optimization strategies that start with quality website designs and legal content that is consistently rewarded with top rankings from all major search engines, including Google.