Why Lawyers Need to Adapt to AI

Lawyers Need AITODAY At Legal Search Marketing, we offer AI-powered Lawyer SEO Marketing services to help you achieve your goals. With the help of AI, we can analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns that would be impossible for a human to spot. This means we can develop highly effective SEO strategies that are tailored specifically to your law firm or attorney profile, based on the latest data-driven insights. Top Reasons why lawyers should consider adopting AI technology now: Improved efficiency: AI can help automate many repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time for lawyers and allowing them to focus on more important and complex legal work. Better data analysis: AI can analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns that would be impossible for a human to spot. This means lawyers can gain deeper insights into legal issues and make more informed decisions. Cost savings: By automating tasks and improving efficiency, AI can help reduce costs for law firms and ultimately provide better value to clients. Competitive advantage: By adopting AI technology now, lawyers can gain a competitive edge over other law firms and attorneys who have not yet embraced this technology. Improved accuracy: AI can help improve the accuracy of legal research and analysis, reducing the risk of errors and improving outcomes for clients. Enhanced client experience: By adopting AI technology, lawyers can offer more personalized and efficient services to clients, improving the overall client experience and satisfaction. Future-proofing: As AI technology becomes more widespread in the legal industry, lawyers who adopt it now will be better prepared to adapt to the changing landscape and stay ahead of the curve. In conclusion, lawyers who adopt AI technology now can benefit from improved efficiency, better data analysis, cost savings, competitive advantage, improved accuracy, enhanced client experience, and future-proofing. By embracing this technology, lawyers can position themselves for success in the digital age and offer better services to their clients.   5 Ways AI can Help Lawyers in 2023 Legal research: AI can help lawyers quickly and accurately research legal topics and case law, saving valuable time and improving the accuracy of their work. Contract review: AI can help lawyers review and analyze contracts, highlighting potential issues and flagging areas that may require further attention. Predictive analytics: AI can help lawyers predict the likely outcome of a case based on previous cases with similar circumstances, allowing them to make more informed decisions and provide better advice to clients. Document analysis: AI can help lawyers analyze and extract data from large volumes of legal documents, making it easier to identify key information and trends. E-discovery: AI can help lawyers manage the discovery process by identifying and organizing relevant documents and data, saving time and reducing costs for clients. Free AI Analysis for Lawyers By using AI technology in these areas, lawyers can improve their efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness, ultimately providing better services to their clients. As AI technology continues to evolve, it is likely that it will become even more useful in the legal industry, providing even more opportunities for lawyers to improve their work and achieve better outcomes for their clients. Contact us today for a free AI Analysis of your legal website.

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How AI is Helping Lawyer SEO

AI MarketingFor Lawyers At Legal Search Marketing, we offer AI-powered Lawyer SEO Marketing services to help you achieve your goals. With the help of AI, we can analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns that would be impossible for a human to spot. This means we can develop highly effective SEO strategies that are tailored specifically to your law firm or attorney profile, based on the latest data-driven insights. Artificial Intelligence and SEO for Lawyers: For example, our AI technology can help us identify the most relevant and high-volume keywords for your law firm or attorney profile, allowing us to optimize your website’s content and meta data to improve your search engine rankings. AI can also help us analyze your competitors’ SEO strategies, identify gaps in their approach, and develop a more effective strategy for your own law firm or attorney profile. AI is a game-changer in the world of SEO, and Legal Search Marketing is at the forefront of this exciting new technology. By partnering with us for your Lawyer SEO Marketing needs, you can benefit from the latest advances in AI and gain a competitive edge in the legal industry. At Legal Search Marketing, we take our work seriously, but we also like to have a little fun. So if you’re ready to take your law firm or attorney profile to the next level with AI-powered SEO, let’s get started! Top 5 ways that AI can help SEO tasks for attorneys and law firms: Keyword research: AI can help identify the most relevant and high-volume keywords for your law firm or attorney profile, allowing you to optimize your website’s content and meta data to improve your search engine rankings. Competitor analysis: AI can analyze your competitors’ SEO strategies, identify gaps in their approach, and help you develop a more effective strategy for your own law firm or attorney profile. Content optimization: AI can analyze your website’s content and suggest improvements to help make it more attractive to search engines and improve your rankings. Link building: AI can help identify high-quality, relevant websites for link building, improving your website’s domain authority and overall search engine rankings. Reputation management: AI can help monitor and analyze online reviews, social media posts, and other online mentions of your law firm or attorney profile, allowing you to proactively manage your online reputation and respond to any negative feedback. By leveraging the power of AI in your SEO efforts, you can benefit from more accurate data analysis, more targeted strategies, and ultimately, better results. With Legal Search Marketing as your partner for AI-powered Lawyer SEO Marketing, you can take advantage of these benefits and stay ahead of the competition in the legal industry. We are on the cutting edge of AI technology for lawyers. Contact us with any questions you might have on how AI can help your legal practice perform better.

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Chat GPT Guide For Lawyers

ChatGPT Guide For Attorneys What is CHATGPT 4? ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI’s advanced GPT-4 language model, is a powerful AI-based tool that can generate human-like responses and content. It has the ability to understand and generate text in multiple languages, providing accurate and valuable information across various domains, including law. ** The bottom line is that its better for lawyers. It can do more and its all around smarter. How SMART? Well with Chat GPT 3 it was in the bottom 10% of the LSAT bar exam for lawyers…. with Chat GPT 4, its now in the TOP 10%. So yea, smarter than 90% of lawyers. Thats pretty big in 2 months! WOW. TAKE NOTICE… ChatGPT for Lawyers: The Ultimate Guide to Revolutionize Your Legal Practice Table of Contents Introduction What is ChatGPT? Benefits of ChatGPT for Lawyers How to Implement ChatGPT in Your Legal Practice Best Practices for Using ChatGPT Potential Limitations and Ethical Considerations Conclusion Introduction Welcome to the definitive guide on ChatGPT for lawyers. In this comprehensive article, we will explore the transformative potential of ChatGPT in the legal industry, its numerous benefits, and how to implement and use it effectively in your practice. Moreover, we will address potential limitations and ethical considerations to ensure a responsible approach when leveraging this cutting-edge technology. What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI’s advanced GPT-4 language model, is a powerful AI-based tool that can generate human-like responses and content. It has the ability to understand and generate text in multiple languages, providing accurate and valuable information across various domains, including law. Benefits of ChatGPT for Lawyers Streamlining Legal Research ChatGPT can help lawyers conduct legal research more efficiently by quickly providing relevant case laws, statutes, and regulations. With its natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can understand complex legal queries and deliver accurate results, allowing lawyers to focus on case analysis and strategy. Drafting Legal Documents Using ChatGPT, lawyers can create drafts of legal documents such as contracts, pleadings, and briefs with improved speed and accuracy. ChatGPT can generate templates and suggestions based on the given context, minimizing the time spent on manual drafting and reducing the risk of errors. Enhancing Client Communication ChatGPT can be used to create personalized and informative responses to client inquiries, improving client communication and satisfaction. By providing instant answers to common questions, lawyers can dedicate more time to high-priority tasks and complex cases. Automating Routine Tasks ChatGPT can automate routine tasks such as scheduling appointments, sending reminders, and organizing case files. This automation allows lawyers to devote more time to their core competencies and improve their overall efficiency. How to Implement ChatGPT in Your Legal Practice Choose the Right Integration Method There are several ways to integrate ChatGPT into your legal practice, such as through API integration or third-party platforms. Assess your practice’s needs and select the most suitable method that aligns with your workflow and technical capabilities. Train the Model Tailor ChatGPT to your specific legal domain by training the model on relevant legal documents, terminology, and concepts. This will ensure that the AI produces accurate and relevant information when assisting with research, drafting, and other tasks. Monitor and Review Regularly monitor and review ChatGPT’s outputs to ensure accuracy and adherence to ethical guidelines. By doing so, you can minimize potential risks and maintain the quality of your legal services. Potential Limitations and Ethical Considerations Limitations of AI Understanding ChatGPT, while impressive, may not always fully comprehend complex legal concepts or nuanced contexts. Therefore, it is crucial to review the AI-generated content for accuracy and relevance before relying on it for critical decision-making. Ensuring Confidentiality When using ChatGPT, ensure that sensitive client information and privileged communications are protected. This may involve implementing strict data security measures and using anonymized data when training the AI model. Ethical Considerations Lawyers should be aware of the ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI in legal practice. This includes ensuring that the AI-generated content adheres to professional standards and maintaining transparency with clients about the use of AI tools in their legal matters. Conclusion ChatGPT presents numerous opportunities for lawyers to revolutionize their legal practice. By understanding its potential benefits and limitations, and implementing best practices, you can harness the power of ChatGPT to streamline your workflow, enhance client communication, and improve the overall efficiency of your practice. As the legal landscape continues to evolve, embracing innovative technologies like ChatGPT will be essential for staying ahead in a competitive market. Best Practices for Using ChatGPT Provide Clear and Concise Inputs To obtain the most accurate and relevant results from ChatGPT, ensure that your queries are clear and concise. This will help the AI understand your requirements and generate appropriate responses. Stay Informed on Updates As ChatGPT continues to evolve, it is essential to stay informed about updates, improvements, and potential limitations. This will help you get the most out of the technology and adapt to any changes that may affect its use in your legal practice. Utilize a Multi-Tool Approach While ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it is essential to use it in conjunction with other resources, such as legal databases and research platforms. This multi-tool approach ensures that you have access to comprehensive information and can cross-verify the AI-generated content. Collaborate with Colleagues Encourage collaboration among colleagues when using ChatGPT. Share insights, tips, and best practices to enhance the collective understanding of the tool and its potential applications in your legal practice.

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Chat GPT for Lawyers = A NEW ERA!

Artificial Intelligence For Law Firms What is CHATGPT? Chat GPT, or Generative Pretrained Transformer, is an artificial intelligence system designed to interact conversationally with humans. It uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand and respond to human queries, making it a powerful tool for lawyers and law firms. Here are some ways that Chat GPT can be of assistance to law firms: Time-saving: Chat GPT can streamline time-consuming tasks like research and content generation, saving time for lawyers and enabling them to focus on their cases and the law. This can help law firms become more efficient and productive. Compliance with ethical and professional guidelines: AI-powered technology like Chat GPT can help lawyers comply with ethical and professional guidelines by generating content based on professional conduct that lawyers and law firms must follow. This can help law firms avoid ethical and professional violations and maintain a good reputation. Marketing and client attraction: Chat GPT can also benefit lawyers and help law firms improve their marketing and attract more clients. By providing accurate and relevant responses to potential clients’ inquiries, Chat GPT can help law firms establish a strong online presence and attract more clients. In summary, Chat GPT is an AI-powered tool that can help law firms become more efficient, productive, and compliant with ethical and professional guidelines.  It can also improve marketing and attract more clients to the firm. Therefore, Chat GPT can be a valuable asset for law firms in 2023 and beyond. We can assist your law firm with best utilizing ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence for law firms. There are many different things you can do with AI and ChatGPT, we can help your firm grow with the right AI tools for Lawyers. 

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Latest Google Local SEO Features

GMB Features for Lawyers in 2023 Google My Business (GMB) is more important than ever and should be one of the first things that you do for your law firms Internet marketing strategy.  GMB is always updating and adding new features that you can use for free. *** Google My Business is now Google Business PROFILE Here are some new features: Google Posts:  Google posts included in GMB gives business owners the chance to write short blog posts, announce new products, list news about the company and so on. Business owners should use this feature along with images or videos to grab the customer’s attention. Posts can be between 100 to 300 words long and can contain any type of content the business sees relevant. The posts can also link back to the business’s website. A tracking link within the post can give the owner an idea of whether or not the post is generating interest in the business. Q&A feature:  This feature allows customers to ask a business owner questions directly on the GMB listing. The business owner can upvote the good questions with their answers so that they appear first in the profile. Giving informative answers and upvoting good questions is one of the best ways to take advantage of the Q&A feature. Chat & SMS:  GMB has a chat feature that can be switched on and linked to a phone number. Business owners can select this feature to receive queries via SMS. The feature enables business owners to reply almost instantly to questions. The response time is displayed on the GMB profile; a quick response time can help the profile rank better in a Google search. Longer Description:  The 750-character description feature gives the profile owner a good opportunity to make a strong case for their business. A short description telling customers a bit more about the business can help generate more interest and customer engagement. The description should be used to talk about the brand and the product in a way that a customer finds useful. Profile owners should use clear and concise language to convey what services they offer. For example, a legal practice can list all the treatments that are carried out at the law firm. Book an appointment:  The book an appointment feature allows customers to contact the business for an appointment directly from the GMB listing. This feature is important because it makes things more convenient for the customer by eliminating extra steps. The owner of the profile should use this feature to increase customer engagement by adding a URL that takes the customer directly to a landing page. Need Help with Google My Business? Let the law firm SEO experts at Legal Search Marketing help you with your next organic SEO project for your law firm. We have a special going for lawyers who want to get top Google My Business rankings and get more 5 star reviews from Google.    You can try this for FREE for 30 days to see how it works and only pay $499 and 99 per month for ongoing local seo and review marketing work. —> Google Organic SEO For Lawyers —> Google My Business for Law Firms —> Google SEO FREE Analysis

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Personal Injury Lawyer Links & SEO Marketing

Personal Injury Lawyer SEO Personal Injury Back Links for Attorneys One thing that still holds true is that LINKS are important and a key part of the overall Lawyer Internet and SEO Marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter what kind of lawyer you are, personal injury, DUI, criminal defense, or bankruptcy, everyone needs solid backlinks to their lawyer websites in order to have the best possible Google SEO organic rankings.     Links are only part of the formula but as always an important one. So links come in many different shapes and the bottom line is if you can somehow get a backlink to your lawyers website from a bar association, law school, other lawyers websites or blog, or a local area business, do it! TYPE OF LINKS FOR PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS If you are a personal injury lawyer, you want to first focus on getting branded links to your site.  These are links that are using your brand name in the anchor text and going to your homepage. Then after you build your branded links and make sure most of your links are using your firms name.  You then should get links to your other power pages and posts that you want to rank higher in Google.  With these links, they will be either partial keyword matches or blended brand and keyword anchor text.    You want to stay away from exact match anchor texts usually.   This means if you are a Chicago personal injury lawyer, you do not want your anchor text of your links to read that exact term, instead you want either your firm name, or a combo. Something like “Personal injury lawyers at Johnson & Jones” or “Contact the car accident lawyers for a free consultation”. Getting Backlinks to Your Lawyer Site Top Links are not easy to get usually, but in some cases all you have to do is make sure you have an account setup and you can claim your lawyer listing at some online legal and business directories.  Then you can optimize the listing and usually include a link to your website. Now a lot of times these links may not be DO Follow and not as valuable as a DO Follow link, but you want to get as many relevant links as you can.  This includes no-follow links because you want to get branded links and citations for your legal site. So if you can get a link from a legal directory that is in your legal niche, that will be helpful towards your overall SEO strategy.   You want to build your brand and get as many branded links using your firms name in the anchor text and having it goto your homepage. Also for local SEO, citations are very important.  Citations are the listings of your law firms NAP, Name, address and phone #.  Again even if its no follow link, its still a citation usually from a relevant site.  The thing here is that most all of these links are FREE, most have a paid option, but the key here is just getting as many relevant links as you can. These are the obvious links that most lawyers will have, but you should have these also to have a better chance of ranking high at Google. Then the trick is to then make sure you have more links than your competitors, and not just any links, high-quality relevant links from authority sites. Its a multiple phase process and you want to start with getting some links and getting the low hanging fruit links.   Yet if you do not set these up manually or hire someone to do it, you will not get the link.  The more work you put into building your backlinks, the better your search engine rankings will be at Google. Below are some personal injury links to start with. Once you get this first phase of links, then you want to start writing a lot of quality content and getting links from guest posts on other legal websites. Good Personal Injury Links: Here are some starter links for all personal injury and car accident lawyers to have to their lawyer website.  The key here is making sure that you claim these lawyer listings and then update them and include a link to your website.   In some cases you will have to pay a premium fee to get a link to your website.   In some cases it will be worth it and thats the trick here, knowing which listings to pay for.   Yet in almost all cases, you can get a free link if you verify the account. Good Legal Directory Links http://braininjurylawyerdir.com/listing.html http://injuryattorneydir.com/listing.html http://lawyermap.net/account/register http://medicalmalpracticelawyerdir.com/listing.html http://thelawofficedirectory.com/NewListing.php http://truckaccidentlawyerdir.com/listing.html http://www.dogbitelawyerdir.com/listing.html http://www.findmealawyer.com/submit/ http://www.hg.org/addlf.html  http://www.injurylawyerdir.com/listing.html http://www.lawfirmoffices.com/add_listing.php http://www.lawyersbusinessdirectory.com/submit http://www.morelaw.com/add/attorney/ Social Links: Google+ Scoop.it Pinterest YouTube Storify LinkedIn Medium Personal Injury SEO Marketing Personal Injury Legal News  Workplace Accidents and You. Are you Eligible? Personal Injury Settlement Calculators – How much is your Case worth? Well Known Actors Who Have Had Motorcycle Accidents 5 Steps to Help Your Car Accident Claim Personal Injury vs. Workers Compensation

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Guest Posting Services for Lawyers

Guest Posts for Attorneys & Law Firms You might be wondering what exactly is a guest post and why on earth should I bother with this? Fair enough and there are enough things to worry about these days with your lawyer website. Yet guest posting is the #1 way to get backlinks from other relevant legal web sites. Backlinks are the #1 factor in getting better Google SEO Rankings. This, in turn, can help build your law firms website authority and then help improve and earn new Google SEO rankings for keywords that bring potential clients to your site. How Guest Posting for Lawyers Works The idea with a guest post is that YOUR firm will create a unique piece of quality content, usually 750-1000 words on a relevant topic.  So if you’re a personal injury attorney, you want to create articles related to car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, and other personal injury topics. You will then have that unique article posted on a relevant high authority website and you will include a link to your website from within the body of the content, and then usually in the author bio at the end of the post. This process makes sense all around IF you can find the right website to do these guest posts on.  Not every website will allow this and you want to try and focus only on websites in your legal niche. All legal sites are good, but specific legal sites like a divorce directory or personal injury blog might be better.   Also, other high authority sites that are close to your niche can work as well, they might not be as relevant BUT if you can get a link from a high DA(Domain Authority) site, you usually will want to take it. Anchor Text for Guest Posting In the old days you could just use as many Exact Match anchor texts as you wanted and rank #1!   Yet now its more about establishing your law firms brand first and building trust with Google. Let Google know that you are an expert and an authority in your legal field but mainly let Google know that you are indeed a BRAND. Anchor text are the keywords that are linked, so if you have a link from another website that reads Lawyers Court, you can see the words Lawyers Court are the ones linked and thus the anchor text keywords. That example is also one of a BRANDED Link, this is simply where the keywords of the link are your law firm or brand name.     THESE are what MOST of your firms website links should be. Usually you want to have a high % of branded anchor texts pointing to your homepage.  You then want to have other links pointing to your subpages, usually your most important practice area pages, results pages and other key pages or posts that you want to rank with Google. With these pages, you want to use more of a blended anchor text strategy and then maybe 1-3 exact match anchor texts for really high authority sites. Obviously its ok if you have some exact match links and its natural that someone might link to your legal site using personal injury lawyer keywords or your location and what you do, like Chicago auto accident lawyer. Different Kinds of Anchor Texts There are a number of different types of anchor texts you could and should have. Branded Anchor Text Blended Anchor Text Naked URL Anchors Exact Match Anchor Text Branded anchors is the main one, but there are also URL Anchors, Blended Anchors, Exact Match and a number of others.   The key is having the right mix of all of them. You do NOT want to have a high percentage of exact match anchor texts because this could raise a serious RED FLAG with Google.  Usually, you only want to have 1-2% of exact match anchors, so that means for every 100 links you get, you only want 2 with the exact match of keywords that you want to rank for. Yet the key here is that those 2 links that you get using the exact match anchor text, those should be your two TOP authority links if possible. This almost doesn’t make sense because you might be thinking, “well how the hell am I going to ever rank for these keywords?” and its all about being patient these days with Google. You need them to recognize your brand name and have them see you getting links from other sites using your brand name.   Then you need to create a lot of unique content for your site’s blog and do a lot of good on-page SEO work, and then combine that with a few other things to get higher SEO rankings with Google. If you were a Newport Beach California personal injury firm with the firm name of the Smith Trial Group Below would be some examples with suggested ratio percentages of the different links you are getting to your site. Most of the time you will not have any say in what the anchor text is, so you need to know what your current anchor text rations are before getting any new links. When you do have a say in what the anchor text is, you need to be careful that you do not go overboard and just have all the links say the same thing, or have them all be exact match anchors because you think that will help you rank faster (it will not). Make Your Exact Match Anchors From The Top Sites For your 1-3 % of exact match anchor texts, you want those coming from your best possible links.  So if your firm is getting a link from a law review article, or from Forbes or some other high authority site.  You want this link to be an exact match anchor text link. For this example, you would want this top quality link using the keywords

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New FREE Link Analysis Tool for Lawyers

Link Building for Lawyers Free Tool Saint Neil Patel has put out another free SEO Link tool that seems to rival the big boys at AHREFs and SEMRUSH. Ive just started to use it, but it seems pretty solid! It allows you to simply put in your site or your competitors URL and see how many links the site has, how many referring domains and what your overall link score is.   It also shows you how many do follow and no follow links you have, as well as a few other things You can find new links easily that you do not have BUT your competition does.  Its not easy believe me to get new links, but this tool will help you.   This can be the #1 factor in your law firm site climbing the Google rankings.  You need link love from other sites to show Google you are a legit law firm and to get to #1 for your keywords. Links for Lawyers Do you have more links than your law firm competition or does your competition have more links than you? This Backlink tool shows you the number of links pointing to any domain or URL. From total link count, to .edu and .gov links to even the exact number of unique referring domains. Link tools for lawyers and law firms can help you find your competitor backlinks. You can get those same links and help improve your sites SEO rankings. You can test it out by visiting the link analysis tool page here – https://neilpatel.com/backlinks/  Lawyer Competitive Analysis Imagine being able to find new legal link building opportunities in a matter of seconds. All you have to do is put in your competitors’ URL. This tool shows you everyone who is linking to your competition and isn’t linking to you. You can easily find new opportunities that will help you boost your lawyer SEO rankings. Is Your Legal Competition Ranking Higher in Google? Link Relevancy Matters You want to get as many links as possible to your website, BUT just getting 50,000 generic links pointing to your site will never work. In fact, a site that has only 12 links might easily rank higher then the site with 50,000 low quality links from sites that are not related. If you are a lawyer and have a legal website, you need to get links from other LEGAL sites.  Even better if your a personal injury lawyer, you need to get links from legal sites and personal injury related sites if possible. This tool can help you find relevant links that your competitors have but you do not.  This tool will simply show all the links, listed by authority score, and so in some cases it might be pretty easy to just follow the link and get a link for your law firm. Yet thats only if its a free legal directory or social media account that allows you to include a link.  Usually those links are NO FOLLOW and will not pass link juice to your site. YET that doesnt mean its bad thing and you want to get some no follow links because that makes up a more natural link profile in Googles eyes. Yet you want to focus on getting links that are DO Follow and do pass link juice because this will help build your attorneys website authority. Earning Links via Guest Posting Guest Posting is all the rage these days and its probably the top way that you can actually get some backlinks for your site, that matter. You can read my article on Guest Posting for Lawyers here.   Guest posting is simply doing a post on someone else website with unique content that you create and then you will have a backlink to your website within the content of this post. If your law firm wants more information on our guest posting for attorneys service, call us at 312-620-6190 or fill out the online contact form. 

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Google My Business (GMB) For Attorneys 2019

Google My Business Lawyer Marketing Google My Business (GMB) is more important than ever and should be one of the first things that you do for your law firms Internet marketing strategy. This is basically a big part of what Local SEO is, getting your GMB listing to show up in the Google 3 pack for searches related to your firm’s practice areas. Google is obviously the most important search engine but most people think there is just one set of rankings at Google and usually think of the organic results. Yet there are multiple sets of search results usually. First, you will see the Google paid ads at the top, then you will see the Google map listings, which come from your Google my business listing.  Then you will see the organic search results. Yet really it’s possible that even if your firm low or no organic rankings, you can possibly dominate the local seo results.   What is Google My Business? Google My Business is a free service designed to make it easy for local businesses to manage their listings in Google search results. Anytime you search Google for local services in your area, you have likely seen Google My Business at work. It displays results on a map and lists other important details about businesses, including their contact information, website, and even reviews. Since Google is the premier search engine online, listing your law firm with Google’s My Business is essential for proper search engine optimization or SEO. Your Google my business listing is what controls your listing that comes up in the local search and map results at Google. LAWYER GOOGLE MY BUSINESS MARKETING TIPS 1. Claim your Google My Business Profile If you haven’t claimed your law firms GMB profile, which stands for Google My Business – also known as the local 3 pack – then you need to get this done right away. GMB profiles are some of the first organic listings people see when searching for attorneys and law firms. By default, many firms already have a GMB profile created by Google and sometimes you will find that certain lawyers will have a GMB profile that is created by Google, and sometimes your clients will find this and even though you haven’t claimed or verified this listing, they still can leave you a review. So it makes sense to claim these listings so that you can not only optimize it, but you respond to any reviews you might get. Walk through the following process to claim it: Search for your law firm or attorney name in Google When you see the Knowledge Graph card for your firm, click on the ‘Are you the owner?’ link near the bottom. Start the process of verifying the firm’s ownership. Note that Google will want you to verify ownership in one of two ways – either by phone or through regular mail.  Once you’ve verified ownership, you can edit your GMB profile. 2. Add Photos & Videos to your GMB Lawyer profile Make sure your GMB profile is complete and contains consistent contact information.  Then adding as many images as possible of your law firm can help it rank far better in the local 3 pack.    So add all the existing images you might have put on your blog and facebook. Then create more images and get creative.  Try to have a LOT of images, like 30 – 50! You can do it over time and it seems to make a difference. Here are some image ideas to get you started: show your legal offices on the inside and outside show your firms team, partners, and you describe the areas of law that you practice show your firms logo include your firms’ tag lines, quotes, or other marketing messages You do not want to put generic stock images or videos into your Google listing.  Google wants images that are related to your firm and what your firm does. So this means photos of the people who work at the firm, photos of your locations and the type of law you practice.   If you are a personal injury lawyer, you want to have a number of different images related to personal injury 3. Onsite Website Optimization Onsite SEO are the things done to your website structure to make it rank well, This is one of the most top tasks you can do to achieve good local rankings. Start with a location-based page: Create a location-based page for the keyword phrases you want to rank for. An example could be ‘Chicago auto accident lawyer’ or ‘Michigan Malpractice Attorney.’   Then you can create other location posts for all the different cities, zips, neighborhoods in your area and then interlink them together. Here are some other tips: Include the location in the copy of the page Include the keyword phrase in the title, the headings, meta description and URL of the page Include the keyword as an image file name of any images on the page Include the keyword in any alt attributes of images on the page Add your firms NAP (name, address, phone number) to the header: Your firm’s name, address and phone number should be on the header of every page, but especially on location-based pages or pages that link to your Google my business – GMB profile. This should also be the same information used in other listings around the web. Make sure it’s all consistent. Substantial quality content: Include a lot of useful content on your pages. Most short articles are like 300 words. So articles longer than 500 words is a good start and the longer the better. 2000 words is a really good start and if you are trying to rank for highly competitive keywords, then the longer the better. 4. Citation signals: Mentions of your firm NAP across the web Citations are like links and are the fuel towards getting higher Google local rankings. Building citations is one of the most influential strategies

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Difference between PPC and Organic SEO listings (2005 vs. 2019)

What is the Difference between Google Paid Listings & Organic Search Listings? *** This post was done originally in 2005! How much has changed in 14 years? Not much and a ton at the same time.   Google Paid Ads vs. Google Organic SEO Some lawyers are confused by the difference between the pay per click (PPC) sponsored listings and the free organic listings at Google, Yahoo, and other top search engines. The free or “organic” search listings at Google are listed on the left side of the page and the sponsored PPC listings are located on the right side of the page under “sponsored links” and sometimes at the very top of the page, right above the organic listings. —> 2019 Update….. The organic listings are still in the same place, but the paid ads are also on the left side of the page, usually above the organic listings and the map local listings.   Organic listings take time and effort to achieve and are usually a result of a legal web site that has a lot of good content, is listed in the Yahoo and Open directories and has a lot of links pointing to it from other sites. *** 2019 update — This is still true and actually organic rankings take a LOT of time and way more then they used to take. It’s much harder to achieve organic rankings at Google.        Yet the having good content, being listed in top business directories and having a lot of relevant and authority links is still the key to ranking higher in the Google organic listings.  The pay per click or sponsored listings are a result of web sites that bid a certain amount per click on a keyword. The higher the bid, the higher the ranking. Even though at Google its a little bit of a different bidding process then at Overture. At Overture, its simply a matter of whoever bids higher, gets the higher listing, where at Google, its a combination of different criteria including amount bid. GOOGLE SEO FOR LAWYERS **** 2019 update —- Who the F is Overture?!?!  They used to be the main player in town as far as pay per click went, way back when!  Then Yahoo bought them a while back.  Now the main players in pay per click are Google ads and Bing/Yahoo ads, as well as Facebook ads, Pinterest ads and Instagram ads.   Obviously you want to be listed in the organic listings because its like the gift that keeps on giving and you don’t have to pay every time someone clicks on your site.  Yet it takes time to get the free listings and sometimes you have no choice but to pay extra to visitors to your legal web site. Some lawyers do both, get great organic listings but then also pay for the sponsored links to cover all bases. **** 2019 update —-  Organic listings and traffic from Google is still the gift that keeps on giving.  Getting top rankings is more important than ever.   Also, it’s the same thing where sometimes you must do paid ads if you want any traffic because you dont have good enough organic listings.    Also you might have top rankings for most of your keywords, but you still might want to do some paid advertising if you really want to be aggressive and get more brand recognition. SEO for Lawyers in 2019 Conclusion The key in 2019 for Lawyers who want to do Attorney SEO Marketing, which by the way should be literally 100% of all lawyers.  The key is that you first want to make sure that Google trusts your Brand. Your brand name is your firm name, SO you want to get your brand out there in a number of ways. With link building, you want to make sure that the anchor text of the links pointing to your site are your brand name and going to your home page. Then once you build up your authority and trust with Google, then you can create some Power Pages and then get more links that point to these pages.  Then you will want to some partial and exact match anchor text but not that many and not until you first establish your brand and home page links. This can take 6-12 months or more and is a never-ending process.    One thing you want to focus on with your main pages is to create a lot of visuals like images, videos and infographics.   If you are a personal injury attorney, you want to create visuals to explain how the personal injury process works.

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