For Attorneys with a high ranking website and valuable, unique content, Google’s AI Mode changes nothing. Glenn Gabe is, by far, my favorite SEO professional on planet Earth. Everyone in the industry knows who he is. He has access to the data for some of the most powerful websites on the Internet. Last week, Glenn wrote an article pointing out that
Some Law Firms who have purchased fake positive 5 star reviews for their Google Business Page (GBP) will see a notice on their listing which reads “Suspected fake reviews were recently removed from this place”. Clicking on “details” will show a notice which says “Posting Reviews is turned off for this place”. The change is coming to all businesses worldwide
Until around 2022, Google Local Services Ads (LSA) required Identity verification. Google used to use Pinkerton, then later switched to Evident, a third party which verifies user’s identity. Google announced this to attorneys in some states via email May 27, 2025 in an email titled “Complete identity checks by July 25th, 2025 to continue running ads on Local Services Ads”.
Every attorney on page 1 of Google in the last 20 years has done something to manipulate the algorithm. It’s worth it, people search for attorneys, and the attorneys ranking get cases. Backlinks, in general, come in 3 flavors: good, bad, and ugly. Good links: A good link comes from a site which is geographically relevant, topically relevant, is placed
Optimize My Firm’s internal data shows significant reduction in traffic and click through rates when Google AI Overviews are present for informational legal search queries. Here is a very typical example of a website which has had rankings and impressions remain the same, yet CTR has been reduced. If you look solely at traffic, you’d think the site is losing
The primary category you choose on Google Business Pages (GBP) is one of the most important factors for ranking in Google’s local pack. It’s easy for law firms that focus on one practice area to choose a primary category. For example, a law firm that only takes personal injury cases should choose “Personal Injury Attorney” as their primary category. However,
Technically, attorneys (and other businesses) with Google Business Pages configured as a Service Area Business (SAB) can rank in the Local Pack. However, if there’s any competition in your area at all, it’s highly unlikely you’ll show up in the Local Pack – attorneys with physical locations will display instead. The rare cases where SAB lawyers rank in the local
In most cases, Google allows lawyers to have personal GBP listings besides the primary law firm listing. However, this is not always recommended for the highest visibility. When can lawyers have their own GBP listing? Lawyers can have their own GBP listings as long as they’re public-facing, and not the only lawyer at the law firm. We call these listings