This page explains exactly how Google ranks Law Firms in the Local Pack, the Local Search Algorithm, describes what is and what is not in your control, and dispels myths.
In general, the Local Pack is very simple to understand, with no secrets or tricks. Of course, simple and easy are two very different things.
The Local Pack is the block of local search results which almost always displays the top three most relevant local businesses for a user’s query, usually appearing at the top of Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
Google offers tips to improve local rankings. Their page is very vague. We’ll paste below what their page says and explain it better below:
If you search for “Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer” from LAX, you’re going to see a completely different Local Pack than someone who searches for “Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer” from Dodger Stadium.
The Local Pack changes based on a user’s physical location.
There is no one Local Pack for one city. There are tens of thousands of Local Packs.
You can not measure Local Pack rankings by searching “Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer” from your desktop PC.
To see Local Pack rankings, you must use a tool such as LocalFalcon.
The included screenshot from LocalFalcon shows a 4mi radius with a personal injury law firm in the middle. This firm does very well. The more personal injury law firms there are in a city, the quicker “reach” dies off.
We can indeed maximize reach. But you cannot dominate an entire city. For example. You’re driving down the road and your gas tank is on “E”. You search Google for a gas station. You want to see a gas station close to you, not one 40 miles away. In good news, Google treats gas stations and personal injury attorneys a little differently (but not much).
If you’re an 80/20 person, this is the section for you.
To rank in the Local Pack you need:
That’s it. Yes, there is a lot more to it. But in general, tips and tricks aside, that’s all you need.
The next biggest factors would be your location, and your law firm’s name. If you have the only personal injury firm in your town, you’ll crush it everywhere, but if there’s a law firm on every block, your Local Pack rankings may be diminished to a radius of 1 – 2 blocks.
As for your firm name, getting “Injury Lawyer” into the title is a trick pioneered by Optimize My Firm in 2017 in practice worldwide today. Keywords are not allowed, but using a DBA skirts GBP policy.
Review recency is the “most hated” ranking factor. We have some law firms who absolutely love getting reviews and have blazed past 1,000 reviews. We have law firms who deny this (indisputable) fact and refuse to obtain reviews. We have firms who get a few reviews each month and insist it’s good enough. However, it’s a proven fact that review recency is a significant factor. In competitive cities, 20 new reviews each month is mandatory. In less competitive cities, 4/mo may be ok. It depends.
There are 3 things you should know. Even if you rank in the Local Pack, you may not get calls if:
As we mentioned above, Google’s vague tips are Relevance, Distance, Prominence. How do you optimize for these?
Relevance: This is how well your law firm matches what someone is searching for. Properly filling out your Google Business Profile is how you optimize for relevance.
Distance: This is essentially one of many ranking factors. User proximity plays a role. No, Google doesn’t simply show the closes law firms to a user – that’s why we said it’s ONE factor, not THE factor.
Prominence: To us, this is by far the most important factor. This includes your organic rankings, review quality, review recency, links, online reputation, and more.
Everything below is a confirmed myth. Don’t believe us? Email us and we’ll point you to documented studies.
Geotagging photos: This myth pops up from time to time. This is a ridiculous myth because GBP stops all metadata out of photos uploaded to their platform (to protect user privacy). Just download any image from Google Maps and look at the metadata yourself.
Google posts: These do not impact Local Pack rankings. They’re encouraged because they show a business is active and engaged.
Embedding maps: There is a myth floating around informing people if you embed a Google Map of your business into your landing page, it will help. This is false. We are not sure why anyone could think this would help. It does not.
Service area: Selecting a service area does not impact Local Pack performance and in general confuses prospective clients.
Citations: It’s important to list your law firm with Martindale, Justia, and a handful of major directories, and Facebook and Yelp, however, adding your firm to hundreds an hundreds of unknown directories does not help.
That’s precisely what we’re cut out for.
Contact us today for more information on Local SEO for Lawyers.
On our Case Studies page you can see many other examples of law firms we’ve helped.
Example of a before and after:
