Hi Everyone, we hope you and your families are getting through this COVID-19. If you're an attorney still holding down the fort, please take a few moments to read this advice on lawyer SEO during this crisis.
I don't have to tell you that coronavirus is affecting us all in many different areas of our lives, and especially small law firms and small businesses. A lot of changes have to be made to stay near the top of search results. For example, Google My Business has changed the effect posts have on search results. As of March 24, GMB rolled out a special post type that's just for COVID-19 updates. This is a fantastic way you can keep customers posted about how your services and hours have been affected by the pandemic. Posts of this type will sit on top of your GMB carousel for 14 days, with new COVID update posts automatically replacing them as you make changes.
How to repurpose old reviews
And you're not going to believe this, but recent restrictions are even affecting Google. Since they are working with fewer staff members than usual, some features for Google My Business are temporarily limited. Business reviews on Google, review replies and Google Q&A will be unavailable for a while. Be that as it may, don't let that stop you from making the most out of your old reviews. Taking a review and repurposing it on social media is a great way to reuse reviews whether their new or old. Speaking of reviews, though, please, please keep working on this! We can't stress highly enough the importance of reviews.
Content strategies ideas during the pandemic.
Aside from reviews, now that you've got so much time under lockdown, you should consider writing a blog about how U.S. Attorney’s Offices will be prioritizing the detection and prosecution of growing criminal conduct related to the Coronavirus or write a piece about claims against the police for wrongful arrest in relation to COVID-19. Or maybe a FAQ about family law during this crisis. That will get you some immediate traffic and promote you as an authoritative source.
Also, for attorneys and firms still holding down the fort, we're recommending they add a dedicated COVID-19 message that can be searched by Google's web crawler. Here is an example of one client that is using a banner on their homepage to keep customers updated, and we can do the same for you.
Lawyer SEO advice for tomorrow
It's easy to fall into a routine with the way we do business. That's true even in a really dynamic field like SEO and digital marketing. From time to time that routine gets shaken up though, and then we all have to move fast to stay relevant. The changes COVID-19 is currently wreaking on search results are actually a double-whammy. We all have to adapt during the crisis to stay on top of the results pages, and then we'll have to change again when the storm has passed and things go back to normal.
Injury lawyers may now qualify for Local Services Ads
And finally, the product wizards at Google are testing out a new beta phase of the old Local Services Ads. Local Services Ads (LSA) are pay-per-lead, so you're only billed when a customer reaches you through the ad itself. Local Service is open to just about everybody who qualifies to advertise with Google, but the service is now opening up to personal injury law firms, which may be a bonanza for some of our clients.
Lawyer SEO storytime
Speaking of happy lawyers we know, big congratulations to the Law Office of Steven F. O'Meara, who is now ranking high for some pretty commonly searched keywords. Terms that can now bring you to Steven's site include "defense lawyer," "assault lawyers," "defense lawyers," and so on.
Looking over the firm's analytics page, we are seeing some big boosts since we started working on ranking strategies. In the last month, we've seen a +24 jump to position 6 for "criminal lawyer media pa," and a thrilling +85 hop to position 16 for the term "pa criminal lawyers." Looking good, Steven!
Assuming this all blows over in the next few weeks or months, there's bound to be another round of changes to the way Google and other search engines rank our clients. Content that was optimized for the coronavirus season will suddenly be out of order and falling in the results. When that happens, the big winners will undoubtedly be the sites that made the adjustments BEFORE the change back, not the ones who waited. Now is definitely the time to prepare for the next shift if we don't want to be left chasing our competitors when it happens.
