Legal Content: Held to Higher Standards by Google

As a lawyer, I am fully aware that the legal sector is subject to extensive regulation given the nature of the job and the importance of maintaining standards and professional integrity. So it shouldn’t really come as any surprise to lawyers to hear that legal content, when published online, is subjected to the most extensive scrutiny by Google, much more so than is the case for many other industries.

Why does Google treat legal content differently?

For all industries, Google is generally looking to show search results with websites that it deems to have authority and can be trusted. After all, when we search online we really only want to see sites that are trustworthy, usually from businesses or sites with general information that we can rely upon or do business with.

Buying a pair of running shoes, though, is clearly of far less consequence than obtaining legal advice on a potentially life changing matter. For this reason, Google holds legal content to far higher standards. This is outlined in their Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines which were released by Google for the first time ever at the end of 2015 (and quickly made more digestible for SEOs and webmasters by Moz here).

Google described legal content as being “Your Money or Your Life” pages, where the content could impact upon the reader’s finances or life if relied upon. Accordingly, such pages are assessed and rated by Google to a far higher standard than most other pages. In short, Google is looking for expertise, authoritativeness and trust. It assesses these factors through looking at the actual content itself, the way in which it is presented and the online authority of the site or author.

What should law firms do to meet the expected standards?

Law firms require to be strategic in their approach to both content creation and how it is then presented to Google (where the vast majority of online search takes place). Great time and effort could be spent creating content that won’t bring search prominence or business if the Quality Guidelines aren’t adhered to and used to best effect. At Curated Media, we work daily within the Google search framework and know how to best create and position your content. Contact us to discuss how you can make your online presence reflect your offline expertise.

Content Marketing for Law Firms

If you would like some help to nurture your own content, Curated Media can help. We work with lawyers and law firms to help fulfill their online content needs. Our team of experienced writers, lawyers, online marketers and web developers have the practical knowledge to curate, as well as create.

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