How Google's Hummingbird Is Changing the Online Legal Marketing Game

Have you heard about Hummingbird? No, that isn't a hot new product from Apple, it's the slightly-less sexy new algorithm launched by Google to run its search engine. Google is always working to improve the function of its core business - the search engine itself - and this has always meant a dual strategy: On the one hand they want to improve the searches that people get from Google, and on the other they want to make it difficult for unscrupulous web marketers to "game" the system and have an unfair advantage in web searches.

So why should this concern an attorney? Well, like everyone else you likely have a web site - and if you're going to get the leads that Google can provide, you need to know how Hummingbird will affect your search listings.

Content over Keywords

In the past, Google was very keyword-focused: Someone would enter the words "divorce lawyer" into Google and Google would return a weighted list of web sites that contained those keywords. Then Google took into account the number of authoritative sites that linked into your site and weighted those. Most recently, Google has tweaked their algorithm to value content over anything else as it seeks to use environmental aspects of searches - the user's location, previous searches, and other data points - to point them precisely at the content they need.

What does this mean for your law firm's web site? It means if it was built a few years ago and contains a lot of keyword "stuffing," it not only may not work every well any more, it may actually hurt your listing as Google is actively punishing such tactics now. More importantly, it means that you must offer authoritative, coherent content to users. More than ever before, the value you offer visitors to your web site will help determine how you are ranked in Google searches.

The Value of Ranking

And you want to be ranked highly. Statistics show that in general users click only on the first page of results in Google, and generally only the top three or four results. If your firm is buried on page four of those results you will quite simply be nearly invisible to most of the people out there looking for the precise legal services you offer.

The time to change your site's approach to get better Google results is now. If it's been a few years since your last website overhaul, there's no better time than the present!

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