Google’s Algorithm Changed For My Law Firm, What Should I Do?
Every week, at least one of my clients sends me a panicked message. “Help! Google has changed their algorithm. What should I do to keep up?”
As the founder of a marketing firm that helps law firms grow their practices primarily through online marketing techniques, this question hits me where I live. Today I’m going to share three important tips to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of Google algorithms.
Don’t Overreact
Is the change of algorithm a big deal? Yes and no. It does change the way the mega-search engine finds and ranks websites of law firms and other businesses. In that sense it’s a big deal. But here’s the thing: they do this all the time.
Google is a two hundred-billion-dollar company based on searching capabilities. They update their algorithm thousands of times every year. It’s standard operating procedure. They are constantly trying to evolve and improve. So, news of an algorithm change is not something to panic over.
It’s Not Hard to See Whether the Changes Affected Your Website
When you learn about a Google algorithm change, you should take a look at the actual website data through Google Analytics. This service is available for almost every website. You should be able to see the number of site visitors and whether that number has changed. If the numbers are pretty consistent, then the algorithm change didn’t affect your site.
But if you’re suddenly seeing a substantial drop in the number of visitors to your site, then you have some cause for concern. You should consult your marketing advisors—if they haven’t brought it to your attention already—and develop a strategy to get the site visitor numbers back to the optimal level.
There are Steps You Can Take to Improve Website Performance
Regardless of whether a particular change in algorithm affected your site this time or not, you should still consider taking steps to improve your website, because improvements will lead to better performance under all different types of algorithms.
A lot of search engine optimization “experts” insist that there weird tips and tricks to “win” at SEO. They may tell you that it’s essential to keep with the latest trend to avoid failing.
But I urge you to take a few minutes to read Google’s official guidance on how to improve your search rankings. In the guide, the search engine explains that “creating compelling and useful content” is the most important thing you can do to optimize performance in search results.
For law firms, that means you should develop great content about your practice areas, include videos, and make good use of imagery. If you add quality content and make it easy for a user to navigate your website, that will help improve your search rankings.
Get Help Adapting to Algorithm Changes
How Google views your website is very, very important. So it’s understandable that people panic when Google makes changes. Understandable, but also unnecessary. Just take a deep breath, check your analytics, and see whether you need to make some adjustments.
Marketing, unlike law, is a business of trial and error. We try one thing, learn what works and what doesn’t, and quickly try something different. Even when we achieve success, we know we need to keep innovating and improving to maintain that success.
If you’d like help navigating Google algorithm changes and improving your website’s rankings, contact us at lagrandemarketing.com.