Most local search folks have long-anticipated the arrival of paid ads in Google's local pack results. At SMX Advanced (#SMXLocal), Google finally announced that the local pack will be getting AdWords ads. Imprezzio Marketing's illustrious Joy Hawkins spread the news on Twitter:
Prepare for the top listing in the 3-pack on Google search to become the 2-pack + an ad! Eeekkk #LocalSEO #SMXLocal
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) June 21, 2016
Here's the crappy photo I took of the presentation showing the 3-pack with 1 ad. #SMX #SMXLocal pic.twitter.com/LwCnc2WHPl
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) June 21, 2016
Early buzz seems to indicate that the new 3 Pack will include 1 Ad & Only 2 Listings. In other words, as Powered By Search's Colan Nielsen puts it:
Google Local 3-Pack is turning into a… 2Pac
If true, this could have a cataclysmic impact on some local businesses that previously owned the number one local pack spot.
To get a sense of what this might look like in a legal SERP, I mocked-up this example (this is not an actual SERP):
First, it's worth noting that if Google goes in this direction, the first five spots will be paid results. If you're competing for keywords for which Google is showing ads, you had better take this into consideration in your online marketing strategy. Organic clicks for these types of queries is likely to decline.
Second, if you've been relying on the top local pack spot for fees, you should seriously consider what the cost / benefit looks like to pay to remain in that spot. Hopefully you've been using URL parameters to track clicks, calls and fees originating from the local pack. However, as Conrad notes over at Mockingbird, we may be looking at exceptionally high cost per clicks for legal clicks in this spot. Additionally, assuming you were in the third spot, you might find yourself out of the local pack results altogether. Yikes!
Another interesting question posed at Search Engine Roundtable is whether a business that has an organic number one spot will maintain the second organic spot if they pay for placement in the first spot. Historically, Google has treated ads and organic as church & state. For example, you could take the number one spot in AdWords, number one in the local pack and number one in traditional organic, which I call the trifecta. If Google changes its policy on this, it would stand as some pretty concrete evidence that ads and organic at least talk to each other.
Third, assuming this paid spot reflects your Google My Business listing, you're going to want to make sure that it's putting your best foot forward. One of the biggest mistakes firms make here is spending a great deal of time and money to achieve that first spot but spend little time providing remarkable service that leads to client reviews. If you pay for the number one spot and have negative reviews, you're paying to promote your poor reputation among at least some clients. Don't do that.
Finally, even if you have no interest in competing on general legal keywords, you ought to consider a modest budget to appear prominently for searches related to your name and firm name. You might also consider using remarketing and custom (email) audiences here. By using remarketing and custom audiences, you may be able to appear prominently in pack results with a significantly reduced cost-per-click.
At this stage it's really too early to draw too many conclusions until we see these listings roll-out. Smart search folks should be keeping a close eye on Search Console, Analytics and ranking tracking data. If you haven't done so already, it's also a good time to make sure you're using those tracking parameters in Google My Business listings. Stay tuned.
Have any prognostications? Feel free to comment below.
Over the years, law firm prospects have sent us reports from just about all of our competitors. Unfortunately, even today, some law firm marketing agencies still mislead their clients via "reporting." One particularly egregious example comes in the form of ranking reports. Which prompted this LinkedIn post. To my surprise, I received a lot of […]
John Wanamaker supposedly said "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." In an an effort to figure out "what half is working," attribution was born. Coupled with a transition from traditional, offline ads to digital media, attribution became the holy grail for analyzing advertising spends. But […]
I recently asked ChatGPT, "What are some of the top personal injury law firms in Chicago?? Actually, first I ask "who are some of the top personal injury lawyers in Chicago?" ChatGPT couldn't handle that one, so I modified the prompt. ChatGPT listed five very well-known firms downtown. Can you guess the other four? That's […]
If you're like me, you have some degree of AI, ChatGBT, Bard, exhaustion. Now don't get me wrong, this is stuff is remarkable and is changing, well, a lot. But before you hook up the ChatGPT API to your WordPress API and crank out 10,000 pages, here are a few things to think about. Let's […]
If you know me, you know my opinions about links and SEO advice from Google. If you don't, here's the TL;DR: Meh, links! Meaning, all things being equal, links still remain a competitive difference maker for ranking. Take Google's SEO advice with several grains of salt. Google has no economic incentive to help your site […]
The best marketing advice I can give you is to be authentic. Of course, you don't find that very helpful in terms of meeting your growth goals. So, you might decide to game the system. As I'm writing this, one of the more popular ways to gain the system is to pay for engagement. This […]
The following post was written by ChatGPT. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a state-of-the-art language model that can generate human-like text based on a given prompt or context. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way that businesses, including law firms, market themselves to potential clients. One way that a law firm could use […]
How long does SEO take? When can I expect to see results? What results should I expect to see? These are all reasonable questions that we field from lawyers every day. And, like many legal answers, the answer is: It depends. Yes, I know that's not the answer you wanted. But it's the most honest […]
And how much time should they spend doing it? I recently had the privilege of chatting with Tyson, Jim, and Conrad for an upcoming episode of The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. If you're not familiar with The Maximum Lawyer community, you should definitely check it out. Jim asked a really great question about who should do […]
