After the craziness of the holiday season, it is understandable that many people choose to ease into the New Year slowly. Unfortunately, 2022 is not affording the opportunity to dip your toes into the marketing waters. We have already seen two major changes that will have an effect on the ways that lawyers and law firms reach their clients.

1. Google Has Introduced a Major Local Algorithm Change

Google started rolling out its changes to local search algorithms in the last two months of 2021 and the changes are now fully implemented. The algorithm changed – known as “Vicinity” – rebalanced how Google uses the crucial factors that make generate local search results.

The most prominent change is that the algorithms will give greater weight to target proximity. It is more important than ever to have an experienced professional managing your local search marketing.

Learn more about the Vicinity update and what it means for you.

2. “Rank Brain” Is Making Long-Form Content More Important

The folks at Google are responsible for the year’s second major development as well. Google’s artificial intelligence algorithm – known as “RankBrain” – is using artificial intelligence to analyze content. That AI data is playing a crucial role in how their search engine results pages (SERPs) rank content.

Google has not released any inside information on the algorithm, but experts believe that click-through rate and the amount of time a user spends on the content are critical factors. This means it is more important than ever to provide clients with engaging and relevant content that they will spend considerable time reading and digesting. Investing in long-form content such as FAQ pages or in-depth blog posts is one way to introduce more AI-friendly content to your firm’s website.

Don’t have time to keep up with all of this on your own? Leave it to the legal marketing experts at Above the Bar Marketing.