In a divorce, the laws of equitable distribution distinguish marital property from separate property. Technically, only marital property, that is, proper...
By Jacob Del Hagen, CEO
This white paper explores the implementation of multi-layered architected websites and digital marketing for lawyers by offering custom weights metadata to enhance search functionality on law firm websites. By leveraging these tools, law firms and developers can improve the relevance and accuracy of search results, providing users with a better experience and leading to better case quality and lead generation. This paper details the concepts, benefits, and practical applications of using schema and custom weights metadata. These structures become extremely important as AI-generated search results take center stage.
Website Search Functionality
Website search functionality is a critical component of modern law firm websites for both Google and the ads you run. Ensuring that users can quickly find relevant information enhances user experience and engagement. This is particularly true in personal injury law digital marketing, which is by far one of the most competitive and expensive search and PPC (pay-per-click marketing) industries in the country.
Understanding the Importance of a Multi-layered Website and Marketing Campaign: The Ripple Effect
What is “The Ripple Effect”?
For a law firm, this means a digital marketing presence. As search and online marketing move into AI-generated search results for phones, the information the consumer sees will be in the form of snippets and generated content.
The potential client for your law firm may never see or go to your website. However, the quality of the content, your expertise in a subject matter, and how your website is architected mean more than ever. The “Ripple” comes from the idea that search engines, third-party sources, and AI search will use content from your website and digital footprint to display these snippets.
In the example below, a consumer is looking for a personal injury lawyer for a car accident.
Here, you will notice a few key things:
On top (after all the ads), you’ll see local listings. This is impacted by things like reviews, location to consumer, and reputational awareness, meaning how your law firm's brand is recognized.
Below that, you’ll see information from Quora and Reddit instead of a law firm. This means that traffic now goes to these sites instead of to your law firm. In addition, they are using these sites to train what’s called a generative search, where a consumer may never get to your website except from a PPC ad.
Not only are these searches bad for your law firm, but they are also bad for consumers. This led to the now infamous example of Google returning a search result of “Can you smoke while pregnant?” (Google AI Overview recommends it)
Imagine this for a legal topic when someone needs a law firm.
Regardless of these early-stage hiccups at Google, it is going all in on AI (Generative Search) along with the rest of the industry. This is good news for your law firm, as Google and others will need to cite high-quality content sources to generate answers for consumers seeking a law firm.
To do this, you must make your website and digital presence the center of the ripple.
How Do You Become “The Ripple” and Gain More Exposure for Your Law Firm?
Technical Details
Let’s start with the center. Behind the content and pages of your website, you need to add something called the data layer, which is done by pairing your law firm's content with Schema markup and a generative AI website core that runs as part of the structured data website architecture. This is a form of microdata that provides context to web content. Search engines use schema to understand the content and improve search location accuracy, as well as provide key scoring methods for advertising that can no longer use cookies.
For example, if a client is looking for a car accident lawyer from their phone (mobile device) inside a city, the data object tells Google your business name, location, type of page, and what to display in the search snippet.
If these are set up correctly, they will also see your brand, which helps in the decision-making process when choosing a law firm. This data layer architecture can even get as far as illustrating what images to show a consumer before they even see your website.
The next layer of the ripple is expert content marketing, trust, and distribution. Along with your site, your brand needs to be associated with expert content that is trusted to be shown in the AI-generated search types. We obviously favor ALM and Law.com, given their 150+ year history and trust in legal publishing, but if your firm is just starting out and not in the ultra-competitive personal injury space, many agencies will have basic content marketing plans to get you started.
The basic concept here is you need to be posting useful information on social media, expert articles, and publications, and providing users with clear insights and useful information that aligns with your website and pages your law firm publishes. These are all citations, and your firm builds a level of trust over time, even years.
The third, fourth, and fifth levels of the ripple effect for your law firm’s digital marketing footprint include the individual types of search management. These are Google places and citation management, PPC and local ads with AI conversion scoring (don’t let your agency use cookies or marketing platforms with cookies for legal marketing, aside from the clear liability issues around the privacy and wiretap laws Google is phasing them out), and law firm directory listings, preferably ones where you can publish high-quality content. This approach of a fully managed environment will give you a strategic advantage as technology changes will make your firm the center of the ripple.
Benefits of Website Schema Architecture for a Law Firm
- Enhanced Search Results: Provides rich snippets in search results.
- Improved Indexing: Helps search engines better understand and index content.
- Better User Experience: Users find relevant information quickly.
Practical Action Steps for a Law Firm’s Website and Digital Marketing
Integrating schema and custom weights metadata involves updating the website’s HTML and backend search logic.
- Identify Key Properties: Determine the properties most relevant to search queries.
- Implement Schema Markup: Add schema markup to HTML to provide context.
- Define Custom Weights: Specify weights for key properties in the search configuration.
- Update Search Algorithm: Modify the search algorithm to consider custom weights.
By following these steps, law firms can enhance their digital presence and become the center of the ripple effect in AI-generated search results.
