Why does Google do Core updates?

  

Google’s automated systems determine the most relevant and reliable information from billions of pages in their index to match queries. The search engine has ongoing improvements with its evaluation process to return the most relevant results to billions of queries. The substantial improvements that Google makes to its overall ranking processes are called core updates. They inform site owners about core updates as these updates have some significant impact.  Attorneys have to follow these core updates in their law firm websites to succeed online. Knowing about these updates allows your law firm website to stay within Google guidelines and improve your rankings.   

 

 

Impact of Core Updates for Lawyers

Google 2021 core updates provide opportunities for solo practitioners to rank for super competitive search terms. Small firm lawyers can measure up against big law firms provided they have flexible marketing strategies to rank better online. Here are the most impactful Google algorithm updates of 2021 and the tweaks you can do for your strategies

 

Passage ranking - Google rolled out the passage indexing in October 2021. It is updated the algorithm in February 2021 and called it passage ranking. Google can now use artificial intelligence to index individual passages (paragraph sentences) from web pages. By better understanding the relevancy of certain passages and not just the overall page, Google can find the needed information they can return to users’ queries. 

According to Google, 7% of search queries are across all languages.   

 

What can your law firm do about it? Instead of optimizing your blogs and content for passage ranking, you must:

 

• Focus on long-tail keywords – Look deeper in your key phrases and find long-tail keywords you can use to optimize your post. Find those traffic and lead driving long-tail keywords. You can find these long-tail keywords on Google Suggest, Google Related Searches, Keyword tools, and Google Analytics. You can find a bunch of long-tail relevant queries that drive traffic to your website. These long-tail keywords may be relevant to your practice area but not yet targeted by a single page on your website.
  
• Produce in-depth, high-quality content on the topic – Once you found these long-tail keywords, incorporate these key phrases in your content. Consider diversifying your content and include case studies and blogs.
  

  "About this result" update – Google provides additional information to individual search results so that users can assess which results are most helpful to them. Users will see a menu icon that they can tap to learn more about the result or feature and where the information originates. The About this result shares:  

• If the website connection is secure (uses HTTPS)
  
• The language of the web page.
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• When is your law firm website was first indexed by Google
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• Terms that users searched for will appear on the page.
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• If other websites with these search terms are linked to these pages.
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• If the search is relevant in many regions. 
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• Websites with a Wikipedia reference will have a brief description of the website.

 

Learning about a source before opening the results allows users if the site is relevant to their searches or not. It will help in discovering the authoritative and trustworthy yet unpopular website. To optimize this "About this result” consider: 

  

• Securing your website. Use HTTPS.
  
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• Building quality backlinks. These backlinks can come from local citations, law firm directories, and relevant niches. 
  
• Matching the intent of the keyword appropriately. 
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• 100% mobile-first indexing update – Google places an emphasis and more importance on mobile-friendly websites. It is a response to the increased use and traffic from mobile devices.
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• In 2016, mobile-first indexing was introduced. This algorithm refers to Google crawling your web pages according to its mobile version. Google explained that with mobile-first indexing, the mobile version of your website is indexed. It means that if your website has separate URLs for mobile and desktop Google will display the mobile
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• URL to mobile users and the desktop URL to desktop users. Fast forward to 2019, the mobile website has become the default version for all websites.    
  
• Google suggests the following steps to make sure your website is mobile-friendly:    
  

• Make your meta tags consistent for the desktop and mobile versions of your website. 
  
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• Content should be consistent and the same across all platforms. Google advised against the mobile page with less content than a desktop page. You may lose traffic with inconsistent content. 
  
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• Check your structured data – Ensure that you are using the right URLs in structured data. Your structured data should be present in both versions of your law firm website. 
  

The key here is to make sure the mobile version of your website is consistent with its desktop version.    

 

Link spam Google had its spam core update last June 2021, which had two phases. There haven’t been many details on this update but it is always good to review your backlink profile. Check for possible spam especially if your website offers platforms to users through comments and forums. To protect your website from possible spammer attacks, consider:   

 

• Updating your law firm website’s SSL certificate
  
• Checking for security issues via Google Search Console
  
• Conducting Regular cleanups for suspected spammy activities
  
• Using noindex to stop search engines from indexing low-trust web pages. 

 

The Bottomline

Your law firm SEO strategies must be at par with the latest algorithm updates, else, your competition will take the lead. These updates may sound overwhelming and complicated but with the right strategies, you can stay atop of the rankings. Legally SEO can help tweak your SEO plan or implement strategies from scratch. Contact us to learn more.