Google Business Profile (GBP) has rolled out a new Profile Strength label which could be in a bid to boost PPC revenue – what does my law firm need to know? Google has just rolled out a new “Profile Strength” feature for Business Profile...
SEO
PR is often associated with printed articles in newspapers, advertisements, and reputation management. These methods are of course useful but, in a world where “having an online presence is the best method to engage your audience and generate...
The world of search and SEO is ever-changing, however, 2022 was a big year in search, and not just in terms of Google updates, but also in terms of the competitive landscape of search. Below we discuss some of the most interesting changes that we can see...
SEO audits are a vital component of any SEO strategy for law firms. They help bring to the surface any performance issues such as duplicate content, low page speed, inaccurate information and bulky images. These types of problems could restrict your website...
We believe that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) isn’t just about getting your law firm’s site to number one with a handful of keywords. It is in fact made up of a variety of different elements to drive those all-important...
When Google initially announced the helpful content update on 18 August, the reaction of the SEO community was that we were expecting an update with a large impact, similar to the Google Panda Update , which launched way back in late 2011. Both of the...
If you already know a thing or two about digital marketing, you’ll probably know all about search engine optimisation (SEO). But, if not, there’s no time like the present to get to grips with it! The importance of SEO for law firms cannot be...
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is important to consider when creating your website content to make it more visible to potential customers. But, climbing the ladder of SEO needs a bit more knowledge than just a bit of writing and clicking the publish...
May, and especially June, have been very volatile months in Google Search results, with a broad core update announced by Google on 25 May 2022, picked up by search volatility trackers as a huge spike on volatility on 26 May 2022. The large spike in...
Marketing in 2022 requires a certain amount of reliance on Google. So when they make an announcement that they will be sunsetting Universal Analytics and moving all users to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), we all need to pay attention. All...
What is Digital PR and Why is it Useful for Law Firms? In short, Digital PR is a strategy used to increase brand awareness using online methods of communication. It’s similar to traditional PR but offers the opportunity to reach a wider audience that...
Should your firm be striving to gain more Google reviews? Well, Google reviews affect both local rankings and the customer conversion process in very real ways. Google uses reviews as one-third of their proximity/relevance/authority local search algorithm ,...
Content is the cornerstone of any website shared with the public, especially one offering clients a service. Having a website that only briefly speaks of your services in a few sentences is not going to cut it with potential clients. If you want to bring...
In part two of this two-part blog series, Digital PR Manager, Joanna, discusses how to get your story in front of the right people to generate authoritative links to your website… In our previous blog post, we discussed generating organic...
Writing copy for SEO isn’t much different than writing for any audience, it just takes more research and planning to make sure Google can read and understand what your content is about. It used to be that you could identify the...
Google has announced that they will be sunsetting Universal Analytics to compel users to move over to Google Analytics 4. All Universal Analytics installations will stop recording new data on 1 July 2023 and existing Universal Analytics data will be...
In part one of this two-part blog post, Digital PR Manager, Joanna Cunningham, explores six tactics you can use to create stories to gain organic coverage to your website… Building organic coverage to your law firm website requires ingenuity, broad...
Between 30 November and 8 December Google was busy rolling out the largest local algorithm update since the Possum update in 2016. That means the update will affect the local map pack at the top of a search result page and not the organic rankings below...
Tech-savvy law firms will be familiar with the name Google My Business (GMB), a platform for managing their business profiles on Google, but that all comes to an end this month with the app rebranding to Google Business Profile. The reason Google gave for...
Wondering how Conscious’ digital PR service can help build your law firms image? Discover the difference between digital and traditional PR here to find out more… When you think of PR, your mind may immediately turn to newspaper coverage in...
We get it. Writing content for your law firm’s website can often seem like a chore that delivers little in the way of reward. What’s more, it can be deceivingly difficult to strike the right balance between engaging and informative content,...
Google Business Profiles (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB), encourage business owners, including law firms, to highlight unique features of their business that also enable their listing to appear for relevant local searches and Google Maps...
When you walk into the job of your dreams, the role you’ve been working hard to land, you might think you have all the skills needed, but the truth is that this is only the creation of your ever-growing skills, or so I have learnt since becoming a...
Curating Google reviews is an integral part of a successful online marketing strategy, and they have a much larger impact on a company’s local search rankings than they’re given credit for. Any law firm that has a storefront in a particular...
In the early days of Google & SEO, the differences between local and national SEO were very simple. If you wanted a national business, you would simply search for the service, e.g. “personal injury solicitor”. If you wanted a local business,...
Following on from her webinar, our Digital PR Manager Joanna takes you through the dos and don’ts of starting an SEO outreach strategy. Last time, we explored what Digital PR is and why it’s so necessary for your law firm. In this article,...
Keywords are an essential part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If someone uses Google to search for ‘divorce solicitors in Bristol’ and your website has a page with that exact phrase on it, Google is much more likely to show the searcher a...
The Google Page Experience Update, which we have written about before , is due to come into effect in less than one month and could have wide-reaching implications on the web. Just as Google making HTTPS a ranking signal drove adoption of HTTPS, or pushing...
Last week Google released a new tool that allows law firms and other businesses to manage their Google My Business reviews. Previously, trying to get a dishonest review removed from your profile was a real hassle with no definite way to request their...
Digital PR Manager, Joanna, takes you through why digital PR, including outreach and link building, should be a key element of your law site SEO strategy. You may think you know everything about how to rank highly on Google, Bing and Yahoo, but think...
Google Analytics 4 - What is it and do you need it for your Law Firm Website? Google Analytics 4 is the new version of Google Analytics, which has been created to eventually replace the existing universal analytics tracking. Google created Google Analytics...
This article is a companion piece to our previous 2020 Local Pack SEO Ranking Factors blog post. That post focused exclusively on factors that influence rankings in the local map pack (that appears above localised organic search results). This post will...
When it comes to divining the hidden secrets of Google’s core search algorithm and how that affects ranking in the local search pack, there is no user manual with instructions to follow. Even if there were, it would become outdated almost as soon as it...
On 3-Dec Google announced it was rolling out its first algorithm core update since the May 2020 core update. Many observers felt the update rolled out quickly, but as of 10-Dec Google has confirmed that the update is still rolling out . It is...
On a standard Google results page, the available real estate in a local map pack is restricted to just three local Google My Business (GMB) listings. This obviously means that the space is highly contested and much fought over. Ranking in one of the top...
Well one thing is for sure, it won’t help it. As the UK officially enters the greatest recession on record it is inevitable that many formerly thriving businesses will soon find themselves in desperate times and looking for ways to cut outgoing...
David Gilroy: Hi, David Gilroy here from Conscious Solutions, and we're doing another video session. And today, I'm really pleased to be joined by...
On 28 May 2020 Google pre-announced a new set of ranking factors based upon User Experience that will come into effect in 2021. Google giving this much notice before a major update is unprecedented. They are so committed to this direction that they have...
If you’ve been keeping regular tabs on your keyword rankings and organic search traffic levels, you may have noticed a bouncy ride beginning at the end of April 2020. Since that time there have been two major Google updates; a Core Update on 20 April...
We are living through unprecedented times right now. Never before in history have so many elements of the life we all take for granted been affected to such a degree :- Families are adapting to school closures and struggling to maintain a...
For those who are closely involved in the organic search engine marketing industry, it has become obvious that over the past few years Google has been rapidly accelerating the pace at which it releases major updates to its search algorithm. For the first...
Last week me and my SEO compadres, Jamie, Chris and Ed attended the two-day Brighton SEO convention. It was my first time in Brighton, a crazy city on the south coast of the UK that has transformed itself from an old-school English pleasant pier to a...
For those who have been watching the evolution of Google’s local search pack that sits above organic results on a typical S.E.R.P. page, there may be another seismic shift on the near-horizon. Over the years we have seen that crucial bit of contested...
A quick heads up to all owners of Google My Business profile listings: Google has added a new “Short Name” option in your “Info” tab and if left incomplete your formerly 100% complete listing is now an 85% complete listing. Incomplete...
The Google Medic Update & Mobile-First Indexing – The Impact on Law Firm’s Websites There are two factors that influence whether, where, how, and for which search terms any given page will be presented by Google in response to a...
Google has just confirmed another major series of search algorithm updates took place in mid-December 2017. In line with their long-admitted intention to ultimately shift search to mobile-first indexing, it appears that the largest impact on rankings did...
With developments in technology these days, we can almost become too reliant on it; from RSS feeds populating our websites, to chat bots answering questions for our website visitors. But what about when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)? How...
“Siri? Show me conveyancing firms near me” “OK” And whoosh – your personal assistant Siri has a selection of firms for you to choose from while you wash the dishes, have a bath or put the children to bed. No need for typing...
Last week in Las Vegas was one of the largest digital marketing conferences held anywhere (no, I did not go). It’s called http://www.pubcon.com/ Anyway, there was an IMPORTANT major announcement from Google, and when I say major, I mean REALLY...
Top 5 SEO Ranking Factors - Multi-Location Businesses There has been a lot of growing hype over the last few years regarding the concept of Local SEO. Local SEO strategies are what enable businesses to rank in the highly competitive local...
On 21 June, The SEO world received a bit of a shock during a pre-conference workshop at SMX Advanced Local Workshop in Seattle. Ali Turhan, Google’s Global Product Lead for Local Ads revealed a screen shot of a smart phone search result displaying a...
One of the many takeaways from Google’s recent Search Marketing Summit in Sydney is that they will be updating the page speed ranking factor as part of their latest, real-time mobile-friendly search algorithm. Google has been progressively giving more...
Google has just made the biggest change to the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) since the changes to the Map Pack back in August last year. The main change is the removal of the the adverts shown on the right hand side of the search results, which...
So here’s the scenario: you’ve had a website for years now, and over time, it’s slowly grown to have lots of pages full of useful information about all the great services you offer - and Google loves you because of it. You have a high...
Site structure is one of those topics that Webmasters sometimes agonise over. For example: will the fact that my content is on level 3 rather than level 1 influence how it is treated by Google? The short answer is “no” and this post tells you...
Moz, one of the leading companies in SEO research and tools has recently released a new study on the most important ranking factors for Local Search in 2015. These ranking factors are based on a survey that is filled out every year by top people in the...
Earlier this year, Google’s partnership with Twitter brought about an update that saw relevant tweets embedded into mobile search results. As of Friday, this has been expanded to desktop searches – a natural progression in the partnership of...
What is the Map Pack? The map pack is a section of the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) that is only shown for queries that Google believes have a local intent. It is separate from the normal organic search results and a business does not require a...
Over the past few years, making sure that your site is spam free, and is not associated with other spammy sites has become more and more important as Google gets more clever at working out what is a high quality site, and what is a low quality site. Today we...
Over the past few years, making sure that your site is spam free and not associated with other spammy sites has become more and more important as Google gets better at measuring the quality of a site. Today we look at a quick check that you can do...
To minimise the impact of spam on web users, Google has decided to refresh their definition of "doorway" pages in an attempt to prove the quality of the user's search experience. Websites maximise their search-ability with the use of doorway...
Do you have an SEO strategy in place? No? Want to boost your search engine results? Yes? Here are some really simple and quite clever tactics to help you learn how to market your brand and business service better....
According of Ofcom , 57% of the UK population used their phone to access the internet at the beginning of 2014[1], this is expected to have increased over 2014. Of those, 54% search on their smartphone every single day .[2] Google has addressed this by...
What is the Google Penguin Update? Google initially released an update called ‘Penguin’ on April the 24 th 2012 after several weeks of rumours about Google preparing an over optimisation penalty to target the spammy side of the SEO...
Brighton SEO Conference 2014 Brighton SEO is a bi-annual conference taking place in, err, Brighton, with a huge and diverse range of talks in all aspects of SEO from coding and social media through to how traditional marketing can leverage your SEO and...
Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools are the standard tools for any website when it comes to performance, diagnostics and general health. Google Analytics is most commonly used to give you an interpretation of how many visitors have come to your law...
What is HTTPS? HTTPS (or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) is a secure method of transferring data over the internet that is used to stop unwanted snooping of your communications. At this point in time, it's use is mostly limited to certain areas...
One of the primary jobs here at Conscious is to drive more online enquires to firms’ sites via our Search Marketing team. Most commonly, clients tend to measure initial success of a Search Marketing project by an improvement in search engine rankings...
One of the primary jobs here at Conscious is to drive more online enquires to firms’ sites via our Search Marketing team. Most commonly, clients tend to measure initial success of a Search Marketing project by an improvement in search engine rankings...
Google has been fine-tuning its search engine algorithm through the Panda updates in order to boost good quality sites to the top of the search results page across the legal sector. The focus is on content that is original, informative and useful. One...
It’s easy for smaller Law firm’s to think that they are losing out on Search Engine visibility to bigger firm’s in their local geographic areas. Ever since Google have been rolling out these militant updates such as Panda, it’s...
Yesterday we saw a pretty aggressive rollout of what is being dubbed Panda 4.0 . Initially Panda focused on specific niches like pay day loans, so nothing for the legal industry to worry about from a Google perspective. Further rollouts have happened...
Hello Conscious followers! Russell Gregory here - recently joined the mighty Conscious team as Search Marketing Manager, overseeing all things SEO, Social Media & Search Marketing related for all of our lovely clients. For more information on my...