The Helpful Content Update for Lawyers: What You Need to Know

Let’s dive into Google’s Helpful Content Update (and subsequent updates) and what it means for law firm websites. This update, introduced back in 2022, fundamentally changed how legal websites need to approach their content to rank well in search, at least for those law firms trying to game search engines with overly optimized content.

What is the Helpful Content Update?

Essentially, the goal of the update is to prioritize pages that provide genuinely useful, accurate information to users rather than content that’s created solely to game the search engines. Google’s getting much better at distinguishing between content that truly helps people versus content engineered just to rank.

So what exactly is the update looking at?

• Subject expertise – Your content needs to showcase deep knowledge of legal topics. This means providing accurate explanations and practical advice.
• Original insights – Are you adding new perspectives or information, or just rehashing what’s already out there? Original content is key.
• First-hand experience – Does your writing demonstrate direct experience handling actual legal cases and client situations? That’s crucial.
• Overall site quality – It’s not enough to just have a few strong pages. Google’s looking at your entire website. Every page needs to maintain high standards.

The Helpful Content Update and E-E-A-T

What’s interesting is the increased emphasis on E-E-A-T – experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. As a lawyer, you need to clearly demonstrate your track record with similar cases, your expertise in your practice areas, your authority in the legal field, and the reliability of your advice. Legal content falls under YMYL – “Your Money or Your Life.” In other words, Google holds legal pages to a higher standard because bad legal advice can seriously harm readers.

The Challenge for Law Firms

Law firm websites face some specific challenges with this update:

• Having old blog posts with outdated legal info can actually hurt your entire site’s ranking. It’s not enough to just write new content, you need to clean up your existing content too.
• Generic legal content copied from other sources gets filtered out. You can’t just copy and paste.
• Pages stuffed with obvious location-based keywords see reduced visibility. Think “Phoenix car accident lawyer” repeated 10 times on a page. That’s not going to cut it.
• If you’re missing clear signals of your credentials or expertise, your authority takes a hit. You can’t be shy about showcasing your knowledge.

What can you do?

So how can lawyers adapt? I’ll break it down:

1. Focus on answering real questions that potential clients have. This means creating clear, jargon-free practice area pages, building out FAQ sections based on actual client questions, writing blog posts about recent legal changes impacting your clients, and sharing anonymized case studies.
2. Prioritize quality over quantity. Go through your existing content and remove anything duplicative (especially across location pages), beef up thin service descriptions, cut keyword stuffing that sacrifices readability, and include relevant stats and case law references to add depth.
3. Keep your content current. Regularly review old blog posts, update with new info about legal changes, get rid of outdated advice, and fix any broken links to legal resources. Fresh content matters.
4. Showcase your expertise loud and clear. Create detailed guides walking through legal processes, record videos explaining common legal issues, include client testimonials with specific case details, and link to articles you’ve published or speaking events. Don’t be humble – prove your expertise.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, the Helpful Content Update rewards law firms that genuinely put their clients first in their content strategy. It’s about creating content that is truly helpful, accurate, and showcases your unique value as a lawyer.

If you’re looking to get started, here’s what I recommend:

1. Audit your existing content for quality and accuracy
2. Remove or update anything outdated
3. Add clear expertise signals across your site
4. Create new content laser focused on real client needs

By aligning your content with Google’s emphasis on helpfulness AND demonstrating your legal chops, you’ll be in a strong position to improve your search visibility and attract more qualified leads.

And of course, if diving into the world of content strategy feels overwhelming, you can always tap an SEO expert (wink wink) to help bring your website up to par with Google’s latest standards. The key thing is not to ignore this update – it’s a fundamental shift in how law firms need to approach their content. Embrace it as an opportunity to better serve your potential clients.

That’s my take! Let me know if you have any other questions – happy to dive deeper on any of these points.