Attorney Advertising - Personal Injury TV ads

A relatively new wrinkle to Google’s search algorithm has involved a feature called Google Maps. Google Maps is a feature of the organic search results that displays local businesses on a map that are close to the localization that you are searching. So, for example, if you search “personal injury lawyer minneapolis,” the following results appear.



As you can see, the map results appear above any of the other organic search results. What this means is that the Google Map feature is a very, very important part of search engine optimization because it is the first thing a user sees when performing a search on Google. Results in Bing are the same. Here is a quick screenshot of the same search but on Bing.



Again, Bing displays the map listings above the other organic listings.

What does this mean for your law firm? This means that if your firm isn’t ranking well in the local sections of Google and Bing, that your firm could stand to improve its SEO.

How do you rank well on Google Maps and Bing Local? Here are a few steps you can take to ensure your law firm is making the most of its local listings.

Register for Google Local and Bing Local

Do a search for your firm on Google and Bing. Does a map listing pop up in the organic search results? If so, your firm is listed in Google and Bing local. If not, go to these two pages and register your firm.

Google Local
Bing Local

There are step-by-step instructions to register your business for the above local search services. Once you have registered, your website should begin appearing when you search for your own firm. Now, the next step is to get your website to rank for larger keyword searches.

Add content to your local listings

Google and Bing both look for content as a ranking factor for your local page. Adding videos, pictures, descriptions of your business amongst other things help your business rank for local searches. Let’s take a look at a well-optimized Google Maps listing and what sort of content is included. I did a search for, “new york personal injury lawyer,” and these were the results for the Google Maps section.



So, here is what the Google Maps page looks like for the number one ranking PI lawyer in New York City.



As you can see, this law firm has updated their Google Maps page with pictures, video of their law firm, and a keyword rich description of their practice. Let’s take a look at their details page so you can see what type of information search engines like.



The details of their firm have keywords in them, but they follow the basic rule of SEO in not stuffing descriptions areas with nothing but keywords. Instead, the description gives the user a great overview of their practice in few words and with relevant keywords. This details page also pulls information from SuperPages.com and findlaw.com, which will benefit your firm if you have information on other websites such as these.

While this firm has a great Google Maps page, there is one area where it can be improved.

Reviews

One area that can help immediately boost your firm’s rankings on Google Maps is a review of your firm on a reputable review source. I discussed some of these outlets in a previous blog post, but as you can see in the picture above, four of the top seven lawyers on Google Maps in New York City have reviews for their firms. In competitive markets, this is very important and will help your other organic SEO efforts as well.

If you need any assistance with your internet marketing strategy, please contact us at Network Affiliates today. We would be happy to discuss everything about your internet strategy from your website all the way down to your Google Maps efforts. We look forward to speaking with you soon.