David Arato:
There is no such thing as the right length of content, the right amount to post. Is your content helpful? Is it something your readers want to read?
Chris Dreyer:
Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. I’m your Host, Chris Dreyer, Founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the legal marketing company that the best firms hire when they want the ranking’s traffic cases other law firm marketing agencies can’t deliver. On this show, I’ve been fortunate enough tolearn from some of the best minds in personal injury. And now we are bringingthem together in one place at the first ever PIM conference. PIMcon is comingto Scottsdale this September. We’re laser focused on one thing, getting moreleads, not talking about just any leads, but quality leads that actually turninto cases. That’s it. That’s our entire focus. Not just theory, we’re talkingabout actionable strategies that have been tried and tested by the best in thebusiness. If you’re looking to conquer personal injury marketing and go fromgood to go, PIMcon is where you need to be. You gather the top personal injurymarketing experts to share their secrets, and believe me, this is cutting edgestuff you won’t find anywhere else.
Don’t miss out on another potential client. Grab your ticket to PIMcon now and get ready to supercharge your practice. Your future self will thank you. Go to pimcon.org. All right, let’s dive in. Today we’re diving into a crucial topic, dominating your market through powerful online content. Let’s face it, having a website isn’t enough. You need a website that attracts leads. But here’s the challenge. We’re drowning in AI-generated fluffand Google keeps changing the rules. So how can you cut through the noise and truly connect with potential clients? We’ve got the perfect expert.
Joining us today is David Arato, Founder of Lexicon LegalContent. David’s team has helped over 300 law firms revolutionize their online presence. Their writers aren’t just marketers, they’re lawyers. This expertise is absolutely critical, especially with Google’s recent major content algorithm update. That’s exactly why I’m thrilled to have David here. With Google’s latest helpful content rollout, there’s no one better equipped to guide you through these changes. David’s unique blend of legal and content marketing knowledge makes him the go-to expert for law firms struggling to stand out online. Get ready for a master class in creating content that not only ranks but resonates with potential clients. Here’s David Arato, Founder at LexiconLegal Content.
David Arato:
ChatGPT was released November 30, 2002. Two weeks later,Google adds an extra E to E-A-T with the expertise. Now, clearly AI can’t have expertise in anything, right? So I think that was the first move in an anti-AI stance. Now with that being said, I don’t think Google’s anti AI, I thinkGoogle’s anti-AI spam. So this helpful content update is really focusing on having helpful content that just demonstrates experience, expertise, authority,and trust.
Chris Dreyer:
We were joking, we were laughing about this. I think the algorithm hasn’t worked as well as they would hope. Maybe you could share some of the things that you’ve seen, some of the volatility out there.
David Arato:
Well, I think just a few hours ago, Barry Schwartz reported that John Mueller’s site was de-indexed. John Mueller, being the search liaison, I believe, at Google.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah, so I would say if you’re a law firm listening and maybe you’ve experienced some traffic decline, that I would sit back. There’s always a little bit of things that they mess up and have to roll back. We monitor our clients on a weekly basis, their impressions, their clicks, and we’ve seen some volatility. So I would say kind of batten down the hatches, so to speak. Let’s lean into the expertise component. On the outside, it’s like, yeah, you need experts, but how do you actually make your content show expertise?
David Arato:
Well, I think all four of these factors in EAT are related. Your About Us page is extraordinarily important these days, showingthat where you went to school, have you published, have you spoken, your caseresults? Of course, if your jurisdiction allows you to talk about that, right?In terms of demonstrating that expertise in-depth content, which also speaks to the authority of the content, which also builds trust. So all these factors are related. And the truth is, I think it comes to in-depth content that explains the law in a reader-friendly way.
Chris Dreyer:
So are you saying citing your content, citing the sources, what goes into that?
David Arato:
Well, I think it’s finding good outbound links, right? If you’re going to cite a statute, cite to the official statute, the .gov, the.edu, or to a court resource that discusses that statute in depth to show your readers that you have done your research and this is accurate content. And in fact, in the search quality guidelines that Google puts out regularly, it’s clear that the biggest factor is trust. And it also indicates to the quality raters that if a website or a page shows incorrect information, that page is of the lowest trust level.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah. And I think that’s where individuals have gotten into trouble with using AI, and it spits out things that are incorrect. And so there has to be human oversight. For the record, I’m not saying, don’t use AI. I think you just have to use it as a tool and just monitor what it’s putting out.
David Arato:
Well, Chris, I think that’s absolutely right. I think that it’s just a tool like anything else that we’ve used for years. Grammarly runs on an AI algorithm. We’ve used that to do the first initial check of our content for a decade now. This is just another tool in the writer’s toolbox to create better content faster. But of course, it needs to be highly, highly edited and checked by humans and subject matter experts.
Chris Dreyer:
From what I’ve seen, just my own experience testing Surfer and Neuron Writer and some of these others, it’s like they’re one step away from plagiarism, right? They’re calling from the same top 10 sources, and I think that’s what Google’s trying to prevent, but maybe you could speak to that as well.
David Arato:
Well, I think by definition, AI-generated content is going to be generic and, as you said, close to plagiarism, because the way the technology operates, it is guessing the next best word. This is a reductionist thing to say, but I think it helps people understand how it’s working. It’s highly advanced predictive text, the way that your phone or Word knows what should be coming next. AI is doing the same thing just at a bigger scale. Soit’s reading the corpus of data that it’s been given, and spitting somethingout that is going to be, again, by definition, generic and down the middle. It’s never going to be thought leadership. So in order to use AI to create content that’s demonstrating E-A-T or double E-A-T, you need to ensure that you’re adding information gain, you’re adding a human element, you’re doing some original research, and giving it something it doesn’t know.
Chris Dreyer:
I love that phrase information gain. And that’s so true, and that’s why a lot of individuals, a lot of SEO agencies, you see these doorway pages. It’s like they take the exact same landing page and they throw a different city in the title. And there has to be some unique component, whether it’s driving directions or different statute or what have you. Otherwise, why would Google recognize it as being different?
David Arato:
Absolutely. Or adding information that is not within the data it’s been trained on. So in ChatGPT’s case, post-2021.
Chris Dreyer:
All right, let’s cut through the noise and talk about search engine marketing for law firms. This field is always changing, and there’s no magic formula that works for everyone. You’ve probably heard all sorts of advice, post four blogs a month, now you need 30. Make sure each piece is exactly 1500 words. It’s overwhelming, and quite frankly, it’s a lot of BS .But here’s what really matters. Quality, relevance, and the user experience. Google’s getting smarter, and it’s not just about hitting some arbitrary wordcount anymore. It’s about creating content that genuinely helps your potential clients. Now, this looks different depending on the firm size and resources. So let’s break it down into two scenarios. First, we’ll talk about how the solo attorney working with a tight budget might work through this. Then we’ll shift gears to larger, well-established firms. When you’ve got more to work with, how do you leverage that capital to dominate your market? David explains.
David Arato:
Well, I think that it’s pretty clear that Google wants your website to be regularly updated. It doesn’t want your website to sit there, so it’s going to fall down in the rankings. So that’s pretty clear to everybody, right? So one thing to do I think, is to see what your competitorsare doing and do more of it or do it better. Now, Google has also said in their guidance very clearly, “There is no such thing as the right length ofcontent, the right amount to post.” Is your content helpful? Is it something your readers want to read? That being said, if you’re going to establish these four things, expertise, experience, authority, and trust, you can’t do that in 300 words. You just can’t do it, especially in the legal space. You’re going to have to go into depth on something, right, or on the topic you’re discussing.
So we like to say start with blogs of 1,000 words. That gives you enough time to explain the legal topic, explain how you can help the reader, and let them know how to get in touch with you. Again, can’t do it in 500 words. Regarding keeping your website up to date, we recommend posting weekly. Again, it really depends on your market. What are your competitors doing? What’s working in that market is the first place to start. Now, to your second question, the bigger law firm, if we’re talking about personal injury in Los Angeles, in New York, Morgan & Morgan, that’s who you’re going after, right? Again, maybe it’s a daily posting, but you have to ensure that the content that you’re creating is original and helpful. You don’t regurgitate the same content over and over again just to post.
Chris Dreyer:
Back when you started quite a while ago, some queries didn’t exist.
David Arato:
Yeah.
Chris Dreyer:
So if you wrote a long tail on a query, you would rank just by the nature of being the only one, what’s the balance of new content production versus the refreshing and the pruning?
David Arato:
Obviously, creating new content on a regular basis is very important, and there’s no shortage of topics to discuss in the legal space. Wecan always go a level deeper and discuss that topic and discuss it in a waythat’s of importance to the readers and your potential clientele as a law firm. That said, if you’ve got a page that’s performing really, really well and suddenly it’s not performing well, it’s time to look at that page and figure out what’s going on. It may be the case that the content’s bloated and it’s not helpful to readers because no one wants to read 10,000 words on car accidents. It also maybe the case that it’s too thin.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah, and I think that’s where a lot of times the SEO agency, I’ll put my kind of scapegoat hat on here.
David Arato:
Please do.
Chris Dreyer:
A lot of times, the SEO agency may do good work, but if they have a poor design and the content isn’t formatted well so that the user can get the information they need, they come to the website, and it’s a poor website, they leave.
David Arato:
Sure, sure. And I think that initial user experience is so important, right? And this speaks again to content format. We do our best not to create these huge chunks of text that no one wants to read. Whether we do that with a design element such as an accordion that you can expand and open the section, or use bullet points to clearly provide information to the readers. The formatting of that content is also so important to the way the user interacts with it.
Chris Dreyer:
As a follow-up to that, just some general guidance here.So, say you have a personal injury attorney, he’s an auto accident attorney, how often should he be updating his content? Maybe it depends, but versus the general attorney, just some general guidance.
David Arato:
Sure. So I think with the mass tort being such a competitive space, that content should be updated much more regularly than the car accident attorney. And again, you said it yourself, it does depend. It depends on the market, the competitiveness of the market, and what the other firms in the area are doing. Watching that, and again, looking at it and saying,” Okay, they’re doing it this. We’re going to do this plus 25%.”
Chris Dreyer:
Let’s dive into one of the most debated topics in legal SEO, content versus backlinks. We’ve got two major camps. On one side, just focus on great content. That’s what Google wants. They believe it. If you nail your content, the rankings will follow. The other side is all about links. They’ll tell you without promoting your content and building those links, even the best articles might as well be invisible online. David plants his feet firmly on both sides of the dividing line.
David Arato:
I think SEO is a holistic pursuit. Content’s a huge part of it. That happens to be what we do, and we will help agencies and law firms with content. But if you really want your content in front of as many people as you can, I think promoting it on social media, obtaining backlinks, guestposting, putting out as much omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel content marketing is the answer. Be everywhere your clientele is.
Chris Dreyer:
I love that answer. And then I also wanted to speak to maybe the difference between copywriting versus general content and call to actions and things like that. So how does your agency specifically handle thedifferent nuances that comes to taglines and positioning and things like that? How do you guys incorporate that into your content?
David Arato:
What we do is very much a hybrid of copywriting and thought leadership content, right? Because I think SEO content is what Google is trying to penalize, content that is clearly created to manipulate search engine rankings. That being said, the keyword placement in formatting and using HTML tags and internal link, it would be ridiculous to say that doesn’t matter. So it’s a balancing act of using SEO best practices while creating content that is written for human readers to again, be helpful while demonstrating the things Google wants it to demonstrate.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah, and I keep hearing you state this. Helpful, helpful, helpful. The expertise, and that’s what Google’s trying to avoid, is they don’t want spam hitting their index because then it takes a lot more money to crawl, and then that leads to complications and showing the best search results. A few other things too. Look, we’ve had other content agencies on the show. We’ve had Verblio on the show, we’ve had Textbrokers. There’s a lot of individuals in thes pace that generate content, right? How do you guys set yourself apart? How are you different from the other content agencies in the space?
David Arato:
Well, I think it’s that we’re a journey-led, right? That we are in the space niche down, specifically working with law firms and agencies with law firm clients. In a regulated space like this, it is absolutely critical that your content is accurate. It’s absolutely critical that your content is demonstrating expertise. And without a specialized team, it’s really difficult to do that. And we focused on that space in such a way that I’m going to say it, I think we’re the best in the market.
Chris Dreyer:
Dave, where can our audience go to learn more and get in touch?
David Arato:
Well, our website is Www.lexacomlegalcontent.com. You can email me directly at David@lexiconlegalcontent.com. @Arato is my Twitter. I’m onLinkedIn. And also we have a special offer for your listeners atlexiconlegalcontent.com/PIM.
Chris Dreyer:
All right, y’all, let’s go over the pinpoints. A recap of the key takeaways from today’s episode. AI is here to stay, but it’s not the magic bullet. Some think it is. Here’s the deal. In the E-E-A-T equation, the second E, expertise, can’t come from AI alone. It comes from you, the attorney, citing your sources, providing rock-solid outbound links. This isn’t just about SEO, it’s about building trust. Remember, we’re operating in a regulated space.Your content has to be accurate or you’re dead in the water. When you’re creating content, think like a scholar, back up your claims with links to reputable sources, government websites, court resources, and respected legal publications. This isn’t just for Google. It shows your potential clients that you know your stuff, not just making things up.
David Arato:
And in fact, in the search quality guidelines that Google puts out regularly, it’s clear that the biggest factor is trust. It also indicates to the quality raters that if a website or a page shows incorrect information ,that page is of the lowest trust level.
Chris Dreyer:
Sometimes less is more. Sure, you might need more than 1,000 words to explain a complex legal topic, but remember, most people don’t want to read a novel to get any answer. They want the info, and they want it now. Get smart with the content structure. Use dropdown menus and expandable elements to create a user-friendly experience. And please write for your audience, not for the lawyers.
David Arato:
The formatting of that content is also so important to the way the user interacts with it.
Chris Dreyer:
Be helpful. Put yourself in the potential client’s shoes. What do they need? What do they want? Your content should solve problems,answer questions and show why you’re the go-to expert in your field. Do that consistently, and you’ll be head and shoulders above the competition.
David Arato:
You have to ensure that the content that you’re creating is original and healthy. Don’t regurgitate the same content over and over again just to post.
Chris Dreyer:
Unreasonable success comes from consistently doing what others won’t. It’s not about cutting corners and gaining the system. It’s about providing genuine value, demonstrating real expertise, and making your content as user-friendly as possible. For more information about David, check out the show notes. Before you go, do me a solid and smash that follow button to subscribe. I sincerely appreciate it. And you won’t want to miss out on the next episode of Personal Injury Mastermind with me, Chris Dreyer, Founder and CEO of Rankings.io. All right, everybody, thanks for hanging out. See you next time. I’m out.
