Like it or not, any law firm trying to reach an audience on the web must grapple with Google. The company holds 90 percent of the search engine market, and when it sneezes, law firm marketers catch a cold.

Plenty of midsize and smaller firms are well aware of search engine optimization and spend a good deal of resources attempting to boost Google rankings of their marketing and thought leadership content. And rightly so—SEO matters. 

But there’s another, less-celebrated factor that Google uses to rank content, and it is particularly critical for law firms. The Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) score is used by Google to evaluate the quality and credibility of content surfaced by the company’s algorithm. EEAT, in Google’s words, is “designed to present helpful, reliable information that's primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings, in the top Search results.”

Certain topics receive more weight in search rankings—and more scrutiny. Google’s “Your Money, Your Life” (YMYL) designation includes subjects that could significantly affect the “health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society,” the company says. Law-related subjects fall squarely into this category, meaning law firm content is held to a higher standard than, say, a movie review or a cat video.

How Google Defines EEAT Scores

Evaluations are performed by search quality raters, people who provide information to help Google determine if its algorithms are working as they should. Raters are trained to look out for EEAT using guidelines set out by the company. 

According to those guidelines, Trustworthiness flows from:

• Experience. Search raters are asked to consider whether the content has been created by someone with “the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic.” Pages created by people “with a wealth of personal experience” are more likely to be trustworthy and “achieve their purpose well,” the guidelines say.
• Expertise. Does the individual or organization creating the content have the “necessary knowledge or skill” for the subject matter? “Different topics,” the guidelines say, “require different levels and types of expertise to be trustworthy.”
• Authoritativeness. Is the content creator or website a “go-to source” for information in a particular subject area? “While most topics do not have one official, authoritative website or content creator, when they do, that website or content creator is often among the most reliable and trustworthy sources,” the guidelines say.

The EEAT framework is designed to help Google avoid giving prominent rankings to dreck produced by content mills, which churn out low-quality, AI-created, or human-written information and then use keywords and algorithms to boost search results. Google recommends that content creators carefully evaluate their own content to ensure it is meeting EEAT standards and to consider bringing trusted outsiders who can “provide an honest assessment” of their site.

Improving Quality and Credibility

Google spells out in its search documentation ways authors, web developers, and marketers can ensure EEAT principles are being met. Based upon those recommendations, here are several ways midsize and smaller law firms can help improve the quality and credibility of their content.

1. Put Clients First. “Creating helpful, reliable people-first content” is Google’s most important recommendation. For law firms, this means building educational material and thought leadership that directly addresses the needs of current and prospective clients. It may be tempting to try to outsmart the algorithm by stuffing a promotional piece full of keywords, but given EEAT standards, this approach is likely to backfire. Instead, prioritize clients and their questions, and create actionable takeaways they can use. 

2. Focus on Substance. Google recommends that content should be substantive and complete and contain “insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond the obvious.”  Provide context and potential solutions or best practices (without tipping over into legal advice), and try to engage readers by explaining issues concisely and with a minimum of legalese. Remember, when marketing to larger businesses, non-lawyers are increasingly involved in buying and vetting legal services.

3. Be Original. Originality also matters in the EEAT rating. Once, I calculated that at least 50 firms—including the one I was consulting—had written essentially the same content about a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Unfortunately for those firms, most media outlets covering the court had written similar articles, as well. (Guess which coverage Google preferred?) Law firms aren’t news organizations; they need not follow each other or the media pack. To stand out, they should create content that does not already exist. Many of the firms writing about the high court could have made it clearer why the decision mattered to a particular industry or client segment. This approach would have allowed them to put their own spin on the issue and target a market they wished to reach.

4. Convey Credibility. Google notes that content should be presented “in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page.” Educational content produced by most law firms is created and vetted by highly educated professionals who tend to be experts in a particular practice area. Firms can help make this fact clear to site visitors and to Google by including bylines, author bios, and links to further information about the author. Consider adding longer-form content such as white papers and e-books on key subjects to help demonstrate the depth of the knowledge your firm offers. This can help burnish the site’s reputation as a well-trusted authority on the topics it covers.

5. Avoid Content Red Flags. If you answer “yes” to the question, “Is the content on your site primarily made to attract visits from search engines?,” this should be “a warning sign that you should reevaluate how you're creating content,” Google says. Other red flags include:

• throwing content on many topics against the wall in the blind hope that one or more of them will do well in search results. 
• merely recapitulating someone else’s insights without adding anything of value. 
• writing about trending topics, even if they don’t have much to do with your existing audience.
• deploying AI tools to flood the site with content on many topics. Google says it is not penalizing AI-written content, and “if you see AI as an essential way to help you produce content that is helpful and original, it might be useful to consider.” On the other hand, AI should not be used as “an inexpensive, easy way to game search engine rankings.” And the content produced by AI tools should be accurate, useful, and original.

In the end, a client-first approach to law firm content means having a clearly identifiable audience, demonstrating expertise, and leaving a reader feeling they have learned, in Google’s words, “enough about a topic to help achieve their goal” and are leaving your content feeling like they've had a satisfying experience.”

Do you have questions, feedback, or topics you would like The Edge to cover? Send a note to david@good2bsocial.com.