Google has once again altered the search engine optimization landscape with its decision to highlight generative AI-created summaries in its search results page—a move some digital marketers are lamenting as a crushing blow for efforts to drive traffic to their websites.

What does this mean for midsize law firms attempting to break through the noise of the internet to reach clients? It depends on how you use Google search as a content marketing tool.

If you’re creating material solely designed to shove keywords into the algorithm’s gaping maw, Google’s “AI Overview” feature appears to be bad news. Think iceberg and Titanic. On the other hand, if you are creating fresh, original thought leadership content aimed at educating your clients, you have grounds for hope—even optimism—that your search efforts will bear fruit.

As Google itself has put it, the company’s “automated ranking systems are designed to present helpful, reliable information that's primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings.”

What Are AI Overviews?

AI Overviews give users an artificial intelligence-generated summary of answers to their search queries. These appear at the top of the search engine results page and include a box linking to other websites for more information, with snippets teasing material from those sites.

The overviews do not appear with every search—at least not yet. The company has said it is hoping AI Overviews are generated by more complex searches that might require users to ask multiple questions to get to the answers they desire. And like most artificial intelligence tools, AI Overviews are not without their problems. Google has been under fire for AI-generated search results that have provided wrong or dangerous answers to user queries.

The problem for traditional SEO is that once the AI answers appear, Google users are far less likely to click a link to explore further details. If you’re getting an adequate answer to your query from a summary at the top of a page, why scroll down the page or leave the site?

That said, websites featured in the box next to the AI Overview are more likely to receive traffic from Google. The box is also something of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval, as it indicates Google has found the information on the website relevant and of sufficient quality to highlight.

Thought Leadership’s Role

At Good2bSocial, we have long advocated for educational thought leadership content as the most effective method for highlighting a firm’s credibility and subject-matter expertise. And the websites featured in AI Overviews are generally those with higher value, credible, and educational content.

By definition, thought leadership is expert information provided by those who have deep experience in a given area or on a specific topic. In our experience, firms that focus on producing this kind of content are usually playing to their strengths by offering useful material that actually serves their clients’ interests.

In their annual survey on business-to-business thought leadership efforts, Edelman and LinkedIn found that more than half of B2B decision-makers and C-suite leaders are heavy consumers of thought leadership. And three-quarters of decision-makers said that thought leadership was more trustworthy for assessing a firm's capabilities than traditional marketing materials.

Firms that consistently produce high-value thought leadership content are more likely to attract new clients and retain existing ones, the survey found. Nine out of 10 decision-makers surveyed said they were more likely to invite firms producing strong thought leadership to participate in an RFP process.

Questions About Content Quality

To improve the odds that your messaging will break through, Google suggests that content creators ask themselves several questions about the quality of their offerings:

1. Is the content you are producing providing original information, research, or analysis?
2. Is the content substantial? Does it delve deeply into the subject matter? Is it complete or comprehensive?
3. Are you simply restating the obvious or providing new insights or thought-provoking analysis?
4. If you are relying on other sources, are you merely copying or are you adding value and doing something original?
5. Is your headline helpful? Does it adequately describe and summarize the content? Is the headline exaggerated or designed for shock value?
6. Would you share the content with a friend? Is it something you would expect a book or periodical to quote as a reference? Is it valuable when compared to other pages that appear in search results?
7. Is the content poorly produced? Is it rife with spelling and grammatical errors? Does it look like it was built on an assembly line for posting across a large number of sites?

Don’t Forget to EEAT

You should also consider whether your content is adequately demonstrating experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or what Google calls “EEAT.”

While EEAT is not a specific ranking factor in the company’s algorithm, Google says that its systems “give even more weight to content that aligns with strong EEAT for topics that could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society.” Google calls these "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL) topics. Law-related topics fall within the YMYL category.

Google employs raters to examine search results and evaluate the sites and content they surface. The guidelines for search raters encourage them to look at:

• Experience. Has the content been created by someone with, in Google’s words, “the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic?”
• Expertise. Does the individual or organization creating the content have the knowledge or skill for the subject matter?
• Authoritativeness. Is the content creator or website a “go-to source” for information in a particular subject area?
• Trustworthiness. Is the information high-quality and trustworthy, or is it meant to deceive?

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.

If you answer “yes” when asking, “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. By strategically developing and sharing thought leadership content, law firms can serve their clients and improve the likelihood that their content will continue to receive a boost from search.

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