Below are some of the best features you can leverage for your law firm to get more real estate on a Google search result (SERP). More real estate can equal more impressions and more potential clients visiting your site. Before you dive in, you need to understand a few terms: structured data, schema, and rich results.

• Structured data: Per Google, structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, and so on.
• Schema: Specific code (much like html) used on a website to form structured data, which could help trigger rich results in Google. Think of schema as the mini instructions about content on your website that you are providing to Google for their structured data. 
• Rich results: On Google, visually enhanced results or interactive data such as images, star ratings, or prices.

Google has changed a lot since its launch in 1997. The search engine results pages (SERPs) are now an immersive user experience. As of this writing, there are 32 available “features” Google can trigger on any given SERP: things like local business information, F.A.Q.s, and news stories. You have probably seen some of them in the searches that you have performed recently. 

The way to trigger these features is to implement schema on your website. This is something your web developer, S.E.O. agency, or marketing technologist can do for you. Schema allows Google to discover more information about an asset. Schema provides the context for structured data on Google, which can trigger rich results on the SERPs. Take a look at the below result for Apple. 

We’ve highlighted all the areas triggered because Apple has utilized schema on their website. Admittedly this query isn’t typical of what clients and potential clients may be searching, but we wanted to illustrate how much real estate is available. An important note: there is no evidence that utilizing schema will improve ranking results, but using schema to trigger rich results can give you more real estate on Google, which could help increase your site’s click-through rate. 

F.A.Q.

In your search travels, you have likely come across the ‘People Also Ask’ box on a Google SERP. For your firm website to be eligible for these results, you must implement F.A.Q. structured data. 

Per schema.org, the official definition of an F.A.Q. page is “a WebPage presenting one or more ‘Frequently asked questions.’”

Where to fit an F.A.Q. on your law firm website?

There are a few places where F.A.Q.s make sense. After writing the F.A.Q.s, including answers, your S.E.O. agency can create schema. Our first recommendation is to place them on your practice area pages. Clients and potential clients are asking Google questions. If you have F.A.Q.’s on your practice area pages, you may help answer one of these questions, which will lead users to your website. 

Our next recommendation is to place them on blog pages, but this is more of a specific use case. For example, let’s say you are a construction law firm and have a post on how to find asbestos in a home. You may want to include F.A.Q.s such as where to look for asbestos, how to identify asbestos, and if asbestos is in the post. We don’t recommend you include F.A.Q.s on every blog post or resource page, but if the topic calls for it, it may be an excellent way to garner more attention from Google. 

Video

We know that Google is the largest search engine, but do you know what the second largest is? YouTube (owned by Google). According to Forbes, YouTube accounts for nearly 3 billion searches per month. How does that impact your firm? 

Content takes many forms these days, and video is surging with the likes of reels, TikTok, and YouTube shorts. Maybe the latest TikTok dance challenge isn’t the right content for your firm, but explainer videos, webinar reposts, and podcasts are all options. 

As we saw with the F.A.Q.s, using structured data can help trigger a rich result on Google SERPs. In addition to adding video to your website, you’ll want to ask your S.E.O. agency or developer to add video schema to allow Google to understand better details about your video, such as thumbnail, date, duration, and description. You can also include things like key moments that serve as chapters of a video (which may be useful for webinar reposts.)

Local Business

The old real estate adage, “location, location location,” can also apply to Google searches, which are becoming increasingly local these days. It’s important to declare to Google what kind of business you are. This will allow you to show up in rich results when a potential client searches for the “best law firm near me.” Leveraging the local business schema, you can tell Google about your address, service area, different departments within your organization, logo, number of employees, and more. 

Article

We’ve touched on the importance of content in previous posts, Three Things: Creating Effective Marketing Content, + 5 Steps To Get Started With Search Engine Optimization. You want your lawyers to be thought leaders and subject matter experts in their practice areas. Clients and potential clients will go to your attorneys because they trust them, and writing useful content is one way to build that trust. 

Leveraging article schema will allow you to give Google more information about your thought leadership articles, like when the article was published, who wrote it, and what the article’s title is. Your article may also be shown on SERPs in a carousel-like this.

Event

Do you have webinars or in-person events? Getting the word out about these events via social media and your website is essential, but what about Google? With event structured data, your firm can help Google natively display your event in search results and in some instances, allow people to R.S.V.P. directly from the SERPs. 

To learn more about structured data and implementation specifics, you can visit Google Search Central.

(1) “Understand How Structured Data Works | Google Search Central | Documentation.” Google Developers, developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data.

(2) Wagner, Adam. “Council Post: Are You Maximizing the Use of Video in Your Content Marketing Strategy?” Forbes, 17 May 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/05/15/are-you-maximizing-the-use-of-video-in-your-content-marketing-strategy/?sh=40dbd1a23584. Accessed 26 Sept. 2022.