It’s time for the Consultwebs monthly Legal Digital Marketing Industry Updates! Each month, we round up the must-know legal digital marketing updates for busy attorneys. Find this month’s highlights of bite-sized, need-to-know news below.

Let’s Get to the Updates!

🤖AI

• Microsoft published guidance on how duplicate content affects AI search visibility, explaining that AI systems cluster similar pages and may surface unintended versions. In short, cleaning up near-duplicates can influence which version of your content gets surfaced when a Microsoft AI system needs a single page to ground an answer.

🔎SEO

• Google completed the December core update. It started on December 11, 2025, and was completed approximately 18 days later on December 29, 2025. Google called this update “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”

📣Paid Advertising               

• OpenAI is in the beginning stages of putting ads in ChatGPT. These ads will be personalized to the conversation but clearly labeled so that the user can easily identify that the ad is separate from the organic answer. It is in early planning stages and has not been implemented yet, so the formatting is tentative and subject to change. The opportunity to place advertisements in OpenAI greatly increases the amount of visibility a law firm can receive in AI tools, reaching new audiences. We will update as more information becomes available.
• According to our trusted LSA rep, Google is rolling out a new “Search Intent” filter in the Local Services Ads (LSA) Provider Portal that gives law firms clearer insight into where their leads are actually coming from and what they’re paying for. There will be a new Search Intent column in the Leads Inbox and summary, and new filters in reporting to break down spend and leads by: All, Category, and Direct Business Search. The full rollout was scheduled for January 8th, but there have been delays. The changes will help law firms make more informed marketing and budgeting decisions.

📱Social Media

• Meta is informing some users that they will soon be restricted to sharing only TWO links in their posts per month, unless they pay for its Meta Verified subscription service. To be clear, right now this is a limited test, so relatively few Pages are impacted. But understandably, a lot of users are also seeking more information on the change, and whether it could be expanded to all Pages. 
• As this is in a small-scale test phase, we advise attorneys not to bend to Meta’s request. The fewer businesses that buy into this means their test is likelier to fail and not be rolled out to more pages. There are no guarantees from Meta that if you pay the additional fee, those link posts will receive additional reach. From our perspective, it is a cash grab from the social media platform.
• AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity (LLMs) are getting their information from LinkedIn 4 to 5 times more than last year. A study taken in October 2025 shows that LLMs are citing LinkedIn more than any other source aside from Reddit and YouTube. Having a verified profile and posting articles directly to LinkedIn can improve your law firm’s visibility in AI search engines.
• Meta is informing some users that they will soon be restricted to sharing only TWO links in their posts per month, unless they pay for its Meta Verified subscription service. To be clear, right now this is a limited test, so relatively few Pages are impacted. But understandably, a lot of users are also seeking more information on the change, and whether it could be expanded to all Pages. As this is in a small scale test phase, we advise attorneys not to bend at Meta’s request. The fewer businesses that buy into this means their test is more likely to fail and not be rolled out to more pages. There are no guarantees from Meta that if you pay the additional fee that those link posts will receive additional reach. From our perspective, it is a cash grab from the social media platform. 

Stay LAWsome–We’ll See You Again Next Month!

Thanks for checking out this month’s roundup! See you next time with more tips, trends, and insights to help your law firm grow.