Paige Cook | | Artificial Intelligence
DIgital marketing technology concept. Internet.

As you cross the mid-year mark focused on winning cases, we’ve been tracking the major digital shifts that will define your law firm’s marketing success this season.

Here are the highlights for this month 👇

Let’s Get to the Updates!

🔍 Search

In this guide, Google maps out how to optimize for generative AI. It answers questions like: Is SEO still relevant for gen AI search? (The answer is YES!) and addresses common misconceptions.

Google’s new agentic features — including AI Mode calling local businesses on a user’s behalf — confirm that Search is shifting from a list of links toward an execution layer that completes tasks for users. The website’s job is changing from “destination” to “data source.” For law firms, that means accurate, machine-readable information about practice areas, intake availability, jurisdictions, and consultation policies — delivered through clean semantic HTML and Schema.org markup — is now table stakes. If an AI agent can’t parse it, it can’t surface you when a user asks it to find them a lawyer.

The Google core update added inline links to Google search. This means that instead of source links like a lawyer’s LinkedIn or website showing up at the bottom of an overview, they will appear right next to the text, giving the viewer easier access to their content and increasing visibility.

🤖AI

John Mueller and Martin Splitt have been experimenting with AI-built websites. They have found that while the sites are functional and have been produced quickly, the SEO portion is lacking in the test sites. They tried to tell AI to add more SEO, but found that the AI simply does not understand it. After experimenting, their conclusion is that AI does not replace an experienced SEO specialist.

YouTube is launching a new AI-powered feature that will allow users to conversationally dictate what will be on their feed. They say it will allow more personalized content, giving creators more visibility with their preferred viewers.

🌐Digital Advertising

ChatGPT ads are moving slightly past the pilot phase, with the next phase being a self-serve ad platform. The rollout remains limited and still in beta, but it is expected to gradually expand.

Google is automatically linking Google Ads accounts with their corresponding YouTube account. This year, YouTube is one of the most citable sources for AI, making YouTube and video content even more important. This means that since the accounts are linked, visibility and other data can be tracked through Google Ads, creating more targeting options.

Google is officially retiring standalone Display campaigns and moving all Display inventory into Demand Gen campaigns. It introduces new capabilities that were not available in traditional Display campaigns, including advanced creative formats, expanded audience targeting, and improved reporting tools. The migration will begin rolling out in June 2026 and continue through 2027. Law firms will need to shift from static, placement-driven Display strategies to audience-driven, creative-led campaigns, similar to paid social. This reinforces Google’s broader shift toward AI-driven, full-funnel campaign types, requiring more emphasis on creative quality, audience strategy, and first-party data.

📱Social Media

Meta is launching a new Facebook-related app called Forum. It will be a somewhat separate platform that will allow users to have a Reddit-like experience in the groups they are in on Facebook.

Instagram has updated its content metrics with a new tab for easier access and a better way to track data and view content performance. This change makes it easier for attorneys to see which metrics Instagram deems important and will help you easily keep track of post performance to best optimize content.

LinkedIn added a new feature to business profiles. Lawyers can add a “Get advice from me” button, giving potential clients the option to connect with businesses directly on their pages. This means that since LinkedIn is one of the top-cited sources in AI overviews, this new feature could potentially turn visibility and conversations into direct leads. When new features such as this roll out, it’s important to test and lean into them, as algorithms tend to reward users who participate in them with visibility.

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

That’s all for the month of June. We’ll be back in July with more updates to help your law firm stay in the know for all things digital marketing.

See you next month!

Author: Paige Cook
Paige Cook

Paige Cook is the Brand Manager at Consultwebs. She has worked in the social media and marketing industry for over a decade, with several appearances on legal marketing webinars and podcasts. Her interest in social media extends beyond just work. She often beta tests and trial runs social media updates for major platforms like Meta and new upcoming ones. Paige is chronically online, so you can expect for her to keep you updated on all of the latest legal digital marketing news with her monthly roundups, along with branding tips and tricks for law firms.