Overcoming Google’s Algorithm
Challenge:
Google’s core algorithm updates introduce severe market volatility, disrupting organic search rankings and causing performance drop-offs for established law firms across the country. Each time a new core update rolls out, it is common for attorneys to experience drop-offs in rankings. Moreso, recent core updates have differed vastly from those before. Not only are we facing rankings shifting, but we must also consider how law firms show up in AI Search, as well.
Client A initially saw gains after a previous core update, but their traction began to even out and trend downward right as a new core rollout introduced severe ranking instability.
Simultaneously, Client B’s personal injury campaign was severely struggling to gain online visibility after moving to Consultwebs from a previous SEO agency.
Both firms faced the immediate threat of losing critical organic placement and missing out completely on emerging AI-driven search placements like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
Goal:
The primary objective was to stabilize the firms’ digital campaigns against intense core update volatility and prevent downward ranking trends.
The secondary goal was to achieve visibility in AI-driven search, ensuring the firms were optimized to capture high-quality, high-intent leads from Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT citations.
Approach:
Consultwebs deployed a strategy focused on authority and search engine integrity.
Client A’s campaign:
- Comprehensive EEAT Content Rewrites – Over two consecutive quarters, specialized content and SEO teams rebuilt core landing pages to align strictly with Google’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) parameters.
Client B’s campaign:
- Comprehensive EEAT Content Rewrites – Over two consecutive quarters, specialized content and SEO teams rebuilt core landing pages to align strictly with Google’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) parameters.
- Strategic Site De-Bloating – Removed hundreds of low-traffic and zero-traffic pages that were bloating the site architecture and diluting crawl efficiency.
- Advanced Schema Deployment – Integrated complex structured data and schema markup across primary pages to cleanly communicate with AI and search crawlers.
- Google Business Profile Realignment – Corrected local branding on Google Business Profile from a Doing Business As (DBA) to the firm’s true entity name, solidifying localized trust signals.
Consultwebs Results:
While competitor sites experienced severe disruptions from the algorithm rollouts, both Consultwebs clients referenced in this study successfully turned the update into a growth opportunity.
Client A’s campaign:
- Client A completely offset the core update volatility, securing an exceptional average organic position of 18.31 during the peak rollout window and simultaneously capturing massive visibility in Google AI Overviews.
- They achieved rapid ranking leaps, including a +24 position increase for "criminal defense attorney dallas" and a +25 position jump for "dallas criminal lawyer".
- AI-driven user acquisition grew continuously month-over-month. Their ChatGPT user traffic increased in quality and expanded as follows: March - 26, April - 31, May - 46.
Client B’s campaign:
- The client surged by an average of +54.78 positions on desktop in Philadelphia compared to their previous agency, capturing an immediate +22.14% boost in search visibility.
- Their ChatGPT user traffic increased in quality and expanded as follows: March - 10, April - 26, May - 31.
Both clients explicitly highlighted the remarkably high quality of these AI-generated leads.
My law firm has used Consultwebs for its SEO services for several years now. We first hired an SEO firm about twenty-five years ago. Of all the SEO firms we have worked with over the decades, Consultwebs has been the best and most professional. Consultwebs has always done what it has promised to do and has been honest and straight forward about the realities of SEO in a very competitive legal market.
Book a 1:1 strategy session with Consultwebs today to learn how we can help your law firm grow.
