What's one question nearly every caller asks that your website still doesn't answer?

Lily Ray shared a chart this week for a site that got hit by a Google spam update. The audit was delivered in January, the cleanup started in January and February, and the traffic came back just before another spam update in June. That's months between fixing the problems and seeing it pay off. If your site took a hit this year, has anyone told you how long the climb back usually takes?

Something we keep running into: a firm wants cases in the big city, but its office is in the smaller town next door. Google Maps leans heavily on where your office actually is. A city page on your website helps, but it rarely wins the map results on its own. How far is your office from where most of your clients live?

Joy Hawkins at Sterling Sky studied Google Maps listings across 16 industries a few years back. Of the 416 personal injury lawyer listings they tracked, 75.7% were removed by Google as fake after being reported. That was one of the worst rates of any industry they looked at. If firms you've never heard of keep showing up above you in Maps, report them. sterlingsky.ca/google-maps-s…

A client's in house team asked us last week to add two or three short takeaway bullets near the top of every blog post. Easier to skim, and easier for AI search tools to pull from. Jesse Moffat made a similar point on A Non-Billable Hour about short summaries that help a page get cited in Google's AI Overviews. Could someone get the point of your last blog post in ten seconds?

Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) pointed out that as AI Overviews show up on more searches, the average position numbers in Google Search Console get harder to read, because Google doesn't separate AI answers out in that report. Search Console is the free Google tool most agencies pull rankings from. If your report says your average position moved, ask what that number includes before you celebrate or panic.

Talked through an account last week where the client changed who they want to reach. It's now a small group of decision makers inside organizations. Those people aren't typing "lawyer near me" into Google. The search plan was built for the old target. When your ideal client changes, does anyone go back and change the marketing plan?

Jesse Moffat, a technical SEO, talked with Matt Green (@MChuckGreen) on A Non-Billable Hour about people claiming SEO can be replaced with a Claude workflow. His view is that AI tools will cut out a lot of the repetitive work some agencies sell. Understanding why a firm gets cases, and how to get more of them, still takes people who understand the business. If an AI tool could do everything your agency does for you, what are you paying them for? jurisdigital.com/podcast/non…

Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) and the Sterling Sky team noticed the Better Business Bureau gets cited constantly in AI answers, including the AI version of the local map results. Colan Nielsen's (@ColanNielsen) tip: get accredited and put the BBB badge on the page your Google Business Profile links to. When did anyone at your firm last look at your BBB profile?

We've started building a call report for some clients that only counts first time callers who stayed on the line for more than 90 seconds, split by where they found the firm. A total call count includes existing clients, vendors and wrong numbers. This one gets a lot closer to people who might actually hire you. Do you know how many of last month's calls were new people having a real conversation?

Your website can help screen out cases you don't take without a long intake form. State your case types clearly, keep contact easy, and follow up fast. #LegalIntake #LawFirmWebsite

When someone calls about a case you don't take, who do you send them to, and does that firm ever send anyone back?

Clocks go back in the US this Sunday. If your phone routing, answering service handoff or website chat runs on a schedule, check on Monday that the after hours switch happens at the right time.

Jonathan Merel, founder of Merel Family Law in Chicago, joined Matt Green (@MChuckGreen) on episode 20 of A Non-Billable Hour. One thing his firm does: an in house divorce coach to improve the client experience. Most marketing talk is about getting the phone to ring. How a client feels during the case decides whether they send you the next one. What does your firm do for clients beyond the legal work? youtube.com/watch?v=sHuX36GW…

Came up on a consult recently: when do the 12 months in a 12 month agency agreement actually start? For us, the period we measure results against starts once discovery and strategy work are done, not the day the contract gets signed. Whoever you hire, get that start date in writing before month nine turns into an argument.

Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) floated a scenario last week that law firms should think about. Someone hears about your firm in ChatGPT. Later they Google your firm's name. Google's AI answer at the top sends them to a directory or a competitor instead of you. Google your firm's name today. What shows up above your website?

Went through ad copy with a criminal defense attorney recently. He was happy to use "former prosecutor" as a credential. He cut a line saying that background gave him special insight into how the state would handle the case. The credential is a fact. The insight line is a promise nobody can check. Would every claim in your ads hold up if a client repeated it back to you?

Krista Walsh, a copywriter, told Matt Green (@MChuckGreen) on A Non-Billable Hour that a website doesn't need to say everything. Law firm sites usually try. Every practice area the firm has ever touched gets a page and a spot in the menu. If you had to cut your menu in half, which cases would stay?

We had a consult recently where the two partners wanted different things from marketing. One wanted a brand people in town would recognize. The other mostly cared what each call and each signed case would cost. Both are fair. They lead to different plans and different reports. Have your partners agreed on which one matters more?

Mike King (@VeryWellVersed) at iPullRank wrote this week about the studies showing ChatGPT sends websites very little traffic. He agrees with the numbers. He just thinks clicks are the wrong way to judge it, the same way nobody judges a billboard by clicks. If people in your city ask ChatGPT for a lawyer and your firm gets named, that counts even when nobody clicks. How are you measuring it? ipullrank.com/ai-search-is-a…