The year got off to a fast start, with Google making the decision earlier this month to move their desktop ads from the right side of the search results up to the top. Now up to four ads are being placed above the organic search results, a change that Search Engine Land is calling, “a net positive for paid desktop search and PPC marketers.”
Following the shakeup, Search Engine Watch also released an article discussing what Google’s change in ad placement means for marketers and users. Although it’s way too early to make any strong conclusions, initial evidence suggests this change will be a good thing for PPC and potentially damaging to anyone not in the top three organic search results.
In other Google related news, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project launched. The goal of AMP is to create a “better, faster mobile Internet,” and it should reduce load times anywhere from 15 to 85%. Although this could easily be written off as yet another annoying project for webmasters to deal with, the recent trend toward mobile search (and last year’s “mobilegeddon” update) make it all but inevitable that even small and midsize law firms will need to continue to do whatever they can to enhance their mobile experience.
Aside from these two major stories, last month also featured the usual discussion about link building, content, SEO, and reputation management. Here are the other stories you might have missed:
Starting with content, Quicksprout offered a duo of articles that should help any law firm identify opportunities for beefing up their content. The first article suggested 7 ways to make your brand and content more likeable. The second provided a list of 75 content marketing tools you can’t live without.
In reputation management news, Avvo’s Lawyernomics published an interesting article on the curiously positive impact of negative reviews. That’s right; those negative reviews you’ve been trying to hide might actually be lending authenticity to the five star reviews you want every potential client to see.
Search Engine Land author Patrick Stox made a compelling argument for why everything should NOT be a blog post. For anyone who relies on their blog for every piece of content they’d like to share, this post might make you rethink that strategy.
Two more pieces from Search Engine Land covered the always-important topic of link building. The first discussed 3 requirements for a successful link-building campaign, while the second article covered 5 link-building techniques you’ve been neglecting. Between the two articles there should be at least one or two tips worth adding to your repertoire.
Finally, looking at the future of search, a columnist from Bing published an article offering 4 search advertising trends to watch in 2016. Not surprisingly, the importance of mobile search is mentioned once again.
That’s it for this month. As always, if I missed anything major please let me know in the comments section below.
About the Author: Jason Arango is the Director of Marketing for GJEL Accident Attorneys. He’s been involved in online marketing since 2007, and has worked with companies such as Village Voice Media and Clear Channel Communications.