And while AI has been discussed for decades, it’s now real, in the hands of everyday users through their web browsers, phones, even their cars.
Here at Convert It, we’re in the business of helping solo and boutique law firms grow through digital marketing. Naturally, we seek to understand how our law firm clients can best position themselves in front of the audiences whose business they seek. One of the questions we are hearing more and more is, “how can I get my firm to show up in ChatGPT?” So lets talk about why AI tools like Chat GPT and Google Gemini are relevant to law firms, and what firms can do to stay relevant in the evolving search landscape.
AI-Powered Search Tools: What Solo and Boutique Law Firms Need to Know
AI-powered search tools, such as ChatGPT, X’s Grok and Google’s Gemini come in many different flavors but the basic gist is that the tools leverage AI to provide results to user queries. Whereas traditional search engines like Bing and Google operate off of keywords, the AI-powered search tools can be ‘prompted’ in a conversational manner that allows the user to ask for exactly what they want. For example, if a user was looking for the largest bankruptcy law firm by filings in each state in a traditional search engine, they would type “largest bankruptcy law firms by filings and state” and the search engine would return lists of websites that might make reference to the largest filers, or even a website that already has this list created if it exists. When using AI-powered search tools, the use would likely provide a very specific prompt such as “provide me with a list of the law firms filing the most bankruptcy cases in each state”. AI would understand what the user was looking for and access a variety of sources to dynamically create the list for the user… just as if a human were conducting this research on their own. The answer will be given to the user right there in the search interface rather than linking them out to different websites.
As adoption of the AI-powered search tools continues to increase, solo and boutique law firms need to have a strategy for how to stay relevant. Below, we’ve demonstrated a search on both Google Gemini, ChatGPT and organic Google search for a Livingston, TX based estate planning attorney. Notice how the Williams Firm, P.C.’s commitment to obtaining Google reviews, authoring content and staying relevant rewards them across AI-assisted search and organic search.
ChatGPT Results for a Livingston, TX, Estate Planning Lawyer
Google Gemini Results for a Livingston, TX, Estate Planning Lawyer
Google Results for a Livingston, TX, Estate Planning Lawyer
Staying Relevant to AI-powered Search
As you can see, the AI-engine is providing actual law firms as results to the user’s query. How does your law firm get on this list?
We’ve got good news and bad news. Lets start with the bad news. There is no way to ‘trick’ or buy the attention of AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini. The good news, however, is that the same approach that firms use today to stay visible to the search engines work for AI-powered search as well. What is that approach?
The approach is called E-E-A-T and it comes straight from Google itself. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
E-E-A-T in practice can be summed up simply: Firms should regularly (at least once per week) contribute specific, relevant content across your social, Google and website properties to establish your experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness. Even better, firms should think in terms of the prompts that their potential clients would use and develop content. For example, users may prompt the AI-powered search with “can I keep my home when filing for bankruptcy in Florida?” to which the firm should be creating content around “Keeping your home in a Florida bankruptcy”.
In conclusion, the search industry is going through massive change at the moment. The best strategy for solo and boutique law firms is to double down on the strategies that have always made them relevant: take – and maintain – control of your online story by creating focused, frequent and valuable content.
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About the Author
John Simpson is the Chief Executive Officer of Convert It. For the past 25 years, John has counseled law firms of all sizes - from AMLAW 200 to solo and boutique firms - on marketing, business development and strategy. Prior to joining Convert It, John was the founder and CEO of the digital marketing agency One North.
Convert It Marketing
For the past 13 years, Convert It has provided easy, effective and affordable marketing services to solo and boutique law firms nationwide. Our marketing strategies are designed to attract, engage and convert prospects into paying clients, then amplify their positive experiences to attract more clients.
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