In the age of the internet, the success or failure of a business can depend on its ability to be found by customers in online searches. While search engine optimization (SEO) can help a business show up in searches, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can provide a much-needed boost that will help a business show up at the top of search results and increase the chances that a person will contact them. In addition to its standard PPC ads, Google has recently introduced Local Services Ads, a new type of ad listing that can be very beneficial to local businesses, including law firms and other types of professional services.

What Are Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads, or LSAs, are highly targeted ads that include a business’s name and phone number, a link to its website, and other helpful information, such as ratings and reviews, hours of operation, and number of years in business. These ads show up at the very top of a search results page, above other PPC ads and organic search results.

Over the last decade, Google has established itself as one of the most influential trendsetters in human history. Never before has a single company permeated the global cultural so completely—not even Facebook with its 1.8 billion monthly active users. Not all that long ago, however, the battle for internet dominance was not quite so one-sided. For many years, there was a very strong competition between Google and Yahoo as both looked to provide users with unprecedented access to the world’s information.

As time went on, Google’s search engine algorithms seemed to meet the needs of web users more accurately than the algorithms used by Yahoo. In addition, the subsidiaries acquired by Google—such as YouTube, Vevo, and even cell-phone manufacturer Motorola—further strengthened its portfolio as Yahoo struggled to keep pace. Now, an acquisition deal is imminent which would place Yahoo under the control of Verizon, as the once-proud internet pioneer looks to reestablish itself as a leader on the worldwide web.

Verizon Pays Nearly $5 Billion

Anytime you browse the internet, you are likely to be bombarded with dozens of advertisements and marketing efforts by various companies trying to promote their products. Even a simple mobile app is often accompanied an endless cycle of ads; the ad-free versions typically cost extra. In recent years, more and more internet users have begun installing ad-blocking software—typically as an app or a browser extension—which attempt to screen advertisements and provide a more enjoyable user experience. Business experts, however, are concerned about the ultimate impact of ad-blocking software, and some have even gone so far to predict that such programs will bring about the end of the internet as we currently know it.

Advertising on Television

For many decades, television was the primary source of home entertainment and information. While cable television was available as early as 1948, it didn’t become particularly popular until the 1970s. This meant that most television watchers relied on programs that were broadcast locally and underwritten by corporate sponsors. In some cases, the name of the sponsor was part of the program title, including the United States Steel Hour, General Electric Theater, and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. The corresponding advertisements throughout such shows were essentially the cost of doing business. Viewers were receiving entertainment at no cost to them; the expenses were borne by the sponsors, who, in turn, had the opportunity to present their products.

Perhaps the recent article posted by Small Business Trends says it best: the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) culture is wrought with mystical and misleading myths. As social media marketing evolves these tall tales not only continue but beg to be debunked as they may thwart your efforts of building and maintaining an effective social media marketing campaign fueled by SEO optimization.

For those in the legal community and just beginning to build their social media marketing platform, do not be fooled by the folklore dismissing the importance of SEO to increase your online presence while also directing traffic to your website. The days of cold calling and slinging slogans is long gone and concentrating on SEO and all aspects of social media marketing are your future.

Often these misguided myths are posted across blogs and forums resulting in misinterpretation of the facts. No time like the present to debunk seven of the top contenders.

As Bob Dylan once sang, “The times they are a changin’.” Attorneys view their social media marketing and Public Relations (PR) campaigns differently as Google redefines its search engine optimization (SEO) algorithms.

According to Search Engine Land, with the release of Google's Hummingbird update, page ranking is no longer the preferred method of boosting website visibility. Hummingbird provides the end-user with quality not quantity of search results relying less on key words, internal links and content rankings.

As we previously discussed in our article, "Social Media Marketing Now Gracing the Legal Industry's Welcome Mat," legal firms are now realizing the benefits of hiring an internal media specialist or for the smaller or solo attorney, a qualified online marketing firm to incorporate a PR viewpoint into social media campaigns. With Google’s game changing algorithm following suit would be advantageous for some of the reasons stated below: