Attorney categories: Why am I still getting calls for a category I don't have listed?

[bradleymarones]

Hey guys - I've been trying to fix this issue for quite some time, but haven't got it completely to work yet. I used to advertise and market bankruptcy pretty heavily and my listing shows up for a bankruptcy attorney.

However, I want to change this so that I can get calls from my other practice areas, such as divorce, criminal defense, and real estate law. Any ideas on how this can be done? Again, the category on my place page has been changed.

I'm thinking that Google is fed this data from the citation sources, and that's what they're going with. Any ideas???

 

[Linda Buquet]

Is BK still on your site anywhere at all? If not, how long ago did you remove it from all your pages?

How long ago did you remove BK from your Place page?

Removing one category from Place page also won't make you rank higher for the other KWs/categories/practice areas.

A link to listing would help if you want more in-depth feedback.

Thanks, Linda

 

[bradleymarones]

It is still on my site, I was referring that business out to another attorney. I guess I don't understand why others are ranking higher than I am in other practice areas and it seems like I have a stronger listing (more citations, more content on my site, etc.).

I had you look into my listing a while back.

Here is the link: https://plus.google.com/+Hermizlaw

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes I know but I see a hundred listings a week so can't remember URLS of listings I looked at long ago plus wanted it so other could maybe give you feedback since I'm swamped and have limited time.

The reason I asked if it's still on your site...

You said you removed it as a Places cat and wondered why you were still ranking or getting traffic for BK and asked if it could be due to citations.

So I assumed it was still on your site and wanted you to confirm it so I could point out your own site is the strongest citation and strongest category signal there is. If it's on your site you'll likely rank for it. (Especially when it's on home page in an H2) Google does not know you don't do it and refer it out.

Plus it's even in the description of your Place page. "Hermiz Law is a full-service general practice law firm helping clients with various legal matters, including but not limited to... bankruptcy law

So removing the cat didn't really help since you are still giving Google strong signals right on your own site and description that you do BKs.

As far as why you are not ranking well for the other KWs, sorry but I don't have time to check which is why I wanted the link so others could maybe try to give you some ideas. Just took another really quick peek at the site which does not appear to be well optimized for your other specialties and still is not set up well for multi-locations so all those things could be impacting rankings too.

 

[bradleymarones]

Thank you so much Linda! Your help is always appreciated! So, Google doesn't take the data fed to the aggregators with respect to practice areas and go off that? I didn't think that the description "Hermiz Law is a full-service general practice law firm helping clients with various legal matters, including but not limited to... bankruptcy law" had much of an impact on ranking.

Does anyone have any idea on how I can optimize for specialties? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated people!

 

[Nyagoslav]

Bradley, I actually don't see your listing in the search results whem I look for bankruptcy attorney Troy MI. However, I see your site page, dedicated to bankruptcy ranking below the 7-pack in that SERP. If you do not offer bankruptcy, I would suggest you remove the page altogether, as well as remove all the other references of bankruptcy services on your site.

I would also recommend you make sure your citations do not feature "bankruptcy attorney" or similar categories. Here is an example of a citation that does feature the category "Bankruptcy Law Attorneys". And another one.

I hope this helps!