Keyword Stuffing In the Attorney Marketing Space

[seaniaaa]

Hey everyone. So, I found a thread here about the medical field, and the results were not inspiring. Google appears to not care about keyword stuffing in that field. What about in attorney marketing? I reported a single law firm several times with the redressal complaint form, and even submit a support ticket, and got nowhere. Now I just occasionally check their business name and suggest a new edit to fix their business name, which is successful in short spurts. Recently, I noticed an agency competitor in the actual attorney marketing field itself is keyword stuffing. I've reported it once, but on this one, my edits will not go through. Is this something Google has just stopped caring about? Is there anything at all we can do to get this to go through? Any insights and advice would be appreciated.

 

[seaniaaa]

@keyserholiday I feel like you're a great person to ask about this. Any insights are appreciated.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hey everyone. So, I found a thread here about the medical field, and the results were not inspiring. Google appears to not care about keyword stuffing in that field. What about in attorney marketing? I reported a single law firm several times with the redressal complaint form, and even submit a support ticket, and got nowhere. Now I just occasionally check their business name and suggest a new edit to fix their business name, which is successful in short spurts. Recently, I noticed an agency competitor in the actual attorney marketing field itself is keyword stuffing. I've reported it once, but on this one, my edits will not go through. Is this something Google has just stopped caring about? Is there anything at all we can do to get this to go through? Any insights and advice would be appreciated.

Here's a great recent article by Joy Hawkins about current state of spam fighting including industries affected: The State of Spam Fighting: What We Learned From Analyzing 5,306 Listings in 16 Industries - Sterling Sky Inc

For us, it seems to be hit and miss in reporting, but most of the time the violators will simply change it back. Also, Google is so far bar behind in processing these requests, even the most flagrant violations are taking 3+ weeks for us to even get a response. It is definitely rampant and it seems to vary depending on locality, industry and often times if the competitor is using an agency that knows they basically can get away with it.

In some cases, depending on the level of keyword spamming with the competition, we'll legitimately (and tactfully) use keywords in the GBP name by registering what is commonly called a DBA. In many states it is referred to as a "Fictitious Name" or "Assumed Name". The cost varies state by state, and the process also varies but in the states we've assisted our clients with registering a DBA, it has been under $35. But for example, in your home state of Kansas, the Secretary of State (SOS) does not require or permit the registration or filing of DBAs or fictitious names: Kansas Secretary of State | FAQ - Business Entity

By registering a DBA, this is in alignment with Google and other companies like FourSquare and allows you to put keywords in an alternate name.

Good luck!