The rules of internet-based marketing are currently transforming in a way we haven’t seen for almost 20 years. Creating your content marketing in a format and style similar to the one you have been using for the last decade may mean your law firm’s website will not be discovered and retrieved by AI Overviews and Large Language Model (LLM) searches.
Chances are, you have seen or will soon see a dramatic drop in search traffic to your law firm’s website. Heck, even MailOnline, the UK’s most visited website, loses around 56% of its search traffic when AI Overviews appear in Google’s search results. Fortunately, we now have some early data concerning how people are using LLMs and AI Overviews to find information.
Before diving into how to write and structure your content for AI discovery and retrieval, it is crucial to point out one key point, namely – that all the old rules of SEO and producing helpful, valuable content still apply. Around 53% of websites referenced in AI Overviews feature on page one of Google’s results page for that particular search. And almost all references retrieved for searches done through LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc, come from page one ranking pages. So, don’t skimp on your SEO or E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) principles for content writing – they are more critical than ever. But for AI Overviews and LLMs to discover your content and decide whether it should be used as part of its answer to a searcher’s query, you need to add a few more layers to your content marketing efforts.
How do LLMs and AI Overviews Interpret Content?
Unlike a bot, LLMs do not merely scan a page. They ingest it, looking for semantic clarity. Examples of this include:
- Does this content answer the searcher’s question directly?
- Is the content clear and concise?
- Does the content make sense?
Remember, LLMs and AI Overviews are not simply ranking an existing page. They are scanning thousands of pages in seconds and creating a completely new piece of content based on what it can understand. According to Carolyn Shelby, Principal SEO at Yoast, content must now be:
- “Segmented logically, so each part expresses one idea.
- Consistent in tone and terminology.
- Presented in a format that lends itself to quick parsing (think FAQs, how-to steps, definition-style intros).
- Written with clarity, not cleverness.”
I would add one more qualifier, namely originality. LLMs are not intelligent in the sense they can produce new opinions and interpretations. They need access to content that does not already exist online to ‘learn’ so it can improve answers. If you provide new content in the form of opinions, case law analysis, and/or sharing practical knowledge (the kind not available on the internet), you increase the chances of LLMs and AI Overviews citing your law firm.
Let’s break down the principles of creating content for LLMs and AI Overviews discovery and retrieval:
Clarity
As a writer this has been a hard one for me. I have always tried to draft legal articles creatively whilst still following SEO principles. However, when it comes to ensuring LLMs can understand what your article or landing page is about, beautiful language and clever writing must give way to crystal clarity. Every word must help the argument you are making or the information being shared to be as understandable as possible.
Top tip – use short sentences and paragraphs. Never use a big word when a small one will do (one of Stephen King’s biggest writing tips). Restrict your articles and landing pages to one topic only.
Structure
You must think less like a writer and more like an information architect. This means asking the question, “How can I structure this blog so it presents my one idea clearly?” Use H1, H2, and H3 headings rigorously. Bullet points, tables, and graphs also help AI and human readers understand an article’s main points.
Top tip – Much of this is basic SEO. There are several free courses on YouTube. I found this one particularly helpful.
Brand visibility
Business owners and marketing professionals must face the brutal truth that people are no longer clicking through to websites as often as they were a year ago. Therefore, your law firm must appear in as many AI Overviews and LLM search results as possible. Even then, users may never click on the link leading to your website. But if you appear often enough, they will start to trust your brand and think of it first when they need legal advice. So, SEO has changed from Search Engine Optimisation to Search Everywhere Optimisation. This means your law firm’s content must appear in as many places as possible on the internet. For example, those videos you have thought about making for years but never got around to? It’s time to dust off your camera and get a YouTube channel. Get articles published in high authority publications and make sure you get a backlink to your website. And double down on effective social media marketing. The more visible your brand is, the more LLMs and prospective clients will trust you as an authority.
Top tip – to save time, repurpose content as much as possible. Write one blog a week or fortnight and use the content to create a video script, social media posts, and the basis for editorial content. Then utilise AI editing tools to chop up vlogs to use as social media posts and in your newsletter.
Concluding comments
Writing for the ‘new internet’ requires your law firm’s content to be traditionally optimised for search engines, clear, original, and structured for LLMs and AI Overviews; plus it must demonstrate E-E-A-T. Do all of this, and you will create a great piece of legal writing for prospective clients as well.
But here is the irony: LLMs cannot do all of this. The content they produce waffles with inane filler – a classic example is the opening sentence, “In today’s fast-paced digital world…”. This introduction is unoriginal and, most importantly, does not hold reader engagement.
Suppose you want to use LLMs to write your content. In that case, you must ensure it is checked, edited, structured for SEO and AI/LLM discovery and retrieval, reflects your brand’s tone of voice, and has a human ‘voice’ to encourage readers to remain on the page rather than bounce off to find a non-AI article (which is what is happening).
To be honest, the time it takes to do all this means you may as well create your law firm’s marketing content yourself.
So much for AI saving time, at least in the scope of legal content writing.
Corinne McKenna is a legal copywriter at www.thelegalcopywritingcompany.co.uk
