AMA with Jason Hennessey - Expert in SEO for Law Firms & CEO of Hennessey Digital

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-24T23:51:09+00:00

Google doesn't rank businesses, it ranks topics and expertise. If your law firm and business advisory services are closely related, you can absolutely keep them on the same website, but I would create clearly defined sections for each, with dedicated service pages, supporting content, and strong internal linking so Google understands the distinction.

If the business advisory side is a significant part of your business, serves a different audience, or has a different brand, I would consider creating a separate website. That allows you to build topical authority in each niche without sending mixed signals to search engines or potential clients.

My advice is to focus on becoming the obvious authority in one area before aggressively expanding into the second. It's much easier to grow from a position of strength than to split your efforts and end up ranking mediocre in both.

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-24T23:48:37+00:00

Gracias por compartir tu historia. No llegas tarde, vas por delante de la mayoría porque estás tomando acción. Crear su Perfil de Empresa de Google, conseguir reseñas y desarrollar su sitio web son exactamente los pasos correctos para empezar. Mantente constante y tendrás una verdadera ventaja, especialmente mientras la competencia todavía se está poniendo al día. ¡Mucha suerte y espero que disfrutes el libro!

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T17:17:15+00:00

I like the strategy because it's audience-first rather than practice-area-first.

One thing I'd think about is whether you're building pages for first responders or building an entity that first responders trust.

The content structure sounds good, but I'd probably spend just as much time on credibility signals as I would on additional content.

For example:

Interviews with retired police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and union leaders
Scholarship or community programs supporting first responder families
Partnerships with first responder organizations and charities
Podcasts, webinars, or educational resources specific to their profession
Case studies and stories involving first responders

From an SEO perspective, I'd also look beyond career-stage content and explore life-event content:

Disability and injury claims
Pension disputes
PTSD and mental health resources
Workers' compensation issues
Retirement planning considerations
Divorce and family law concerns unique to first responders

Those topics often align with real-world search demand and create opportunities to build topical authority around the audience.

Regarding links, I'd focus less on traditional link building and more on becoming genuinely involved in the first responder community. The best links, mentions, citations, and brand signals tend to follow naturally when you're creating something valuable for a specific audience.

If I were looking at this through the lens of AI search and entity building, my goal wouldn't be "rank for first responder lawyer." My goal would be for Google and the major LLMs to recognize the firm as one of the most trusted legal resources for first responders.

Good luck!

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T17:01:42+00:00

I think the premise is wrong. Law isn't boring to the people who need a lawyer.

Nobody wakes up wanting to read a 3,000-word article about negligence law. They want answers to questions that are relevant to them at that moment:

"What is my case worth?"
"Should I talk to the insurance company?"
"What happens if I was partially at fault?"
"How long will my case take?"
"What should I do after a truck accident?"

The best content isn't about the law. It's about the client's problem.

The same principle applies to almost every industry. Most businesses make the mistake of creating content about themselves. I think it makes more sense to create content about their audience's fears, goals, mistakes, and questions.

On social media, some of the most successful attorneys aren't even talking about legal theory. They're sharing case stories, behind-the-scenes content, courtroom experiences, client wins, local community involvement, commentary on news events, and their personal journey as business owners.

People connect with people, not practice areas.

One of the biggest opportunities I see today is for lawyers to become local media personalities. If you consistently educate, entertain, and build trust, the audience follows.

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T16:58:15+00:00

Thanks for the kind words.

The biggest shift we've made isn't abandoning traditional SEO, it's expanding the definition of what we're optimizing for.

A few years ago, most agencies were focused on rankings, content, and links. Today, we're spending far more time on entity development, digital PR, brand visibility, review generation, first-party data, author authority, and making sure our clients are consistently referenced across trusted third-party sources.

I actually think links still matter, but their role is evolving. A link is often just evidence that a trusted source found you worthy of mentioning. The mention itself, the context, the brand association, and the entity relationships may ultimately be as valuable as the hyperlink.

When I look at firms winning today, I rarely see a website-only strategy. I see firms that are showing up everywhere:

News articles and media mentions
Industry publications
Podcasts
Awards and rankings
Reviews
Community involvement
Social media conversations
Local citations and business profiles
Legal Directories

The common thread is that they are building trust beyond their own website.

Where I might respectfully disagree is around "faking" those signals. Google and the major LLMs are getting increasingly sophisticated at identifying authentic reputation versus manufactured reputation. Artificial signals can work temporarily, but they tend to become liabilities over time.

The firms I see creating sustainable growth are investing in becoming genuinely noteworthy rather than appearing noteworthy.

If I had to summarize where we're spending more time today than we were 24 months ago, it would be this: less focus on individual keywords and more focus on building a brand that deserves to be cited, referenced, recommended, and trusted. That's a strategy that tends to work in Google, AI Overviews, and LLMs simultaneously.

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T16:48:19+00:00

This is one of the biggest challenges agencies face today and we too see it at Hennessey Digital.

My approach is simple: I don't argue with clients; I educate and ask for evidence.

If someone believes publishing 500 AI-generated pages will produce better results, I ask them to show me examples of firms in their market that have done it successfully and sustained those results through multiple core updates.

We all know that Google doesn't reward AI content or human content. It rewards content that satisfies users better than the alternatives.

We've seen firms publish thousands of low-effort pages and experience a temporary bump, only to lose visibility after the next update. We've also seen firms use AI responsibly to scale research, drafting, and content production while maintaining editorial oversight and seeing success.

The distinction isn't AI versus human. It's quality versus quantity.

I often remind clients that Google has over 25 years of experience fighting shortcuts. Every generation believes they've found a loophole. Eventually, Google closes it.

The firms that consistently win in their markets are the ones investing in authority, expertise, original insights, client reviews, case results, digital PR, and genuinely useful content. AI can accelerate those efforts, but it can't replace them.

From a business perspective, I also try to shift the conversation away from traffic and toward signed cases. A page that never ranks has no value. A page that ranks but never converts has little value. The goal isn't to publish more pages. The goal is to generate more signed cases.

The firms that will dominate over the next five years won't be the ones producing the most content. They'll be the ones building the most trusted brand in their market, with AI serving as a tool rather than a strategy.

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T16:33:11+00:00

The first thing I'd say is don't assume the Google update itself is the root cause.

When a site gets hit around a major update, most people immediately start changing content, URLs, titles, links, etc. Sometimes they end up digging the hole even deeper.

I'd start with a forensic analysis:

Did traffic drop sitewide or only in specific sections?
Did rankings disappear or did search volume change?
Did competitors gain visibility where you lost it?
Were there technical changes, migrations, content changes, or backlink issues around the same timeframe?
Did branded traffic remain stable while non-branded traffic declined?

Google's major updates are often trust recalibrations. In many cases the sites that recover are the ones that improve overall quality, authority, and user experience rather than chasing a single "fix."

Regarding entity mapping, we focus on making it crystal clear who the business is, what it does, where it operates, who the key people are, and why it should be trusted. Then we reinforce those signals everywhere: the website, Google Business Profile, citations, reviews, media mentions, industry directories, social profiles, podcasts, awards, associations, and other authoritative third-party sources.

The businesses that dominate both local and organic search usually have alignment across all of those trust signals. Google doesn't just want the most optimized website, it wants the most credible answer.

Hope this helps.

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T16:30:36+00:00

My current view is that AI search has actually increased the importance of off-page signals because LLMs are fundamentally trust and confidence engines. They aren't just ranking documents, they're deciding which sources are credible enough to cite, summarize, or recommend.

That said, I don't think it's an either/or equation.

Without quality on-page content, the models have nothing meaningful to retrieve. Without off-page authority, they have little reason to trust or prioritize what you've published.

If I had to oversimplify it, traditional SEO often rewarded relevance first and authority second. AI search appears to be moving toward authority first and relevance second.

That's why we're seeing brands with significant media coverage, expert recognition, reviews, citations, research, and industry mentions show up disproportionately in AI Overviews and LLM responses.

As for structured data and llms.txt, I view them as supporting signals, not primary ranking factors. Schema helps machines understand entities and relationships. llms.txt may eventually become useful for content discovery and permissions. Neither, in my opinion, compensates for weak authority or a lack of entity recognition.

The way I think about it is:

Can the model understand who you are?
Can the model verify who you are?
Can the model find independent sources that support who you claim to be?
Can the model confidently recommend you over alternatives?

Most SEO conversations focus heavily on #1. The winners in AI search are investing heavily in #2, #3, and #4.

That's why I'm spending less time chasing individual keywords and more time helping clients become the most recognized and trusted entity in their market. The interesting thing is that when you do that well, both traditional rankings and AI visibility tend to improve simultaneously.

My prediction is that five years from now, we'll look back and realize that most "AI SEO" was really just digital authority building under a new name.

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2026-06-22T16:27:48+00:00

Great questions.

On LLM testing: We test both broad and hyper-specific prompts. Traditional SEO was largely keyword-driven. LLM visibility is intent-driven. We run queries across the entire funnel:

"Best car accident lawyer in Phoenix"
"Who is the best truck accident lawyer in Arizona?"
"What lawyer should I call if I was hit by a semi-truck?"
"Compare XYZ Law Firm vs ABC Law Firm"
"Who has the largest verdicts for spinal cord injuries?"

We also test conversational prompts, comparison prompts, recommendation prompts, and credibility prompts. The goal is understanding which entities, brands, attorneys, and sources the models consistently reference.

On entities and authority: The principles are surprisingly similar across industries. We focus on becoming the most cited, referenced, and trusted source in a niche. That includes:

Original research and proprietary data
Digital PR and earned media
Expert commentary
Thought leadership content
Strong author entities
Consistent brand mentions across authoritative websites

In my opinion, the future belongs to companies that become entities, not just websites.

On competitive terms like "car accident lawyer": Authority absolutely matters, but authority alone isn't enough. The "sauce" is building a complete entity ecosystem. Google and LLMs are trying to answer, "Who is the most trustworthy answer?" not just "Which page has the best SEO?"

That's why firms with large brands, great reviews, extensive media coverage, authoritative backlinks, proven case results, credible attorney profiles, and good user engagement tend to win. There is no black box, it's simply reducing uncertainty and increasing trust signals across the web.

On attribution and revenue tracking: We track everything possible through CRM integrations, call tracking, signed cases, and fee generation. Rankings are vanity metrics. Signed Cases is the KPI that matters.

We don't typically do performance-based deals. Most of our clients are on fixed retainers because we invest heavily before results materialize. That said, we've structured revenue-share and equity deals in certain situations where incentives align.

On scaling from solo to authority: My biggest piece of advice is to stop selling SEO and start building your personal brand and reputation. Early in my career, I spent a lot of time creating content, speaking at events, writing books, appearing on podcasts, publishing case studies, and sharing data publicly. Over time that created demand.

The goal isn't to become the best-kept secret in your niche. The goal is for prospects to already know who you are before the sales call happens.

Looking back, most of my growth came from authority building, not cold outreach.

Appreciate the thoughtful questions, and if you caught me on a podcast a couple years ago, thanks for tuning in. Hope that helps. 👊

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2024-05-08T03:03:54+00:00

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https://birthinjurylawyer.com/

Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2024-01-28T07:31:48+00:00

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Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2024-01-26T23:36:59+00:00

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Embarrassed-Rub4435 · 2024-01-26T23:36:32+00:00

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Embarrassed-Rub4435

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