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February 19, 2026 β€’ 13 mins

There’s no SEO vs. AI search. Your law firm needs both channels, and most agencies are only covering 25% of the work. Here's the fix.

We debunk 3 AI myths costing family law firms real clients plus the trust-first framework that fixes your visibility in both channels.

We also cover how your NAP data and off-site authority determine whether AI recommends you or skips you.

πŸ“² Subscribe Now:https://www.youtube.com/@karls.anthony

πŸ“š Order The Waterfall Method Book here: http://rocketclicks.com/the-waterfall-method/ 

πŸ“ Schedule a FREE Family Law Firm Audit: https://rocketclicks.com/schedule-a-family-law-quick-audit/ 

---

πŸ“„ CHAPTERS  

0:00 - SEO vs AI Search: Why Most Law Firms Are Getting This Wrong 

1:33 - Two Separate Strategies: Ranking on Google AND Ranking on AI 

2:39 - Misconception #1: How AI Actually Ranks Your Law Firm 

5:19 - How ChatGPT Personalizes Attorney Recommendations 

6:40 - The MIT Study: Why 89% of AI Users Still End Up on Google 

9:05 - Misconception #2: Why Your Website Isn't Enough for AI Trust 

11:09 - Misconception #3: How to Actually Influence What AI Shows 

13:33 - What's Coming Next in Law Firm AI Visibility

Curious to discover your personalized roadmap to scaling a law firm, no matter where you are in the business? 

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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
AI is moving at the speed of light,and there are so many misconceptions

(00:04):
when it comes to ranking in AI.
Being visible in AI,especially for law firms.
Make sure to check this episode out.
Welcome back to the Sterling FamilyLaw Show, the podcast
designed to help family attorneysbuild the firm of their dreams.
I am your host, Tyler Dolph.
And today I have ourAI guru, Casey Shea with me today.

(00:28):
And we're going to talk aboutAI misconceptions.
You know, there's so much chatterin the space today.
All of our clients are asking us,what are we doing about AI?
How is it affecting my results?
You know,how do I make sure that I'm ranking on AI?
And there's a lot of misconceptions outthere.
Casey, give us a little overviewof the land of kind of what you're hearing
and seeing on the client level.

(00:53):
I mean, there are so many different thingsthat that I hear every single day
when it comes with clients.
One of the big things is, you know,what are we doing?
We're doing all this SEO stuff,but what are we doing with AI?
And there's a lot of, chatter out therewhere they're like, SEO is dead.
It's all going to be AI.
But what I don't thinkthat people truly understand is like AI.

(01:13):
It's like there's a lot offoundational pieces based off of SEO
and honestly, like the way that AI isranking websites has a lot, correlation
with like, how SEO used to be,but in a much smarter way.
So it's like the foundations of bothare there.
But the approach is kind of changing.
And so,just to be clear, for those listening,

(01:37):
and maybe they have, you know, adifferent agency relationship or whatever,
there are there are two differentstrategies at play here.
Right.
You want to rank on Googleand you want to rank on AI.
And just by doing one or the other,you're not going to get both.
Oh, absolutely.
And it's like, a lot of times we getclients that come from previous agencies.
And what I recognize a lot istheir SEO department

(01:58):
only does like onsite SEO.
They don't do any of the offsite stuff.
But here at Rocket Clicks,we take care of all of that.
So our SEO department,you know, we're not working on
just your website,but all of those offsite things as well.
So we're touching everythingthat touches your website.
And I think that's the big differentiatorfrom like other agencies and like what
people are used to experiencingwith their other agencies is they're like,

(02:21):
I have this lamb guywhen the lamb guy is basically just doing
like 25% of what we're already doing.
Love it.
All right. Let's jumpright into the misconceptions.
So the first one is AI reads and rankswebsites the same way Google does.
Not even close.
So the big thing is AI is,for the most part, like it's memory.

(02:47):
It's knowledge is it's outdated.
So it can look at live datanow, especially with like Atlas
and things like that.
But it's almost likeit's like giving it a flashlight.
So it's like it can see in the darka little bit better
and it can abstract to newer information.
But at the end of the day, it's taking oldindexed information
from probably about a year ago.

(03:08):
And then that'swhere it's like basing its knowledge off
of and then training and things like that.
Whereas when Google looks at your website,they're looking at,
okay, how much information dothey have on this topic?
How is it structured?
How are the keywords set up?
You know, it'slooking for all those eat signals.
So the expertise, they experienceauthoritative ness and trustworthiness

(03:30):
where I their only focuson that trustworthiness.
So it's like, how are you showing Ithe that trust signals.
But then there's also likea little bit of sprinkle in there.
You know as far as like structured dataand things like that
that Google also will evaluatewith its ranking.
But at the end of the day,it just comes down to Google is real

(03:51):
time crawling everything and rankingaccordingly to like keywords,
AI is looking for trust and understandingwhat your website is so like.
Consistency is a huge thing.
Like every all the information.
Yeah.
So it's like if it's not consistenton your website,
say you got 500 blogsand that that's super common.
Like people are just pumping out blogs.

(04:13):
Does everything align with each otheror do you have something contradicting?
Is there a little bitdifferent of an opinion
because that's going to throw AI off?
They're just looking for that consistency.
And once they hit a couple of like,what is this?
They're just going to dip out.
They're not even goingto look at your site anymore.
we see this really play outwith multiple practice firms right.
It's really hardfor them to rank for specific terms in AI

(04:35):
because you go to their website and you'relike, wait, they're experts in family
and personal injury and estate planning.
Yeah.
Because it's like I want to show the bestthe best of the best.
So how are you confirming thatinformation?
And if you're like, oh, we do family lawand we do PI and we do construction,
we do this like we cover everythingjust because, you know,

(04:56):
we want to catch everythingthat might work for something
like Google's search engine,where it's like, okay, well,
let's make sure thatwe have everything structured and just put
a whole bunch of content in there.
So, you know, we're creating thislike book of expertise
on your website where I they're just like,I don't know what this person does.
I don't knowif they're the best in anything.
I'm going to go find the best andthen it's going to go to its resources.

(05:19):
Is it using personalized?
You know, I use ChatGPT every day, right?
And I'm puttingall kinds of random things in there
and asking all kinds of questions.
Is it leveraging any of my prior chatswhen it's serving results like that?
Even more so now.
So now it's like, you know,just like Google has its own algorithm.
If you were to just jump in to GPT andsay, what's the best lawyer in green Bay?

(05:42):
It's just going to drawfrom it's knowledge and it's information.
It's going to just be like,all right, here's the best lawyer
that that we believe to be.
But if you're having a conversationor like, I'm going through this divorce,
you know what?
What can I do in this situation?
It's an abusive relationship,you know, it's like it adds a layer
and another layer, and then when you askit, you know, I'm ready to find a lawyer.

(06:04):
What is the best lawyer in green Bay?
It's going to take everythingin that conversation, and it's
going to align it with specificallywhat will fit you perfectly.
So oh abusive relationship.
They have children.
They're looking for a divorce.
This person has a lot of reviews,a lot of people highlighting
that the success in these specific areas.
So we want to show on this person.

(06:25):
That's great.
And so it's much more personalizedif people are leveraging the tool
correctly, right.
If they're having a conversationand going deeper
rather than just divorce attorney near me.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well and another cool thing that soI went down a rabbit hole with this
and something that I,I had an assumption, but,
MIT actually did a study,I think it was last year on this,

(06:48):
and they wanted to knowwhat the correlation was with
how many people just, like,get their answers from AI or GPT
perplexity or whatever it is,and then they're like,
oh, okay, cool,I'm going to go with that one.
And then they just contact the lawyer orwhatever it is that they're looking for.
It actually came downto only about 11% of people
who use AI will just take that word.

(07:09):
The other 89% will go from AIto Google search, and then that's
where their decision is made.
So it starts 89% will start in ChatGPTor AI ends in the search.
Hey, family law firm leaders.
My partner, Tony Karl'sjust released his book where he lays bare
our precise blueprint for growingsterling lawyers from 0 to 17 million.

(07:32):
This is the blueprintthat we still use daily.
And Tony explains it in very simple terms.
The truth is, this is not simple to do.
Success requires and demands hard work.
But if you have the patienceand the work ethic to do
it, your family, law firm will succeed.
they're going to do a little research.

(07:54):
Then they're going to go validatethat research.
They probably still want to see a websiteor read some testimonials or reviews.
Exactly.
So it's like people are still trustingand vetting it.
Especially in like the, law industry.
You know, you look at our audience,you know, just say 30 and above,
predominantly we're lookingat like anywhere from 48 to over

(08:15):
60% of those people in that agedemographic are using AI.
So it's like and then they go to search.
So it's like it's becoming moreand more relevant to show up in both areas
because if you're showing up in onethat's kind of like your billboard, it's
like, oh, okay, I recognize that name.
And if you're showing up in searchas well, it's a game changer.

(08:35):
100%. So you've got to be in both.
Yeah.
you leverage it is really important.
Well and then like ranking as well.
So it's like you can show upas the top choice in AI.
But you might be the eighth in search.
So that'swhere that balance comes into play.
That's why it's like SEO is far from dead,because you got to show up in both.
You got to do both just means Oh yeah.

(08:56):
All right.
Second misconception is my websiteis the main thing
AI evaluates No.
So this isthis is what I was touched on before.
It's like,what are these little LMD guys selling?
Because like, I keep hearing that term,it's like this new job title
that people are holding on to.

(09:17):
Basically what they're doing is like,they're making sure
that everything alignsoutside of your website.
So it's like, yeah, your website,that's that's your home base.
You want to make sure that,you know, you got the main things that are
super important on your website for,I specifically is all the,
the human element.
So your attorney bios, you know,any accomplishments that they had,

(09:39):
your name, address and phone numberand then specifically we'll just sit on
name address, phone number.
It needs to be consistentacross the board.
So is it the same on Yelp Google.
Yeah. Everything.
Because if it's not, as soon as it seesa disruption in the pattern, I lose loses
trust and confidence in who you areand that you're a real entity

(10:00):
and it's not going to take the timeto validate, like, is this for real?
I mean, they got this award,but none of their Nap information
is consistent across the web.
I'm going to choose someone else.
And just as a further point there,when it comes to Google, you know, 42,
according to our researchat not only our own law firm,
Sterling Lawyers,but as well as our clients, over 42%

(10:23):
of divorce cases come fromlocal search, come from the maps.
You know,someone searching for the divorce
attorney near me or divorce attorneyplus city name.
And so you got to do this, optimization.
Anyway, Yeah.
to be showing in the maps on Google. Yep.
And that's like one of the fundamentalthings we do right away is like, okay, day

(10:45):
one clients starting.
How is their nap information?
And then we'll start digginginto everything else
because it's like, what's the first thingthat people are going to see?
They're going to see youin the search results.
And then they're goingto start looking at the site.
So it's like we wanteverything buttoned up from the get go.
Love it.
Okay.
Final, misconceptionwe're going to review today
is that you can't influence what AI shows.

(11:09):
Well, whereas with Google,the way that they're evaluating things
is you know,what's your structure,
what's your keywords. Things like that.
So it's like you canand you can't influence it.
It's like a gray areawhen it comes to like I.
So the way you can influence it.
There's one way which is a newer blackhat way that people are doing it

(11:30):
where they're poisoning AI.
So what they're tending to do with thatis they are, feeding in the magic
number is 250 documents onlinewhere it's like,
on a highly, authoritative site,something like that.
They're buying these backlinks,and then it pollutes the thinking
because there's this,all this documentation on it

(11:52):
saying that it's this one thing,but that's something that they're going
to be overcoming as far as,like when we're working on websites,
people are always like, oh, well,I want to get this page to be ranking on,
I specifically.
And it's like, well, it'snot as easy as just like polishing up
like your keywords and your structureand everything like that.
It's a combination of both on siteand off site.

(12:13):
So you have to make surethat the information on your site is
easily readable.
So it's going to benefitGoogle and it's going to benefit,
I search so easily readable, broken up.
We don't want big chunky paragraphswhere it's just like, I can't skim this,
I'm going to leave.
This is too hard to like, digest.
Making sure that structureddata is in there.

(12:34):
Because when I looks at your website,they're just looking at the HTML code.
They're not even looking at anything else.
They're just reading the text,and then they move on from there.
So the way that you can influenceit is all of those
trusted sources outside of your website.
So in influencing it, it's just basically,gaining more confidence and trust

(12:56):
that that's all you're predominantlytrying to do is gain that trust.
And a lot of thoseis actually out of the marketer's hands.
So one of the biggest signals that you cando overall community involvement,
if you can get cited in any kind of likecommunity involvement, things that you do,
you know, with, any kind of,in Chamber of Commerce

(13:16):
yeah, Chamber of Commerce,you know, any, any law groups, things
like that,anything that you're associated with
and that you are recognized for,those are massive signals.
So that's how you can influence it.
It's not as easy as just pumping outa whole bunch of content
and making sure that it's structuredin a way that search engines like it.
At. So good. Okay.
I appreciate your time, your insights.

(13:36):
If you're listening to thisand you're intrigued,
we are going to continue this,this series, at least monthly.
Depending on how fast things change,we may need to do more than that.
But, appreciate the insights todayand look forward to seeing you again.
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