Nick Carroll
I've spent 30 years building legal publishing infrastructure. I founded publish.law to help attorneys turn their cases, insights, and credentials into a digital presence they own, built for how clients, referral sources, and AI systems find lawyers today.
Notes
- Nick Carroll
Google's VP of Search says AI systems favor comprehensive, in-depth content over surface-level coverage. This reinforces the value of detailed practice area guides and thorough legal explainers. Surface-level blog posts are becoming less valuable in an AI-driven search landscape.
- Nick Carroll
SparkToro argues that 'just make great content' is dead advice in 2026. Instead, you need something genuinely unique that competitors can't replicate. For law firms, this means developing truly distinctive expertise or tools, not just another personal injury blog.
- Nick Carroll
Clickstream study of 846K sessions found users spend 24% less time on pages from AI Overviews compared to regular search results. They're also 25% less likely to click through at all. If Google's pushing more AI Overviews in your practice areas, you need to optimize for quick answers that still drive clicks.
- Nick Carroll
Stefanie Marrone has a piece out on turning your everyday work into LinkedIn content, and the core idea applies to anything you publish.
Her "Three Es": Education (what you teach), Experience (what you've seen), Expertise (what you understand deeply). Most professionals lean entirely on Education, which is exactly what AI now writes in seconds. The other two build real authority. - Nick Carroll
Three different AI content scandals point to the same problem: AI-generated content often gets detected and penalized. If you're using AI to write blog posts or practice area pages, you need quality control processes that most firms aren't implementing.
- Nick Carroll
Duane Forrester makes a key point: optimizing for language models isn't like optimizing for search engines. Each model behaves differently, and tactics that work for one don't automatically work for others. This complicates content strategy if you're trying to appear in multiple systems.
- Nick Carroll
Google's latest core update is rolling out now. Expect the usual 2-week completion window with ranking fluctuations during that time. If you've been following E-E-A-T best practices and publishing quality content, you should be fine. Worth monitoring your rankings closely over the next two weeks.
- Nick Carroll
HubSpot breaks down tools that track when AI systems cite your content. For attorneys building authority, knowing which AI engines reference your work (and which don't) is becoming essential for content strategy.
- Nick Carroll
Research shows most brands aren't showing up in AI search results at all, but traditional SEO fundamentals still drive AI citations. Good news for law firms that already have solid content foundations. And, an opportunity for those that don't.
Subscribe to Nick Carroll
Get new posts delivered to your inbox.