Law firm SEO: what attorneys need to know

When someone searches for an estate planning attorney near them, Google often shows two kinds of results. The first is a map with a short list of local businesses. The second is the familiar list of websites. Lawyer SEO has to cover both, and they run on different signals.

Map results come mostly from your Google Business Profile. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity, and in its section on prominence it says this draws on things like how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have. Website results come from the pages on your site, how useful they are, and how well Google can understand them.

Lawyers are named directly in Google's rules. Its guidelines list lawyers among individual practitioners, public-facing professionals who typically have their own clients. That leads to a few specific rules:

• If several lawyers practice at one office, the firm should have its own profile for that location, separate from each attorney's profile, and each attorney's profile title should include only the attorney's name.
• A lawyer shouldn't have multiple profiles to cover different practice areas.
• The firm name should reflect your real-world name, as used consistently on your signage, website and stationery. Adding "Best Injury Lawyer" to the name is a guideline violation, not a strategy.

Addresses deserve a close look, because many firms use shared or virtual space. Google says a rented mailing address you don't operate from is a virtual office and isn't eligible for a Business Profile. A co-working office qualifies only if it has clear signage, receives clients during business hours and is staffed by your team.

Clients search with questions, such as whether they need a lawyer for a car accident claim or how long probate takes in their state. Pages that answer those questions clearly, for your jurisdiction, are the core of most law firm SEO.

Google holds legal and financial topics to a high standard. It says its systems give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-E-A-T for topics that could significantly impact a person's financial stability or safety, and that trust matters most. A few ways that shows up on a firm website:

• Every article names the attorney who wrote or reviewed it, with a link to their bio.
• Bios list bar admissions, practice areas and experience.
• Pages explain the law for the reader's state, not the country in general.

Give each practice area its own page, and each major question its own article. Google's SEO Starter Guide recommends descriptive URLs with words that help people understand the page, so a path like /practice-areas/estate-planning/ beats a string of random numbers.

Avoid the old habit of repeating the same phrase over and over. Google's starter guide says keyword stuffing is against Google's spam policies and tiring for readers. Write the way you would explain the issue to a client across the desk.

Reviews feed prominence in map results, and Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. Ask satisfied clients at the end of a matter, and reply to every review politely without discussing the case. Before you publish testimonials or results anywhere, check your state bar's advertising rules, which can be stricter than Google's.

Rankings do not mean much unless they turn into consultations. Google Search Console has a Performance report that shows how often your site appeared in search results, how many people clicked, your click-through rate and your average position. It also shows which search queries bring people to your site.

Check it once a month. Look for practice area pages that appear often but rarely get clicked, which can mean the title doesn't match what people are looking for. Then compare the pages people visit with the matters you actually sign. The goal of SEO for law firms is the right clients, not the most traffic.

Google's own answer is honest. It says some changes may take effect in a few hours, others could take several months, and that you'll likely want to wait a few weeks to judge whether a change helped. In competitive practice areas in large cities, plan in quarters, not weeks.

• Meta keywords. Google's starter guide says Google Search doesn't use the keywords meta tag.
• Exact-match domains for their own sake. Google advises doing what's best for your business when choosing a name.
• Promises of guaranteed rankings. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, so treat any guarantee with suspicion.

Law firm SEO is slow, steady work. Accurate profiles, useful answers and visible expertise are what last.