The Benefits of SEO for Law Firms

Search engine optimization for law firms is the process of improving a legal practice’s visibility in organic search results while complying with professional ethics, advertising rules, and client confidentiality requirements. It centres on building credibility, relevance, and local authority through accurate practice-area content, clear site structure, and verifiable trust signals. The purpose is to connect potential clients with reliable legal information at the moment they are researching legal services.

For most law firms, SEO is no longer just about being found in Google. Professional Service SEO is about showing up wherever potential clients are researching legal help, asking questions, and comparing options. That research now happens across a mix of traditional search engines and AI-powered tools, often before a firm is ever contacted.

Recent data reflects this shift. Nearly 30 percent of people now use AI-powered search tools daily, almost double previous adoption rates, signaling that AI is becoming part of everyday search behaviour (Wikipedia). Research into how people find lawyers in 2025 shows ChatGPT usage for attorney discovery increased to 28.1 percent year over year, while Google remains the primary starting point (AttorneyAtWork.com). At the same time, 96 percent of people seeking legal advice still begin with a search engine, reinforcing that search visibility remains critical even as AI tools grow in influence (AndavaDigital.com).

For law firms, this means SEO needs to support both trust and clarity across multiple discovery paths. A legal website is no longer just an online brochure. It plays an active role in answering questions, demonstrating credibility, and helping prospective clients decide whether a firm feels like the right fit before they ever reach out.

TL;DR – SEO for Law Firms

• SEO for law firms focuses on earning visibility through trust, accuracy, and relevance rather than aggressive marketing tactics.
• Ethical rules, client confidentiality, and credibility standards shape how legal websites can be optimised.
• Local search signals, practice-area content, and authority indicators are critical for attracting qualified inquiries.
• Sustainable results come from aligning SEO with how potential clients research legal services and assess trust.

This guidance best applies to small and mid-sized law firms in Canada that rely on their website to attract new clients and are navigating how SEO and AI-driven search influence legal services marketing today.

Why Visibility from SEO Leads to New Clients

A lack of visibility is common amongst clients working with professional service firms. It is suggested that firms require a strong brand presence, solid, reliable reputation, and high search engine visibility. SEO for law firms is the best way to find new client opportunities while maintaining a stronger bond with existing clients.

How Brand Content Boosts SEO and Client Connection

Much like accounting firms, the ‘About Us’ page bridges the gap between organization and clientele as it creates a bond that allows the firm to present more relevant results in relation to the client interests and needs. This is especially advantageous for lawyers as it allows them to promote themselves on the website and connect with potential clients.

How SEO Adapted During the COVID-19 Era

Times are certainly strange right now. 2020 has been challenging for much of the world to adjust to. For others, it’s been a blessing. For those who’ve excelled there’s a reason and it usually comes down to productivity from an entrepreneurial perspective. Basically, how progressive, and creative those who work from home can get.

According to Web Marketing Content organization Paper Street, the legal industry is one of the least-affected by COVID-19. This is because of the efficiency to update their online presence such as ensuring the public that they can still operate (albeit remotely or over Skype, Zoom, etc). Combine this new normal with SEO for law firms and you will be able to experiment outside of your niche in order to shift from your core area and serve a diverse market. Specializing in a certain market that may be heightened during this time would be a massive bonus for your law firm’s chances of gaining notoriety.

It’s also a good time to update old blog posts, adding additional content such as strategies on how to deal with legal issues during pandemia, and also cleaning, auditing, and updating meta-features to fit with the relevant keywords that correlate with any new services.

Investment in SEO for law firms during this time – while a gamble, has great potential to produce positive results as the world slowly starts to have greater demand for services. Therefore, hiring the necessary freelancers to ramp up business for specific departments is a risk worth taking. While competitors scramble for workers after COVID-19, a law firm with a comprehensive website able to serve diverse clients will stay one step ahead of the game.

How SEO Can Improve Client Conversion Rates

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out the more clients know about a specific law firm; the more chance those clients will seek that firm’s services. SEO focuses on creating that bond with prospective clients, subsequently building relationships and gaining trust. Again, because of the pandemic one-on-on meetings may not be available, but that doesn’t stop firms from creating Webinars that double-up as free consultations, and it creates an efficient method of providing the answers to clients’ questions without the hassle of one-to-one free consultations that doesn’t guarantee a return. And while establishing SEO doesn’t guarantee a return in the short-term, its longevity means that a high level of quality is is maintained long-term.

How SEO Targets High-Intent Law Firm Searches

Speaking of quality, law firms want to create a demand for their services, but also want to focus on the bigger clients as it not only generates higher income, it also establishes them as a legitimate force in the legal industry. SEO is an Inbound Marketing Strategy. What this means is that the targeted audience will find the necessary law firm (or service) they desire rather than the service reaching out to consumers who may or may not want to be contacted.

Outbound vs. Inbound:

Outbound: Interruption – Cold Calling, SPAM Emails, Marketer-Centric

Inbound: Permission – SEO, Blogging, Customer-Centric

 A study by Hubspot recently noted that an impressive 59% of marketers cited Inbound Marketing as the highest quality leads for their sales team. This is down to the difference between providing information related to the industry that the target audience is actively searching for, versus attempting to coerce the general public to seek legal advice from a specific firm as a basic marketing strategy.

Moreover, Inbound Marketing provides an opportunity to reach an audience who already may be considering contracting a service, and therefore leading to a greater chance that the marketing strategy will lead to sales or leads.

Why Organic SEO Doesn’t Have Ongoing Ad Costs

The term “nothing is ever truly free” generally counts as nine-tenths of the law, but in this case it’s true! Google’s organic rankings revolve around what the algorithm determines as the best results for a given query, and so once the search engine sees a website as a legitimate source of information, it is able to direct traffic to it for months, perhaps even years. Basically, there’s no added cost on-top of the initial website investment. Sure, organizations can choose whether to hire freelancers to boost their blog posts, web content, etc but it’s not the only option should someone within the company be multi-skilled and able to churn out the content themselves.

Comparing SEO Clicks versus PPC Clicks for Law Firms

What is PPC exactly? Well, it is the basis with which advertisers use to pay publishers every time that an ad is clicked. Pay-Per-Click involves advertiser’s essentially purchasing traffic to a specific website, rather than the target audience clicking organically. However, SEO generates more clicks than PPC as users tend to trust Google’s algorithm, as they know which spots advertisers pay for, and instead choose to visit pages that search engines determine to be the best. According to Zero Limit Web Marketing, 71.33% of searches result in a click on an organic result on the first page. Organizations that appear on the first page of an organic search suggests that the website-in-question (as well as the business) are leaders in that niche bracket, and therefore most likely to generate the greatest income.

How SEO and PR Work Together to Improve Visibility

According to Kohler in his article, “How to Combine PR, Content Marketing and SEO” (Kohler, 2017) PR, Content Marketing, and SEO are often seen as competitors for budget, resources, yet both should not be carried out in isolation. This is because they tend to work best when working together. Kohler uses the example that, “the terms ‘public relations,’ search engine optimization,’ and ‘content marketing’ lead to 100 different definitions and opinions on the tactics they involve” (Kohler, 2017).

Public Relations: Method of having people write about a specific company, or service in a positive light.

Content Marketing: Practice of producing content (designed by industry experts within the company) that educates and engages a certain target audience.

SEO: Technical, Content, Website performance optimization with the objective to rank high on Google in an attempt to boost traffic.

How they work hand-in-hand involves SEO being used as platform for content marketing (keyword research, building a relationship with clients, etc.) while content generate press coverage (for example journalists being drawn to a website – or even writing for the website), and press coverage ends-up garnering the right kind of attention and gaining the trust of potential clients who have seen industry experts promote the organization. Meanwhile, PR improves SEO as it helps build high-quality content, subsequently building the profile of the organization and giving it a better chance to rank for more competitive keywords.

Why Combining SEO, PR, and Content Matters for Law Firms

This is important in the legal industry as the combination of all three marketing strategies help legitimize law firms and gives them a fighting chance amid vigorous competition. The National Law Review states that out of 87% of people who contact and eventually hire an attorney, 72% of them only end-up contacting one attorney. If the website of a law firm isn’t ranking in the top three, then it doesn’t stand much chance of being looked at.

Furthermore, the combination of all three will ensure that content is being designed for the purpose of ranking well in the search engines and also entice clientele with informative, relevant information – as opposed to simply producing content for the sake of building a database. According to Martin in his article, “Attorneys Win More Clients with SEO and Content Marketing” the author argues that, “digital marketing and content marketing work like peanut butter and jelly” in that with 80% of new clients coming from referrals (and not marketing), the aim is to generate a marketing campaign like quarterly newsletters and social media posts, while also improving credibility and providing a boost in search engine results (Martin, 2020). This in-turn will lead to improving landing pages while posts that include the keywords “how to choose a personal injury attorney” for example, will result in strengthening the ranking on Google’s search results page, and also helping connect with new clients who have little knowledge of the industry.

Addressing Common SEO Challenges for Law Firms

Like anything, there are potential roadblocks to achieving the desired goal. For example, organic SEO for law firms may not always be the most efficient form of marketing, as it tends to take time to increase website ranking in the search engine results. However, optimizing on-page SEO ensures that key terms in the web title pages (URLs) are given greater in-depth relevancy to the product (or in this case the service provided).

Next Steps to Improve Law Firm SEO Performance

Based on our experience working with law firms across different practice areas, sustainable SEO results come from more than targeting keywords or chasing rankings. Law firms that perform well in search tend to invest in clarity, credibility, and consistency. This includes building content that answers real client questions, presenting expertise in a way that is easy to trust, and maintaining a strong local and online presence that reinforces legitimacy.

We have also seen that firms willing to think beyond a single tactic tend to stand out over time. When SEO is supported by clear messaging, thoughtful content, public relations, and a well-structured website, each channel reinforces the others. The result is not just more visibility, but better-quality inquiries from clients who already feel confident reaching out.

If you are wondering whether your current website and SEO approach are doing what they should, we are always happy to have a conversation. You can reach out to 1st on the List to discuss how law firm SEO works today, what matters most for your practice, and where there may be opportunities to improve performance moving forward. Call our team at 1-888-262-6687 or email us at [email protected].

Updated for 2026 to reflect changes in AI-driven search results and how Google surfaces information.