SEO and AI search for law firms, counted in new instructions

Law firms

The answer, first

SEO for law firms means ranking for the searches people make when they need a lawyer now (the practice area plus the town) and for the questions they ask before they call. It now also means being the firm ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews name when someone asks who to instruct. Pieo does both for solicitors in the UK and lawyers in the US, and reports new enquiries and instructions by practice area.

What your future clients now ask

They still type "employment solicitor Leeds" into Google. They also ask:

• "Who are the best family law solicitors in Bristol for a high-net-worth divorce?"
• "Is [your firm] good for probate disputes?"
• "Best personal injury lawyer in Phoenix with no win no fee?"
• "How much does a conveyancing solicitor cost in London?"

Google often answers those with an AI Overview before any link. ChatGPT answers with a short list of named firms. If your firm is not in that answer, the call goes elsewhere, and you never see the search in your analytics.

Where law firms leak enquiries

The sources AI answers use for law firms

When ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI name a firm, they usually lean on a short list of sources. Part of our work is making sure you are on them, accurately.

• UK: the Law Society's Find a Solicitor, the SRA register, Legal 500 and Chambers rankings where relevant, ReviewSolicitors, Trustpilot, Google reviews, local press and "best solicitors in [city]" lists.
• US: your state bar directory, Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Martindale-Hubbell, Super Lawyers, Google reviews, local press and "best lawyers in [city]" lists.

We check which of these actually appear in AI answers for your practice area and city before we spend a minute on any of them.

One page per practice area, built to be quoted

Each practice area gets its own page, per office location, with:

• The answer in the first 60 words: who you act for, where, and how to start.
• How the matter works, step by step, with typical timescales.
• Fees information in the format your regulator expects (the SRA Transparency Rules cover several practice areas in England and Wales).
• The named lawyers who handle it, with credentials and links to their regulator listing.
• Five to eight real client questions, answered in two or three sentences each.

Google Ads for law firms

The short answer: Google Ads works for law firms in urgent, high-value practice areas (personal injury, criminal defence, family, employment) when each click is tied to a tracked, qualified call or form. Without that, it is the fastest way to spend a marketing budget.

What the market pays for these clicks (SEMrush, September 2026, US database, CPC in US dollars):

Those are the clicks law firms' marketers make. Clicks that expensive are why we measure instructions, not visits.

How we run it:

1. Campaigns split by practice area and location, so you see which ones pay.
2. Exact and phrase match on hiring intent. A negative list from day one: jobs, salary, training contract, pupillage, law degree, templates, and any work you do not take.
3. Call tracking and qualified-call import, so Google optimises for calls that became enquiries, not for any call.
4. A landing page per practice area, matching the ad.
5. In the US, Local Services Ads (Google Screened) where your practice area is eligible.
6. A search-term review every week, written up in the Friday note.

Compliance

We write to the SRA Code of Conduct and Transparency Rules in England and Wales, and to ABA Model Rules 7.1 to 7.3 and your state bar's advertising rules in the US. No promised outcomes, no misleading comparisons, no testimonials your rules do not allow. Your team approves every page before it goes live.

The proof

• 18 new accounts for a B2B services firm in eight months (August 2025 to March 2026), all from enquiries we generated. Counted and invoiced by the client's own finance team at about £40,000.
• 66% more clicks from Google after a site rebuild, with average position moving from 25 to 11, against the same months a year earlier.

No logos and no client names. Every number was counted by the client or pulled from their own Google accounts. See every result.

What it costs

It depends on the searches you need to win. We quote after the Search Check, once we know which searches matter, how hard they are to win and what is already in place. Monthly rolling, no lock-in.

FAQ

Common questions