Law firm SEO from a lawyer SEO expert

For “lawyer near me” searches, the map results sit above the regular results, and the map results come from Google Business Profiles. Three choices matter most. The primary category: Google has specific ones like Personal injury attorney, Criminal justice attorney, Family law attorney and Estate planning attorney, and a firm listed as plain “Attorney” or “Law firm” gives up a lot of searches, so pick the primary category for the work you most want and add secondary categories for the rest. One profile per real office: Google’s rules allow a profile at an address where you actually see clients during posted hours, and a virtual office or a mail drop can get a profile suspended. And whether each attorney gets a profile: Google lets individual practitioners have their own listings, which can help or split your reviews, so decide on purpose. My Google Business Profile optimization is $400 one time if that’s all you need.

Clients who were happy with a divorce or a criminal case often don’t want their name on a public review. Ask anyway, by text, right after a good outcome, and make it easy. Some will say yes.

Be careful when you answer reviews, especially bad ones. A reply that confirms details of someone’s case can create problems with client confidentiality. The safe reply is short, polite and says nothing about the matter. I write reply templates your staff can use, so nobody improvises on a bad day.

Your website and your Google profile count as communications about your services, so your state’s lawyer advertising rules cover them. In Michigan that’s Rules 7.1 through 7.3 of the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct. Among other things, Rule 7.1 bars communications that are false or misleading or likely to create an unjustified expectation about results.

In practice that affects a lot of standard marketing copy. Words like “specialist” or “expert” about your own practice, lists of past verdicts, and client testimonials all deserve a second look. I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice. I write copy that avoids the obvious problems, flag anything that needs your judgment, and you make the call before it goes live.

Maps and search rankings for the practice-area searches we agreed matter, in the county or counties you take cases in. Calls from the profile and the site, and form fills, with the previous month beside them. Under that, what I worked on and why, and what’s next. If a page is waiting on your review, the report says so, because a practice-area page that sits in draft for two months isn’t ranking for anyone.

Manager access to your Google Business Profile. The practice areas you want more of, and the ones you’d rather not take. The courts and counties where you actually appear, because I build pages for those only if you do. Photos of the office and the attorneys, not a gavel. A short review of each page before it goes live, since only you can say whether something is accurate and allowed. And a staff member who will send the review text after a good outcome.