SEO for law firms is the ongoing work of putting a firm’s practice-area pages, Google Business Profile and reviews in front of people searching for a lawyer. Good At Marketing provides it from Boynton Beach, Florida, for $1,000 to $1,600 a month, and up to about $3,500 in competitive markets, as published on the pricing page.
By Donnie Strompf. Updated October 2026.
What makes SEO for a law firm different?
Many legal searches involve money, safety or a deadline. Google’s guidance on helpful content says its systems give extra weight to content with strong E-E-A-T signals for topics that could significantly affect people’s health, financial stability or safety, and that trust matters most among those signals. The page does not list law by name, so whether a practice area counts is Google’s call. We recommend writing as if it does.
The same page asks who created a piece of content, how it was created and why. It asks whether it is self-evident to visitors who wrote it. For a law firm, that points to a named attorney on every article, a bio page behind the name and a visible date.
Lawyer advertising is regulated, and the rules differ by state bar. Good At Marketing is a marketing agency, and nothing here is legal advice. Check your bar’s rules, or ask your ethics counsel, before a page, a case result or a review request goes live. Our legal marketing page sets out the services we offer law firms.
How should a firm organize practice-area and city pages?
Searchers type a practice area, often with a place. A firm needs one page for each practice area it wants cases from, written for that matter alone: who it is for, what the firm handles, which attorneys handle it and how to make contact. A page that repeats the home page under a new heading gives the searcher nothing extra.
Location pages are where Google’s spam policies come into play. The policy defines doorway abuse as sites or pages created to rank for specific, similar search queries that lead users to intermediate pages less useful than the final destination. One of its examples is pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. The policy was last updated on August 28, 2026.
A firm with two offices can justify a page for each, because each office has a separate address, separate attorneys and separate local detail. A firm with one office and thirty city pages that differ only by the city name should rethink the set. When you interview an agency, ask to see two city pages from one site side by side, and ask what differs besides the name.
Each practice-area page should name the attorneys who handle the matter, link to their bio pages, state which offices serve it and give one clear way to make contact. Google’s Business Profile guidelines say to represent a business as it is consistently represented across signage and stationery, so the firm name and office details on the page should match the profile. A short line on what the firm does not handle also saves calls from people it cannot help.
What else belongs in a law firm’s SEO plan?
Results for a lawyer often show a map and a list of firms, so a plan should cover the firm’s Business Profile and its reviews. Business Profile management is priced separately, at $450 to $650 a month, on the pricing page. Google’s local ranking page says prominence depends partly on how many websites link to a business and the number of reviews it holds, and our Google reviews guide covers how to ask for them.
SEO for a firm also includes fixing technical problems and earning links and citations from sites relevant to law, which our SEO services page lists as authority work. Ask your counsel how your bar treats client testimonials and review requests before the firm starts asking.
What should a law firm measure?
Search Console, Analytics and the Business Profile show search activity. Only the firm’s intake record shows which inquiries became signed cases.
- Search Console search results data. Google defines a click as someone clicking a link from Google to your site, an impression as a user seeing or potentially seeing a link, and position as the relative ranking of your link, where 1 is the topmost. Position averages across the queries where your site appeared, so read it page by page and query by query.
- Google Analytics key events. Google defines a key event as an event that measures an action particularly important to the success of the business. For a firm, that means a submitted contact form, a click on the phone number or a click on a consultation link. The Landing pages report has a Key events column showing which pages produced them.
- Business Profile performance. Google’s performance report shows views and clicks on the profile along with other customer interactions, so it tells the firm whether the map listing draws any response at all.
- Signed cases. Neither Search Console nor Analytics can see who hired the firm. Only the firm’s intake record can.
- Cost per signed case. Divide what you paid in a period by the cases signed in it from search. Cases often sign weeks after the first contact, so compare quarters and not single months.
Set a baseline before any work starts. Pull three months of Search Console and Analytics figures, and note which practice areas produce the most inquiries today. A firm that wants more cases in one area needs to know what its site already does for that area, or later numbers have nothing to be compared against.
Ask any agency, including us, which of these it will report against and what it needs from you to cover the last two. Rankings alone cannot tell you how many people hired the firm. Our guide to choosing an SEO company lists more questions to ask.
SEO, Local Services Ads, Google Ads or Business Profile: which first?
The fees below come from the pricing page, reviewed October 2026. Use the table to match a firm’s situation to the channel that fits first. Many firms add a second channel later.
| Situation | Start with | Published fee | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Needs calls this month, Google has a lawyer category for the practice area | Local Services Ads | $200 to $1,000 plus per-lead charge | Per-lead charges sit on top |
| Needs calls this month, no category | Google Ads | $600 to $1,000 plus ad spend | Ad spend goes to Google |
| Wants cases over the next year | SEO | $1,000 to $1,600; about $3,500 in competitive markets | No promised ranking |
| Gets referrals, has a thin map presence | Business Profile | $450 to $650 | Needs steady reviews |
Our SEO services page lists first movement in months, which is why the table pairs SEO with a longer horizon. Our SEO cost guide explains what moves a fee inside the range, and what to expect from SEO covers the stages.
A firm can run channels together: it might start with Local Services Ads for urgent calls and add SEO for the longer term, because the two answer different needs. Keep each channel’s numbers separate so you can see which one produced the signed cases.
For how paid search fits a firm’s plan, see Google Ads for law firms.
Which law firms does SEO suit?
We would price three kinds of firm first. We have not compared their results with each other.
Personal injury and accident firms. Searchers use urgent, specific terms, and the pricing page runs to about $3,500 a month in competitive markets, which our SEO page says include legal. A firm in this group needs a page for each injury type it takes, plus attorney pages that show who handles the case. Searchers here compare firms quickly, so each page should show the way to make contact without scrolling.
For firms in Boca Raton, our digital marketing agency in Boca Raton page covers the city and the services we offer there.
Family law, estate planning and immigration practices. Searches here usually pair a service with a place, so the practice-area pages and the office pages carry the weight. Each office page should list the matters that office handles. Reviews matter, and so does a profile whose details match the website.
Business, real estate and tax counsel. A client in this group is more likely to search a specific legal problem or look up a named lawyer. Attorney bio pages and articles that say who wrote them and when are the most useful work, because they answer Google’s questions about who created the content.
A firm that fits none of these, such as a criminal defense or bankruptcy practice, can use the same table and the same measurement list. The first channel depends on how urgent the client’s need is and how many firms compete for the search term.
FAQ
What does SEO cost for a small law firm?
Our SEO runs $1,000 to $1,600 a month, as published on the pricing page, and up to about $3,500 in competitive markets. Where a firm lands depends on how many firms chase the same practice-area searches and on how much technical and content work the site needs. Ad spend, if any, is separate.
Who writes the legal content, and who checks it before it goes live?
Roni Strompf writes content, and you approve every page before it goes live. Ask your ethics counsel or your bar to review the wording on case results and testimonials before you approve. Google’s guidance asks who created content, so a named attorney on each article helps.
Should each attorney have a Google Business Profile?
Google’s guidelines describe an individual practitioner as a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base, and say a practitioner shouldn’t have multiple profiles to cover specializations. At a shared location the organization creates its own profile, and the practitioner’s title includes only their name. Read the guideline against how your office works.
How should a firm ask clients for Google reviews?
Google says you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code, and it strictly prohibits offering incentives such as free or discounted services in exchange for reviews. Its reply guidance says never to share a reviewer’s private information. Ask your counsel what your bar allows before you send requests or reply.
What should intake record so SEO can be tied to signed cases?
Record the date, how the caller found the firm, the practice area and whether the matter was signed or declined, for every call and form. Without those four fields, Search Console and Analytics can show inquiries but not hires. Ask your agency which of the four it needs from you.
Should a firm build a separate website for each practice area?
Google’s spam policies list multiple websites with slight variations as an example of doorway abuse. Sites that differ only a little are the risk, and in our view one site with a page per practice area is the safer start. Separate domains also divide your reviews and links among several addresses.
Next step
The free AI-visibility audit comes first, then a 15-minute call. We work with firms across Palm Beach County, and the Palm Beach County page lists the cities we serve.