SEO for Law Firms

Lawyer SEO, sometimes called attorney SEO, is a set of SEO strategies that improve your law firm’s online visibility in search engines like Google.

Your potential clients search every day for the legal services you provide, and SEO helps your law firm appear in those search results.

Getting on the first page of Google is difficult because SEO for lawyers is highly competitive, and the legal marketplace is crowded with attorneys targeting the same search terms and legal services.

This is why it is crucial to have an SEO strategy tailored to the legal niche that can get you results if you want a real chance to improve your search rankings, generate more qualified case leads, and increase your practice’s case intake.

A law firm SEO agency is a digital marketing agency specializing in legal SEO, focused on helping attorneys generate more cases from organic search results.

When you compare a general SEO agency with one dedicated to the legal field, the difference is night and day.

A legal SEO agency spends all of its time getting ranking results for law firms and gathering data on how legal clients search, why certain pages rank, and which SEO strategies consistently lead to signed cases. Their approach is shaped by data from real legal SERPs, not trial and error.

If you decide to work with a legal SEO agency, you won’t have to explain the type of legal representation you provide, your practice areas, your ideal case types, or how people search for the legal services you offer.

A legal SEO agency already understands practice-area keyword intent, ethical advertising rules, bar-compliant content, and how to use local SEO to improve visibility in the cities and states you want to target.

A general SEO agency rarely comes in with that level of legal industry knowledge. Their playbook is built for broad markets and broad search behavior, and that approach just doesn’t hold up in competitive legal SERPs.

So if you are an attorney or lawyer and want every dollar you invest in SEO to have the best chance of generating real ROI, then hiring a law firm SEO agency is your best bet for turning your SEO investment into real cases.

The law firm SEO company you choose affects how your firm appears in search results and how efficiently your marketing budget generates signed cases. This decision should not be rushed.

Start by asking each SEO company to show results they have achieved for law firms like yours. Have them explain the effort, timeline, and budget required to produce those outcomes.

Next, ask how they track SEO performance. Request a sample SEO report to see how they measure progress. Make sure their reporting includes metrics that matter to your firm. They should track calls, form leads, map visibility, intake follow-through, and case volume related to your practice areas. Avoid agencies that only provide generic traffic reports.

Ask each SEO company how they ensure the legal content they create for you complies with the bar association advertising rules. Compliance is crucial in legal SEO, and any content they create should be accurate, ethical, and aligned with real client search intent.

Once you confirm their past results, reporting, and compliance processes align with your needs, ask how they would develop an SEO strategy for your firm.

Your SEO plan should be tailored to your goals, market, and the practice areas you want to expand. It should include content creation, technical SEO, on-page improvements, off-page efforts, local SEO for your cities, and strategies to increase conversions that turn inquiries into signed cases. It should not be a one-size-fits-all template.

Finally, confirm that you keep full ownership of your website, your content, and all marketing assets they create for you.

Choose an SEO company that can satisfy all of the checks mentioned above.

If you want to learn about the top 5 companies we recommend and how we compare, read our law firm SEO company guide written by Matt Green, the co-founder of Juris Digital.

When you are choosing an SEO partner for your law firm, you are not looking for empty promises.

You want a partner that understands how competitive legal search really is, knows which ranking factors matter, and has a proven system for helping law firms show up more often and sign more cases. That is exactly why firms choose Juris Digital.

We specialize solely in legal SEO. For more than a decade, we have worked exclusively with law firms and have completed hundreds of legal SEO campaigns across the United States.

That experience gives us a deep understanding of how attorneys compete in search, what works and what does not, and the steps that truly help your firm rise in search results.

Our agency is led by Casey Meraz, a nationally recognized legal SEO expert who literally wrote the book on local marketing for personal injury lawyers. Casey has been helping law firms grow online since 2009, and his experience shapes the strategies we implement every day at Juris Digital.

We do not believe in templates or one-size-fits-all work. Your SEO campaign will be built specifically around your practice areas, your geographic market, and the cases you want more of.

Whether you handle personal injury, criminal defense, family law, employment litigation, immigration, estate planning, business litigation, real estate law, or bankruptcy, your campaign will be built around the way clients search for those services.

It does not matter if you are a solo attorney in Maine or a multi-office firm in Los Angeles. We can create a campaign that targets the geographic areas you want to reach and supports the specific goals you have for your firm.

The legal content we create for you is written by our skilled legal writing team, which includes attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals with hands-on experience.

Our legal SEO specialists use proven processes, premium tools, and a deep understanding of the legal market to deliver faster and more effective results.

We only use ethical, Google-compliant practices, avoiding outdated or risky tactics such as keyword stuffing or low-quality link schemes. Instead, we focus on writing high-quality content for you, responsibly managing your link acquisition, and making sure your site stays aligned with algorithm updates.

We are transparent about the work we do in your SEO campaign. You will receive clear reporting that explains what changed and why it matters.

We follow state bar advertising rules, avoid practices that could harm your online reputation, and know how to fix issues caused by previous agencies.

We measure success the same way you do, by the quality of your leads and the cases you sign, not by vanity metrics.

Our client success stories, client reviews, and our 4.9 out of 5.0 star Google rating highlight the outcomes we work hard to achieve for attorneys every day.

You deserve a partner who understands your legal world and cares about your results as much as you do.

When you choose Juris Digital, you get a team that treats your goals like their own and works hard to help your firm grow.

We provide conversion-focused law firm SEO services to help grow your attorney practice in search engines, local search, and AI search.

You don’t need to know all the SEO jargon. The services listed below are simply a glimpse of what we handle in the background. You stay focused on winning settlements and verdicts for your clients, and we stay focused on bringing those clients to you through organic SEO.

Our SEO Services for Attorneys and Lawyers Include:

On-Page SEO Optimization:

We make your website clear, structured, and easy to understand so both search engines and potential clients can quickly recognize the value your firm provides.

Off-Page SEO Optimization & Authority Building:

We strengthen your reputation across the web so your firm stands out as a trusted, credible choice when clients compare attorneys in competitive practice areas.

Technical SEO:

We fix the hidden technical issues that slow your site down or hold your rankings back so search engines can crawl, index, and elevate your pages with confidence.

Local SEO:

We improve your visibility in local search and Google Maps so your firm shows up first when people nearby need legal help and are ready to take action.

Legal Content Marketing & Content Development:

We create clear, helpful content that answers your clients’ most important questions and guides them toward choosing your firm for representation.

StoryBrand Narrative Messaging:

We clarify your firm’s message so potential clients immediately understand who you help, how you help them, and why they should choose you over competing firms.

Legal Keyword Keyword Research:

We identify the exact search terms your ideal clients use and build a coverage plan that ensures your firm appears at every key step in their decision-making journey.

Website Design & Development for Law Firms:

If your current site isn’t SEO-friendly or converting traffic, we rebuild it from the ground up so you have a fast, modern, trustworthy website that strengthens your client acquisition engine.

SEO Reporting:

We track the metrics that matter, from visibility to signed cases, so you always know what’s working, what’s improving, and how your investment is paying off.

SEO Growth Management & Continuous Optimization:

We monitor changes in search, client behavior, and AI-driven systems so your strategy always stays ahead of the curve and your firm continues to grow.

Legal SEO is a long-term legal marketing strategy. How long it takes to bear fruit depends on where your firm’s website is starting from. A brand-new site takes longer to gain momentum than one with established authority.

Most firms begin to notice increases in organic traffic within 4 to 6 months and 6 to 12 months to see more meaningful SEO results, such as stronger rankings, more qualified leads, and more signed cases.

The costs of law firm SEO ranges from $2,000 to $30,000 per month, depending on your practice areas, target locations, and competition in search results

The exact cost varies because every firm’s path to growth looks different. What you spend depends on how much effort is required to reach your case volume goals and stay competitive in the markets you serve.

A firm in Los Angeles aiming for 20 new cases a week operates in a far more competitive environment and will need to invest more than a rural practice hoping to add one or two matters a month.

The American Bar Association recommends allocating 2 to 5 percent of gross revenue to marketing. In high stakes practice areas or major metropolitan markets, many firms choose to spend 15 to 20 percent because that level of investment is often what it takes to acquire cases consistently.

Your cost should feel aligned with the outcomes you want, the search growth you need, the visibility you are targeting, and the number of new clients you expect.

Our team can help you understand what amount supports those goals in a way that matches your market and ambition.

If you would like help determining the cost or spend that fits your practice area, location, and growth targets, we are here to walk you through it.

Juris Digital’s SEO programs start at $2,000 per month for a single practice area of law in one location. If you want to target more practice areas, locations, or enter more competitive markets, your costs will increase.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all SEO pricing model because it depends on the SMART goals from firm to firm. The majority of our clients fall into the $5,000 per month range. Our biggest clients spend $30,000+ for attorney SEO services.

If you’re unsure what budget makes sense, we’ll model a plan based on your practice areas, competition, and growth goals so you know exactly what you need to invest to grow your case volume.

No, your law firm will not be locked into a long-term SEO contract if you decide to work with Juris Digital.

Your firm signs a basic SEO agreement and plans around a 12-month SEO campaign. This gives us a fair chance to build momentum and deliver measurable results in organic search for your law firm.

However, we understand that your law firm’s situation may change. You can cancel the agreement at any time by giving written notice. There is no early termination fee, no remaining-months billing, and no cancellation charge. After written notice, active SEO work stops at the end of the current monthly billing period, and no additional charges apply.

Your law firm retains all SEO work product we create, including content, pages, and earned backlinks. Nothing is removed or withheld.

Yes, in most cases your law firm can keep its current website if you hire Juris Digital to handle your SEO.

At the start of the SEO campaign, we review your law firm’s existing website to identify any structural or technical issues that may be holding SEO growth back. If those issues can be fixed on your current law firm website, we do so.

If we determine that the site as a whole would prevent your law firm and our team from achieving the results you need, we explain why and recommend a rebuild.

If we do recommend a site rebuild, it’s your law firm’s choice. We explain why and let you decide.

RELATED: What Makes a Lawyer Website “The Best”?

We limit the number of competing law firms with whom we’ll engage within any particular market. Our limited competition policy is intended to balance two important company missions:

1. To ensure fair and effective digital marketing services for every client, and;
2. To help as many law firms as possible grow their reach through digital marketing

The policy is straightforward: No matter the size of your primary market, or your marketing budget, we will never work with more than three competing firms in your area of practice and your market. Specifically:

• If your primary market’s population is less than 500,000 we will take on no more than one competing firm in your market.
• If your primary market’s population is between 500,000 and 2M we will take on no more than two competing firms in your market.
• If your primary market’s population is over 2M we will take on no more than three competing firms in your market.

In general, more content equals more traffic (which equals more leads) and so naturally our potential clients want to understand how much content they’ll receive based on their investment with us.

The short answer is, that the amount of content we recommend will depend on your desired outcomes (your goals), your area of law, and your budget.

So for example, if you tell us that your goal is to get 10 new divorce clients per month from the web within 12 months, our proposal for how much content you need will be based on producing that outcome. We know that divorce and family law lends itself incredibly well to using informational content marketing as a direct lead generation source, and so content will constitute a large portion of our focus.

Next, we need to understand your budget. If your budget is low, then it’s our job to make sure your stated desired outcome is realistic given your budget limitations. Generally, higher budgets mean more content because producing high-performing content is expensive.

At Juris Digital we have a team of 30 plus attorney-writers on our staff, who write hundreds of thousands of words of content for our clients each month. We pay them a fair rate because t’s a serious matter to give people legal information on your website. We know that we can’t be scraping the bottle bottom of the barrel when it comes to writers, and so our content isn’t cheap.

RELATED: How Much Should You Pay for Legal Content Writing?

But we know – and we help our clients understand – that a single piece of content can transform your business. A single piece of content can drive new clients to your firm who seriously impact your bottom-line growth.

All this to say: The amount of content we will produce for you each month depends on your goals, area of law, and budget.

Your monthly SEO budget pays for the expertise, technology, and time required to execute the work that’s necessary to achieve your desired goals. So what does that mean specifically?

Our team is a group of search marketers who specialize in organic search optimization for law firms. Every person on our team has multiple years of experience in doing the sort of things required to generate new business for your law firm from a search. So we have to pay those people for their expertise.

Effective lawyer SEO also requires continual education and training which we provide our staff to ensure we are always leveled up with the latest best practices and advanced techniques.

SEO also requires specific technology, software, and tools that we need to do competitive research, understand the search landscape for our clients, and most effectively execute our content strategies and our link-building strategies.

Finally, your monthly fee pays for the time – the people hours – required to execute the work that needs to be done to achieve your goals. So that work means everything from:

• Keyword research
• Content strategy development
• Blog content creation
• Website usability analysis
• Website design and graphic design
• Development in WordPress
• Making website changes, additions, and tweaks
• Managing your Google Business profile
• Executing link building campaign
• Publishing and formatting content creating graphics for it, linking it within your site
• Optimizing page titles
• Optimizing URL slugs,
• Optimizing headings
• Drafting new content
• Advertising
• etc.

Those are the three major areas where your investment goes: The expertise, the technology, and the time required to do the things necessary to achieve your goals. During the sales proposal process, we’ll break down for you specifically what portion of your budget goes to which of these areas each and every month.

Whenever we’re redesigning a law firm’s website, our operating principle is to do no harm. Before we do anything we assess the performance of your current website. What pages are most important? What pages get the most traffic? What rankings do you have for what specific keywords?

Only once that assessment is complete will we create our new website strategy with the understanding that – first and foremost – we won’t make any changes that will have a potentially negative impact on what’s already working well.

Now, no one can guarantee that you won’t see dips in rankings for certain pages and keywords once your new site is launched, but we do everything we can to prevent that. I would say that in 95% of cases, we not only maintain the performance of your most important pages, we actually see an improvement upon the launch of the new site.

RELATED: Check Out Our Portfolio of Law Firm Websites

Yes, you can definitely rank your attorney services outside your immediate office area with the help of legal SEO.

However, you won’t appear in Google Maps unless you have a physical address in that location.

Take a look at the screenshot below. It’s a real search for “DUI lawyer,” and it’s color-coded to show you exactly where you can compete:

• Red areas are paid ads at the top. You can’t influence these with SEO.
• Blue areas are Google Maps results. If you don’t have a verified office in that city, you won’t appear here.
• Green areas are the traditional organic search results. This is where you can absolutely rank even if you don’t have a physical location.

So, as an attorney, your main opportunity to rank in places where you don’t have an office is through the organic listings. That’s especially true for informational queries people ask on Google every day.

For example, someone who’s been in a car accident in Texas might search “average car accident settlement,” or someone injured in California might search “statute of limitations for personal injury claims California.” By investing in legal content marketing optimized for these informational keywords, you can absolutely rank and bring in new leads from all across your state.

At Juris Digital, we focus on securing your local market first with attorney SEO. Then we leverage these informational searches on Google to broaden your reach statewide, so you can be discovered in search engines even in cities where you don’t have a physical office.

We report to our SEO clients on a monthly basis. Our reports include an analysis of metrics that matter most to you. They are written in plain English and include the following details:

Key Performance Indicators:

• New cases signed
• High-value cases
• Keyword rankings
• Online leads generated (website forms, phone calls, live chats, etc.)
• Google Analytics traffic trends (traffic by source, compared to the previous period, etc.) and Google Search Console trends

Details of Monthly Work Completed

• Details of all content marketing including new content published
• Details of all link building efforts including all-new links placed
• Details of all website and optimization changes

Agenda for Month Ahead

• Details of all initiatives and areas of focus for the coming month

Starting an SEO campaign with Juris Digital follows a simple four-step process.

Step 1. Reach out to get started

You can begin by submitting our law firm SEO quote form or calling us directly at 888-509-8964. We recommend the form so you can share key details upfront, but either option works.

Step 2. Discovery call with Peter Kerlin

We schedule a discovery call, usually within a few days. Peter Kerlin learns about your law firm, your practice areas, and your goals, and answers your SEO questions to confirm alignment.

Step 3. Proposal and strategy review

If there is alignment, we prepare a tailored SEO proposal. Peter and our Director of SEO, Steve King, walk you through the roadmap on a strategy call, explain the plan, and outline next steps. Nothing moves forward without your approval.

Step 4. Onboarding and campaign launch

Once you decide to proceed, we handle onboarding, tool setup, and campaign launch. Your involvement is limited to providing access and approvals. After onboarding is complete, your SEO campaign officially begins.

We’re ready when you are, and we’d love the opportunity to help your firm grow with proven, attorney-focused SEO.