Co-written by Technical Content Links and Four Dots, our sister agency.
Search for almost any legal question in Australia, such as “how is property divided after separation” or “what happens if I die without a will”, and the results look the same. Dozens of law firm blogs answer the question in near-identical words, each one ending with “contact us for advice tailored to your circumstances”.
For years that was a workable law firm SEO strategy. Publish an article for every common question, build some links, and wait for enquiries. It is now one of the least effective things a firm can spend its marketing budget on. AI answers summarise the generic article before anyone clicks it, and Google has become much better at telling the difference between a page that explains the law and a page that shows real legal experience.
Why the generic legal article has stopped working
Legal topics sit squarely in what Google calls “Your Money or Your Life” territory. Google’s own guidance on creating helpful content says its systems give even more weight to strong E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust) for topics that could significantly affect someone’s health, financial stability or safety. A family law matter, a criminal charge or a contested estate clearly qualifies.
The generic article fails that test in a specific way. It may be accurate, but it shows no experience. It could have been written by anyone, about any jurisdiction, at any time. When fifty firms publish the same explanation, Google has no reason to prefer yours. And when an AI Overview or ChatGPT can give the same explanation directly, the searcher has no reason to click it.
That second point matters more every month. Informational questions are exactly the kind AI answers handle best. The firms still getting value from search are the ones whose content gives an AI system, and a prospective client, something it can’t get anywhere else.
What experience looks like in legal content
Experience is the “E” most law firm content is missing, and it’s the hardest one for competitors to copy. In practice it looks like this:
- Process, not just principle. What actually happens after a client calls, how long each stage tends to take in the relevant court or tribunal, and what the firm needs from the client at each point.
- The questions clients really ask. Not the textbook question, but the one asked in the first meeting: “Will I have to go to court?”, “Can he stop me moving interstate with the kids?”, “What if the will was changed last month?”
- Named, credentialed authors. Content attributed to a real practitioner, with their admission, practice area and (where it genuinely applies) accreditation, rather than “Admin” or “Our Team”.
- Local and jurisdictional detail. Australian law varies by state. A page that says which legislation, which court and which registry applies is more useful and more trustworthy than one that stays vague.
- A point of view. Where the law is unsettled or commonly misunderstood, a practitioner explaining what they actually see in practice is worth more than another neutral summary.
The professional rules are an advantage, not an obstacle
Firms sometimes treat professional conduct rules as the reason their marketing has to be bland. The rules themselves are fairly simple. Rule 36 of the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules requires a firm’s advertising, marketing and promotion not to be false, misleading or deceptive, offensive, or prohibited by law. It also bars solicitors from giving a misleading impression of specialist expertise, or using the words “accredited specialist” unless they actually hold that accreditation. Some states also restrict how particular services, such as personal injury work, can be advertised.
None of that prevents good content. It rules out the tactics that were never good content anyway: inflated claims, “specialist” used as a keyword, guaranteed outcomes and fake reviews. A firm that writes accurately, attributes content to real practitioners and explains its process honestly is already doing what both the rules and Google’s guidance reward. The constraint lands hardest on the shortcuts.
| Generic legal content | Content that still wins | |
|---|---|---|
| Who wrote it | Unattributed or “our team” | A named practitioner with relevant experience |
| What it covers | The textbook definition | The process, timeframes, costs and decisions a client actually faces |
| Jurisdiction | Vague or national | Specific state legislation, courts and local context |
| Claims | “Leading”, “specialist”, “the best” | Verifiable experience, accurate credentials, no guarantees |
| What AI does with it | Summarises it, or something like it, without a click | Cites it, because nothing else says it as clearly |
Local search is where most legal enquiries are won
For most firms, the highest-value searches aren’t questions at all. They’re “family lawyer Parramatta”, “conveyancer near me” or “criminal lawyer Brisbane”. These are decided largely by Google’s local results, and Google is open about how they work. Its local ranking guidance names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Prominence draws on things like how many websites link to the business and how many reviews it has.
That makes the fundamentals unglamorous but decisive:
- A complete, accurate Google Business Profile for each office, with the right primary category and practice areas.
- A dedicated page for each practice area and location that genuinely serves it, rather than one page trying to rank for everything.
- A steady, genuine flow of client reviews, requested properly and responded to professionally and confidentially.
- Mentions and links from the places a firm’s reputation actually lives: law society directories, local business associations, legal publications and community organisations.
Measure enquiries, not traffic
Legal marketing has a particular measurement trap. A guide to “how to write a will” can bring in thousands of visits a month and almost no instructions, because most readers wanted a template rather than a lawyer. A page about contesting a will in a particular state might get a fraction of the traffic and produce the firm’s best matters.
The useful numbers are the ones a managing partner would recognise: calls and enquiry forms by practice area, the proportion that become matters, and the value of those matters. If an SEO report leads with sessions and rankings and never reaches enquiries, it’s measuring activity, not results. We made a broader version of that argument in why most marketing reporting is theater.
The firms that will do well
AI answers will keep absorbing the generic questions. What they can’t absorb is a particular firm’s experience, its practitioners’ judgement and its reputation in a local market. Law firm SEO now rewards the firms willing to put those things on the page, under real names, within the rules. That’s harder than publishing another explainer, which is exactly why it works.
FAQ
Does SEO still work for law firms?
Yes, but the emphasis has shifted. Generic informational articles are increasingly answered directly by AI, so the value has moved to local search, practice-area pages and content that shows real practitioner experience.
Can law firms ask clients for Google reviews?
Generally, yes. The reviews must be genuine, and the firm’s marketing must not be false or misleading under the conduct rules. Firms should also take care that responses to reviews never disclose confidential client information.
Can a lawyer call themselves a specialist in their marketing?
The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules prohibit giving a false or misleading impression of specialist expertise. They also prohibit using “accredited specialist”, or a derivative of it, unless the solicitor holds that accreditation from the relevant professional association.
How long does law firm SEO take to show results?
Local profile and on-page improvements can show movement within a few months. Authority, reviews and content built on practitioner experience compound over a longer period, usually six to twelve months in a competitive market.
This article was co-written with our sister agency Four Dots, who work directly with law firms. If you run a firm and want help putting this into practice, see their law firm SEO services.