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How people choose a lawyer online
Someone with a legal problem usually searches by the problem and the place: a practice area and a city. They then judge firms on clarity, credentials and how easy it is to speak to someone. A legal website succeeds when it explains the issue in plain language and makes the next step obvious.
Law is also a sector where advertising rules apply. Bar councils and regulators set limits on claims, testimonials and wording, and those limits differ by country. The firm is responsible for compliance, so ask the agency to work from your guidance.
- A dedicated page for each practice area, written around the questions clients ask
- A profile page for each lawyer with qualifications, bar registration where applicable and areas of work
- Office pages with address, hours, map and a Business Profile for each location
- A confidential enquiry form and a phone number that is answered
- Articles and guides that answer real questions, reviewed by a lawyer
Practice area pages that earn their place
Each practice area page should answer what the matter involves, how the process works, what the client needs to bring, and when to call a lawyer. A page that repeats generic text across fifteen practice areas gives search engines no reason to rank it and gives clients no reason to call.
Comparing proposals
Use the table to check where proposals are strong or thin.
| Area | Weak answer | Strong answer |
|---|---|---|
| Practice pages | Short pages with the same text | Unique pages built around client questions, reviewed by a lawyer |
| Compliance | Not discussed | Works from your bar advertising rules and avoids prohibited claims |
| Local search | One generic page | Business Profile and local page for each office |
| Lawyer profiles | Names in a list | Individual profiles with credentials and Person schema |
| Confidentiality | Standard contact form | Secure form, limited data, clear privacy notice |
| Reporting | Rankings screenshots | Calls, form enquiries and matter types tied to the source |
What to ask a company
Ask these on the first call.
- Have you worked under legal advertising rules, and how do you keep pages compliant?
- Who writes practice area content, and does a lawyer review it before it is published?
- How will you set up local search for each of our offices?
- How are enquiries delivered, and how do you keep client information confidential?
- Who owns the website, domain and content at the end?
Red flags
Be careful with any company that guarantees you will outrank other firms, writes testimonials or case results you did not approve, copies practice-area text from other firms, or cannot explain how it protects information submitted through your forms. Incorrect legal content or a prohibited claim can create a regulatory problem, not only a marketing one.
Score your shortlist
Give each company a score from 1 to 5 on every row, multiply by the weight and total the result. A scorecard stops a confident sales call from outweighing the evidence, and it gives you a record of why you chose.
| Criterion | Weight | How to score it from 1 to 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Legal or professional-services work | 20% | 5 = live firm sites you can review; 1 = none |
| Compliance with advertising rules | 25% | 5 = works from your regulator's guidance; 1 = unaware of it |
| Practice area content process | 20% | 5 = lawyer-reviewed, unique pages; 1 = copied text |
| Local search for each office | 15% | 5 = profile and page per office; 1 = single page |
| Confidentiality of enquiries | 10% | 5 = secure form and clear notice; 1 = standard form |
| Reporting | 10% | 5 = calls and enquiries by matter type; 1 = rankings only |
What drives cost and timeline
Law firm cost depends on the number of practice areas and lawyers needing pages, the number of offices, how much content must be written and reviewed, and whether you want a resource section of guides and articles.
Content review is the slowest part, because lawyers have to read and approve it. Plan their time as part of the project, otherwise the site waits on sign-off rather than on development.
Our pricing starts at USD 10–40 per hour. The final charges and timeline are set after we confirm your requirements, and depend on your budget and the team members assigned to the project, so you receive a fixed written quote within 24 hours of a short discovery call rather than an open-ended hourly bill.
Illustrative scenario: a three-lawyer firm with two offices
This is an illustration of how a project could be scoped, not a client case study, and it states no results. A firm covers family, property and commercial matters but has one page listing all of them and a single office address on the site.
A sensible scope: a page per practice area built around client questions and reviewed by the responsible lawyer, a profile for each lawyer, a page and Business Profile for each office, a short confidential enquiry form, and a call log that records which page each enquiry came from.
Your first 90 days after launch
A launch is the start of the work. This plan keeps the first three months focused on what changes results.
- Week 1: confirm every page is checked against your regulator's advertising rules.
- Weeks 2 to 4: add answers to the five questions clients ask most often.
- Month 2: check which practice areas bring calls and which need better content.
- Month 3: review enquiry quality and adjust pages that attract unsuitable matters.
Common mistakes to avoid
These errors come up repeatedly and are cheaper to prevent than to fix.
- Publishing results or testimonials the regulator does not allow.
- Using the same text across practice areas.
- Hiding the lawyers' names and qualifications.
- Collecting case details in a public-facing form.
- Measuring success only by rankings.
Sources and further reading
Industry pages
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