Choosing a law firm SEO agency: what to ask, what to expect
Every agency promises first-page rankings. Few explain how search behaves differently for a family lawyer and a real estate lawyer, or what they need from the firm to make it work. This page sets out how we think a law firm SEO agency should be judged, how search differs by practice area, and how GM Digital runs the work for Canadian firms.
Seven questions to ask any law firm SEO agency
- Which searches, by practice area and city, will you target first, and why?
- Who writes the content, and how do our lawyers review it?
- How do you make sure copy meets our law society’s advertising rules?
- Where will links come from? Can we see examples?
- Will we own the website, content and accounts?
- What will the monthly report show besides rankings?
- What do you need from us, and how many hours a month?
What the agency should own, and what only the firm can do
A good law firm SEO agency takes almost everything off your plate: research, site structure, technical fixes, drafting, Google Business Profile management, directory listings, outreach and reporting. You should not be chasing them for updates or rewriting their drafts.
Three things cannot be delegated. A licensed lawyer has to check that each page is accurate and compliant. The firm has to ask satisfied clients for reviews, because nobody else has that relationship. And someone has to answer new enquiries quickly, or the rankings are wasted. An agency that does not raise these in the first meeting is planning to work around them, which rarely ends well.
The full scope of what we deliver is on our law firm SEO services page. This page is about fit.
Search is not the same for every kind of lawyer
Personal injury
The most competitive results in legal, with heavy advertising above them. Winning takes depth: pages by accident and injury type, strong reviews and patient link building. See personal injury marketing.
Family law
Highly local and often urgent. People search by neighbourhood and by issue, such as custody, support or separation agreements, and read reviews closely before calling.
Immigration
Searches follow programme names and policy changes, and many come from outside Canada. Fresh, accurate content on each pathway matters more than proximity.
Employment
Two audiences with different vocabularies: employees searching after a dismissal, and employers looking for advice. Each needs its own pages and tone.
Criminal defence
Immediate need, often outside office hours, mostly on a phone. Click-to-call, charge-specific pages and a profile that shows you are reachable now.
Real estate, wills and estates
Price-aware and convenience-led. Clear fee guidance, location pages near where clients live, and referral relationships with agents and brokers.
What working with us looks like
One plan per practice area
Targets, pages and reporting are set separately for each area you want to grow, not blended into one number.
Lawyer review built in
We draft and you approve. Review is scheduled so it takes a short, predictable amount of a lawyer’s time.
You keep ownership
Your website, content, Google accounts and data stay in the firm’s name, with us added as a manager.
Reports partners can read
Consultations by practice area and source first, then the rankings and traffic that explain them.
Clients are starting to ask AI for a lawyer
A growing number of people ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews which lawyer to call. Those answers draw on directory profiles, reviews, news mentions and clearly written firm pages. We include ChatGPT SEO and answer engine optimization in legal SEO plans so firms are visible in both places. If you need more than search, our legal marketing agency page covers positioning, intake and reputation.
Law firm SEO agency questions
What does a law firm SEO agency do?
A law firm SEO agency improves how a firm appears in search for the practice areas and locations it wants to grow. The work covers practice-area pages, local and Google Business Profile optimization, technical fixes, legal directory listings and links, and reporting tied to consultations.
How do I choose a law firm SEO agency?
Ask which searches they will target first, who writes and who reviews content, how they handle law society rules, where links come from, who owns the site and accounts, and what the report shows beyond rankings. Clear answers to those matter more than any guarantee.
Should the agency specialise in legal?
Experience with regulated, trust-driven services matters, because legal content is held to a higher standard and advertising rules apply. A generalist that understands those constraints can do well; one that treats a law firm like a retailer will not.
Is SEO or Google Ads better for a law firm?
They do different jobs. Ads produce enquiries immediately at a high cost per click. SEO takes months to build but lowers the cost of each consultation over time. Most firms run both at first and shift budget as organic results grow.
Can you work with our existing website?
Usually, yes. We audit it first. If the structure, speed or platform would hold results back we say so and set out the options, from targeted fixes to a rebuild.
Do you work with firms outside Ontario?
Yes. We are based in the Greater Toronto Area and take on firms across Canada. Copy is written to your own law society’s rules and approved by you before it is published.
Put our answers to the seven questions to the test
A free audit of your firm’s search visibility by practice area, with the searches we would target first and what we would need from you.