Why this matters for law firms
Search moved. A growing share of people now ask an AI assistant to recommend a business, and act on the short list it gives. The list rarely shows ten links any more; it shows a few names. For the sourced figures behind that shift, see our State of AI Search briefing.
The good news: being named is shaped by signals you control. The tips below are the ones that move the needle for law firms, ordered roughly from quickest to most involved.
The questions your a clients ask AI
These are the prompts that decide whether your name comes up. Your audit tests the full set; this is the shape of them.
- Q1best conveyancing solicitor in [your town]
- Q2no win no fee solicitor near me
- Q3employment solicitor in [your town]
- Q4family law solicitor near me
- Q5wills and probate solicitor in [your town]
- Q6commercial solicitor for a small business in [your town]
6 practical tips
1. Build a clear page per practice area
Conveyancing, employment, family, probate: one focused page each, written the way a client describes the problem, not in legal jargon.
2. Add LegalService schema
JSON-LD that identifies you as a law firm, your areas and your location, so an assistant classifies you correctly instead of guessing.
3. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
Right category, real service area, consistent name, address and phone. A primary source for local AI recommendations.
4. Make reviews routine
Ask clients at the natural close of a matter, with a direct link. Recent, specific reviews feed the sources AI cites.
5. Add FAQ schema to practice-area pages
Mark up the real questions (cost, how long, what happens next) so an assistant can lift the answer into its reply.
6. Let the AI crawlers in
Confirm your robots.txt does not block GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot, and that your pages are readable without JavaScript.
A 10-minute self-check
You do not need us to start. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask it one of the questions above, with your town. See whether you are named, and who is. Then view your homepage source and search it for "schema" or "application/ld+json" to see if you have structured data. Finally, check your robots.txt does not block GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot. That is most of the picture in ten minutes.
Want us to do the check for you? A free Snapshot shows what AI says about your business, with the evidence. Or see the full picture for law firms on our law firms page.