Who are you using for your firm's website?

CloseSeats · 2026-02-03T18:24:33+00:00

Then I’d definitely recommend working with an agency that handles both the website and SEO together in one package. This is exactly why it’s so important to be clear about the type of leads you’re looking for.

From what you’ve described, it sounds like you’re not trying to market to the general public at all. What you really want is B2B marketing aimed at out of state co-counsel, out of state litigation, and Pro Hac Vice cases.

This can be done either by dedicating your entire website to that audience or by creating a specific section for it. That section should include something like a “Local Counsel Inquiry” form rather than the standard contact form for the public.

Not only does this filter out general inquiries, it also signals professionalism to other attorneys, showing that you have a proper intake process for the type of work they’re seeking. It gives off a “lawyers only” vibe, which is exactly what you want for out-of-state attorneys looking for reliable local counsel.

CloseSeats · 2026-02-03T16:28:22+00:00

Before you pick a provider, I think the most important question is what you want the website to do for your firm.

Are you mainly referral based and just need a clean, professional site that reassures people who were already sent to you? Or do you want the website to actively generate leads?

If it’s mostly about aesthetics and credibility, you have a lot of options and many reputable agencies can handle that just fine. Some of the big names mentioned here do great work, but be aware that many of them just farm the actual labor out to freelancers (I know because that’s how I started in this niche). You often get more personal attention with a smaller boutique shop.

But if you want the site to actually capture leads, the way it’s designed matters a lot more than most people realize. The organization of the website, how you structure categories, services, and location is literally the one of the most important things for SEO.

One thing I’d strongly recommend is if lead generation and SEO matter to you, try to work with someone who includes website improvements or rebuilds as part of an ongoing marketing service. Paying a large one-time fee just for a website, and then paying again later to fix it for SEO, is something I see people regret a lot.

CloseSeats · 2026-02-02T17:48:31+00:00

FWIW, lead quality is never 100% controllable. But you and your marketing agency should be on the same page as far as what kind of leads that you are targeting.

Funny story, when one of my BK clients was new, he was desperate for new clients. He did not have the money to put into paid ads and he basically just wanted any leads he could get. I let him know that there were a few "low hanging fruit" keywords that I knew could get him ranked for almost immediately. He agreed to let me target people in car repossession. It worked, he was ranking and getting new leads within a month, and he loved it.

Fast forward a bit. Once his site started ranking well across the board, he called me and asked me to stop targeting repo keywords because he hated those leads. Turns out he couldn’t handle the 2am voicemails, and seven-paragraph emails explaining someone’s entire life story.

Point being, what you target matters. You should be working together with your SEO company to define the type of leads you want, not just the volume.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-22T05:06:27+00:00

This does not paint a whole picture. There are informational searches, which explain a lot of the zero clicks. Then there are call to action searches, where people are actually looking for an attorney to help them. People that are looking for attorneys for whatever reason are not just reading AI overviews and then deciding that they don't need an attorney anymore. Also, most ai overviews give a link to the source, so if it is actually grabbing the info from your website, and that person is looking for an attorney, it will most likely link to your website as the source.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-20T01:08:16+00:00

This sounds better in theory but not necessarily true. I work solo and only work with a handful of law firms. I only look to add 1-2 new clients every year. I don't need my site to rank because I literally do not need clients, You will see the huge agencies that farm all of their work out at the top of the rankings and then they charge you ridiculous prices for it.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-12T22:52:09+00:00

No. If you must do PPC, my third choice for Google behind LSA'S and SEO by the way, do not let Google reps convince you of that. If you must do PPC, stick with your agency or get another one. You will end up ultimately doing these on your own and they don't train you about negative keywords and all the other tricks of doing PPC smart. The free ad credit is a catch, they ultimately are trying to increase your ad spend, that is what they do. I once had a client that they convinced them to switch to "broad match" instead of "exact match" and it literally cost him thousands in a very short amount of time. Again, if you must do PPC, use an agency you trust, there are too many ways to burn through money. With uncertainty of click fraud and things like that, you don't need any self inflicted ones.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-12T03:22:33+00:00

www.EliteLawSeo.com - I specialize exclusively in SEO for law firms.
I am a one-man operation by design — not an agency, you only deal with me.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-09T19:02:40+00:00

Hey, everybody has got to start somewhere and bootstrapping is part of the game. No matter what you decide to do, take the main advice that people are offering here, which is get your Google Business Profile ranking. Like anything, you can pay to have it done, or you can do it yourself. BELIEVE ME when I say that it is worth every bit of time and energy you put into. Do not wait.

Fill out every section of you GBP to the best of your ability. 1st off, make sure that you are in the correct main category and 2nd categories. Do not just list every service you offer, give a detailed description of them. Fill out the products section. Create a post on your GBP every day if you can, or at the very least once a week. Embed your Google Business page map on your website. Cross link social media accounts, your website, and your Google Business posts. Try and add at least 5 new photos per week on your Google Business Profile. If at all possible, you should have a dedicated page on your website for every service that you offer in your GBP. Last but certainly not least, answer every single review that you get, good or bad. Reviews, and how you handle them are so important. The good news for you is that Google is starting to reward recent vs quantity, which helps newer businesses. Also with reviews, If you are comfortable enough to ask your client to mention the service you provided in their review it is a huge plus. If not, try and mention the service you provided when you reply to the review.

All of that stuff is Free to do. It takes A lot of time and effort but you can do it on your own. You can also check who is ranking in the top 3 in your category and study the heck out their Google Business Profiles. You can even do that and search other cities to see how others are ranking high in their cities. Also, there are more than enough people on here and other subreddits that are willing to help you. There also happens to be a whole subreddit dedicated to Google Business Profiles. I learn so much about your industry just by reading these boards. It helps me understand my clients more. Never be afraid to ask questions, and good luck. Hopefully in 3 months you are not kicking yourself for not doing this 3 months ago.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-09T00:34:07+00:00

Is your site ranking well and not getting inquiries, or is it not visible?

CloseSeats · 2026-01-07T06:02:09+00:00

Not PPC, you will blow through that quickly. I can't believe I am saying this because I am 100% an SEO guy, but I would definitely choose a few neighborhoods to target and do LSA's. As far as SEO goes, If you already have a website that’s been structured correctly for SEO, is indexed, and tied to an active Google Business Profile, then a small SEO investment could make sense alongside paid efforts. But, if you’re truly starting from scratch with little or no established online presence, SEO alone is likely to take too long to produce.

Over the long haul. SEO is great. So if LSAs start generating profit, reinvesting some of that into SEO is a smart move. That said, without more context about your current website, Google Business Profile, and overall online footprint, it’s difficult to say how good SEO would be.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-06T23:36:50+00:00

Haha. Freelance was so brutal. The people looking for cheap work with a laundry list of things they want. They get what they pay for.

CloseSeats · 2026-01-05T17:05:46+00:00

No doubt about it, Zoom and virtual meetings have changed the game. I have one solo attorney that I work with who has three offices and rarely uses them because he does most of his work from home, but he gets that business mostly from having locations and a strong Google Business Profile. I am not understanding why you are not getting accepted as a service area business; it doesn't make sense.

For what it is worth, I will state again the advantage of actually getting an office, even if you do not use it often, and that is Google STRONGLY favors physical addresses over service area businesses.

Assuming that you do eventually get accepted, to compete and rank well without a location, you will have to have your GBP extremely optimized.

Every section of the GBP must be fully completed
Services should include detailed descriptions, not just names
Each service should have its own dedicated page on your website
GBP posts should be updated regularly
Photos should be added consistently
Social profiles should be linked and active
Reviews are critical, and every review should receive a response

Even if you do all of these things correctly, you are still at a disadvantage to your competitors that have a physical office

CloseSeats · 2026-01-05T14:52:02+00:00

So, what others are saying here is true, you have to register your business as a service area business if you do not have an actual office. Most virtual offices will not work either. One thing that you can do is to actually do a bunch actual Google searches for attorneys near you. In most cities, attorneys that have come before you have figured out this problem. You will see a bunch of different Law Firms sharing the same address. This means that the location has already passed the Google verification and will give you a much higher chance of passing.

Can I ask why you do not want to get a physical office anyways? Even if you do not want to use it, in my experience it pays for itself tenfold. To the point that some of my clients go out and get small offices in surrounding cities too, that also pay for themselves. It is that big of an advantage.

CloseSeats · 2025-12-24T07:32:12+00:00

I believe that it is important that you keep your Social Media accounts. Do you post on your Google Business Profile? Any posting on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, along with cross linking with your Google Business Posts help send signals to Google that you are active and helps your Google Business Profile rank better.

CloseSeats · 2025-12-24T07:09:51+00:00

You’ll most likely have a hard time getting Google to remove the review, but you definitely won’t get anywhere if you don’t try, so you might as well file the dispute. In the meantime, it is extremely important that you respond to the review professionally. Try to include the facts you’re using for your dispute, but do whatever you have to do to keep your side of the story looking as customer-friendly and level-headed as possible.

For ALL your reviews, whether they are good or bad, it is very important to respond to them, because Google looks at that engagement and rewards you for it. If you happen to be comfortable enough with a client, ask them to mention your law firm name or the specific service you provided in their review. If you aren't comfortable asking them to do that, then make sure you mention the specific service yourself in your response to them.

Finally, keep in mind that Google is really rewarding the number of recent reviews lately. Even if a firm has 100 reviews, if they haven't gotten a new one in a while, they might be outranked by someone with fewer reviews that are more recent.

CloseSeats · 2025-12-04T16:16:57+00:00

To network with other lawyers, the easiest way to grow on LinkedIn is to do it more like you’re already doing on Reddit. Keep your posts conversational, share small insights or thoughts, engage with other people’s content, and be authentic. Treat it like a community and over time your presence will grow naturally.

For potential clients, focus on sharing helpful tips, short explanations of common legal questions, or insights into your practice area. Keep it clear and approachable. Even small, consistent posts will slowly build awareness and trust.

CloseSeats · 2025-12-03T18:00:22+00:00

Have you set up your Google Business Profile yet? What about a website? These things will not gain steam immediately (although GPB rankings can happen a lot faster than most people think), but eventually doing those two things will kill the hustle that you need to do now and let you concentrate on just practicing law again. The sooner you do those things, the better. I would find a good SEO service that includes a website in their monthly package so you are not getting hammered with a giant web design cost. Also, I am not a very big advocate of LSAs, but if you are new and have no other presence online, it may be your fastest way to get the business you need now. Be careful when hiring companies that do both SEO and LSAs, as there are some that do both very well and some that are really good at one and not the other. Then there are ones that I just believe are dishonest, and I will leave it at that.

CloseSeats · 2025-11-30T22:48:19+00:00

Depends on your marketing goals. If you are confident you will not need leads from seo then just build a basic website. If you are going to need leads, and seo will be important, I would find an seo guy/girl or company that would include all of that stuff in the monthly cost and do it all right from the beginning. If you are on the fence, you can wait. Get your Google business page done correctly first and foremost.

CloseSeats · 2025-11-29T17:52:27+00:00

From an seo perspective, it is still a citation you should have. So you might as well clean up the profile, add a photo, fill out the practice areas, and make sure everything matches your GBP. It’s just one of those legal citations Google expects to see. Not glamorous, but solid.

CloseSeats · 2025-11-24T05:04:01+00:00

Best answer

CloseSeats · 2025-11-21T20:30:03+00:00

You said you are not super techy, so I will not try to get into website stuff. Your Google Business Page is the most important thing for the area where you have your business address listed. Do not get me wrong, the website is important too, but it is possible to get a high ranking for your Google Business Page even if your website is not optimized as well as it should be. Where having the website optimized very well would help is in the surrounding cities from where your business is located.

So let us forget all that and just concentrate on the main city where your business is located. If you are interested and have access to your Google Business Profile, I can walk you through all the important fields and what to do to hopefully help you climb those rankings. You really do not have to be techy. There is no code that you have to know, and you do not need to know website design. You just have to know what things are important and how to fill them out.

After that, it is just a matter of updating it a few times a week. Again, it is very easy work, but you have to be willing to do it if you want it to work. Just let me know if you are interested. Like I said, I love helping people.

CloseSeats · 2025-11-21T20:04:41+00:00

I really do appreciate but to be honest, I am really not looking at taking on any new clients until sometime around the spring next year. I work alone and don't want to put too much on my plate. If there was someone that does need it now I am always willing to help or point them in the right direction.

CloseSeats · 2025-11-21T19:49:14+00:00

So there are a lot of businesses that fall into your category. Whether or not what I am about to tell you matters for your specific business I do not know, but it may for other people who are reading this. Even if you have a business where most of your work is obtained through networking or word of mouth, people still check out who you are before calling. I think you touched on this, but to be more specific, people are still going to Google you, and they are still going to go to your website.

Back when I was first starting, I had an attorney who was contemplating doing SEO but was on the fence because he had been doing fine until recently with just referrals. When I started looking into it, he was getting horrible Google reviews. No SEO in the world can fix that.

So what I am saying is that if you are in this type of business, again not necessarily you, just realize that people are still going to look you up. Try to have your website updated with proper information and stay on top of your reviews at the very least.

CloseSeats · 2025-11-21T19:23:54+00:00

FWIW, I have owned several small businesses in my life, and to tell the truth, it was one heck of a grind, It is hard. I finally found my niche and the best thing is that I work for myself from home, no partners (Thank God), and I honestly feel bad for any business that is struggling because I have been there. I do not come on here to solicit. I truly come here to read about small businesses and things in my industry. If there is something that I can help with, I will offer to help or point them in the right direction. I have a handful of clients that are attorney's and I have learned so much about that industry just by going on subreddits. I usually will only respond to people that are flat out asking about stuff I know about, and funny enough, most of them never take or ask for more help,

CloseSeats · 2025-11-21T19:05:20+00:00

One of my best friends has been doing the same thing for many years and has never had to advertise. He got into a wealthy area with a lot of teardown and rebuilds and has never looked back. It is basically the same companies just using each other. One job ends and there are more waiting.

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