// industries / professional
Law firm SEO on WordPress, written to the Code
Law firm SEO is the work that gets a firm's own site found when people search an area of law and a town: a page per practice area, a Business Profile per real office, LegalService markup and titles the Law Society's Code allows. I do it on WordPress, Alberta first, and most town law packs here aren't settled yet.
By Muhammad Younus · Updated
Google Business Profile and law firm SEO: can a smaller firm still win the pack?
On 8 September 2026 I pulled Google's law firm pack in 31 Alberta towns. Law came 18th of 30 verticals by review depth: the typical #1 has 50 reviews, and 19 packs are contested.
In St. Albert, #1 has 26 reviews and a firm lower down has 2,100. One firm leads four town packs. That's the model to copy: a Business Profile per real office, only where one exists.
The profile needs backing from off the site too. The firm's name, address and phone should read the same on every legal directory and listing, and the links worth having come from bar sections, community groups and local press the firm already works with. Google calls buying links for ranking purposes link spam, so I won't buy them for you.
Keyword research for law firms: why search the practice area, not the word lawyer?
Keywords Everywhere, Canada, 26 September 2026. lawyer near me gets 12,100 a month, but firms compete on the area of law. So I build the keyword list from the areas you practise, each paired with the city, before I touch a title.
The area beats the title
Edmonton's the same, 3,600 against 1,900; my Edmonton SEO consultant page has that city's packs. One Practice Areas page can't catch either search.
Personal injury lawyer SEO: small search, costly click
Only 480 searches a month, but each organic click saves a bid that size.
Work people price first
The fee search gets 90 a month. A flat-fee page answers it if it's clear on disbursements and GST.
Which of your areas hasn't got a page?
Send the URL and I'll check it against every area you practise.
Which law firm SEO services does a firm's site need?
Every job starts with a crawl of the firm's site: which practice pages Google has indexed, which ones compete for the same search, how they load on a phone and whether the markup matches the offices. Each fixed-scope service below then fixes one part of what that finds.
Which four things is a law firm's site judged on?
Calls first, short forms second
Urgent criminal and immigration clients phone, so the number dials on tap. Forms ask only what a conflict check needs.
LegalService, since Attorney is deprecated
schema.org calls LegalService "more inclusive and less ambiguous" than Attorney. Each lawyer's a Person.
Chapter 4 applies to every page
The Code wants marketing that's "demonstrably true, accurate and verifiable" (4.2-1), and bars exploiting anyone who hasn't recovered from a trauma (4.1-2(c)).
Legal guides with a name and a date
Law changes, so each guide names its reviewing lawyer and date, for readers and AI answers to check. A practice area page covers the client's problem, how the firm handles it, the fee basis and the lawyer who does the work.
What can a title tag say under the Code of Conduct?
My plain reading of chapter 4 of the Law Society's Code of Conduct, not legal advice.
Flagged before it's live
- Case results without the past-results statement (4.2-1 [1](a))
- Specialist, expert or specializes in, unless the Society's certified you (4.3-1)
- Town pages where there's no office: a doorway risk
What every page I write keeps to
- No best or top-rated: they suggest "qualitative superiority" (4.2-1 [1](b))
- No aggressive, and no testimonials with "emotional appeals" ([1](d), (g))
- Flat fees that say whether disbursements and taxes are extra (4.2-2)
Sources: Law Society Code of Conduct, 2026_V1 · schema.org Attorney (deprecated) · Google practitioner guideline · Google Maps contribution policy · Competition Bureau on staff reviews · Google spam policies, link spam
Worried a title crosses the line? Send it and I'll check.
Book a call on UpworkWhy no law firm case study so far?
I won't pass another industry's result off as legal. The nearest is a UK site's location pages.
Planning pages for more towns? Let's test the idea first.
Book a call on UpworkWhich 22 of 31 Alberta law packs are still up for grabs?
Brooks is wide open: #1 has 18 reviews, the most in its pack. Okotoks and Sylvan Lake are top heavy.
Calgary and Edmonton are mature: Calgary's #1 firm has 318 reviews over a pack median of 220, and Edmonton's has 556 over a median of 647. There, practice-area pages carry more of the load than the profile can.
WordPress SEO packages, fixed scope
Deep audit and growth report
An honest read on what's holding your WordPress site back in Google.
- WordPress SEO audit of indexing, speed and schema
- Fix list ranked by the clicks at stake
- Loom walkthrough of what I found
- Yours to keep, whoever does the work
Audit and fixes
For a site that needs the real problems found and fixed fast.
- Crawl, indexing, schema and speed fixes
- Before and after report with real numbers
- Core Web Vitals moved toward the green
- Everything documented and handed over
// Month to month: US$299 for site and SEO maintenance, US$750 for growth with maintenance. Book a call on Upwork.
Law firm SEO questions, answered
What is law firm SEO, and how is it different from ordinary SEO?
It's ordinary SEO with three extra limits: clients search by area of law, each real office needs its own Business Profile, and the Law Society's Code controls what a title or a case result can say. The technical side, crawling, speed and markup, doesn't change.
Can Alberta lawyers call themselves specialists?
Not unless the Society's certified them: its 4.3-1 commentary says specialist or expert implies an objective standard. Naming practice areas is fine.
Can lawyers ask clients for Google reviews?
The Code doesn't forbid a genuine request. Google bans incentives, and the Competition Bureau warns about staff reviews.
Should each lawyer get a Business Profile?
At a multi-lawyer office, Google's practitioner guideline names each lawyer's profile with their name only. A solo lawyer at a branded firm shares the firm's.
Does law firm SEO work for a smaller firm?
It can, outside the big cities. On 8 September 2026, 22 of 31 Alberta law packs weren't settled, and St. Albert's #1 firm had 26 reviews. In Calgary and Edmonton I'd expect a smaller firm to win practice-area searches before it wins the pack.
How long does law firm SEO take?
Give on-page fixes four to eight weeks before a first honest review, since each changed page needs a recrawl. The map pack moves slower, and I won't put a date on it. A contested pack like Camrose's is a lower bar than the ones on my Calgary SEO consultant page.
What should a firm ask before hiring for law firm SEO?
Who does the work, whether titles will stay inside the Code, whether anyone's promising rankings (nobody can), and who owns the site, the profile and the reports. I've written up how to hire an SEO consultant in full.
How much does law firm SEO cost?
It's fixed-price: $149 audits the site, $999 audits and fixes it, and ongoing legal SEO is $299 or $750 a month. Several offices? That's a written Upwork quote.
Want titles that clear the Code and a page per practice area?
Send your URL on Upwork, with Search Console read access. I'll list missing practice areas and titles the Code would question.
Book a call on Upwork