How clients find a law firm now
Almost nobody browses for a law firm. People have a legal problem and search specifically: "employment lawyer Lüneburg", "lawyer road accident", "received a warning letter, what now". They decide from the Google local pack, the reviews, a few legal directories, and, increasingly, an AI answer. Whoever is visible at that moment with the right focus and a trustworthy presence gets the first consultation.
In law, E-E-A-T is half the battle
Legal topics are what Google treats as YMYL (Your Money or Your Life), where trust and demonstrable competence weigh more heavily than for a café. For you that means making expertise visible: named attorney profiles with title (lawyer, specialist attorney for …), year of admission, bar membership, focus areas and real articles, rather than an anonymous "the firm" page. That is exactly what E-E-A-T is, and our E-E-A-T guide shows what those signals look like in practice.
The pages that win cases
Two kinds of page do the heavy lifting:
- A real page per practice area. Not a list, a proper page for employment law, for family law, for each area you actually work in, with concrete text on how you handle typical cases.
- A specialist or attorney profile page. The specialist-attorney title is your strongest trust signal. A dedicated, findable profile page per lawyer bundles title, background and topics, and is often the page an AI cites.
Location-plus-practice-area pages for your city help too, as long as they carry real content and are not thin boilerplate.
Schema for law firms
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Specific type (Attorney / LegalService) | Places you as a legal service provider, not a generic business |
| areaServed | Names the location and area where you take on cases |
| knowsAbout | Anchors your practice areas as topics of the entity |
| Person + sameAs | An attorney node per person, sameAs to bar-register and LinkedIn profiles |
The general idea is in our structured data guide; for firms the Attorney type plus knowsAbout and the linked person nodes are what to get right first.
Professional advertising rules, briefly
SEO for law firms operates within professional conduct rules (in Germany, BRAO section 43b and unfair-competition law). The rule of thumb: factual, profession-related information is allowed and welcome; promotional or misleading claims and outcome promises are not. In practice: describe practice areas, approach and experience concretely, but avoid "best lawyer" or guarantees about how a case will end. Earn reviews honestly, never buy them. Within that frame, good SEO is entirely unproblematic; it does exactly what the rules allow, making you factually findable.
Reviews and the directories that count
Trust weighs especially heavily in legal advice. Ask satisfied clients steadily and honestly for a review, and keep your data consistent across the places that matter: your Google Business Profile first, then the legal portals anwalt.de and 123recht, your entry in the official bar register (Rechtsanwaltskammer), and Das Örtliche. Same name, address and phone everywhere.
AI names lawyers too
Ask Perplexity for "a specialist employment lawyer in Lüneburg" and it names a shortlist. Whether you are on it comes down to the same signals: a clear focus area, real practice-area and profile pages, reviews and consistent data across the bar register and directories. Do the groundwork and you get named in AI answers, right when someone is looking for a lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Are lawyers even allowed to advertise?
Yes. Factual, profession-related information about your work is allowed; in Germany the rule is set by BRAO section 43b. What is off limits is misleading or purely promotional claims and promises about the outcome. Good SEO built on genuine expertise sits well within the allowed range.
Do I need a separate page for every practice area?
For your focus areas, yes, each with real content. A single page listing ten practice areas ranks for none of them, because Google and AI see no depth.
Do Google reviews matter for a law firm?
Yes, strongly, because clients are looking for trust. They must be earned honestly, though. Bought or incentivised reviews are unfair competition and risky; genuine reviews from satisfied clients are the goal.
Will ChatGPT or Perplexity name me as a lawyer?
If your focus area, location and reputation are a clear entity. A specialist title, consistent data across the bar register and directories, and real practice-area pages are exactly the signals an AI uses to recommend you.