Law firm SEO audit checklist: 42 checks you can run yourself

How to use this checklist

Most law firm SEO audits fail in one of two ways. Either they are a 60-page PDF of generic warnings nobody acts on, or they only look at the website and ignore the Google Maps pack, where most local cases come from. This checklist is ordered by impact for a solo or small firm. Mark each item pass, fail or unsure. Fix the fails in the first three sections before you spend time on anything else.

You will need access to your Google Business Profile, Google Search Console and your website. If you do not have logins for these, that is the first finding: you should own every one of them. If you would rather not do it by hand, the free law firm SEO audit runs the core checks automatically in about a minute.

The 42-point checklist

Google Maps and your profile

1. Your Google Business Profile is verified, live and not suspended.
2. The primary category matches your main practice area.
3. The business name is your real firm name, with no added keywords.
4. Services, description, hours, phone and website link are complete.
5. Real photos of the office, signage and attorneys are uploaded.
6. You post regularly and have answered common questions in Q&A.
7. You rank in the top three of the map pack across most of a grid around your office for your main terms.
8. No fake or keyword-stuffed competitor listings rank above you unreported.

Reviews

1. Your review count and rating are competitive with the top three firms near you.
2. New reviews arrive every month, not in old bursts.
3. You reply to every review without revealing client details.
4. You never offer anything in exchange for a review.

Listings and citations

1. Your name, address and phone are identical on Avvo, Justia, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places and your state bar profile.
2. Old addresses and phone numbers are corrected or removed.
3. Your Bing Places listing is claimed (ChatGPT and Perplexity lean on Bing).

Website: crawl and index

1. You own the domain and can export the site files.
2. Pages return their content in the raw HTML, not only after JavaScript runs.
3. robots.txt does not block Google, Bing or AI crawlers you want reading your site.
4. Every important page is in the XML sitemap and indexed in Search Console.
5. One version of the site resolves (https, with or without www, not both).
6. No important pages return errors or redirect chains.

Website: pages and content

1. There is a page for each case type you want (car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian and so on).
2. There are pages for the cities or neighborhoods you serve, with real local detail.
3. Each page answers its main question in the first paragraph.
4. Each page has one H1, a unique title under about 60 characters and a unique meta description.
5. Pages link to each other with descriptive anchor text.
6. Attorney bios show credentials, bar admissions and real photos.

Structured data

1. LegalService or Attorney schema with your name, address, phone and hours.
2. FAQPage schema on pages with FAQ sections.
3. Schema validates with no critical errors.

Speed and mobile

1. Pages load quickly on a phone (Largest Contentful Paint under about 2.5 seconds).
2. Click-to-call works on every page and the phone number is visible without scrolling.
3. No text is too small and nothing scrolls sideways on a phone.

AI visibility

1. You have checked several times whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews name you for your main questions.
2. You know which sources the AI cites for those answers and whether you appear in them.
3. Your firm is mentioned on sites beyond your own (news, associations, video).

Attorney advertising rules

1. Case results carry the disclaimers your state requires.
2. You avoid "specialist", "expert" or "best" claims your state does not allow.
3. No guarantees of outcomes appear anywhere on the site.

Tracking

1. Calls from your website and Google profile use tracked numbers you own.
2. Google Analytics and Search Console are set up in your name.
3. You can say where your last ten signed clients came from.

Why the Google Maps checks come first

For a firm that serves a local area, the map pack is where the calls are. The Whitespark 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors estimates the Google Business Profile is about 32% of map-pack rank and reviews about 20%. A suspended profile, a wrong category or a keyword-stuffed competitor sitting above you will cost more cases than any website issue. We explain each fix in local SEO for lawyers.

Use a grid check, not a single search. Searching your own keyword from your desk shows what Google shows you, near your office, logged in. A grid of 49 or 81 points across your area shows what potential clients see across the city.

Website checks that matter most

Can Google and AI actually read your pages?

Some law firm websites load their content with JavaScript, so a crawler that does not run scripts sees an almost empty page. Test it: view the page source (not the inspector) and search for a sentence from the page. If it is not there, crawlers may not see it either. Also check robots.txt for rules that block Bing or AI crawlers. Some templates block them by default.

Do you own the site?

Many legal marketing vendors host the site on their platform and keep it if you leave. Before investing in content, confirm you own the domain and can export the pages. If you are on FindLaw, Scorpion or similar, read leaving FindLaw or Scorpion.

Is there a page for each thing you want to rank for?

Google ranks pages, not firms. If you want truck accident cases in a nearby city, you need a strong truck accident page and real content about that city. A single "Practice Areas" list does not rank for anything. See SEO for personal injury lawyers for how PI sites are usually structured.

Search Console checks most firms skip

Google Search Console is free and shows what Google actually does with your site. Four reports are worth opening during an audit:

• Pages (indexing): look for important pages marked "Crawled, currently not indexed" or "Discovered, currently not indexed". Those pages exist but Google is not showing them. Thin or near-duplicate city pages often end up here.
• Performance, by query: sort by impressions and look for searches where you appear on page two (average position 11 to 20). Those are the cheapest wins, because a better page or a few internal links can move them onto page one.
• Performance, by page: find pages that used to get impressions and stopped. A sudden drop usually means a technical change, a redirect gone wrong or a competitor publishing something better.
• Sitemaps: confirm the sitemap was read recently with no errors, and that it lists the pages you care about.

If you do not have Search Console access for your own domain, ask your vendor to add you as an owner today. It is your data.

How to run a map grid check by hand

Paid tools run grid checks automatically, but you can do a rough version yourself. Pick nine spots in a three-by-three pattern across your service area, about a mile or two apart. On a phone, turn on location or set the location to each spot, search your main term (for example "car accident lawyer"), and write down where you appear in the map results. Repeat for two or three terms. You will usually see a clear pattern: strong near your office, invisible a few miles out. That outer ring is where reviews, listings and location pages help most.

How to audit AI visibility

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google the questions your clients ask, using your city and nearby neighborhoods. Run each question several times, because answers vary. Record which firms are named and which websites are cited as sources. If the same directories or articles keep appearing as sources and you are not on them, that is your list. More in GEO for law firms.

Attorney advertising checks

An SEO audit for a law firm should also catch advertising-rule problems, because pages built to rank often push claims too far. Common issues: case results without required disclaimers, calling the firm "the best" or attorneys "experts" or "specialists" where your state limits those words, testimonials without required language, and anything that reads as a guarantee. Rules differ by state, so check your own bar's guidance.

What to fix first

1. Anything that stops you appearing at all: a suspended profile, blocked crawlers, pages missing from the index.
2. Google Business Profile category, completeness and spam competitors.
3. A review routine that runs every month.
4. Listings consistency, including Bing Places.
5. Missing case-type and location pages.
6. Tracking, so you can tell which fixes produce signed cases.

Most firms can fix the first four within a month. The pages and reviews compound over the following months. If you want help, see law firm SEO pricing.

FAQ

How often should a law firm do an SEO audit?

Run a full audit once or twice a year, and check the fast-moving parts monthly: your Google Maps rank across a grid, new reviews, Search Console errors and whether AI assistants name you. A full audit is also worth running before you switch marketing vendors or redesign your website, so you know what you have before anything changes.

What does a law firm SEO audit cost?

Agencies often charge a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for a manual audit, and many offer a free version as a sales tool. Our automated audit is free and covers the core checks in about a minute. A manual review is worth paying for when you are about to make a big decision, such as replacing your website or your marketing vendor.

Can I do a law firm SEO audit myself?

Yes. Most of the checks on this list only need access to your Google Business Profile, Search Console and website, plus some patient searching. The harder parts to do by hand are the map grid check and repeated AI answer checks, which is why we built a free tool for them. Fix the issues in order of impact rather than all at once.

What is the most common SEO problem for small law firms?

In our audits the most common problems are an incomplete or misconfigured Google Business Profile, too few recent reviews compared with nearby competitors, and a website with no dedicated page for the case types and areas the firm wants. All three are fixable without a large budget, and they usually matter more than technical website issues.