SEO for solicitors: how UK law firms get found on Google

SEO for solicitors is the work of getting a law firm found when people search Google for legal help nearby, such as "divorce solicitors portsmouth" or "conveyancing solicitor near me".

Google often answers those searches with a map of three firms, so for a high-street firm it starts with a complete Google Business Profile, a page for each service, and reviews.

Before you change anything, it helps to see where your firm shows today. A free Google Maps rank check shows where you rank from 25 spots around your office for one search, such as "family solicitor", with no sign-up.

Further down is a reading of seven real Portsmouth solicitor searches from 31 October 2026: who took the map, which sites took the web results, and which registers didn't appear at all.

What is SEO for solicitors?

SEO for solicitors, often called law firm SEO, is making your firm easy for Google to match to the legal searches people make in your area. It has two halves that work together.

1. Local search. Your Google Business Profile, your reviews and your details on other sites decide whether you appear in the map of three firms, known as the Google 3-pack, for searches such as "will solicitors" near the person searching.
2. Your website. A page for each service you want work in, written for the client and the town, decides whether you appear in the ordinary web results under the map.

Law firms have one more layer than most local businesses: rules. Google has its own guidelines for practitioners such as lawyers, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) says what a firm's website must show. Both are covered below. Our guide to local SEO for small businesses covers the basics every business shares.

What Google showed for seven Portsmouth solicitor searches

We read seven Google searches on 31 October 2026 to see what a client actually meets. Each was a service plus the town, such as "family solicitors portsmouth", collected through DataForSEO's SERP API for the United Kingdom, on desktop, at about 09:51 UTC.

For each page we noted the map pack, the ads and the directory-type pages among the web results under the map. The firms are left out here.

"Directory-type" means a third-party page that lists firms: a review site, a finder run by a trade body or the government, or a comparison site. The firms' own websites weren't counted, and neither was one job advert.

KerbrankReal data

What the reading shows:

1. The map was on every page. All seven pages had a map pack of three firms above the web results. That is 21 places, shared between eight firms.
2. Two firms took most of the map. Two firms held 12 of the 21 places, six each, and between them they showed for searches as different as family law, wills and employment. A firm that offers many services can show for each of them from one well-kept profile.

3. Stars didn't decide the order. Every listing that showed stars had between 4.2 and 4.9, with 69 to 326 Google reviews, and the firm with the most reviews was first in only 1 of the 7 packs.

   Google's help page on local ranking says "Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity." Reviews are part of that, not all of it.

4. ReviewSolicitors was on 6 of the 7 pages. It had seven pages in the results in all, more than any other directory. The GOV.UK legal aid finder was on 3, and APIL's injury lawyer finder took four of the nine personal injury results. Law Society Find a Solicitor and the SRA register weren't on any of the seven first pages.
5. Firms' own pages took most of the web results. 47 of the 65 web results were law firms' own sites: some home pages, many a page for one service in one town. Directory-type pages took 17 of the 65.
6. Ads and AI answers were rare. Ads showed on 2 of the 7 pages, divorce and personal injury. Google's AI Overview showed on 1, conveyancing.

This is one town on one morning, searched for the whole of the UK on desktop. A phone, a search made from a street in Portsmouth or another day can show different firms, so run your own searches before you decide what to change.

Set up your Google Business Profile the way Google expects

Google treats lawyers as practitioners, with their own rules about who gets a profile. Its guidelines for representing your business say "Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners and insurance or real estate agents are all individual practitioners." What that means for a firm:

1. One profile for the firm at each office. Where several solicitors see clients at one office, Google says "The organisation should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner."
2. Solicitors can have their own, within limits. A solicitor who sees clients and can be reached at that office during its hours can have a profile in their own name. Google says a practitioner's profile should carry only their name, not the firm's, and that one practitioner shouldn't have several profiles for different specialisms.
3. A sole practitioner shares the firm's profile. If you're the only solicitor at a branded office, Google says it's best to share one profile with the firm, named in the format "[brand/company]: [practitioner name]".
4. Use your real name. The name should be the one on your sign, your letters and your website. Adding a service or a town to the name isn't allowed, and Google says it can lead to suspension.
5. Fill in the rest properly. Pick the most specific primary category for your main service, add each service you offer, set accurate opening hours and add photos of the office. Our guides to Google Business Profile optimisation and choosing your primary category go through each field.

Give each service its own page

In the reading, many of the firms' results were a page for one service in one town, such as a divorce page or a conveyancing page. A single "Our services" page that lists everything gives Google less to match.

A good service page says what the service covers, who in the firm does it, what it costs or how fees work, how a matter starts and which towns you cover.

The SRA's Transparency Rules, in the version in force since 11 April 2025, already ask for much of this:

Rule 1.6 adds: "Cost information published under this rule must be clear and accessible and in a prominent place on your website." So a conveyancing page with clear fees is both what the rules ask for and what a client comparing firms wants to read. Check the rules themselves, or with your compliance officer, for what applies to your firm.

Reviews, directories and registers

Google reviews. Ask every client once their matter is finished, with a direct link, and answer every review. Keep client details out of your replies, even when the reviewer has given theirs. Our guides cover how to get more Google reviews and how to respond to them.

ReviewSolicitors. It was the only directory that showed on most of the seven pages, so find your firm's page there and check its details.

Registers. Law Society Find a Solicitor and the SRA register didn't appear on page one in the reading, but clients and other firms use them to check you.

You're on them because you're regulated, so the job is to keep your entry's name, address and phone the same as your Google profile. Our guide to local citations explains why matching details matter.

Kerbrank's UK directory check looks for your firm on Law Society Find a Solicitor and Yell, and lists Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and the SRA register for you to check yourself. Our guide to what each directory status means explains the results.

Dashboard · CitationsExample

Check where you rank across your town

Distance is one of the three things Google names, so a search from your desk shows only how you look from your desk. A client across town can see a different three firms.

Search for your main services from a few postcodes you serve, or use a grid that checks many spots at once. Our guide to ranking higher on Google Maps covers what to change when you find a gap.

Kerbrank runs your service searches, such as "conveyancing solicitor" or "divorce solicitor", from spots across your town every week, and shows which firms hold the top three where you don't. You can try it with a 14-day free trial, no card needed.

Common questions