Local SEO for Lawyers: How to Own the Map Pack in Your Market

97% of people who contacted an attorney found them online. That stat alone should end any debate about whether local SEO for lawyers matters. But here's the more specific number that should concern you: 64% of initial law firm discoveries happen through Google Business Profile listings - not through your website, not through directories, not through referrals. Through your GBP listing, which most firms have never properly optimized.

I've been doing local SEO for law firms for 15 years. I've helped personal injury firms, criminal defense practices, and family law attorneys dominate their local markets. I've also audited hundreds of firms that were paying $2,000-$5,000 a month for "SEO" and had nothing to show for it in the Map Pack. This guide covers what actually moves rankings - and what your agency should be doing but probably isn't.

If you want to rank in the Map Pack for your city and the 15-20 surrounding communities that drive most of your cases, this is the framework.

Why Local SEO Is Different for Law Firms (And More Important)

Most businesses benefit from a mix of local and national search traffic. Law firms are almost entirely local. A personal injury attorney in Denver doesn't want leads from Miami. A family lawyer in Phoenix doesn't need visibility in Seattle. Every potential client lives within a 30-50 mile radius of your office. That geographic constraint makes local SEO your highest-return marketing investment - and the Map Pack your most valuable piece of digital real estate.

Here's why the Map Pack matters more than you think.

42% of local searches result in a click on the Google Map Pack. When someone searches "car accident lawyer Denver" or "divorce attorney near me," nearly half of all clicks go to the three businesses listed in that Map Pack box - before anyone scrolls to the organic results below it. Position 1-3 in the Pack is the game. Position 4 and below is effectively invisible.

That's not a gradual slide. It's a cliff.

I've seen this with firm after firm. A PI firm that was ranking #2 in the Pack was generating 40-60 calls per month from local search. We tracked what happened when a competitor briefly pushed them to position 4 during a period when they reduced their GBP activity. Calls from local search dropped 65% in 30 days. They recovered when we addressed the issues - but that example shows exactly how binary the Map Pack is. You're in the top 3 or you're mostly invisible.

The stats that frame the stakes:

97% of consumers who contacted an attorney found them online (2024)

64% of initial law firm discoveries occur through Google Business Profile listings specifically

The three factors Google uses to determine Map Pack rankings are proximity, relevance, and prominence. Proximity is the only one you can't directly control - it's based on where the searcher is when they search. Relevance is how well your profile and website match what the person searched for. Prominence is how well-known and trustworthy Google considers your business to be - built through reviews, citations, links, and profile completeness.

Most firms are losing on relevance and prominence. Both are fixable. That's what the rest of this guide addresses.

One more thing to understand about law firm local SEO specifically: you're not competing with everyone in your city. The Map Pack for "car accident lawyer Denver" shows three results. If there are 200 personal injury firms in Denver, you're competing for 3 spots. The threshold to get in is high - but the firms sitting in those spots aren't doing anything extraordinary. Most of them just haven't let their GBP go neglected. The bar is lower than you'd expect if you do the fundamentals correctly and consistently.

The Google Business Profile Factors That Actually Move Rankings

Your Google Business Profile is the primary ranking instrument for law firm local SEO. Not your website. Not your backlinks. Your GBP. And yet most firms treat it as a "set it and forget it" listing. That mindset is exactly why their competitors are ranking above them.

Here's what I look at when I audit a law firm's GBP - and what I find wrong in almost every profile.

1. Category Selection - The Most Common Mistake

The primary category is the single highest-weighted field in your GBP. Most firms choose something too generic. "Law Firm" as your primary category is a mistake. "Lawyer" is worse. If you're a personal injury attorney, your primary category should be "Personal Injury Attorney." If you do family law, it should be "Family Law Attorney." If you handle DUIs, it should be "DUI Attorney."

Google uses your primary category to determine which searches your profile is eligible to appear for. Choose the wrong one and you're competing in the wrong pool. Then add secondary categories for the other practice areas you handle - but don't stuff 10 categories in hoping to show up for everything. That dilutes relevance. Choose 2-4 secondary categories max, and only for practice areas you genuinely handle.

2. The Services Section - Almost Always Empty

The Services section inside GBP is one of the most underused ranking signals I encounter. It's essentially structured data within your profile. You can add individual services, descriptions for each, and even pricing. When someone searches for "wrongful death attorney" in your city, Google cross-references the services listed in every local profile against that search query. If you haven't listed "wrongful death" as a service, your profile is less likely to surface.

Spend 30 minutes filling out the Services section with every practice area you handle. Write a 2-3 sentence description for each. This is not optional if you want to compete.

3. Photos - Frequency and Type Matter

Firms with 20+ images and regular photo updates see 3.2x higher client inquiry rates. That's not a small margin. The reason is both algorithmic (Google rewards active, well-maintained profiles) and psychological (a profile with 3 stock photos and a blurry exterior shot doesn't inspire confidence).

What to upload: exterior and interior office photos, team photos with individual attorneys (named and titled), event photos, case result graphics (if permitted in your jurisdiction), and photos that show your community involvement. Update photos at least monthly. The "active profile" signal matters.

Appearing in the Local Pack generates up to 5x more profile views and 2x more engagement than organic-only listings. That engagement compounds - more views lead to more clicks, more calls, more direction requests, all of which feed back into prominence signals.

4. GBP Posts - How Often and What Format

Most firms either never post or post sporadically. Google posts don't directly boost your Map Pack ranking as a primary signal, but they contribute to profile activity signals and they do show up in your profile panel when someone clicks on your listing. Post at minimum once per week. Useful post types for law firms: recent case results (jurisdiction-appropriate), answers to common legal questions, office news, and community involvement. Avoid purely promotional "call us today!" posts - they're not useful to searchers and Google de-prioritizes them.

5. Q&A Section - Seed Your Own Questions

The Q&A section on your GBP listing is visible to searchers and can directly answer objections before they form. The problem: anyone can ask and answer questions there, including your competitors. Seed your own questions by asking them from another Google account, then answering them from your profile. Cover: "Do you offer free consultations?", "What areas do you serve?", "How long does a [practice area] case typically take?", "What are your fees?" When a searcher clicks on your profile, those answered questions reduce friction and increase call conversions.

6. Service Area vs. Storefront - A Configuration That Destroys Local Reach

This is the most damaging misconfiguration I see in multi-office firms. If you have a physical office where clients visit, you should be set up as a storefront, not a service area business. A service area business hides your address - which reduces your local ranking authority for the city where your office actually is. Firms with multiple offices often configure all locations as service area businesses to show coverage across a region. The result is that none of their individual offices rank well for their specific city.

If you have a physical office, show the address. Configure each location as a storefront. Then use the Service Area section within each profile to indicate the surrounding cities you serve.

7. What Proper GBP Optimization Delivers

Law firms that fully optimize their GBP - correct categories, complete services section, 20+ photos, weekly posts, seeded Q&A, accurate storefront configuration - see a 50-200% increase in profile views, calls, and direction requests within 90 days. I've seen this across dozens of client profiles. The ceiling on what an optimized GBP can do without any additional marketing spend is higher than most firm owners realize.

The Review Strategy That Actually Compounds

80% of people consider attorney reviews before hiring. 83% use Google specifically to find and read local business reviews. 71% won't consider any business rated below 3 stars. Reviews aren't just a trust signal - they're a ranking signal. And yet most law firms treat review acquisition as something that happens passively if clients like them enough to volunteer feedback.

That passive approach produces 8 reviews over 3 years. A systematic approach produces 8 reviews per month. The difference in Map Pack ranking between those two scenarios is enormous.

Review Velocity vs. Total Count

Google weights review velocity - the rate at which you're acquiring new reviews - more heavily than total review count in some scenarios. A firm with 200 reviews but no new reviews in 6 months is less relevant to Google's freshness signals than a firm with 80 reviews but 5 new ones this month. Both total count and velocity matter. The firms sitting in top Map Pack positions in most markets are there partly because they've built a consistent review acquisition system that keeps producing.

When to Ask - The Right Moment Framework

The worst time to ask for a review is at case close after billing. The client's last interaction with you at that point is often about fees. Ask at the moment of peak satisfaction:

• After a client reports a positive update ("the insurance company agreed to settle")
• After a court victory
• After a client says "thank you, you really helped me through this"
• During intake, when a new client says they're relieved to have found you

The ask should be brief: "I'm glad we could help. If you have a moment, a Google review helps other people in your situation find us. Here's the direct link." Text it to them while they're still warm.

The 3-Step Review System Any Firm Can Run

Step 1: Create a short Google review link for your GBP profile (go to your GBP dashboard, click "Get more reviews," copy the direct link).

Step 2: When a client expresses satisfaction - in person, by phone, or by email - send the link with a 2-sentence ask: "We're glad we could help. If you have 2 minutes, an honest Google review would mean a lot to us and helps other people find us."

Step 3: Follow up once, 5-7 days later, if they haven't left a review. One follow-up only. Don't badger clients.

Responding to Reviews - It's a Ranking Signal, Not Just PR

Responding to reviews signals to Google that your profile is actively managed. Respond to every positive review with a personalized note (not a template). Respond to every negative review calmly and professionally, without disclosing case details. The response isn't just for the reviewer - it's for every future potential client who reads it.

What Not to Do

Don't review-gate (only sending happy clients to Google and filtering unhappy ones to an internal form - this violates Google's policies and the FTC has issued guidance on it). Don't buy reviews from any service. Don't set up a review kiosk in your office lobby where multiple people leave reviews from the same IP address. Google detects all of these patterns and the penalties - review removal or listing suspension - are worse than having fewer reviews.

Review Platforms Beyond Google

Avvo, Justia, Yelp, Facebook, and Martindale all feed into your prominence signals indirectly. Google's Knowledge Graph pulls data from multiple sources when assessing how established a business is. A law firm with 100 Google reviews, 40 Avvo reviews, and 20 Yelp reviews outperforms one with 200 Google reviews and nothing else, assuming other factors are equal. You don't need to build all platforms simultaneously - get Google right first, then add one platform at a time.

Local Landing Pages and Geographic Coverage

Most law firms rank for their primary city. Their cases come from a 30-mile radius. That gap - between where they rank and where their potential clients live - represents real lost revenue. The fix is a local landing page strategy that expands your geographic footprint without duplicating content.

The Difference Between a Service Area Page and a Real Local Landing Page

A service area page says: "We serve clients in Aurora, Lakewood, Centennial, and 15 other cities." Those pages rank for nothing. Google doesn't reward placeholder pages that list city names without substantive content.

A real local landing page for Aurora, Colorado should include: local accident statistics specific to Aurora or Arapahoe County, information about the Aurora courthouse and court system, local Google Business Profile references for your Aurora office (or at minimum, your primary office with a note about serving Aurora), attorney bios that mention experience with Aurora-specific cases, and genuine content that would only be relevant to someone seeking a lawyer in Aurora specifically.

The test: if you swapped "Aurora" for "Denver" in the page and nothing else changed, it's not a real local page. It's a template. Google penalizes template duplication.

How Many Location Pages Is Right for Your Firm

Don't build 40 city pages if you can only staff genuine content for 10. Thin pages hurt more than they help. A personal injury firm in Denver with one office can credibly target Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Centennial, Englewood, Arvada, Westminster, and Thornton - all cities within reasonable driving distance. That's 8-10 pages worth building correctly. Building 50 pages with different city names swapped into a template is exactly what Google's local content quality signals are designed to filter out.

Internal Linking Structure for Location Pages

Your primary practice area page (example: /personal-injury-lawyer/) is the hub. Your city-specific pages (example: /aurora-personal-injury-lawyer/) are the spokes. Each spoke page should link back to the hub and to the primary local page (your homepage or contact page). The hub practice area page should link to its top 3-5 city pages. This passes authority from your strongest pages down to the location-specific ones.

Schema Markup for Location Pages

Each location page should include LocalBusiness schema (with your office address and phone number), LegalService schema (specifying the practice area and jurisdiction), and Attorney schema (with the lead attorney for that market). This isn't a ranking shortcut - it's foundational structured data that tells Google precisely what each page is about and what business it represents.

Geo-Modifier Keyword Research

Before building location pages, do the keyword research. "Aurora personal injury lawyer," "Aurora car accident attorney," "Aurora slip and fall lawyer" - these are three different pages or at minimum three sections of the same page. Use Google Search Console to find which city + practice area terms you're already getting impressions for but not ranking well. Those are your highest-priority location pages.

To build a local SEO capability that covers your full service area, you'll want a broader law firm marketing strategy that connects location pages to your practice area architecture.

NAP Consistency and Citation Building - What Still Matters in 2026

NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number - the three pieces of business information that Google cross-references across the web to verify your business is real and correctly categorized. Inconsistency in any of these fields creates conflicting signals in Google's Knowledge Graph and can suppress your local rankings.

Why Inconsistency Hurts

If your GBP says "Casey Meraz Law Firm, 123 Main Street Suite 400," your Yelp listing says "Casey Meraz Law, 123 Main St #400," and your Avvo listing says "The Law Offices of Casey Meraz, 123 Main Street," Google has three different signals about who you are. None of them completely match. That inconsistency is a small negative signal - not catastrophic, but worth fixing, especially if you're trying to move from position 4-7 in the Pack to position 1-3.

The Citation Sources That Actually Matter for Law Firms

Not all citations are equal. The ones worth caring about:

• Google Business Profile (obviously - your primary listing)
• Bing Places for Business (second-largest search engine; often neglected)
• Yelp (high domain authority; feeds into multiple aggregators)
• Facebook Business Page (cross-referenced by Google's Knowledge Graph)
• Avvo (legal-specific; high authority for attorney searches)
• Justia (legal directory with strong domain authority)
• FindLaw (major legal directory)
• Martindale-Hubbell (established legal rating service)
• Lawyers.com (Martindale's consumer-facing brand)
• State Bar Directory (your official bar listing - Google trusts it highly)
• Better Business Bureau (general authority; worth maintaining)

The Citations That Are Noise

Generic directory submissions - the "200 citations package" that agencies sell - are mostly low-quality aggregator sites that Google doesn't weight significantly. When an agency tells you they "submitted your business to 300 directories this month," most of those are irrelevant to local legal search. The above list is complete for most law firms. You don't need more quantity - you need quality and consistency.

The Audit Process

Use Moz Local, BrightLocal, or Whitespark to scan for existing listings. You'll likely find duplicates (two Yelp listings with different phone numbers, for example) and inconsistencies (old address from before a move, old firm name). Fix those before building new citations. The goal is a clean, consistent NAP signal everywhere that matters.

The honest assessment: citations are foundational hygiene, not a growth lever. Get them right once, then focus your energy on GBP optimization, reviews, and content. Don't let an agency charge you monthly fees to "maintain citations" once the initial cleanup is done. There's nothing to maintain.

How to Know If Your Agency Is Actually Doing Local SEO

74% of lawyers believe their firm has wasted money on marketing campaigns with poor ROI. I'd put the number higher for local SEO specifically, because it's the category where vague reporting most often hides lack of real activity. If you're paying someone for local SEO, you deserve specific, measurable accountability.

Here are five questions to ask your agency right now. If they can't answer all five with data, you're not getting what you're paying for.

Question 1: What is your GBP posting frequency and can you show me the post calendar?

A properly managed GBP gets at minimum one post per week. If your agency is posting monthly or less, your profile is less active than your competitors' and Google knows it. Ask to see the post log from the last 90 days. If there isn't one, that's your answer.

Question 2: Show me the review acquisition report for the last 90 days.

How many new reviews did your firm receive? What's the current velocity (reviews per month)? What system is in place for soliciting reviews? If the agency can't show you review count trends over time and a systematic acquisition process, reviews are being left to chance.

Question 3: What is my Map Pack rank for my top 10 keywords, by city?

Not just "you're ranking for personal injury attorney Denver." Show me a rank tracker report that shows position 1-3, 4-7, or not ranking at all for each keyword in each city you care about. This should be a standard monthly deliverable. Tools like BrightLocal or Local Falcon produce these reports automatically. If your agency isn't providing them, they either aren't tracking it or they don't want you to see where you actually stand.

Question 4: What location pages have you built or substantially updated in the last 90 days?

If you serve 15 cities and none of your location pages have been updated in 6 months, that's a problem. Ask for URLs and last-modified dates. Check them yourself. Thin, unchanged pages signal to Google that your geographic coverage isn't real.

Question 5: Can you break out call volume from local search versus organic search?

A properly configured Google Business Profile with call tracking (a call tracking number inserted into your GBP listing) will show you exactly how many calls came from your GBP listing versus your organic website listings. If your agency can't tell you this number, you don't know which channel is driving your calls.

What Fluff Reporting Looks Like

Watch out for reports that lead with impressions and clicks without conversion data. "Your profile had 4,200 impressions last month" is meaningless without knowing how many calls and direction requests resulted. "We've added you to 85 directories" is not a local SEO result. "Your website has 12 new backlinks" is not Map Pack progress. Ask for specific Map Pack ranking data and call volume from GBP.

The In-House vs. Agency Question

Local SEO - especially GBP management - is one of the most manageable parts of SEO to bring in-house. Weekly GBP posts, review solicitation, photo updates, Q&A management: these tasks take 3-4 hours per week and can be handled by a marketing coordinator with proper training. If you're paying $3,000/month for local SEO and getting the equivalent of 3-4 hours per week of activity, you should consider whether building a local SEO capability in-house with proper coaching makes more financial sense for your firm.

If you want to see exactly where your local SEO program stands, I offer a full audit of your current local SEO program that covers your GBP configuration, review velocity, location page quality, NAP consistency, and Map Pack ranking across your target keywords. It gives you a specific, prioritized list of what to fix - whether you fix it with your current agency, a new agency, or in-house.

Local SEO for Lawyers - Frequently Asked Questions

How long does local SEO take for law firms?

Map Pack movement typically takes 3-6 months with consistent effort. That timeline assumes you're actively working the GBP (weekly posts, review acquisition, photo updates) and addressing any technical issues with your website's local signals simultaneously. Some GBP-specific optimizations - fixing your primary category, filling out the Services section, fixing a storefront vs. service area misconfiguration - can show measurable ranking movement in 30-60 days. On-page local SEO for organic rankings (below the Map Pack) runs on a longer timeline, typically 4-8 months for meaningful movement in competitive markets.

How much does local SEO cost for lawyers?

Agency retainers for law firm local SEO range from $500-$3,000/month depending on the scope, number of locations, and market competitiveness. At the low end ($500-$1,000/month), you're typically getting GBP management and basic reporting. At $2,000-$3,000/month, you should get location page creation, review strategy, full reporting, and citation management. An in-house approach with proper tools - BrightLocal or Moz Local for citation tracking, Local Falcon for Map Pack rank tracking, and a review request system - runs $300-$600/month in tools, plus whatever you pay a marketing coordinator or in-house person to run it.

What's the difference between local SEO and regular SEO for law firms?

Regular (organic) SEO focuses on ranking in the blue link results below the Map Pack - primarily by building authoritative content and earning backlinks to your website. Local SEO focuses on ranking in the Google Map Pack (the 3-listing box with the map that appears for location-based searches). Local SEO centers on your GBP profile, reviews, citations, and local landing pages. They're related disciplines and reinforce each other, but the primary ranking factors are different. For most law firms, your broader law firm marketing strategy should treat local SEO and organic SEO as complementary, not competing.

Can a law firm do local SEO without an agency?

Yes - especially for GBP management, review acquisition, and citation cleanup. These tasks require consistency, not technical expertise. What's harder to do in-house without training: geo-targeted keyword research, location page creation, and schema markup implementation. A reasonable approach is to hire an agency or consultant for the initial audit and setup (1-3 months), then bring ongoing GBP management in-house while keeping an agency relationship for technical and content work. If you want to explore local SEO for personal injury firms specifically, the competitive intensity warrants more dedicated attention.

How many Google reviews does a law firm need to rank in the Local Pack?

There's no magic number - but context matters. In a small market, 25 recent reviews might put you in the top 3. In Chicago or LA, the firms in the top spots often have 200-500+ reviews. What matters more than total count is velocity (getting new reviews consistently) and whether your competitors are actively acquiring reviews too. Check your top 3 Map Pack competitors in your city and practice area. If the lowest review count among them is 80, you need to close that gap while also building velocity. If the top firm has 40 reviews, 25 solid reviews with consistent new ones coming in may be enough to compete. For a complete approach to law firm marketing consultant services, that links to a dedicated deep-dive.

Where to Go From Here

Local SEO for law firms isn't complicated - but it requires consistency. The firms sitting in position 1-3 in your local Map Pack aren't doing anything exotic. They have complete, actively-maintained GBP profiles. They're getting reviews every month. Their location pages have real content. Their NAP is clean across the directories that matter.

The question is whether your current setup checks those boxes - and whether whoever is managing it is actually doing the work or just billing for it.

If you want a specific answer for your firm, I offer a free audit that shows you exactly where your local SEO stands and what's holding you back from the Map Pack. No pitch, no package - just a clear picture of what's working, what isn't, and what to do next.

Get a Free Local SEO Audit for Your Law Firm

Or if you're evaluating whether to build this internally, start with the content marketing for law firms guide to see what you're actually competing for in your city.