How law firms get clients from Google in 2026

A law firm gets clients from Google through four doors: the map pack for each office, the ordinary results for the practice area, the directories that rank above both, and the search a client makes after an accountant or a friend gives them the firm's name. Each is won by something different, and a site that lists twelve services on one page and hides the fees wins none of them. This guide is what decides each door and the order we fix them in.

The referral now ends in a search

Referral has not gone anywhere, but it has grown a last step. The accountant says the name, the client types it in that evening, and what comes back decides whether they ring. A site with the people, the fees and reviews with dates: they ring. A page from 2014, a stock photograph of a handshake, a form that goes to a general inbox: they ring the second name they were given. This is the cheapest work in the profession to win and the most commonly lost, because the firm never sees it happen.

Winning it takes a site that confirms four things in a scroll on a telephone: you do this kind of work, the people doing it are qualified, the cost is written down, and other clients were looked after. The office profile has to agree with the site on who you are and where. That is all, and it takes about five weeks.

The map pack: the office's town

Search "solicitors in" and a town from a telephone and the map with three firms fills the screen before any website. The three are chosen from each office's Google Business Profile: the categories, the services and the fees on it, the photographs, the hours, and above all the reviews and their pace. A firm has an address clients visit, so the profile is a storefront one, and each office needs its own.

Most firm profiles we audit were set up once, by whoever had the login, with one category, no services, a logo instead of photographs, and one profile shared across three offices. Fixing that moves a firm within weeks. What keeps it in the three is reviews, which brings us to the end-of-matter routine later in this guide.

The practice searches: conveyancing, probate, divorce, employment

"Conveyancing solicitors" with a town, "probate solicitor" with a town, "divorce solicitor" with a town. These are the searches worth the most and they are won by a page about that work in that town: what the service includes, the stages, the timescale, who does it, the fee or its basis, the client's first question answered first. Not a homepage. Not a services page with a paragraph each. A page.

They take months. In most towns the page-one firms and the national conveyancers have been there for years, and a new page needs reviews mentioning the work, guides around it and mentions elsewhere before Google moves it. This is what a retainer is for, and it is why we say three to six months on every proposal rather than promising thirty days.

The directories: Find a Solicitor, ReviewSolicitors, the comparison sites

They rank above most firms for most searches because they are enormous and everyone is listed. A client uses them to shortlist and then checks the firm's own site. So the directory entry must be complete and identical to the site, the reviews on ReviewSolicitors must be answered, and the profile must point at the practice page, not at the homepage. The directory is where the client finds you; the site is where they stop comparing.

The order we fix things: the office profiles first, because they are free and move in weeks. The site second, because the profiles point at it and it closes the referral. The practice pages third, because they take a season. The directories throughout, kept consistent, never depended on.

Reviews decide the map once you are in it

The three firms in the map for a town usually have the same categories. What separates them is the count, the pace and the content of the reviews. A firm closing forty matters a month has forty reviews a month waiting to be asked for, and most ask for none. The routine is the closing letter or the completion call: one line from the fee earner, the link, and a mention of what to say, the work and the office.

What the rules allow: asking, everyone, the same way. What they forbid: paying or discounting for reviews, inviting only the satisfied, and writing them yourselves. Incentivised reviews are an offence under UK consumer law, and Google removes bursts from the same week.

The fees are content

The Transparency Rules oblige firms to publish price and service information for conveyancing, probate and several other services. Most firms meet the rule with a PDF nobody opens. Written as a readable page, the same information answers the client's first question, ranks for "how much does probate cost", and is what an AI engine quotes when asked the same thing. Compliance and marketing are the same page, done properly.

What to do first if the site is from another decade

1. Claim or fix a Google Business Profile for each office, with categories and services for the practice areas you want.
2. Commission photographs of the offices and the people; retire the stock images.
3. Get a site with a page per practice area, the transparency information as pages, the people, the offices, and enquiry forms routed by department.
4. Start the end-of-matter review routine on the next closing letter.
5. Make the directory entries identical to the site and point them at the practice pages.
6. After the first Search Console data, add one practice, area or guide page a month.