Your competitors are being found through AI search, is your firm?

A GEO audit assesses how well your law firm’s website and online presence are prepared to appear in AI-generated search results. It identifies opportunities to improve visibility in platforms like Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT.

A comprehensive GEO audit will be bespoke to your law firm, but would likely include:

·      AI Search Visibility Check

o   Testing how your firm appears in AI-generated answers for key practice areas (e.g. “family solicitor in Bristol”, “conveyancing solicitor near me”).

o   Reviewing whether your content is being cited, summarised, or omitted.

·      Content Structure Review

o   Assessing whether practice area pages answer common legal questions clearly.

o   Checking for headings, bullet points, FAQs, and plain English explanations that AI tools can easily extract.

·      Authority & Trust Signals

o   Reviewing use of author bios, solicitor credentials, case studies, and references to recognised organisations (e.g. The Law Society).

o   Checking that content aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

·      Local Search Optimisation

o   Evaluating Google Business Profile accuracy and consistency of address, phone, and opening hours.

o   Testing visibility for localised searches such as “divorce lawyer Manchester city centre”.

·      Schema & Technical Markup

o   Checking for structured data such as LegalService, FAQPage and Article schema to help AI interpret your content.

o   Reviewing technical SEO foundations — site speed, mobile usability, and crawlability.

·      Content Freshness & Compliance

o   Auditing whether legal information is current (e.g. recent employment law updates, family law reforms).

o   Ensuring all content is accurate, SRA-compliant, and human-reviewed.

·      Competitor Benchmarking

o   Comparing your firm’s GEO visibility with local competitors.

o   Highlighting gaps where rivals are appearing in AI summaries and your firm is not.

Getting started with GEO and AI search optimisation involves a structured approach to ensure your firm’s expertise is visible in AI-generated results as well as traditional search listings.

Book a GEO audit. This will help to assess your current visibility in AI search platforms like Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT. Then, identify which practice areas (e.g. family law, conveyancing, medical negligence) are currently appearing and where gaps exist.

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity generate answers by analysing large volumes of online content. To increase the chance of your law firm being referenced in those answers, your expertise must be presented in a way that AI systems can easily recognise, trust, and summarise.

For UK solicitors and barristers, the key steps are:

• Publish authoritative content
• Demonstrate professional expertise
• Structure content for AI
• Focus on local and niche queries
• Keep content accurate and up to date

By combining legal expertise with clear, structured, and well-maintained content, your firm increases the likelihood that LLMs will surface your insights within their generated answers, putting your name in front of potential clients at the moment they are seeking legal help.

AI search engines such as Google’s AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT use a combination of factors to decide which law firms appear in their generated answers. Unlike traditional search, which focuses heavily on keywords and backlinks, AI search prioritises trust, clarity, and relevance.

Google Business Profile reviews, Trustpilot ratings, and other client feedback signals can strengthen your firm’s credibility. Positive reviews help AI systems determine which firms are seen as reliable by real clients.

References to The Law Society, Legal 500 rankings, Chambers listings, or specialist accreditations (such as Lexcel) demonstrate authority and expertise, which AI platforms value. Heck, it’s likely that these AI platforms have even scanned/scraped the SRA complaints register!

Remember, platforms such as Google’s AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT are designed to prioritise trustworthy, authoritative sources when generating responses.

No. GEO does not replace traditional SEO; it works alongside it. Both are essential for law firms that want to stay visible and competitive.

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking your firm’s website in organic listings on search engines like Google. For example, appearing in the top results when someone searches “employment solicitor in Liverpool” or “conveyancing solicitor near me”. GEO focuses on getting your content included in AI-generated summaries and conversational answers on platforms such as Google AI Overviews, Copilot, ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Both matter for law firms, because search behaviour will still be split – some people will prefer to click through to a law firm website to get their answer, or contact a law firm, but many will get their answer from Google’s AI Overviews (or similar). In addition, people are starting to use tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity the same way they use Google, so it’s important to cover all bases.

In practice, law firms need SEO to maintain strong organic foundations, including fast, mobile-friendly sites, accurate local listings and keyword-optimised content, and GEO to secure placement in AI-generated results where many first impressions now happen. Together, they future-proof a firm’s ability to generate consistent, high-quality enquiries.

GEO helps your law firm by making your content more likely to be recognised, cited, and displayed within AI-generated summaries on platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.

Like law firm SEO, GEO ensures your practice area pages (e.g., employment law, family law, conveyancing) are written with clear headings, bullet points, and FAQs so that AI systems can easily extract and summarise them.

GEO combines AI readiness with location signals, so your firm appears when a prospective client asks a question like “best divorce solicitor near me”.

GEO is important for UK solicitors and barristers because the way people search for legal services is changing. Instead of only scrolling through lists of links on Google, many clients now see AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. These summaries often provide direct answers to questions such as “Do I need a solicitor for a redundancy claim?” or “How do I contest a will in London?”

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It is the process of making your law firm’s content visible in AI-powered search results, such as Google’s AI Overviews, Copilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Instead of only ranking links, these platforms use artificial intelligence to provide direct, summarised answers.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of improving your website so it ranks higher in traditional search results, like the familiar list of blue links on Google. For years, law firms have relied on SEO to appear for searches such as “employment solicitor in Liverpool” or “conveyancing lawyer near me”.

The difference lies in where clients now see answers:

- SEO: Focuses on ranking your firm’s website pages in organic listings.
- GEO: Focuses on getting your content cited inside the AI-generated summary itself, so your firm becomes the answer.

For example:

- A traditional SEO result might place your “Divorce Solicitors in Bristol” page in position #1 on Google.
- A GEO-optimised result would have your firm named directly within Google’s AI-generated overview when someone asks, “Who is the best divorce solicitor in Bristol?”.

Both are essential. SEO builds visibility in traditional rankings, while GEO ensures your law firm is present in the new AI-driven results that are increasingly shaping how potential clients find and choose solicitors.

Yes. For law firms, content needs to be updated to work with AI search, as generative search engines and LLMs don’t just rank websites; they extract and summarise information. To appear in those summaries, your content must be clear, authoritative and easy for AI systems to interpret.

If your law firm’s website content is already following SEO best practices, then it should only need tweaking, rather than being rewritten completely. However, as GEO become more competitive, your law firm might benefit from writing new service page content and blog posts to give you a further competitive advantage.

AI search refers to the use of artificial intelligence in search engines and platforms to deliver results in a more conversational, context-aware way. Instead of simply listing links, AI search engines analyse queries and provide summarised answers, often pulling from multiple sources.

In 2024, Google introduced AI Overviews (formerly called Search Generative Experience) in the UK, which automatically generates summaries at the top of search results. Copilot, Perplexity and ChatGPT use similar technology. These tools present information directly on the results page, meaning users don’t always need to click through to websites.

For solicitors, this represents a significant change in how potential clients find legal services. Research shows that:

• In 2024, Sparktoro found that AI-generated summaries appear more often, reducing visibility for traditional listings, but that SEO was still very important for marketing strategies
• Publishers and service providers have already reported traffic declines of 20–40% linked to AI summaries replacing clicks

This means that when someone searches for services such as “divorce solicitor in Bristol” or “help with medical negligence claims”, they may now see an AI-generated overview recommending firms before scrolling to the organic results. Law firms need to be visible within those AI answers to remain competitive.

Good question. They can, but should you let them? Can LLMs offer binding legal contracts to clients? Why should your clients pay you to work on their house purchase, employment tribunal or medical negligence claim

You’re the expert! And so are we. We live and breathe law firm digital marketing.

We are continuously learning, developing our services and striving for the best outcome for our clients. We know what we’re doing, and we do it well. You might be able to use LLMs to write your marketing content, or you could ask your friend from the pub, but you wouldn’t recommend your clients going to their friend at the pub, or LLMs for their legal advice, would you?