A Step-by-Step SEO diagnostic framework You Can Run on Your Law Firm's Website This Week

A standard SEO audit covers crawlability, page speed, and keyword rankings. That's a starting point, not a finish line — especially for law firms.

Legal sites operate under two layers of scrutiny that most other industries don't face. First, Google classifies legal content as YMYL (Your Money or Your Life), which means its quality raters apply higher standards for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. A thin practice area page that might rank in the home services space will struggle on a law firm site.

Second, attorney advertising rules imposed by state bar associations and the ABA Model Rules (7.1–7.3) govern what you can and cannot say on your website. Content that triggers a bar complaint also tends to be content that Google's quality systems flag for credibility signals — so compliance and SEO are more aligned than most firms realize. This is educational context, not legal advice — verify current advertising rules with your state bar.

A diagnostic audit for a law firm therefore has four distinct layers:

• Technical health — crawlability, indexability, site speed, mobile usability, Core Web Vitals
• Content audit — practice area coverage, local targeting, E-E-A-T signals, content quality
• Backlink profile — domain authority, link quality, toxic or manipulative links
• Compliance review — bar advertising rules, ADA/WCAG accessibility, privacy policy, disclaimer language

Each layer surfaces different problems. Firms that audit only technical factors often fix the wrong things first. The framework below walks through each layer in diagnostic order — start with technical because technical blocks can hide everything downstream.

Technical problems are the foundation. If Googlebot can't crawl your site efficiently, or if your pages load in five seconds on mobile, no amount of well-written content will fully compensate.

Crawlability and Indexability

Start by checking your robots.txt file and XML sitemap. Many law firm sites — especially those built on templated legal website platforms — accidentally block key pages from crawling. Verify in Google Search Console that your most important practice area and location pages are indexed. Any page showing "Discovered — currently not indexed" or "Crawled — currently not indexed" needs investigation.

Site Speed and Core Web Vitals

Google's Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, Interaction to Next Paint) are ranking signals. Law firm sites built with heavy stock-photo hero images and bloated page builders frequently fail LCP thresholds. Use Google's PageSpeed Insights or Search Console's Core Web Vitals report to identify pages in the "Poor" or "Needs Improvement" range.

Mobile Usability

Most legal searches happen on mobile. Check for tap target sizing issues, text that's too small to read without zooming, and content that's wider than the screen. Search Console's Mobile Usability report surfaces these automatically.

Redirect Chains and Broken Links

Attorney websites that have been redesigned or migrated often carry redirect chains (redirect A → B → C) that bleed crawl budget and dilute link equity. A crawl tool like Screaming Frog will surface chains longer than one hop and 404 errors. Fix high-priority broken links first — especially any that receive external backlinks.

HTTPS and Security

Every page should be served over HTTPS. Mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages) undermine trust signals. Run a scan and resolve any flagged assets.

Document every issue found in this layer before moving to content. Technical blockers take priority because they affect all pages simultaneously.

Most law firms underestimate how many pages they need to compete in organic search. A personal injury firm with a single "Practice Areas" page listing ten bullet points is not competing against a firm with ten individual, well-developed practice area pages — each targeting specific keywords and local intent.

Practice Area Coverage

List every service your firm offers. For each one, check whether you have a dedicated page optimized for the relevant search terms. In our experience working with law firms, the most common gap is over-consolidation — packing too many practice areas onto one page to avoid creating new content.

Local Targeting

If your firm serves multiple cities, counties, or jurisdictions, each location needs a page that addresses local intent — not a template with the city name swapped in. Search engines and users can both identify thin location pages. A useful local page includes jurisdiction-specific information, relevant court or procedural context, and signals of genuine local presence.

Competitor Content Comparison

Identify the top three to five ranking firms for your target keywords in your market. Run their domains through a keyword gap tool (Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz work for this). The output shows keywords your competitors rank for that your site does not target at all. This is your content opportunity list.

E-E-A-T Signals on Existing Pages

For each major page, audit whether it demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Specific signals Google's quality raters look for include: named attorney authors with credentials, bar admission information, case results with appropriate disclaimers, and citations to statutes or authoritative legal sources. Generic pages with no authorship attribution are a consistent weakness on law firm sites.

Content Freshness

Legal content tied to statutes, regulations, or procedural rules goes stale. Pages that haven't been reviewed in 18+ months may contain outdated information — a trust and quality signal problem. Flag those pages for review.

For law firms, backlinks remain one of the most influential ranking factors for competitive practice area terms. The backlink audit has two goals: identify opportunities (where could you earn more authority?) and identify risks (are there links that could trigger a manual penalty?).

Baseline Authority Assessment

Pull your domain's backlink profile using Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz. Look at Domain Rating or Domain Authority as a relative benchmark — not an absolute standard. More useful is comparing your profile to the top three ranking competitors for your target terms. If their referring domain count is significantly higher, link building is a priority, not optional.

Link Quality Review

Not all links are equal. High-value links for law firms typically come from bar association directories, legal publications, local news outlets, law school resources, and relevant industry associations. Low-quality signals include mass legal directory submissions with identical anchor text, links from foreign-language or unrelated sites, and any pattern that suggests paid placement.

Toxic Link Identification

Some law firm websites — particularly those that worked with agencies running aggressive link schemes in prior years — carry backlink profiles that create ranking suppression risk. Look for links from private blog networks (PBNs), link farms, or sites that exist only to sell links. If the volume is significant, a Google Disavow file may be warranted. Approach disavow decisions carefully — removing good links is harder to undo than leaving marginal ones in place.

Anchor Text Distribution

Over-optimized anchor text (too many links using exact-match keywords like "personal injury attorney Chicago") is a pattern associated with manipulative link building. A natural profile includes branded anchors, URL anchors, generic anchors, and some keyword-relevant anchors in proportion. If your profile is heavily skewed toward exact-match keywords, note it as a risk.

Document the referring domains, their quality indicators, and any flagged risks. This feeds directly into your prioritized action plan.

This layer is specific to legal websites and separates a law firm SEO audit from a generic digital marketing review.

Attorney Advertising Compliance

ABA Model Rules 7.1–7.3 prohibit false or misleading communications about legal services, unsolicited in-person solicitation, and certain forms of advertising without proper disclosure. Most states have adopted versions of these rules with their own modifications. Verify current rules with your state bar — rules vary by jurisdiction and are updated periodically. This content is educational, not legal advice.

For the SEO audit, check these content signals:

• Does your site make claims that could be considered misleading ("designed to results," "best attorney in [city]")? These may violate bar rules and are also the type of superlative language Google's quality systems discount.
• Do pages that discuss case results include the required "results may vary" or equivalent disclaimers?
• Does your site identify itself as attorney advertising where required by your state?

ADA and WCAG Accessibility

Law firm websites are increasingly subject to ADA Title III accessibility claims. From an SEO standpoint, accessibility improvements (alt text on images, proper heading structure, keyboard navigability) also improve how search engines parse your content. Run an accessibility scan using WAVE or axe DevTools and document critical errors.

Privacy Policy and Intake Form Disclaimers

Your intake forms should include language clarifying that submitting a form does not create an attorney-client relationship. Your privacy policy should be current, accurate, and accessible from every page. Missing or outdated privacy policies are a compliance gap and a trust signal problem for users and search engines alike.

Complete the compliance layer last in your audit documentation, but treat findings with urgency — a bar complaint or accessibility lawsuit is a higher-order risk than a missed keyword.

After running all four layers, you'll have a list of issues. The challenge is prioritization — not every finding warrants immediate action, and fixing the wrong things first wastes time and budget.

A Simple Scoring Framework

Rate each issue on two dimensions: impact (how much will fixing this improve rankings or traffic?) and effort (how difficult is the fix?). A high-impact, low-effort fix — like resolving a crawl block on your main practice area pages — goes to the top of the list. A low-impact, high-effort fix — like rebuilding an entire section of content — requires a business case before committing resources.

Priority Tiers

• Tier 1 — Fix immediately: Crawl blocks, indexation errors, compliance violations, site security issues, broken pages receiving backlinks
• Tier 2 — Fix within 30 days: Core Web Vitals failures on high-traffic pages, missing practice area pages for services you actively market, toxic link patterns
• Tier 3 — Fix within 90 days: Content freshness updates, location page improvements, E-E-A-T signal enhancements, accessibility improvements

When to Run the Audit Yourself vs. Hire Outside Help

A self-audit using the framework above is a useful diagnostic starting point. It tells you where the problems are, even if you're not yet equipped to fix all of them. In our experience working with law firms, the value of a professional audit is not just finding more issues — it's accurate prioritization and the ability to distinguish symptoms from root causes.

If your audit surfaces technical issues you can't interpret, a backlink profile with significant toxic link risk, or content gaps that span dozens of pages, those are signals that outside expertise will return more value than continued self-assessment. If you want a second set of eyes on your findings, you can request a professional attorney SEO audit — we'll validate what you found and identify what you may have missed.