Practice Area Pages Explained: Structure, Keywords, and Schema That Actually Rank

A practice area page is a dedicated page on a law firm website focused entirely on one legal service: personal injury, criminal defense, family law, immigration, or corporate law. Its job is to rank for the keywords a prospective client searches when they need that service, and then convert that visitor into an inquiry.

What a practice area page is not:

• A generic 'Areas of Practice' list page that names eight services in bullet points
• A thin overview that could apply to any firm in any city
• A page optimized for the term a lawyer would use rather than the term a client would search

The distinction matters because Google ranks pages that satisfy a searcher's full intent. A visitor searching 'divorce lawyer in Austin' wants to understand the process, the cost range, what happens to the house, how long it takes, and whether this firm handles cases like theirs. A page that answers those questions earns time on page, reduces bounce rate, and generates calls. A page that only names the service does none of those things.

In our experience working with law firms across multiple practice areas, the firms that build individual, in-depth pages for each service — rather than listing everything on one page — rank more consistently and convert at a higher rate. The logic is straightforward: one page can credibly signal topical authority for one subject. Asking a single page to cover ten practice areas makes it authoritative on none of them.

This page covers the specific elements that separate a high-performing practice area page from a placeholder: keyword strategy, content structure, schema markup, and internal linking. Each component is addressed in its own section below.

The most common keyword mistake on practice area pages is writing for how lawyers think about their work rather than how clients describe their problem. A prospective client rarely searches 'breach of fiduciary duty attorney.' They search 'business dispute lawyer' or 'partner stealing from company.'

Effective keyword targeting for practice area pages involves three layers:

1. Primary keyword: The core service term with city modifier. Examples: 'personal injury lawyer Chicago,' 'family law attorney Houston,' 'criminal defense lawyer Miami.' This term anchors the page title, H1, meta title, and opening paragraph.
2. Secondary keywords: Sub-service terms and variations a prospective client might also search. For a personal injury page, this includes 'car accident lawyer,' 'slip and fall attorney,' 'wrongful death claim.' These can appear as H3 headings or within body copy without feeling forced.
3. Question-based terms: The questions prospects ask before hiring. 'How long does a personal injury case take,' 'what does a family lawyer cost,' 'can I fight a DUI charge.' These belong in FAQ sections at the bottom of the page and match featured snippet formats.

A common misconception is that more keywords on one page always helps. In practice, a page optimized tightly for one primary term — with natural secondary terms woven through — outperforms a page that tries to rank for ten unrelated service terms simultaneously.

For firms covering multiple sub-specialties within one practice area, the right approach is a parent page for the broad category and child pages for each sub-topic. A family law firm, for example, might have a parent 'Family Law' page and separate pages for divorce, child custody, adoption, and prenuptial agreements. Each page ranks independently. All of them link upward to the parent and across to related attorney bios.

Industry benchmarks suggest that locally-modified keywords — those including a city or county name — convert at a meaningfully higher rate than unmodified terms, though this varies by market size and competition level.

The structure of a practice area page determines both its ranking potential and its conversion rate. These two goals align more than most firms expect — Google rewards pages that fully satisfy search intent, and satisfied visitors are more likely to call.

A high-performing practice area page follows this structure:

• H1 with primary keyword and city: Clear, direct, no cleverness. 'Personal Injury Lawyer in Denver — [Firm Name]' works. 'Fighting For You When It Matters Most' does not — it tells Google nothing.
• Opening paragraph (100-150 words): Confirms the visitor is in the right place, names the specific service and location, and introduces the firm's experience with this type of case. No jargon.
• What this practice area covers: A section explaining the types of cases the firm handles under this service. Bullet-listed for scannability. This is where secondary keywords appear naturally.
• The legal process: A plain-language walkthrough of what a client should expect — from initial consultation through resolution. Many firms skip this. It's one of the highest-engagement sections on practice area pages in our experience.
• Costs and timelines: General guidance on how fees work (contingency, hourly, flat fee) and realistic timeframes. Clients want this information before they call. Providing it reduces unqualified inquiries and builds trust with qualified ones.
• Why this firm: Specific, not generic. Case outcomes (described appropriately — see the note below), attorney credentials, local court familiarity. This section replaces the generic 'aggressive, compassionate, experienced' language most firms use.
• FAQ section: Four to six questions real clients ask. Answers in plain language. Optimized for featured snippet format.
• Clear call to action: A specific next step — call, schedule a consultation, use a contact form — repeated at the top and bottom of the page.

Disclaimer: When describing past case results on practice area pages, follow ABA Model Rules 7.1 and your state bar's advertising guidelines. Results language typically requires a disclaimer that past outcomes do not guarantee future results. Rules vary by state — verify with your state's bar association before publishing specific result claims.

Schema markup is structured data added to your page's HTML that tells search engines exactly what your page is about. For law firm practice area pages, the right schema can help Google categorize your services correctly and may improve how your listings display in search results — including in rich results and knowledge panels.

The primary schema type for practice area pages is LegalService, a subtype of LocalBusiness. A correctly implemented LegalService block tells Google the service name, the practice area category, the geographic area served, the attorney providing the service, and contact information. This is distinct from the general LocalBusiness or Attorney schema on your homepage — practice area pages should have their own, specific schema instances.

Key properties to include in LegalService schema:

• name: The specific service name ('Personal Injury Law,' 'Criminal Defense')
• serviceType: The legal category (maps to schema.org vocabulary where available)
• areaServed: City, county, or state — be specific rather than listing every state in the country
• provider: Links to the Attorney or LawFirm schema entity on your site
• description: A clear description of the service, written for humans, not bots

Beyond LegalService, practice area pages benefit from:

• FAQPage schema on the FAQ section — this is one of the most reliable ways to earn featured snippet appearances for question-based queries
• BreadcrumbList schema to reinforce the page hierarchy for crawlers
• Review schema if you display client testimonials on the page, following your state bar's rules on testimonial use

A misconception worth addressing: schema markup is not a direct ranking factor in the way that content quality or backlinks are. It does not guarantee a featured snippet or a rich result. What it does is reduce ambiguity — it makes it easier for Google to understand what your page is about and serve it to the right searchers. On a competitive legal keyword, removing ambiguity is a meaningful advantage.

Schema implementation can be done via JSON-LD (the recommended format), added in the page's <head> or via a tag manager. Most modern CMS platforms used by law firms support JSON-LD implementation without custom development.

Internal linking on practice area pages serves two distinct purposes that most firms treat as one. The first is distributing page authority across the site — passing link equity from high-authority pages to pages that need ranking support. The second is guiding a visitor through a logical conversion path from 'I have a problem' to 'I'm ready to call.'

Both purposes are served by the same links. The difference is in how you think about them.

Links that serve SEO:

• From the homepage to each primary practice area page (establishes these as important pages)
• From blog content covering related topics to the relevant practice area page
• From FAQ pages or resource pages to practice area pages when the topic overlaps
• From one practice area page to a closely related practice area (criminal defense to DUI, family law to child custody)

Links that serve conversion:

• From the practice area page to individual attorney bio pages, so visitors can evaluate the lawyer handling their case
• From the practice area page to a relevant case result or client testimonial page, where permitted by state bar rules
• From the practice area page to a contact or consultation booking page — at minimum twice on the page, ideally above and below the fold

Anchor text matters. Linking to a divorce page with the anchor 'click here' gives Google no signal. Linking with 'Austin divorce attorney' or 'how Texas handles property division' gives both Google and the visitor useful information about what they'll find.

One structure that works consistently: a parent practice area page that links down to sub-topic pages, and each sub-topic page that links back up to the parent and across to related attorney bios. This hierarchy mirrors how Google tends to understand topical authority — broad category pages earn authority, child pages inherit some of it, and the internal link structure makes the relationship explicit.

Several persistent misconceptions lead law firms to build practice area pages that look complete but perform poorly. Clarifying what these pages are not is as useful as describing what they should be.

Practice area pages are not the same as blog posts. A blog post covers a narrow topic, a recent development, or a question. A practice area page is a permanent, authoritative resource on a service. It gets updated as the firm's experience grows, not replaced with a new post when the topic comes up again. Firms that publish a new 'personal injury' post every quarter instead of deepening one canonical page end up competing with themselves.

A single 'Services' page is not a substitute for individual practice area pages. Listing ten practice areas on one page with two sentences each gives Google no depth to evaluate and gives visitors no reason to stay. Each service needs its own URL, its own keyword strategy, and its own content depth.

Long pages are not automatically better pages. Content depth means addressing the full scope of what a prospective client needs to understand — process, cost, timeline, what to bring to a consultation, what questions to ask. It does not mean padding word count with repetitive paragraphs or copying competitor content and rewriting sentences. In our experience, a focused 1,200-word page that answers real questions outperforms a bloated 3,000-word page that repeats itself.

Schema markup is not a replacement for content quality. Schema tells search engines what your page is about. It does not make a thin page rank. The combination of strong content and correct schema markup outperforms either element alone.

Optimizing practice area pages is not a one-time task. Search behavior changes. Competitors publish new content. Your firm adds attorneys or expands into new sub-practice areas. Practice area pages should be reviewed at least twice a year against current keyword rankings and competitive content.