SEO for Family Lawyers & Law Firms

Whether you’re a solo family law attorney or leading a large, multi-office firm, SEO is fundamental to every family law practice. 

Every month, tens of thousands of people across the U.S. search for family law services online. If you’re not showing up in the search results, map, or AI results, you’re missing out on reliable leads. 

But legal marketing is one of the most competitive industries. Only firms that treat SEO as a core part of their business plan can expect a steady stream of online leads. SEO demands constant attention, regular updates, and timely pivots. Treating law firm SEO as nothing more than a checklist item is doomed to fail.

We Do Web is different. We develop SEO strategies tailored to your practice and market, putting you in front of the people in your community actively searching for help with divorce, child custody, support issues, and more. 

Why SEO Matters for Your Family Law Firm

When was the last time you searched for your law firm online? Go ahead and try now. Use the standard searches like ‘divorce lawyer near me’ or ‘child custody lawyer near me.’

Would it surprise you to know how many others were searching for those same terms this month?  There are 14,000 monthly searches for ‘divorce lawyer near me’ and 1,200 monthly searches for ‘child custody lawyer near me.’ And that’s just scratching the surface. 

Or how about searches for divorce lawyers in some of the country’s major markets?

Not in one of the largest markets? There’s still considerable search volume in markets around the country.

‘Child custody lawyer’ queries specific to Tulsa, Virginia Beach, Manhattan Beach, Charleston, and Orlando each average 60 searches per month, for example. And ‘child support lawyer’ queries targeting Orange County, Madison, Alpharetta, West Bend, and Medway each average 60 searches per month.

There’s so much opportunity to drive leads for your family law practice online. A tailored SEO strategy is how your firm captures that opportunity. It’s how you turn search volume into website traffic, and traffic into real leads.

Why a Tailored SEO Plan Works for Family Law Firms

You need an SEO plan created specifically for your firm. Marketing companies that push a generic SEO system will not work. Even within the same city, no two family law practices are identical, nor are their budget, goals, and websites.

Some of the variables that affect SEO strategy include: 

• Practice areas: What types of cases do you focus on? Divorce? Custody and support? Spousal support? Something else? 
• Market: How competitive is your region? A thorough market and competitive analysis give us clues. 
• Goals: What are you aiming to achieve, and on what timeline? Generate your very first online leads? Increase leads by 50% in six months? 
• Budget: Greater investment creates more room to accelerate growth or expand reach.
• Starting point: Newer or smaller sites may require a longer runway to see results, or a bigger budget to get it done faster.

Let’s look at two examples. 

Firm A has a small website. Let’s say 25 pages total, including main practice area pages and a smattering of blog posts. They operate a single office in a midsize but competitive market. While they’ve seen a few online leads, mostly from local map listings, they want to grow that number. They have a modest budget to get that done.

Firm B, by contrast, runs a much larger website with nearly 1,000 unique pages and operates in two highly competitive markets. They’re already bringing in 5 to 10 leads per month and want to push that to 15–20 monthly leads within the next year. Their budget matches their ambition.

For Firm A, we’d start by researching their site’s technical health, their practice area content, competitor sites, and search queries specific to their market. We’d review their Google Business Profile (GBP) and recommend generating more client reviews. 

We’re not only trying to understand their starting point but also looking for opportunities to drive early wins as we grow the site’s authority and performance over time. With a leaner budget and lower domain authority, we’d be selective with our content plan; we’d build foundational content but aim to target high-opportunity keywords in niche practice areas or less saturated markets to break onto the first page of search results.

This firm will need a combination of clever strategy, realistic expectations, and patience. But with the right plan, we can start generating meaningful leads that help them grow their business.

For Firm B, the fundamentals are the same. Start with a technical audit, content review, competitor analysis, and market research. But with more resources and an established presence, we can aim higher faster, solidifying their authority in existing markets and expanding into new ones.

Their larger content budget allows us to scale efforts more aggressively. That means improving older content and adding new practice area pages across their target locations, as well as expanding their backlink profile to boost domain authority. The strategy stays focused and strategic, but with more room to move, we can accelerate and achieve broader visibility faster.

No matter your firm’s size, budget, or starting point, every effective SEO strategy rests on the same foundational elements. 

SEO Services That Drive Results for Family Law Firms

So, what does a successful SEO strategy look like for your firm? Whether you’re just getting started in family law or ready to scale into new markets, your roadmap will likely include a mix of on-page SEO and content, local SEO, technical SEO, and off-page SEO.

Each plays a critical role in getting your family law firm seen, not just in traditional organic search results, but also in local map listings that drive high-intent phone calls from searchers around your office, and in emerging AI results like Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. 

But before we build that roadmap, we evaluate where you stand now. 

• Are you getting leads from your website and GBP now? 
• Where are most of your leads coming from? 
• Is your firm ranking for any relevant terms? 
• Are you a solo attorney just starting your website?
• Are you a regional firm looking to scale?
• Are you struggling with bad leads and need more high-intent leads?

Once we’ve audited your website, reviewed your competitors, and aligned on your firm’s goals and expectations, we build a roadmap that typically comprises the following SEO services. 

On-Page SEO & Content Strategy

You need an SEO strategy that builds trust with potential clients. Much of that starts with good on-page SEO, everything from the legal content on your site to how your pages are structured to the user’s experience on your site: 

• Practice area content that targets high-intent searches like ‘divorce lawyer,’ ‘custody lawyer,’ and ‘spousal support lawyer.’
• Authority-building content that answers local FAQs and common legal questions.
• Internal linking that supports user experience and crawlability.
• Conversion-focused design, from consultation forms to calls-to-action that move visitors to take the next step.

Together, we’ll develop a content strategy designed to grow your organic traffic and generate real leads. That means creating pages that attract searchers with transactional intent (those ready to hire a lawyer) and educational blog content that ranks for long-tail keywords used by prospects earlier in their decision-making journey.

For example, these queries reflect prospects in the research phase of their journey. Publishing helpful, high-ranking content for these searches puts your firm in front of potential clients early in their journey and starts building trust. AI Overviews and AI Mode may even cite educational blogs when responding to user queries. Search volume and keyword difficulty vary, so our content strategy always aligns with your firm’s starting point, budget, market, competition, and goals to find early wins and drive long-term growth.

Local SEO

Local SEO aims to make your law firm show up in front of local searchers, particularly in the Google map pack. We begin by reviewing your Google Business Profile (GBP) and recommending edits to maximize its potential. Many law firms overlook GBP fundamentals. 

• A unique GBP for each of your firm’s office locations
• A link to your website
• Accurate, complete service categories
• A compelling business description
• High-quality photos of your office and lawyers at your firm
• A consistent push for new client reviews
• Links to your firm’s social profiles
• Accurate business hours, often listed as 24/7 if you answer calls around the clock

Local SEO also includes Local Service Ads (LSAs), legal directories, and content specifically designed to attract local searchers. 

Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures your website is fast, functions well, and is easy to crawl. Fundamentals of technical SEO and web development include: 

• Improving site speed, mobile experience, and Core Web Vitals (CWV). We enhance how quickly and smoothly your site loads, especially on mobile. A fast, responsive site improves rankings, keeps visitors engaged, and meets Google’s page experience benchmarks.
• Resolving site architecture and structural problems. We’ll fix your site’s URL and structural problems so Google can crawl your website properly.
• Add or improve schema markup. We implement structured data (schema) to help search engines better understand your firm’s services and location. 

Off-Page SEO

Trust and authority don’t stop at your website. For family law firms, off-page SEO helps position your firm as credible and well-regarded across the digital landscape.

• Analyze competitor backlinks: We review who’s linking to your competitors and uncover strategies to capture similar or better link opportunities. 
• Strengthen your backlink profile: We review your law firm’s backlinks and then pursue opportunities through local citations, as well as other sources, to establish a more robust backlink profile.

Your off-page SEO can be just as critical as your on-site efforts, especially when your firm needs to build authority, earn trust, and compete in a crowded legal market.

Let’s Build Your Custom SEO Roadmap for Your Family Law Practice

We’ll be your marketing partner, fully invested in your family law firm’s growth. We rely on our 15+ years of experience helping law firms succeed online to tailor an SEO strategy that drives traffic and leads from local searches, organic results, and new AI-driven search results.

We don’t give you “SEO in a box.” We will give you a custom roadmap built around your firm’s goals and strengths. Wherever you are, we’ll meet you there and create a plan to get you where you want to go.

Ready for Your Family Law Firm to Get Found by More Clients Online? 

Reserve your free site audit today. We’ll show you where you stand and start a discussion on how you can drive more leads, expand into new markets, and reach the business goals you’ve set for your firm.