Last Updated on November 19th, 2025.

Online search is changing, and your firm needs to stay up to speed to stay ahead. Fortunately, we’re here to keep you up to date on the latest in search engine optimization for lawyers and have tips for your strategy.

How Can Law Firms Use AI, SEO, and SGE for Marketing?

To maximize online visibility in 2025, law firms must adopt an integrated marketing strategy that includes traditional SEO, AI-powered tools, and optimization for Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE). This approach ensures your firm appears not only in standard search results but also in the AI-generated answers that are becoming central to how users find information.

The legal marketing landscape is undergoing a significant transformation. The rise of AI and changes in search engine technology mean that yesterday’s strategies are no longer sufficient. To future-proof your marketing efforts, it’s crucial to understand and leverage these new tools to connect with potential clients effectively.

Table of Contents

• The new landscape of digital marketing for Law Firms
• Search engine optimization
• Artificial intelligence optimization/AI overviews (AIO)
• Strategies to harness new tools in online marketing
• FAQs

The New Landscape of Digital Marketing for Law Firms

Before we launch into some actions you can take to advance your online marketing, let’s review a critical, recent change in search: the evolution of search engine optimization (SEO) and the emergence of search generative experience (SGE).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The oldest generation of online marketing practices, search engine optimization (SEO), is a collection of strategies to help your website rank high on results pages. When a potential client goes to Google to find a lawyer nearby, it’s SEO that helps them find you first.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the rapid advancement of AI tools in digital marketing, SEO for law firms is changing. Traditional SEO techniques like website architecture and quality content are still critical, but now they work in collaboration with other strategies of online lawyer marketing.

Essential SEO Strategies

• Local SEO: For most firms, attracting local clients is paramount. Optimizing your website and building local citations are critical for appearing in local search results and map packs.
• Keyword Research: Identify the specific terms and questions your target clients are using to search for legal help and create content that directly addresses their needs.
• Content Creation: Regularly publish high-quality content—such as blog posts, practice area pages, and FAQs—that demonstrates your expertise and answers client questions.

Artificial Intelligence Optimization/AI overviews (AIO)

If you’ve typed almost any query into Google or other search engines lately, you’ve certainly seen the AI Overview: Google’s snapshot of the most relevant information about your search. This is a type of search generative experience (SGE), or the use of AI to gather what you need to know so you don’t have to delve too deeply into search results to find what you’re looking for.

So what does this mean for law firm marketing? Traditionally, lawyers, especially solo or small firms, relied on local SEO to gain search traction. Local SEO is a set of techniques to raise a firm’s ranking on pages in response to queries like, “family lawyers near me,” or “criminal defense services in [city name].” 

With SGE, the strategies of local SEO, like business pages, distance, and online reviews, are still essential. The main difference is that, with SGE, Google consolidates this information for the consumer. The search engine will scour all of your online properties to let searchers know where you are, the services you provide, and what people say about you.

As a side note, it’s important to know that the AI Overview is usually tops in search results, but not always. A 2025 study found the overview was below the first position 12.4% of the time. This might be the result of users scrolling past the overview to click on other search results, in the process training the search engine that the overview is not the preferred result for a certain term.

Key AI Applications in Legal Marketing

• Copy Generation: AI can assist in drafting blog posts, social media updates, and ad copy, freeing up time to focus on high-value legal work.
• Data Analysis: AI tools can analyze marketing campaign performance, providing insights to optimize your strategy and maximize your return on investment.

Strategies to Harness New Tools in Online Marketing

Even if AI Overviews are not in position #1 in search rankings 100% of the time, SGE is here to stay, and marketers have to adopt new strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

1. Streamline Content Creation

As SGE means Google is looking at all the online properties of your law firm, it’s critical to have a robust and dynamic internet presence. That includes relevant, accurate, and engaging content. While you can delve into the content creation process on your own, it’s often more cost-efficient and effective if you partner with professional content creators.

Strategic content should also be a cornerstone of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Take Martindale-Avvo’s Legal Growth Engine: this package updates and promotes legal profiles across highly-trafficked sites, while using content in a strategic way to connect your firm with qualified leads.

2. Automate SEO Tasks

Remember the old school SEO strategies? Well, they’re still necessary, and you can adopt them more easily than ever before. Only now you’ll have the added advantage of building a website that keeps SGE in mind, so it doesn’t all begin and end with search engine results.

Using a service like Martindale-Avvo’s WebVantage means integrating your optimized site seamlessly with current, impactful online reviews. When the SGE machine looks for law firms to feature, it’s more likely to favor one that’s not only local, but has good SEO and strong client feedback. 

3. Reputation in Attracting Clients

Let’s look a bit more closely at that other important link in the online business marketing ecosystem: the profile. Your attorney reputation might be built on reviews, but you also can tell people who you are before they decide to hire you.

Besides your website, online profiles, especially on highly trafficked, reputable sites, verify your status as a respected attorney in your field. With Martindale-Avvo’s ProVantage, you can gain essential information about who’s finding your profile and responding. You can see the number of impressions, clicks, and requests to contact right from your profile.

Law Firm Website Tips:

Showcase Your Expertise

• Link to statutes, case law, or bar-association guidance.

• Include short attorney bios with years of experience, bar admissions, and notable verdicts or settlements.

Update and Republish Regularly

• Laws change; consider periodically revisiting your content to refresh information.

Optimize Practice-Area Landing Pages

• Structure each with question headings, definitions, requirements, timelines.

Build Authoritative Signals

• Build your profile on Avvo and other attorney directories.

• Post content on social media and industry forums.

Stay on the Cutting Edge of Lawyer Marketing with Martindale-Avvo

With changes in search engine optimization for lawyers happening rapidly, it can benefit your law firm to partner with a company on the cutting edge of the latest techniques. Martindale-Avvo has long been a leader in this space, focusing on law firms that put client needs first. To discover how we can help elevate your legal marketing, contact us today.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Here’s what you need to know about future-proofing your law firm marketing.

What’s the difference between SEO and SGE?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques and strategies used by marketers to help search engines like Google to find and rank their site on results pages. Search generative experience (SGE), exemplified by the AI Overview, is the search engine’s attempt to use information already on the internet to create a unique and comprehensive answer to a searcher’s query right on the results page.

Does SGE replace local search?

No, SGE does not replace local search. SGE works in partnership with local search. While traditional local SEO looked at only a few important details like the business’ star rating, distance from the searcher, and relevance in terms of services, SGE combines all of that information into a narrative response. An SGE result might include information gained about a business from its website, for example, such as past client testimonials and fee schedules.

Do Search Engines Still Care about SEO?

Search engines, like Google, do care about SEO, as these techniques and strategies help the search engine to find websites and rank them according to relevance to search queries. AI Overviews often take information from the top search results to create a summary for the searcher. Frequently, the AI Overview ranks below an individual search result because of the strength of its SEO—which includes its relevance to the reader.

Is it a Good Idea for Attorneys to have Online Profiles?

Yes. By maintaining lawyer profiles on several reputable, highly trafficked sites, you increase your visibility on the web. As part of an overall law firm marketing strategy, profiles help you to connect with clients through organic search or an SGE tool.

Can AI replace the need for a human marketer at a law firm?

No, AI should be seen as a tool to augment, not replace, human marketing efforts. AI can handle data analysis and content drafting, but human oversight is essential for ensuring accuracy, brand alignment, and strategic human-in-the-loop direction.

What is an important action for SGE optimization?

The most important action is to create high-quality, trustworthy content that directly answers the questions your potential clients are asking. Clear, authoritative answers are what AI models look for when generating summaries.

Is SEO still relevant with the rise of AI search?

Yes, SEO is more important than ever. It provides the foundational signals of trust and relevance that search engines like Google SGE use to determine which sources to cite in their answers.

SOURCES:

What Is SEO – Search Engine Optimization?. (September 2024). Search Engine Land.

How Search Generative Experience works and why retrieval-augmented generation is our future. (October 2023). Search Engine Land.

Local SEO: What It Is & How To Do It. (December 2024). Semrush.

How Google’s Search Generative Experience Affects Google Business Profiles. (No Date). Reputation.

Google AI Overviews Rank Below Position 1 in 12.4% of Cases: Study. (June 2025). Search Engine Land.