About Michael O’Grady
Twenty years of SEO, fifteen of them spent on law firms.
I’m Michael O’Grady, a legal SEO and AI search consultant and the founder of Verdict Digital Marketing. I help law firms get found on Google and in ChatGPT, then turn that visibility into calls and signed cases.
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My story
I’ve seen legal search from three sides.
I’ve seen it from inside the directories lawyers rely on, from the agency side, and from running my own practice. I started in SEO more than 20 years ago and have focused on law firms for the last 15+. At LexisNexis, Martindale-Hubbell and Martindale-Avvo, I worked with hundreds of firms and saw which approaches hold up and which only look good in a report.
In 2014 I started Verdict SEO, which became Verdict Digital Marketing, LLC in 2020. Today I work independently as a consultant and fractional CMO, and I recommend Verdict when a firm wants a team to carry out the work.
Founded as Verdict SEO in 2014 and formalized as Verdict Digital Marketing, LLC in 2020. I run it full-time, specializing in legal SEO, technical SEO, local search and AI search visibility. Verdict also serves a limited number of non-legal clients.
Built generative engine optimization content models using schema and structured data, and strengthened AI search visibility for law firm clients.
Directed organic search strategy across 120+ client accounts and a $2M+ annual portfolio budget. Optimized a $1M+ paid search and Performance Max budget, raised click-through rate 39.87% and cut cost per lead 81.20%. Reported to executive leadership, led cross-functional teams, built the business case for three new service offerings and scaled the SEO team.
Keyword research, competitive analysis, on-page and off-page strategy and local listings for legal clients. The foundation for everything since.
[Add your earliest SEO role, company and start year here. This is the source for the “20+ years in SEO” claim.]
How I think
Early to what works, not to what’s trendy.
Three times in my career, search changed and legal marketing was slow to follow. Each time I moved first and tested before recommending.
SEO, before firms accepted it
I was recommending SEO to law firms at a time when many still saw it as unnecessary.
Search intent and semantic SEO
I moved from keyword lists to how people actually search and how Google understands topics and entities.
AI search, early
I started using ChatGPT and other AI chatbots in my own work while much of legal marketing was still deciding what to do with them.
How I use AI in my work
AI does the manual hunting I used to do by eye. I do the judgment. It helps me find what a human reviewer tends to miss:
- Hidden content gaps on your site and against competitors
- Missing entity and semantic terms
- Backlink profile analysis
- Missed opportunities across your rankings and pages
- Research for the content each page needs
- Content recommendations based on what’s already working
Outside of work
Loud guitars, a perfect game and a spreadsheet problem.
I play guitar in a rock and metal band, and I still play live. My band has played Daryl’s House, the Sherman Theater and Spyglass Winery.
In 2019 I bowled a perfect 300 in a USBC-certified league game, and I carry a 200 average. A perfect game is a lot like good SEO: a long run of things done right, and you don’t get there by guessing.
I play softball and flag football and take my fantasy team too seriously. I’ve won a few championships using the same analytical habits I bring to my SEO and CMO work. Fantasy football is also how I taught myself advanced Excel: formulas, cleaning data and pulling it together from multiple sheets for daily fantasy analysis.
- Rock and metal guitarist
- USBC-certified 300 game
- 200 bowling average
- Fantasy football champion
Verdict Digital Marketing
If you want an agency, I can recommend one.
Some firms want a consultant to guide the work. Others want a team to carry it out. If you’d like a new agency, I recommend Verdict Digital Marketing, the agency I founded. It runs on the same strategy you’d get from me, and you don’t have to hire Verdict to work with me.
About Verdict Digital MarketingPublished work and education
Where to verify what I’ve said.
- 5 Reasons Your Website Is Not Ranking in GoogleMartindale-Avvo, July 2023
- Want to Increase Your Business? Claim These Local Profiles TodayMartindale-Avvo, May 2020
- How to Maximize Your Paid Search Ad Budget During COVID-19Martindale-Avvo, April 2020
- Why You Need to Update Your Google My Business Profile NowMartindale-Avvo, March 2020
- Michael O’Grady on LinkedInProfile
Education: Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting concentration, Hofstra University.
If your traffic is up and your phones aren’t, let’s find out why.
A short conversation is enough to tell whether I can help.
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