AI search and GEO consultant for law firms
AI search optimization for law firms
I help law firms get named, cited and recommended in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. I test it by hand, and I measure it in signed cases, not a visibility score.
The short answer
AI search optimization for law firms is the work of getting your firm named when potential clients ask an AI tool for a lawyer. It’s built on SEO, but the recommendation usually depends on what the rest of the web says about your firm, not just your website. Firms that rank in Google can still be missing.
What AI search optimization means for a law firm
Someone hurt in a crash used to type “car accident lawyer” into Google and scroll ten links. Now a growing number ask ChatGPT, “Who’s the best car accident lawyer near me, and why?” They get a short list of names with reasons attached.
If your firm isn’t on that list, you don’t get a chance to compete for the call. There’s no page two to scroll to.
This is a new way potential clients search for a lawyer, and it isn’t going away. So I treat AI search the way I treat SEO: as ongoing work with a plan, not a one-time fix. There’s no magic bullet. The firms AI names are the ones it can verify from many places, and building that record takes steady work.
If you want the long version of how ChatGPT picks firms, I wrote a guide: how law firms can improve their visibility in ChatGPT.
Sound familiar?
The problems I hear, and how I help
“We rank in Google, but ChatGPT names our competitor.”
How I help: I run the prompts your clients use and record which sources the answers drew on. The gap is usually the directories, reviews and outside mentions your competitor has and you don’t.
“AI sees us as a criminal defense firm. We want injury cases.”
How I help: I build credibility in the practice area you want to be known for, on your site and across the web, so AI connects your firm to those cases.
“ChatGPT still has our old firm name, or an attorney who left.”
How I help: I find where the old information lives and correct what your firm controls, so the current facts start to outweigh the old ones.
“Our agency says AI is covered. Nobody can show me a prompt list.”
How I help: You get the actual prompts, which platforms name you for each one, and whether you were cited, mentioned or recommended.
“We show up near our main office and disappear near the others.”
How I help: I build local signals for every office, not just the first one, and I test from each office’s location.
“We see AI traffic, but can’t tell if it signs a single case.”
How I help: I tie AI visibility to calls and intake, so you can see whether it turns into qualified calls and signed cases.
Where GEO fits: one strategy, not three services
GEO stands for generative engine optimization: work aimed at AI tools that write answers instead of listing links. You’ll also hear AEO, answer engine optimization. They’re names for parts of the same job.
| Term | What it aims at | What success looks like |
|---|---|---|
| SEO (search engine optimization) | Google and Bing search results, including the Map Pack | Your pages rank, and the right people click and call |
| AEO (answer engine optimization) | Direct answers: featured snippets, voice answers and now AI answers | Your page is the one quoted as the answer |
| GEO (generative engine optimization) | AI-written answers in ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot | Your firm is named and recommended, with reasons |
I don’t sell these separately because the signals overlap. A page that’s clear enough to rank is easier for AI to quote. Accurate firm data helps your Map Pack listing and your ChatGPT answer at the same time.
The part GEO adds is weight on the rest of the web. An AI answer checks your firm against directories, reviews, news, video and social profiles. Work that stops at your own website leaves those gaps open.
What firms get wrong
Buying GEO as a separate add-on from a vendor who isn’t fixing the SEO underneath it. If AI can’t crawl your site, or your firm’s details disagree from one listing to the next, no GEO tactic makes up for it.
How I improve a law firm’s AI visibility
Six areas, worked in the order your firm needs them. This needs a blended approach: content, video, audio, citations, images and reviews all saying the same true thing about your firm.
Technical SEO
AI can only cite pages it can reach. I check that robots.txt and security plugins aren’t blocking AI search crawlers, like OpenAI’s OAI-SearchBot, and that your site is fast and crawlable.
Content
Attorney, practice area, case-type and location pages that say in plain words what AI is looking for: experience, case types, location. I build them around the hiring-intent prompts people type when they’re ready to call.
Topical authority
Depth in the practice area you want to be known for, so AI connects your firm to those cases instead of whatever it guessed from an old directory listing.
Entity consistency
Your firm, attorneys and offices described the same way everywhere. Schema is code that labels those facts for machines. It’s important, and it has to match your citations and profiles.
Local relevance
Google Business Profiles, location pages, consistent citations and geographic backlinks for every office. Location still decides who gets named for “near me” questions.
Credible third-party sources
Legal directories, reviews, news, articles, video and podcasts. I call the profile layer a “Social Fortress.” I don’t plant Reddit posts. They get removed, and it’s a bad look for a law firm.
The AI platforms I cover
I test every platform below, and pull results from tools where I can. Each one draws on slightly different sources, so a win on one doesn’t carry to the others.
| Platform | What I check |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Whether it cites, mentions or recommends your firm, which sources it used, and whether your site lets OpenAI’s search crawler in. |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Whether your pages are the sources behind the answer at the top of Google. Clicks from AI Overviews usually show up as ordinary organic traffic, so I read them alongside Search Console. |
| Gemini | Gemini and AI Overviews are both Google’s, but they can answer the same question differently. I test them separately instead of assuming one covers the other. |
| Perplexity | Perplexity shows its sources openly, which makes it a useful view of which pages and directories carry weight for your practice area. |
| Microsoft Copilot | Copilot draws on Bing, so I check your firm’s Bing presence as well as the answer itself. |
How I measure progress
Nobody can see every prompt a firm shows up in. So the goal isn’t a perfect count. It’s a consistent read on whether visibility is improving, and whether it turns into cases.
I check research prompts to start, the early questions people ask before they’re ready to hire. But the goal is signed cases, so I track hiring-intent prompts most closely. I list every prompt and which platforms name you for it.
| What I track | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Mentions | Your firm is named as an option in an answer. |
| Citations | One of your pages was used as a source. Readers may never learn your name. |
| Recommendations | AI presents your firm as a strong choice and says why. The one firms want. |
| Source visibility | Which directories, review sites and articles the answers cited, and where competitors appear and you don’t. |
| Relevant prompts | A fixed list built from real demand, re-run the same way each time so the comparison is fair. |
| Organic performance | Search Console queries and AI referrals in analytics. Longer, question-style searches are a useful early signal. |
| Qualified calls and signed cases | Where call tracking and intake data are available. Visibility is the start of the funnel, not the end of it. |
For tracking I use Ahrefs, Semrush and whatever gives the best data at the time, because AI visibility tools change constantly. Then I check the important prompts by hand, logged in and logged out and from your office location, because tools can miss what a real person sees.
My method and experience
I’ve been in SEO for 20+ years and legal marketing for 15+. I moved into search intent and semantic SEO in 2015, and I started using ChatGPT and other AI chatbots in my client work in 2024. AI search runs on the same idea semantic SEO does: helping machines understand who your firm is and what it handles.
Test by hand first
Before I look at a dashboard, I search the way your potential clients do, across all five platforms, and record exactly how your firm appears.
Find what’s missing
Site content, entity data, outside sources or local signals. I compare your firm with the competitors who are getting named.
Fix the gaps in order of impact
I do the work, or direct your agency or in-house team to do it. Hiring-intent prompts come first, because they’re the ones that turn into calls.
Re-run the same prompts and report
Same prompt list, same settings, so the comparison is fair. Engagements start at three months and usually keep going, because AI visibility keeps changing.
Practice-area authority, multi-practice firm
A firm that handled several practice areas was being treated as an authority in one: criminal defense. It wanted personal injury cases. I built up its credibility as a personal injury firm, on the site and across the web. After that, the firm started getting traction against personal-injury-only firms.
Client anonymized. The law firm now appears for personal injury, serious and wrongful death related queries.]
Checking AI visibility by hand, personal injury firm
About 4 of 5unbranded prompts named the firm and several of its partners as a local firm with experience, logged out, across Google AI, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
About five prompts, one test. It’s a small sample, and AI answers vary. Read the case study.
AI-referred users, one client account
Latest 12 months vs. the prior 12 months, first-party analytics
A different client account. The window starts before I held the account, and first-party analytics undercounts AI visits.
Most of the firms asking me about ChatGPT are personal injury firms. I’ve also done this work for divorce, family law and criminal defense firms.
What I report vs. a typical AI visibility score
| Question | A typical AI visibility report | What I give you |
|---|---|---|
| What’s measured? | One blended score | Citations, mentions and recommendations as separate lines |
| Which prompts? | Generic prompts from a tool’s database | Your prompt list, built from your practice areas, cities and intake |
| From where? | Wherever the tool runs | Hand checks from your office location, logged in and out |
| Why you’re missing | Rarely explained | The sources competitors are cited from, and a plan to close the gap |
| Tied to cases? | No | Qualified calls and signed cases, where the data exists |
The tradeoff: hand testing takes longer than pulling a dashboard, and it’s still a sample. I think it’s worth it, because a score that rises while you’re never recommended is worse than no score at all.
Ways to start
Most firms start with the free snapshot. If it shows gaps worth fixing, the review gives you the full picture and a plan.
Free AI visibility snapshot
Free
- 5 hiring-intent prompts
- One practice area, one city
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, logged out
- Cited, mentioned, recommended or missing, and which competitors were named
- Walked through on a call
AI search visibility review
$2,500 flat fee
- About 25 agreed prompts, mostly hiring-intent, plus a few research questions
- One practice area in one market
- All five platforms, with the test date, settings and location documented
- Comparison with three competitors
- Entity and citation check for your firm and attorneys
- A map of the sources the answers cited, including the ones behind your competitors
- A 90-day roadmap ranked by impact and effort
- A 60-minute walkthrough, about two weeks after we start
If you sign on for three months of ongoing work within 30 days of the walkthrough, I deduct the $2,500 from your monthly retainer, spread across the first three invoices. You keep the findings either way.
Start a conversation- Ongoing AI search work. Engagements start at three months. If your firm isn’t staffed to do the work, I do it. Pricing depends on scope, and we’ll cover it on the call.
- Direction for your agency. If you already have an agency, I make the recommendations and your agency does the work. You don’t have to switch vendors.
- Part of a fractional CMO engagement. AI search is one piece I own alongside intake, paid search and vendor oversight. How fractional CMO work runs.
- Want a team to carry it out? I recommend Verdict Digital Marketing. You don’t have to hire Verdict to work with me. I own Verdict Digital Marketing. Verdict also takes clients outside of legal.
Bigger firms with several offices or practice areas: I’ll quote an expanded review after a short call.
Is this a fit?
This is for you if
- You rank in Google and still don’t show up in ChatGPT.
- A competitor keeps getting named and you want to know why.
- AI describes your firm by the wrong practice area, an old name or an attorney who left.
- Your agency says AI visibility is “covered” and can’t show you a prompt list.
- You want to know whether AI visibility is turning into signed cases.
Probably not a fit if
- You want a guarantee ChatGPT will name you by Friday.
- You’d rather have one visibility score than read the actual prompts.
- You’re sure AI search is a fad that’ll be gone by spring.
- You’d rather hear everything is going great than what’s actually working.
Who you’d work with
I’m Michael O’Grady. I’ve spent 15+ years in legal marketing, worked with 500+ firms and directed 120+ accounts in a single year. You work with me directly, not a team that learned law firms recently.
Questions about AI search and GEO
What is GEO, and is it different from SEO?
GEO, or generative engine optimization, is work aimed at AI tools that write answers, like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews. It’s built on the same foundation as SEO: a site search systems can crawl, clear content and accurate firm data. The difference is weight. AI answers lean harder on what third-party sources say about your firm, so GEO spends more time on directories, reviews, news, video and other places your firm is mentioned.
What’s the difference between AEO and GEO?
AEO, or answer engine optimization, started as work to win featured snippets and voice answers. GEO is the newer name for work aimed at AI-written answers. In practice the signals overlap so much that I treat them as one job and don’t sell them separately.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my firm?
No. Nobody controls what an AI platform says, and answers change from run to run. I find the gaps that make it harder for AI to verify and recommend your firm, close them, and measure whether visibility improves on a fixed prompt list.
Does SEO still matter if people are using ChatGPT?
Yes. Google’s AI Overviews sit on top of Google search results, and AI platforms can only cite pages they can reach and understand. Strong SEO is the foundation. It just isn’t the whole job anymore.
Is schema enough to get my firm into AI answers?
No. Schema is important because it labels your firm’s facts for machines, but there’s no magic bullet. AI needs to see your firm confirmed in many places: content, video, audio, citations, images, reviews and directories.
How long does AI search work take?
Engagements start at three months. Content gaps on your own site can be closed relatively quickly. Entity problems, like an old firm name or the wrong practice area attached to your firm, take longer, because new information has to outweigh years of old information. Because AI platforms keep changing, most firms keep the work going after the first three months.
What does the $2,500 review include, and how does the credit work?
About 25 agreed prompts for one practice area in one market, tested across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot; a comparison with three competitors; an entity and citation check; a map of the sources the answers cited; a 90-day roadmap; and a 60-minute walkthrough. If you sign on for three months of ongoing work within 30 days of the walkthrough, I deduct the $2,500 from your monthly retainer, spread across the first three invoices. You keep the findings either way.
Do I have to leave my agency to work with you?
No. If you have an agency, I make the recommendations and your agency carries out the work. You don’t have to hire Verdict Digital Marketing to work with me.
AI answers with whatever the web says about your firm today. If the web says you’re a criminal defense firm, that’s what a car accident victim hears, and the call goes to someone else. Fixing the record takes months. Every month you wait is another month of the old story.
Want to know what AI says about your firm?
I’ll run the prompts your potential clients actually use and show you where you’re cited, mentioned, recommended or missing.