Answers
The questions firms actually ask.
Search, answer engines, cost, timelines, and what bar advertising rules allow. Each one answered directly at the top, in full underneath, with the uncertainty left in where it belongs.
Answer engines
01What is Answer Engine Optimization?Answer Engine Optimization is the work of getting a business named and cited when someone asks an AI assistant a question instead of running a search. It shares most of its foundation with SEO, since answer engines read the same web that search crawls, and adds entity clarity, question-led content, and extractable structure on top.Read 02How does a law firm get cited by ChatGPT and other AI answer engines?A firm gets cited when an answer engine can retrieve it, resolve its identity with confidence, and find a passage that answers the question directly. In practice that means being crawlable and indexed, having one consistent identity across the web, publishing content organized around client questions, and being referenced by sources the model already trusts.Read
Search
03Why isn't my law firm showing up on Google?Usually one of five things: the site is not indexed, the firm is not eligible for the local pack because its Google Business Profile is unclaimed or inconsistent, the site is competing for queries nobody searches, the pages are too thin to rank for anything contested, or a technical problem is blocking crawlers. Check them in that order.Read 04How do law firms rank in Google's local pack?The local pack is decided by three things Google weighs together: proximity of your address to the searcher, relevance of your profile and site to the query, and prominence built from reviews, citations, and links. You cannot change proximity, so the work is relevance and prominence, starting with a fully completed and verified Google Business Profile.Read
Cost and timelines
05What does legal SEO actually cost?Legal SEO is normally sold as a monthly retainer, often alongside a one-time foundation or rebuild cost. The monthly figure is driven by market competitiveness, how many practice areas and locations you need to cover, and how much content is produced. Published figures are starting points, because scope in this category varies more than the price does.Read 06How long does legal SEO take to work?Technical and local fixes can show movement within weeks because they remove blockers rather than build authority. Competitive organic rankings in legal generally take six to twelve months, and longer in contested practice areas and large markets. Anyone promising competitive legal terms in ninety days is describing something other than what will happen.Read 08Does my firm need a new website, or just SEO?Most of the time you do not need a new one. If your site loads reasonably, works on a phone, can be updated without a developer, and is technically sound, keep it and put the budget into search instead. Rebuild when the platform actively blocks the work: unfixable speed, no mobile layout, no ability to publish pages, or a structure that cannot hold the content search requires.Read
Not covered here
Ask us the one you came with.
If the question your firm is weighing is not on this list, it is worth a conversation rather than a guess.