SEO Specialist for Law Firm
About the role
You will run search visibility for a US law firm that competes for high-intent local traffic, where a single practice area page can be the difference between a signed case and a lost lead. The work covers on-page, off-page, and technical SEO across the firm's site, plus answer engine optimization so the firm shows up in AI-generated results and featured snippets. You will work directly with attorneys and marketing staff during US business hours, which means quick turnarounds on content reviews and clear reporting on what is moving. Legal SEO has its own rules: strict advertising compliance, local pack competition in every city, and content that has to hold up to scrutiny. If you have only done ecommerce or SaaS SEO, this will feel different.
Key responsibilities
On-Page and Content Optimization
- Optimize practice area pages, attorney bios, and location pages for target keywords and search intent.
- Write and refine title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and internal linking structures across the site.
- Brief writers on legal content and review drafts for keyword coverage, readability, and search alignment.
- Build and maintain topic clusters around the firm's core practice areas.
Technical SEO
- Run regular site audits and fix crawl errors, broken links, redirect chains, and indexation problems.
- Monitor Core Web Vitals and work with developers to resolve page speed and mobile usability issues.
- Implement and validate schema markup for legal services, attorneys, reviews, and FAQs.
- Manage XML sitemaps, robots.txt, and canonical tags as the site changes.
Off-Page and Local Search
- Build and pursue backlinks from legal directories, bar associations, and relevant publications.
- Manage and optimize Google Business Profile listings for every office location.
- Audit and correct NAP citations across legal and local directories.
- Track competitor link profiles and identify gaps worth closing.
Answer Engine Optimization
- Structure content so it can be cited by AI search tools and chat-based answer engines.
- Build FAQ and question-led sections that target the way prospective clients actually phrase legal problems.
- Monitor how the firm appears in AI Overviews and adjust content structure based on what gets pulled.
- Test and refine entity signals so search engines correctly associate the firm with its practice areas and locations.
Reporting and Analysis
- Track rankings, organic traffic, and conversions in Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console.
- Report monthly on keyword movement, lead volume from organic search, and what changed.
- Flag ranking drops or algorithm impacts early and propose a response.
- Recommend where to spend effort next based on what the data shows is working.
Qualifications
- At least three years of hands-on SEO experience, with a track record you can point to
- Direct experience doing SEO for law firms or legal service providers
- Working command of on-page, off-page, and technical SEO, not just one of the three
- Practical understanding of answer engine optimization and how AI search surfaces content
- Fluent with Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Google Business Profile, and at least one of Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz
- Comfortable reading and editing HTML, schema markup, and site configuration files
- Available to work US business hours consistently
- Clear written English and the ability to explain SEO decisions to attorneys who do not work in marketing
- Self-directed, able to set priorities and keep work moving without daily check-ins