15 okt 2025
How to prepare your law firm for the new era of AI search
The legal sector is on the brink of a major shift. AI search engines are changing how clients search and how they find legal expertise. Our marketer, Martijn Hoogewerf, explains what this means for your firm.
If we believe the articles, blogs and podcasts, the (legal) world is heading for significant change driven by AI-powered language models. And while there are always early adopters, the legal sector as a whole tends to fall into the late majority when it comes to adopting new technology.
In our own podcast, we regularly speak with frontrunners and thought leaders, legal professionals who are already using AI to streamline, accelerate and improve processes within law firms and in-house legal teams at major corporates.
But something equally fundamental is happening on the front end of legal services. More and more clients are beginning their search for a lawyer or legal specialist online.
The Rise of AI Search Engines
Multiple studies show that roughly 70–80% of clients start their search for legal support online. In surveys that focus specifically on Google, as many as 85–90% say they use Google to evaluate firms and lawyers (Attorney at Work, 2025) (Gitnux, 2025).
We see the same trend at Lawyerlinq. A significant part of our inbound leads, including those from major corporates and international law firms come in through Google.
And this is just the beginning. Because alongside Google, AI search engines are rapidly becoming part of the client decision-making process. People are no longer "Googling" their questions. They are asking:
ChatGPT
Gemini
Claude
Perplexity
Bing Copilot
Grok
These tools do not provide a list of ten links. They give one answer often with one or two recommended firms or solutions.
According to the recent study We Studied the Impact of AI Search on SEO Traffic (Semrush, 2025), the shift is unmistakable. Semrush even predicts that AI-driven search traffic will surpass traditional search traffic before 2028.
Which means the core question is changing from:
“How do I rank higher on Google?”
to
“Is my firm mentioned when someone asks AI a legal question?”
Many firms are not prepared for this.
Why AI Search Has Such a Big Impact on Law Firms and Legal Service Providers
Prospective clients are “googling” less and instead asking AI search engines:
“employment lawyer Amsterdam"
“best finance law firm in the Netherlands?”
“conflict with employer, what now?”
“best M&A law firm Amsterdam”
“DORA lawyers needed”
AI search engines then provide one result, not ten.
If you’re not mentioned, you’re not found.
Why Traditional SEO Is Still Essential
AI reads and learns from existing content. Strong SEO therefore still determines whether you are visible — to both humans and machines.
AI models train on optimized content
Strong content = strong AI understanding
Authority, experience and trust (E-E-A-T) are critical
Only technically solid, well-structured websites are included in AI-generated answers
If you want to convince AI, you must first convince Google.
The 9 Factors That Determine Whether AI Mentions Your Firm
Structured Data: Help AI understand who you are and what you do.
NAP & Legal Entities: Ensure your name, role, location and specialisms are consistent.
Local Intent: Optimize for “lawyer + city.”
Semantic Clarity: Be explicit about your audience and areas of expertise.
SEO Fundamentals: Titles, links, blogs and proper structure.
E-E-A-T: Demonstrate your expertise, experience and authority.
Reviews & Social Proof: AI watches your online reputation.
Technical Health: Avoid slow or poorly indexable websites.
Mobile & UX: Poor mobile experience = lower authority.
What You Can Do Right Now
Optimize for legal questions, not keywords.
Make your expertise visible: bios, publications, casework, reviews.
Write content that AI can interpret and that resonates with your audience.
Ensure your website is technically sound.
How We Make AI Visibility Measurable
At Lawyerlinq, we closely follow developments in AI and legal tech. As a legal-tech-driven organization, we had already developed internal AI tools to analyze visibility across our own networks and consultants.
But these insights turned out to be so valuable that we decided to make our AI Visibility Audit available to partners — and to everyone who has read this far 😉.
This free audit shows, in just one minute:
Whether AI recognizes your firm at all
How AI interprets your practice areas and expertise
Whether your website is technically and structurally “AI-ready”
Which improvements will have immediate impact
Marketing teams often use the audit as a starting point for a new content strategy or a technical update of their site.
👉 See how your organization appears in AI search engines →
If you’d like help interpreting or implementing the results, we’re happy to assist (martijn@lawyerlinq.com).
Frequently Asked Questions About AI Search and SEO for Law Firms
1. What exactly is AI Search, and why does it matter for law firms?
AI Search refers to queries answered by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Bing Copilot.
Instead of showing a list of links, these systems provide one answer.
To be found, your firm must be in that answer.
2. Will AI Search replace Google completely?
Not entirely — but client behavior is changing. More people now use AI as the first step in their search.
That means visibility in both traditional search engines and AI environments is crucial.
3. What’s the difference between SEO and AI SEO / GEO?
Traditional SEO focuses on ranking in Google through keywords, content and technical optimization.
AI SEO goes further: it focuses on how AI models gather, understand and recommend information.
Semantics, authority and structure play a far greater role.
4. How do I know if my firm is visible to AI?
With our AI Visibility Audit, you’ll know within one minute whether — and how — AI mentions your firm.
It also shows where your website falls short technically or content-wise, and what you can improve immediately.
5. What kind of content works well for AI SEO in the legal sector?
Clear practice pages, in-depth articles, biographies with specialisms, cases, reviews and semantically rich text.
AI doesn’t look for keywords — it looks for meaning and trust.
6. Do I need to rebuild my entire website?
Not necessarily. Many impactful improvements are small and targeted: better structure, clear language, optimized metadata and precise descriptions of your specialisms.
The audit helps you identify where to start.
7. Can you help with implementing AI SEO?
Yes. We assist from analysis to content strategy and technical optimization. Whatever is needed to make your firm visible in the AI era.