A law firm website that ranks, and gets cited by AI
What makes a firm's site show up in Google's results and in the answers of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI, and how to check where you stand.
A law firm's website is more likely to rank and be cited when its pages answer clients' questions directly, say only what is true in structured data that matches the page, load fast, and stay current. AI answer engines quote pages they can read and trust, so the same work serves Google and the AI assistants.
1. Answer the question in the first two sentences
People ask search engines and AI assistants whole questions: what happens at an arraignment, how long probate takes, what a power of attorney does. A page that answers in its first two sentences, then explains, is the page an AI answer can lift. Put the answer first.
2. Say who you are, the same way everywhere
Your firm's name, address and phone number should match on your site, your Google Business Profile and the legal directories. Structured data (schema markup) on the site should name the firm, its attorneys and its profiles, so search engines and AI tools connect them.
3. Mark up only what the page shows
Questions and answers, reviews and ratings in structured data must be the ones visible on the page. Hidden markup sends a false signal, and search engines can discount the sites that do it.
4. Be fast, especially on a phone
Many people looking for a lawyer are on a phone. A page that shows its main content quickly keeps them; one that does not loses them before they read a word.
5. Keep dates honest
A page's "updated" date should change only when its words change. A site that re-dates every page on every build tells search engines nothing they can trust.
6. Let the AI assistants in, on your terms
Your robots.txt tells crawlers which of them may read the site. Decide separately whether AI assistants may read and quote your pages and whether AI companies may train on them. A plain-text llms.txt file tells AI tools what the site is and where its important pages are.
7. Check where you stand
Search for your clients' questions, and ask the AI assistants the same questions. Note who is named, which pages are cited, and where people are sent instead. Do it regularly, because the answers move.
Every Compass site is built on Astro and served as static pages, passes eighteen checks on every build (including structured data that must match the page), keeps its dates honest, and carries an llms.txt that lists every page in its sitemap. Three switches decide whether search engines, AI assistants and AI trainers may read it, and every page change goes to Bing and the other IndexNow engines within the hour. Compass asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI the questions set up for your practice and reports who they name. AI search, Reports.