Legal SEO

Originally published at thatdevpro.com. This framework reference is part of the 14-tier Engine Optimization stack from ThatDevPro, an SDVOSB-certified veteran-owned web + AI engineering studio. You are reading the dev.to mirror; the source-of-truth canonical version with embedded validation tools lives at the link above.

Law Firms, Solo Attorneys, Legal Information Sites, Legal Aid Organizations, and the Operationalization of YMYL for the Legal Vertical Under State Bar Advertising Rules

A comprehensive installation and audit reference for organic search strategy specific to law firms, solo and small-firm attorneys, legal information publishers, legal aid organizations, lawyer referral platforms, and any site producing legal YMYL content. Legal SEO operates under a regulated advertising regime that varies by jurisdiction, demands credential-verifiable authorship, requires specific disclaimers on specific page types, prohibits specialist claims unless the attorney is board certified by an approved entity, places per-state limits on review acquisition and review responses, and treats every page as YMYL by default. Dual-purpose: installation manual and audit document.

Cross-stack implementation note: the code samples in this framework are written in plain HTML for clarity. For React, Vue, Svelte, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, Hugo, 11ty, Remix, WordPress, Shopify, and Webflow equivalents of every pattern below, see framework-cross-stack-implementation.md. For pure client-rendered SPAs (no SSR/SSG) see framework-react.md. For Tailwind-specific concerns (purge, dynamic classes, dark-mode CLS, focus accessibility) see framework-tailwind.md.

1. Document Purpose and How to Use This Document

1.1 What This Document Is

The canonical reference for legal SEO across practice area pages, attorney profiles, case results, blogs and FAQs, multi-office locations, legal directories (Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Martindale, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, state bars), schema anchored on LegalService and Person with bar-admission hasCredential, and the disclaimer architecture that satisfies the most restrictive applicable state bar rules.

Legal sits in the strictest band of YMYL. ABA Model Rules 7.1 through 7.4 set the baseline; every state bar adopts, modifies, or supplements. The Florida Bar 2025 Handbook on Lawyer Advertising and Solicitation (Standing Committee on Advertising, December 10, 2025) runs over 200 pages. Alabama adopted amendments effective January 1, 2026. New York opened public comment December 30, 2025. The framework specifies common requirements, per-state variances that matter for templates, and an audit posture that holds under any plausible bar interpretation.

Operationalizes framework-ymyl.md for legal: "verifiable author credentials" becomes "JD plus active bar admission with public verification link"; "expert review" becomes "attorney byline with sameAs to state bar profile"; "disclaimers proportional to risk" becomes past-results, no-attorney-client-relationship, not-board-certified-where-implied, and (for contingency fees) cost-responsibility.

1.2 Three Operating Modes

Mode A, Install: build infrastructure on a new or rebuild engagement, Sections 2 through 12.
Mode B, Audit: evaluate an existing firm site, skip to Section 13.
Mode C, Hybrid: audit first, install for failing items. Most agency engagements for established firms run as Mode C.

1.3 How Claude Code CLI Should Consume This Document

1. Section 2: client variables (firm size, practice areas, jurisdictions, bar admissions, board certifications, advertising compliance state).
2. Section 3: YMYL-strict frame and four pillars.
3. Section 4: state bar rules and common-pattern matrix.
4. Section 5: schema graph (LegalService firm, Person per attorney with hasCredential).
5. Sections 6 through 8: practice areas, attorney bios, case results.
6. Section 9: local SEO (multi-office, practice plus city, Avvo and Justia citations).
7. Section 10: editorial program (blog vs FAQ vs practice area).
8. Section 11: review acquisition and response under bar rules.
9. Section 13: audit. Section 14: maintenance.

1.4 Conflict Resolution Rules

1.5 Required Tools and Validators

State bar attorney lookup per admitted state; ABA Model Rules; Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Martindale, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers consoles; Google Business Profile Manager per office; Whitespark or BrightLocal for citations; Local Falcon for proximity rank tracking; Schema Markup Validator and Google Rich Results Test for LegalService, Person, ProfilePage, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList; CourtListener or PACER for case-results substantiation; Ahrefs or Semrush for competitor analysis; versioned ethics checklist signed off by firm general counsel before publication.

1.6 Scope and Boundaries

Covers organic search and YMYL trust posture for legal businesses. Does not cover paid spend allocation, lead-buying beyond citation value, case-management software integration, expert-witness marketing. For underlying principles see framework-contentfirst.md, framework-hcs.md, framework-eeat.md, framework-ymyl.md. For trust signaling see framework-trustsignals.md. For local see framework-localseo.md.

2. Client Variables Intake

# LEGAL SEO CLIENT VARIABLES

# Firm
firm_name: ""
firm_dba: []
primary_domain: ""
firm_type: ""              # solo | small_2_5 | mid_6_50 | regional | biglaw | legal_aid | nonprofit | info_site
firm_size_attorneys: 0
firm_size_staff: 0
home_jurisdiction_state: ""

# Practice
practice_areas: []         # personal_injury, criminal_defense, family, immigration, estate,
                           # business, employment, tax, bankruptcy, real_estate, ip,
                           # workers_comp, ssd, mass_tort, civil_rights, appellate, dui
primary_practice_area: ""
secondary_practice_areas: []

# Jurisdictions
states_admitted: []
federal_courts_admitted: []
states_marketed: []
states_served_via_co_counsel: []
upl_risk_states: []

# Per attorney
attorneys:
  - full_name: ""
    title: ""
    bar_admissions:        # [{state, bar_number, admission_date, status, verification_url}]
      - {state: "", bar_number: "", admission_date: "", status: "", verification_url: ""}
    board_certifications: []  # only genuine; certifying body required
    education: []          # [{degree, institution, year}]
    practice_areas: []
    languages_spoken: []
    years_practicing: 0
    publications: []
    awards: []             # only with disclosable methodology
    sameAs_profiles: []    # Avvo, Justia, Martindale, state bar, LinkedIn
    photo_url: ""
    headshot_consent_on_file: false

# Compliance state
fee_model: ""              # hourly | flat | contingency | hybrid | mixed
contingency_states_advertised: []
no_recovery_no_fee_messaging_used: false
costs_passed_to_client_in_loss: false
fee_comparisons_in_existing_copy: false
specialist_claims_present: false
past_results_pages_present: false
testimonial_pages_present: false
disclaimer_audit_completed: false
ethics_partner_sign_off_date: ""

# Offices
offices:
  - {office_name: "", address: "", city: "", state: "", postal_code: "",
     phone: "", hours: "", intake_routing: "",
     gbp_listing_id: "", gbp_verification_status: "", attorneys_seated_here: []}

# Surface inventory
practice_area_pages: 0
attorney_bio_pages: 0
location_pages: 0
case_results_pages: 0
faq_pages: 0
blog_post_count: 0
blog_publish_rate_per_month: 0
total_pages_indexed: 0

# Directory presence
avvo_profiles_per_attorney: 0
justia_listings: 0
findlaw_listing: false
martindale_listing: false
super_lawyers_listings: 0
best_lawyers_listings: 0
state_bar_listing_complete: false
chambers_listing: false
legal_500_listing: false

# Schema coverage
schema_legalservice: false
schema_person_per_attorney: false
schema_hascredential: false
schema_profilepage: false
schema_faqpage_practice_areas: false
schema_breadcrumblist: false
schema_aggregaterating_verifiable: false

# Tracking
intake_channels: []        # phone, form, chat, walk_in, email
phone_tracking_provider: ""  # CallRail, CallTrackingMetrics, WhatConverts
ga4_property_id: ""
gtm_container_id: ""
case_management_system: ""   # Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, Filevine, SmartAdvocate
crm_first_touch_attribution: false

# Compliance reviewer
internal_review_owner: ""
review_cadence: ""         # quarterly | semiannual | annual | event_driven
last_full_review_date: ""

# Risk flags (populate during audit)
risk_flags:
  specialist_claim: false
  fee_comparison: false
  guaranteed_outcome: false
  missing_past_results_disclaimer: false
  no_attorney_client_disclaimer: false
  fabricated_review: false
  attorney_not_admitted_in_marketed_state: false
  misleading_jurisdiction_claim: false

A field left blank during intake is an audit item. The risk_flag block populates as audit findings; any true value triggers a Section 12 anti-pattern remediation entry.

3. What Legal SEO Is

Legal SEO is the discipline of acquiring organic search visibility for a legal practice or legal information publisher under a regulated advertising regime that treats every meaningful page as YMYL. Four pillars.

3.1 The Four Pillars

Pillar 1, Authority and Credentialing. Every substantive page traces back to a credentialed human. Verification chain: on-page byline, Person schema with hasCredential, sameAs to state bar profile, external reinforcement through legal directories. Google's December 2025 core update (ALM Corp, 847 sites, 23 categories, December 2025) affected approximately 67 percent of YMYL content; legal sites without verifiable attorney authorship absorbed disproportionate losses.

Pillar 2, Compliance. State bar advertising rules govern every claim. ABA Model Rules 7.1 through 7.4 set the baseline (false/misleading; advertising; solicitation; specialization, integrated into 7.1/7.2 in the 2018 amendment but separate in most state books). Compliance is not solved by a footer disclaimer; it is solved by per-template rules.

Pillar 3, Local and Directory Authority. Five citations move the needle: Google Business Profile, Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Martindale Hubbell. The 2026 Legal AI Visibility Report (5W and Haute Lawyer Network, April 2026, query testing across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Mode) found that approximately seven directories own the AI citation layer for legal queries: Chambers, Legal 500, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Martindale, Avvo, Justia. State and local bar directories supply regulator-grade trust.

Pillar 4, Content Discipline. Four sub-formats: practice area pages (perennial, schema-rich), blog posts (timely, jurisdictional), FAQ (intent-anchored, AI-extractable), case results (numbers plus disclaimers). Not interchangeable.

3.2 Why Legal SEO Is Strict YMYL

Legal information directly affects user outcomes: liberty (criminal defense), money (personal injury, business, bankruptcy), family integrity (custody, divorce, immigration), life trajectory (estate planning, disability). Search Quality Rater Guidelines treat legal the same as medical and financial. The cost of failure: rank loss plus state bar discipline if content crosses the UPL line or makes a prohibited specialist claim.

3.3 What Legal SEO Is Not

Not local SEO with a JD slapped on top. Programmatic city templates rank legal sites into oblivion (thin-content suppression plus UPL appearance).

Not professional services SEO. Stricter trust posture, more specific schema, larger disclaimer surface, vertical-authority directory ecosystem.

Not blog-driven content marketing. Practice pages carry 40 to 60 percent of organic value; bios 15 to 25 percent; FAQ plus blog the rest. A firm with 200 blog posts and one practice page underperforms a firm with 5 deep practice pages and 30 blog posts.

3.4 The Legal SEO Decision Tree

Law firm or solo attorney?
  YES -> Full scope: practice area + attorney + case results + local + blog + FAQ
         Multi-office? YES -> metro hub + per-office page (Section 9)
                       NO  -> one canonical office page
  NO -> Legal information publisher (Nolo-style, blog-only)?
        YES -> Strict YMYL editorial; attorney byline per substantive page;
               no LegalService schema; Article + Person + WebSite + Organization
        NO -> Legal aid or nonprofit?
              YES -> LegalAid pattern: LegalService with NonprofitOrganization parent;
                     funding disclosure; service-area intake; no fee surface
              NO -> Lawyer referral or directory: combine framework-saas-seo.md
                    + framework-localseo.md + this document

4. State Bar Advertising Rules

State bar rules are the immovable constraint. The framework does not catalog all 50 states' rule texts; it specifies the common-pattern matrix that drives template-level rules. Home jurisdiction is baseline; the more restrictive applicable rule wins as safety override.

4.1 The Five Common Patterns

A, No false or misleading communications. ABA Model Rule 7.1 prohibits material misrepresentations or omissions that make the communication materially misleading. Adopted near-verbatim by 47 of 50 states plus DC (ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, state adoption tracker, 2025).

B, No specialist claim without certification. Lawyers may not claim to be a "specialist," to "specialize in," or to be an "expert" unless certified by a state-bar-approved or ABA-accredited body. Texas, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, California, and Ohio have explicit text; others absorb under Rule 7.1. The Florida Bar 2025 Handbook reserves "Board Certified" to attorneys certified by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education or an ABA-accredited equivalent, with a not-certified-by-Florida-Bar disclaimer where the certification is non-Florida.

C, Past results require a disclaimer. "Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome" is the New York standard (22 NYCRR 1200, Rule 7.1(e)(3)). Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and most states require equivalent disclaimers without prescribing text. Use NY phrasing as safe default.

D, No guarantee of outcome. "We will win," "you will recover at least $X," "100 percent success rate" are universally prohibited under Rule 7.1. Even "we get results" requires substantiation where interpreted as comparative.

E, Solicitation limits. Rule 7.3 prohibits live in-person and live telephone solicitation of non-lawyer, non-family, non-prior-client prospects. Written, recorded, or electronic communication is permitted with constraints (often an "Advertising Material" label). Most SEO surfaces are not Rule 7.3 solicitations; lead-magnet drips to past form-fill leads can cross over in some states.

4.2 The Jurisdictional Variance Matrix

Categories that drive per-state template differences:

Operational pattern: per-jurisdiction template config the CMS applies based on attorney admitted-state and firm primary jurisdiction. Generic content with no per-state guard is the path to discipline.

4.3 The Disclaimer Stack

Five layers, each tied to a page property:

1. Site footer: publisher, home jurisdiction, attorney advertising, no-attorney-client-relationship for browsing.
2. Practice area: names the practice and admitted jurisdictions; disclaims attorney-client from page reading.
3. Case results: prior-results clause, near the claim, not solely footer.
4. Attorney bio: specialist or certification claim co-located with certifying body plus not-certified-in-state-X where applicable.
5. Blog and FAQ: general information, not legal advice, not jurisdiction-specific unless explicitly scoped.

Each lives in a template partial. Editors do not author disclaimers per page; the template guarantees presence.

4.4 The Florida Test

Florida is the most restrictive useful test for template design. Satisfying Florida Bar Rule 4-7.11 through 4-7.23 plus the 2025 Handbook means likely (not guaranteed) compliance elsewhere. The reverse is not true. Design to ABA Model Rules; adapt to state rules.

4.5 Recent Rule Activity (2025-2026)

• Alabama Supreme Court adopted advertising amendments May 13, 2025, effective January 1, 2026 (Alabama State Bar guidance, May 2025).
• Florida Bar approved the 2025 Handbook (Standing Committee on Advertising) December 10, 2025.
• New York Administrative Board released proposed amendments to Rules 1.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 for public comment December 30, 2025.
• Pennsylvania Bar Association Formal Opinion 2025-100 (April 2025) reinforced written fee agreement requirements.
• Multiple state bars issued 2024-2025 AI advisories on AI-generated images, synthetic spokespeople, and AI-drafted ads.

The firm's ethics partner signs off at engagement start and re-signs annually or on material state amendment.

5. Attorney and Firm Schema

The schema graph is the single most impactful technical improvement for a legal site in 2026. Google deprecated Attorney rich-result enhancement in 2024; the current pattern is LegalService for the firm, Person per attorney with hasCredential, and ProfilePage wrapping the bio. Toppe Consulting (July 2025) and Pexnet (March 2026) converge on this stack.

5.1 Firm-Level Schema: LegalService

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LegalService",
  "@id": "https://www.example-law.com/#legalservice",
  "name": "Smith and Jones Law Firm",
  "legalName": "Smith and Jones, P.L.L.C.",
  "url": "https://www.example-law.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example-law.com/logo.png",
  "description": "Personal injury and wrongful death representation across Tennessee, with offices in Nashville and Knoxville.",
  "telephone": "+1-615-555-0100",
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "100 Main Street, Suite 200",
    "addressLocality": "Nashville", "addressRegion": "TN",
    "postalCode": "37201", "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": {"@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 36.1627, "longitude": -86.7816},
  "openingHoursSpecification": [{
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],
    "opens": "08:30", "closes": "17:30"
  }],
  "areaServed": [{"@type":"State","name":"Tennessee"}],
  "knowsAbout": ["Personal Injury Law", "Wrongful Death Law"],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/smithandjones.html",
    "https://lawyers.justia.com/lawfirm/smith-and-jones",
    "https://www.martindale.com/smith-and-jones-law"
  ],
  "employee": [{"@id": "https://www.example-law.com/attorneys/jane-smith/#person"}],
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.9", "reviewCount": "147", "bestRating": "5"
  }
}

Notes: @id lets per-page graphs reference the firm without duplication. priceRange uses a symbolic value, not dollars (Rule 7.1 risk). areaServed is geographic, not aspirational. aggregateRating must be verifiable (same-page reviews or third-party via sameAs); fabrication triggers FTC enforcement (October 21, 2024 final rule) and Google manual action. Multi-office: parent firm gets one LegalService node; each office gets a child node with its own address and phone.

5.2 Attorney Schema: Person with hasCredential

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "@id": "https://www.example-law.com/attorneys/jane-smith/#person",
  "name": "Jane Smith",
  "honorificSuffix": "Esq.",
  "jobTitle": "Founding Partner",
  "image": "https://www.example-law.com/attorneys/jane-smith.jpg",
  "telephone": "+1-615-555-0100",
  "worksFor": {"@id": "https://www.example-law.com/#legalservice"},
  "alumniOf": [{"@type": "CollegeOrUniversity", "name": "Vanderbilt University Law School"}],
  "hasCredential": [
    {
      "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
      "credentialCategory": "license",
      "recognizedBy": {"@type": "Organization", "name": "Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility", "url": "https://www.tbpr.org/"},
      "name": "Licensed Attorney, State of Tennessee",
      "identifier": "TN Bar No. 12345",
      "dateCreated": "2009-10-15",
      "url": "https://www.tbpr.org/attorney-lookup?barNumber=12345"
    },
    {
      "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
      "credentialCategory": "license",
      "name": "Admitted, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee",
      "dateCreated": "2010-03-22"
    },
    {"@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory": "degree", "name": "Juris Doctor", "dateCreated": "2009-05-15"}
  ],
  "knowsAbout": ["Personal Injury Law", "Wrongful Death Law"],
  "knowsLanguage": ["en", "es"],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.tbpr.org/attorney-lookup?barNumber=12345",
    "https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/jane-smith-tn.html",
    "https://lawyers.justia.com/lawyer/jane-smith",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/janesmithlaw"
  ]
}

Notes: hasCredential is machine-readable proof of bar admission (Subscribe PR legal schema markup guide, 2025; Pexnet March 2026 treat it as the differentiator between credible and non-credible attorney schema). identifier carries the bar number; url resolves to the public state bar lookup pre-populated. sameAs includes the state bar lookup URL even if also in hasCredential.url; duplication is acceptable, absence is the problem. knowsAbout is practice areas, not a specialist claim. One EducationalOccupationalCredential per bar admission, per federal admission, per degree.

5.3 ProfilePage Wrapper

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "ProfilePage",
  "mainEntity": {"@id": "https://www.example-law.com/attorneys/jane-smith/#person"},
  "dateCreated": "2018-03-01",
  "dateModified": "2026-04-15"
}

Aligns with Google's profile-page guidance (Search Central, updated 2025). Pair with BreadcrumbList at page level.

5.4 Five Schema Anti-Patterns

1. Deprecated Attorney type (migrate to Person).
2. aggregateRating without verifiable source.
3. areaServed for jurisdictions with no admitted attorney.
4. Practice areas overstuffed in knowsAbout (dilutes entity salience; see framework-entitysalience.md).
5. Fee figures in schema (Rule 7.1 interpretation risk; use symbolic priceRange).

6. Practice Area Pages

Practice area pages are the highest-value perennial surface on a working firm site, typically carrying 40 to 60 percent of organic traffic and conversion. Not blog posts. Not service descriptions. The canonical answer to "what is X law and what does this firm do in X law in this jurisdiction."

6.1 The Canonical Practice Area Page Pattern

Eight-section template:

1. Definition and scope: what the area is, what cases fall under it, boundaries. Non-lawyer readable.
2. When to hire: triggering events, statute of limitations, severity thresholds.
3. What the firm does: services, phases, typical timelines.
4. Fee structure: contingency/hourly/flat/hybrid; consultation cost; cost-responsibility clause where no-recovery-no-fee messaging is used.
5. Results framing (not promises): historical outcome ranges with prior-results disclaimer co-located.
6. Jurisdictions covered: explicit list of states, counties, federal courts; explicit non-coverage where relevant.
7. Attorneys who handle this practice: linked to bios with byline-level visibility.
8. Local FAQ (5 to 10 questions): SoL, what to bring, contested-liability scenarios, etc.

Word count: 1,800 to 3,500. Below 1,200 reads thin; above 4,500 loses information-gain density.

6.2 Practice Area Schema Pattern

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Service",
  "serviceType": "Personal Injury Legal Representation",
  "provider": {"@id": "https://www.example-law.com/#legalservice"},
  "areaServed": [{"@type":"State","name":"Tennessee"}],
  "category": "Personal Injury Law",
  "description": "Representation for motor vehicle, premises liability, and wrongful death matters across Tennessee.",
  "hasOfferCatalog": {
    "@type": "OfferCatalog",
    "name": "Personal Injury Practice",
    "itemListElement": [
      {"@type": "OfferCatalogItem", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Motor Vehicle Accident Representation"}},
      {"@type": "OfferCatalogItem", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Premises Liability Representation"}}
    ]
  }
}
</script>

Add co-located FAQPage and BreadcrumbList. Reference parent LegalService by @id, do not duplicate.

6.3 The Practice Area Page Header

Above the fold:

• H1 with practice area and jurisdiction ("Personal Injury Lawyers in Nashville, Tennessee").
• Subheading naming the firm and years in practice in that area.
• Visible attribution: "Reviewed by Jane Smith, Esq., Founding Partner, Tennessee Bar No. 12345" linked to bio.
• Jurisdictional scope sentence.

Byline placement matters: Lexicon Legal Content (attorney-written content AI advantage analysis, 2025) noted that AI extractors look for author attribution early; under-the-fold bylines are missed.

6.4 Multi-Jurisdiction Practice Pattern

State-specific law (SoL, comparative fault, damage caps) varies. Two patterns:

Pattern A, Hub plus per-state subpages. /personal-injury/ is the hub; /personal-injury/tennessee/, /personal-injury/georgia/ carry state-specific statute and rule content. Recommended for any firm in 4+ states.

Pattern B, Single page with per-jurisdiction sections. Works only for 2 to 3 contiguous states with similar statutes.

Never publish a practice page listing ten states in areaServed without per-state content. The signal to search engines is doorway; the signal to a state bar is plausible UPL.

6.5 Statute of Limitations Discipline

Practice areas with SoL exposure (personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, contract, employment) carry the SoL in the jurisdiction-specific section. Best Lawyers (evergreen guidance, 2025) and Justia Onward (May 2025) flag SoL queries as top-cluster converters. Rule: state the limit, name the state, link the statute citation, date the citation, include "general information; case-specific facts may shorten or extend." Never publish a statute without citation.

7. Attorney Profile Pages

Attorney profiles carry 15 to 25 percent of organic traffic and substantially more on direct-search queries. They are the credibility anchor for every other page and the primary surface for AI extraction of authorship signals.

7.1 Required Profile Elements

Per Pexnet (March 2026 schema update), Subscribe PR (legal schema markup guide, 2025), Lexicon Legal Content (E-E-A-T analysis, 2025):

7.2 Awards and Methodology

Awards must comply with Rule 7.1. "Super Lawyers Rising Stars 2023" without methodology is acceptable in some states and a misleading-communication violation in others (NV historic restrictions; NJ comparative-statement guidance; FL Bar 2025 Handbook addresses it). Safe pattern: per-award footnote or modal with certifying body and methodology statement.

7.3 Specialty Areas

Board-certified attorneys may state "Board Certified in [Area]" with certifying body named. Otherwise the bio may name practice areas (knowsAbout) but must not use "specialist," "specializing in," or "expert in." Subject-matter language ("focuses practice on," "represents clients in," "handles matters involving") is fine.

7.4 The Profile Page Template

1. Header: name, suffix, title, headshot, summary, phone, email.
2. Practice: 3-5 practice areas, linked.
3. Credentials: bar admissions table, federal admissions, degrees.
4. Experience: years practicing, notable matters (with disclaimer if quantified).
5. Recognition: awards with methodology, publications, speaking.
6. Community: bar association involvement, pro bono.
7. Connect: LinkedIn, state bar, Avvo, Justia, Martindale; sameAs parity.
8. Disclaimer: "Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome" plus jurisdiction.

7.5 Bio Update Cadence

Update on event (new admission, award, publication, position) or quarterly, whichever sooner. Use dateModified on ProfilePage honestly; falsified dateModified is a Helpful Content Update suppression trigger per framework-hcs.md.

8. Case Results and Disclaimers

High trust, high risk. Converts (evidence of competence) and regulates (most state bars require disclaimers; some restrict the surface entirely).

8.1 The Past Results Disclaimer

Minimum text on every case results page, every individual result widget, and any home-page module with result figures:

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information on this page is a general overview of the firm's prior matters and is not a prediction or guarantee of similar results in any future matter. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts and applicable law.

Source: New York Rules of Professional Conduct 22 NYCRR 1200, Rule 7.1(e)(3), supplied as defensible default. North Carolina and Alabama (2025 amendments) require equivalent disclaimers without prescribed wording.

Placement (Florida Bar 2025 Handbook): "clear and conspicuous" and "reasonably near" the claim it modifies. Footer-only is not enough.

8.2 What a Case Result Should Contain

Include: practice area; case type; jurisdiction; outcome (settlement or verdict amount); brief narrative without identifying details; attorney(s) of record; year; the disclaimer.

Exclude: client's name (absent written consent and Rule 1.6 analysis); identifying details that violate confidentiality; competitor-outcome comparisons; methodology statements implying guaranteed-similar outcomes.

8.3 Case Result Schema Considerations

No CaseResult type exists. Use Article or CreativeWork with about linking to the practice area; supplies parsing structure for AI extraction without rich-result amplification. Do not use Review for case results (carries an author rating the firm; a case result is the firm describing its own work; triggers fabricated-review concerns). Do not embed monetary values that create fee or settlement comparisons.

8.4 Where Case Results Live

• Pattern A, dedicated section (/results/) with 20 to 100 entries filterable by practice. Best for personal injury, mass tort, class action.
• Pattern B, practice page sidebar with 3 to 5 featured results. Best for general practice or limited inventory.
• Pattern C, quiet results in narrative within bios and practice pages. Best for transactional firms (estate, business formation, immigration).

Every pattern carries the disclaimer.

8.5 The Confidentiality Trap

Many settlements have confidentiality clauses. Publishing amount, party, or facts without consent risks breach. Pattern: secure written consent at closing; default to no-publish absent consent; redact identifying details even with consent; firm general counsel reviews each entry pre-publication.

9. Legal Local SEO

Legal practice is geographically constrained by bar admission and venue. Local SEO for legal is stricter than for restaurants or contractors. The framework specifies operation within constraints without falling into the doorway-page trap.

9.1 The Office Architecture Rule

One Google Business Profile per staffed office. One corresponding office page. The page targets city intent for the practices served by attorneys based there. Per Justia Onward (law firm SEO fundamentals, May 2025) and 9Sail (enterprise legal SEO, 2025), this is the only structure that survives both spam-policy scrutiny and Local Pack ranking.

• Single-office firm: one office page (often the home page), one GBP, one canonical NAP.
• Multi-office firm: per-office page plus /locations/ hub; one GBP per office with distinct phone, address, hours.
• Virtual or mail-only second address: no GBP (Google prohibits GBP for unstaffed addresses), no separate office page.

9.2 The Practice plus City Page Decision

The single most common legal SEO mistake (Section 12 anti-pattern 5): /personal-injury-lawyer-[city]/ doorway pages for every metro suburb. Rule:

• Firm has an attorney physically based in the city serving that practice there: page justified.
• Firm serves from a nearby office: build only with materially unique local content (courthouse, ordinance, local intake notes, named local attorneys).
• Neither: do not build. Target the query through the metro office page.

Viable cap (9Sail, Custom Legal Marketing, JurisProspect, 2025): roughly one practice-plus-city page per office per primary practice plus optional county pages. A two-office three-practice firm: roughly 6 to 12 practice-plus-city pages, not 60.

9.3 The Avvo, Justia, Martindale Citation Pattern

Legal-vertical authority sources, not generic directories. The 2026 Legal AI Visibility Report (5W and Haute Lawyer Network, April 2026) documented that AI legal queries pull from approximately seven directories (Chambers, Legal 500, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Martindale, Avvo, Justia). Per platform:

• Avvo: claim each profile, complete every field, solicit reviews under platform and state-bar rules, sameAs from firm schema.
• Justia: claim firm listing and per-attorney profile (free tier provides organic authority benefit); sameAs from firm schema.
• Martindale: claim each profile; update credentials. Peer Review Ratings (AV, BV, distinguished) for business-development credibility.
• State bar profile: verify public fields; link from hasCredential.url and sameAs.

Tier-2: FindLaw (Thomson Reuters successor), Lawyers.com, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Chambers USA. Listings yes; obsession no.

9.4 Google Business Profile Specifics

Primary category: Law firm. Secondary categories: practice-specific (Personal injury attorney, Criminal justice attorney, Family law attorney). Service items: practice areas with short descriptions. Attributes: "Online consultations" and "Free consultation" if true; language attributes for intake routing. Q&A: monitor and seed with 3 to 7 common intake questions; firm-authored answers under Rule 7.1. Posts: case results (with disclaimer), educational content, firm events. Each post is attorney advertising; same compliance rules apply.

9.5 County and Courthouse Content

For practices where a specific court matters (DUI, traffic, criminal defense, family court), publish a county or courthouse page: location, hours, parking; the bench; common procedural patterns; firm experience there; disclaimers. Durable surface that adds local substance unavailable on generic city pages. Justia Onward (2025 SEO trends; AI-proofing guidance December 2025) treats courthouse and county content as a high-leverage surface.

10. Legal Content Strategy

Four sub-formats with distinct authoring, schema, and lifecycle rules.

10.1 The Four Surfaces

10.2 Topical Pillars by Practice Area

Editorial program builds a topical cluster anchored on the practice page. Example, personal injury in Tennessee:

• Statute of limitations for personal injury in Tennessee.
• What to do immediately after a car accident in Tennessee.
• How to read a Tennessee insurance settlement offer.
• Tennessee comparative fault rules and recovery.
• Tennessee wrongful death claims, who can file.
• Medical malpractice deadlines under Tenn. Code Ann. section 29-26.

Each post attorney-authored or attorney-reviewed, byline above the fold, dated, refreshed on statute change.

10.3 Blog vs FAQ vs Practice Area

• Blog post: specific question or recent development; publish date and revision history; /blog/{slug}/; byline; Article or BlogPosting schema.
• FAQ entry: recurring intake question; on practice page or dedicated /faq/; FAQPage schema; 50 to 200 words per Q and A.
• Practice area page: canonical hub; Service schema; aggregates internal links.

The error: publishing a blog post that should have been an FAQ entry or a practice page that reads like a blog. Mixing confuses crawlers and AI extractors.

10.4 SoL Content Discipline

Statutes change. Content citing a SoL must cite the statute number and section, date the verification year, note that facts may shorten or extend the period, and subscribe to a refresh trigger on amendment. Best Lawyers (evergreen content analysis, 2025) and Legal Brand Marketing (evergreen-content study, 2025) measured a 65 percent traffic-retention advantage for evergreen legal content versus time-sensitive in their tracked cohort.

10.5 AI Content Discipline

Per ALM Corp (December 2025 core update, 847 sites): 85 to 95 percent copy-paste AI content lost traffic; lightly-edited dropped 60 to 80 percent. Legal compounds the trap: Stanford HAI (2024) found Lexis+ AI hallucinating on 17 percent of queries and Westlaw AI-Assisted Research on 33 percent. Rule: attorneys author or substantively rewrite; AI is research aid only; cite every statute, regulation, case by primary source and verify it exists; credentialed reviewer signs off pre-publish. Multiple state bars issued 2024-2025 advisories on synthetic spokespersons, AI-generated attorney images, and AI-cloned voices.

10.6 Attorney Byline as Information Gain

Per framework-infogain.md, the highest information-gain signal in legal is jurisdictional specificity only a credentialed local attorney can produce: county intake notes, the judge's scheduling preferences, local bar procedural quirks, how a specific insurer values claims in this venue. Generic legal information is everywhere; verified-bar-member jurisdictional voice is the differentiator.

11. Legal Reviews and Reputation

Reviews drive legal intake under the strictest review-management constraints of any vertical because Rule 1.6 limits what an attorney may say about a former client even responding to a public negative review.

11.1 The Confidentiality Constraint

Rule 1.6 prohibits revealing information related to representation absent consent, implied authorization, or a specific exception. The Rule 1.6(b)(5) self-defense exception is interpreted narrowly for online reviews (ABA Journal coverage; NYSBA Ethics Opinion 1286, 2024-2025). Safe response: (1) acknowledge by first name; (2) express willingness to address concerns; (3) provide a direct contact; (4) stop. No facts about representation, no defensive explanations, no case outcomes, no contradictions.

11.2 Soliciting Reviews

Per ABA Model Rule 7.2 and state analogs: a lawyer may ask a former client for a review; may not pay (some state opinions permit a nominal non-conditional gift; NY Ethics Opinion 1286 conditional language); may not draft the review or condition gift on review content; may not solicit current clients where judgment could be biased; may not request on platforms whose terms prohibit incentives.

11.3 Google Review Acquisition

Google's 2025 policy tightening (rolled out from early 2025) prohibits incentivized reviews, AI-generated reviews, and kiosk-style on-premises collection (the lobby tablet pattern). Per SMB Team (2025) and Thunderhead Marketing (review-management coverage, 2025), compliant pattern: send after matter closes; via private channel (email or SMS); include the Google review link without rating preconditions; offer no compensation; maintain a request record.

11.4 Avvo, Justia, Martindale

Avvo permits client and peer reviews, subject to platform moderation. Justia permits client reviews under its terms. Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Ratings are credential-based and not equivalent to consumer reviews. Solicit on whichever platforms the home state bar permits and clients will use; concentration is fragile, spread is durable.

11.5 The AggregateRating Honesty Rule

aggregateRating on LegalService must reflect verifiable public reviews. Two valid sources: reviews on the same page (visible count matches reviewCount), or a third-party platform cited via sameAs (Google, Avvo) with values matching in real time. Fabrication triggers FTC enforcement (Final Rule on Reviews, October 21, 2024), Google manual action, and Rule 7.1 violation.

11.6 Negative Review Response Template

[First Name],

Thank you for sharing your experience. Client concerns are important
to our firm, and we want to address yours directly.

Please contact us at [PHONE] or [EMAIL] to speak in a confidential
setting.

Sincerely,
[Firm Name]

The entire response. More risks Rule 1.6 breach or Rule 7.1 violation.

11.7 Monitoring

Daily monitoring of GBP, Avvo, Justia, Martindale, Yelp, Bing Places, social. Software: Birdeye, Podium, Grade.us, Reviews.io, ReviewInc. Manual via platform notifications works for low-volume firms. Per framework-localseo.md Section 6.

12. Common Legal SEO Mistakes

Recurring anti-patterns that continue to appear on otherwise-competent firm sites in 2026.

12.1 The Top Ten

1. Specialist claims without certification. "Personal injury specialist" or "specializing in family law" without state-bar-approved or ABA-accredited certification. Violates Rule 7.4 analogs. Fix: "represents clients in personal injury" or "focuses practice on family law."

2. Missing past-results disclaimers. Case results, settlement banners, bios with dollar figures and no disclaimer. Fix: install NY-standard disclaimer clear-and-conspicuous near each claim.

3. Fee comparisons. "Lowest fees in state," "most affordable," "best value lawyer." Violates Rule 7.1 (cannot substantiate). Fix: describe fee model (contingency, hourly, flat) without comparison.

4. Guaranteed outcomes. "We win," "100 percent success rate," "you will recover at least X." Fix: strike. Even "we get results" requires substantiation.

5. Practice plus city doorway pages at scale. 30 to 200 pages of /[practice]-lawyer-[city]/ swapping only the city name. Fix: collapse to one practice-plus-metro page per office plus county or courthouse pages with genuine local substance.

6. Listing jurisdictions where no attorney is admitted. areaServed or copy claiming representation in states without admitted firm attorneys. UPL exposure. Fix: remove; scope co-counsel language accordingly.

7. Deprecated Attorney schema type. Persists in older WordPress plugins. Google removed rich-result eligibility. Fix: migrate to Person with hasCredential.

8. Fabricated aggregateRating. Schema asserts 4.9 over 250 where the visible count is 3 and Google count is 12. FTC and Rule 7.1 violation. Fix: tie to a verifiable source.

9. Attorney bios without bar details. "Experienced personal injury lawyer" with no JD, bar number, admission date, or verification link. Fails E-E-A-T, AI extraction, user trust. Fix: install full credentials block with hasCredential and sameAs.

10. AI-generated content without attorney rewrite or review. ALM Corp December 2025 analysis: 85 to 95 percent copy-paste AI lost traffic; 60 to 80 percent lightly-edited. Compounds with legal hallucination (Stanford HAI 2024: 17 percent Lexis+ AI, 33 percent Westlaw AI-Assisted Research). Fix: attorney authorship or substantive rewrite plus credentialed review.

12.2 Secondary Patterns

Trade names implying specialty; embedded fee tables or settlement sliders without proportionate disclaimer; "free legal advice" framing (UPL risk) versus "free case evaluation"; email drip campaigns crossing into Rule 7.3 solicitation; testimonials with full client names absent consent; rotating settlement banners without per-rotation disclaimer; bios claiming unfiled federal admissions; GBPs claiming staffed status for virtual offices.

12.3 Compliance Reviewer Workflow

Author drafts; compliance reviewer (general counsel, ethics partner, or external compliance attorney) checks per-state checklist; marketing confirms disclaimers, schema, template guards; publish. Time: 15 to 45 minutes per routine page; longer for case results and contingency-fee copy. Cost of skipping: bar discipline plus rebuilding rank after YMYL suppression.

13. Audit Rubric

Three audits: per-page, site-wide, and first 90 days. Identical structural pattern to the SaaS framework; calibrated for the legal-specific surfaces.

13.1 Per-Page Audit

Applied per practice page, attorney profile, high-traffic blog or FAQ entry.

13.2 Site-Wide Audit

Target: 23+ for established firms; 19+ acceptable mid-remediation.

13.3 First 90 Days

If a site cannot reach F1 through F5 in 90 days, the engagement is misallocated.

13.4 The Compliance Risk Score

Risk Score = 100 - (5 * specialist + 5 * fee_comparison
                  + 8 * guaranteed_outcome + 4 * missing_disclaimer_pages
                  + 3 * missing_hascredential + 2 * deprecated_schema_pages)
Floor: 0

Below 70: remediation engagement required before growth work.
70 to 85: growth work permitted alongside remediation.
85+: growth work primary, compliance ongoing.

14. Maintenance Schedule and Report Templates

14.1 Maintenance Cadence

daily:     review monitoring (Google, Avvo, Justia, social); GBP engagement
weekly:    GBP post; ranking check on top 10 practice plus city; review responses
monthly:   1-3 new blog posts; bio review; NAP spot check; case result if matter closed
quarterly: practice page refresh; schema validation; directory sync; compliance walkthrough; report
annually:  full ethics review; disclaimer stack revisit; statute citation audit; bar status verification
event_driven:
  state bar rule amendment       -> refresh templates
  new admission                  -> bio + schema + directories
  attorney departure             -> graceful removal, redirect to hub
  material verdict or settlement -> publish with consent and disclaimer
  new office                     -> full local install

14.2 Install Report Template

# Legal SEO Installation Report
Firm: {{FIRM}} | Domain: {{DOMAIN}} | Date: {{DATE}}
Home jurisdiction: {{STATE}} | Attorneys: {{N}} | Offices: {{N}}

Schema: LegalService {{Y/N}}, Person {{N}}/{{TOTAL}}, hasCredential {{Y/N}}, ProfilePage {{Y/N}}, FAQPage {{Y/N}}
Directories: Avvo {{N}}/{{N}}, Justia {{Y/N}}, Martindale {{N}}/{{N}}, state bar {{N}}/{{N}}, FindLaw {{Y/N}}
Practice pages: {{N}}, per-state sub-pages {{N}}
Attorney bios: {{N}}, with hasCredential {{N}}, sameAs to bar {{N}}
Case results: {{N}} entries, disclaimer per entry {{Y/N}}
Disclaimer stack: footer {{Y/N}}, practice {{Y/N}}, results {{Y/N}}, bio {{Y/N}}, blog {{Y/N}}
Local: GBPs {{N}}/{{STAFFED}}, NAP consistency {{PCT}}
Greps cleaned: specialist {{N}}, fee comparison {{N}}, guaranteed outcome {{N}}
Compliance Risk Score: {{SCORE}}/100
Installer: {{NAME}} | Compliance reviewer: {{NAME}} | Sign-off: {{DATE}}

14.3 Audit Report Template

# Legal SEO Audit Report
Firm: {{FIRM}} | Domain: {{DOMAIN}} | Date: {{DATE}}

Executive: {{ONE_PARAGRAPH}}
Scores: per-page {{X}}/15 | site-wide {{X}}/25 | first 90 days {{X}}/5
Compliance Risk Score: {{SCORE}}/100

Surface inventory: practice pages {{N}}/{{TARGET}}, bios {{N}}/{{TARGET}}, results {{N}}, blog {{N}}, FAQ {{N}}, locations {{N}}.

Compliance findings: specialist {{N}}, fee comparison {{N}}, guaranteed outcome {{N}},
  missing past-results disclaimer {{N}}, missing no-attorney-client disclaimer {{N}},
  deprecated Attorney schema {{N}}, fabricated aggregateRating {{Y/N}},
  jurisdictions without admitted attorney {{N}}.

Schema: LegalService {{Y/N}}, Person {{N}}/{{TOTAL}}, hasCredential {{N}}/{{TOTAL}}.
Directory gaps: Avvo {{N}}, Justia {{N}}, Martindale {{N}}, state bar {{N}}.

Critical failures (First 90 Days): {{LIST}}
High-priority remediation: {{LIST_WITH_TIMELINE}}
Estimated effort: {{HOURS}}
Recommended cadence: {{MAINTENANCE_PLAN}}

Auditor: {{NAME}} | Compliance reviewer: {{NAME}} | Sign-off: {{DATE}}

14.4 Quarterly Report Template

# Legal SEO Quarterly Report
Firm: {{FIRM}} | Quarter: {{Q}} | Date: {{DATE}}

Executive: organic sessions {{X}} ({{YoY%}}), intake submissions {{X}} ({{CVR%}}),
  signed cases attributed to organic {{X}}, revenue {{$}}.

Surface performance: practice pages, bios, results, blog, FAQ, locations (sessions, conv, CVR each).
Top 5 practice pages by traffic; top 3 bios by direct-search traffic.
Local: GBP impressions per office, local pack ranking per practice plus city, reviews per platform.
Schema health: validation results, hasCredential coverage.
Directory: Avvo, Justia, Martindale, state bar status.
AI citation share: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overview on top 10 practice queries.
Compliance: new rule activity, disclaimer review status, ethics signoff date.
Q+1 plan: {{INITIATIVES}} | Sign-off: {{DATE}}

14.5 Server and Code Path Convention

Site root /var/www/sites/{firm-domain}/; source /src/; build /dist/ or /public/. Nginx vhost /etc/nginx/sites-available/{firm-domain} symlinked to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/. Self-hosted on Bubbles or Debian; no third-party CDN. Build scripts are bash. Practice page templating, bio templating, schema generation, and disclaimer-stack injection run under bash with the firm's chosen SSG (Hugo, 11ty, Astro, Next.js export). Python is not used for HTML rendering.

Bash audit grep for the three highest-risk patterns:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
SITE_ROOT="/var/www/sites/${FIRM_DOMAIN}/src"
echo "Specialist claim audit:"
grep -rniE "specialist|specializ(e|ing|ation)|expert in" "$SITE_ROOT" \
  --include="*.md" --include="*.html" --include="*.njk" --include="*.astro" \
  | grep -v "Board Certified"
echo "Fee comparison audit:"
grep -rniE "lowest fee|cheapest|most affordable|best price|lowest price" "$SITE_ROOT" \
  --include="*.md" --include="*.html" --include="*.njk" --include="*.astro"
echo "Guaranteed outcome audit:"
grep -rniE "we will win|100% success|guaranteed (recovery|outcome|win)|always recover" "$SITE_ROOT" \
  --include="*.md" --include="*.html" --include="*.njk" --include="*.astro"

Run pre-publish and as a CI step. Non-zero counts gate publish.

End of Framework Document

v1.0 | 2026-05-14 | ThatDeveloperGuy

Legal SEO is YMYL operationalized for a regulated advertising regime. Three durable levers: credentialed authorship (Pillar 1), schema graphs anchored on LegalService and Person with hasCredential (Section 5), and the per-state disclaimer stack (Section 4.3). Three durable risks: specialist claims without certification, missing past-results disclaimers, and AI-generated content presented as attorney work product.

Single most reliable 2026 improvement for a legal client: migrate to a Person-with-hasCredential schema graph with sameAs to every state bar profile plus Avvo, Justia, and Martindale; install the per-template disclaimer stack; remove every specialist claim not backed by state-bar-approved or ABA-accredited certification. Second: build real practice area pages (Section 6) instead of treating blog posts as the primary surface. Third: participate in the directory ecosystem that owns the AI citation layer (Avvo, Justia, Martindale, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, state bar listings). The 2026 Legal AI Visibility Report (5W and Haute Lawyer Network, April 2026) documented that approximately seven directories own the AI citation layer for legal queries; sites without coordinated presence are invisible at the AI surface regardless of on-site quality.

Companions:

• Foundational: framework-contentfirst.md, framework-hcs.md, framework-infogain.md, framework-eeat.md, framework-ymyl.md
• Schema and entity: framework-schema.md, framework-entitysalience.md, framework-knowledgegraph.md
• Local: framework-localseo.md, framework-internallinking.md
• AI surface: framework-aicitations.md, framework-aioverviews.md
• Trust and durability: framework-trustsignals.md, framework-sqrg.md, framework-coreupdates.md
• Stack: framework-cross-stack-implementation.md, framework-react.md, framework-tailwind.md, framework-nextjs.md, framework-astrohugo.md
• Engagement and reporting: framework-clientonboarding.md, framework-ga4.md, framework-gscanalysis.md, framework-reporting.md
• SERP: SEO-Search-Appearance.md, SERP-Optimization.md
• Scheduled (Phase 2 batch): framework-healthcare-seo.md, framework-finance-seo.md, framework-realestate-seo.md

Slots into the engine optimization stack as the vertical specialization for legal engagements alongside e-commerce, local, SaaS, news, and forthcoming healthcare, finance, and real estate verticals.

From the ThatDevPro Engine Optimization framework library. Studio: ThatDevPro (SDVOSB veteran-owned web + AI engineering). Sister property: ThatDeveloperGuy. Source: https://www.thatdevpro.com/insights/framework-legal-seo/.