AI assistants name the firms they can match to the exact matter in the prompt and then confirm through outside sources. Most firm websites describe the firm, not the matter, so there is nothing to quote. Fix the practice-area page first, then the outside profiles AI checks.
Google’s guide to optimizing for generative AI features, announced on May 15, 2026, says there is no special markup or AI file needed to appear. It rewards the same helpful, crawlable pages as regular search. And as of August 31, 2026, Search Console’s Generative AI performance report is available to all sites, so you can see whether your pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode at all.
Ask the Question Your Client Would Ask
Nobody in the middle of a legal problem types “best lawyer near me” and stops there. They describe what happened. Here is what that looks like in three practice areas:
- Personal injury“I was rear-ended on my way to work and the other driver’s insurance company already called me. Do I need a lawyer in [city], and who handles car accidents?”
- Family law“I want to file for divorce in [county]. We have two kids and own a house together. Which lawyers near me handle custody, and do any offer a free consultation?”
- Criminal defense“I was arrested for a first-offense DUI last night in [city]. Who should I call today, and what happens at the first court date?”
Each prompt names a matter, a place and a deadline the person is worried about. To be named, your firm needs a page that answers all three plainly.
Place matters more than most firms expect. OpenAI’s help page on ChatGPT search says ChatGPT may estimate a general location from the user’s IP address and rewrite a prompt into targeted search queries, for example turning “good restaurants near me” into “top restaurants San Francisco.” If your practice page never says which city or county you serve, that rewritten query has nothing on your page to match.
We are not showing a sample AI answer here on purpose. Answers change by person, place and day, and a made-up screenshot would teach you nothing. Run these prompts yourself for your own practice areas and city, and write down who gets named.
Before: The Practice Page AI Skips
This is a composite we wrote to show a pattern we see on firm websites. It is not a real firm.
For over 25 years, [Firm Name] has fought tirelessly for the injured. Our award-winning attorneys have been recognized by [legal directory] and named to [ranking list]. We are aggressive advocates who never back down. If you have been hurt, you deserve the best. Call today.
Set that block next to the personal injury prompt above and nothing lines up:
- It opens with the firm, not the reader’s situation. The prompt is about a rear-end crash and an insurance call. The page is about the firm’s history.
- No place. The prompt includes a city. The page names none.
- No answer to “do I need a lawyer.” There is nothing about who the firm helps or when to call.
- No word on fees. Cost is one of the first things people want to know, and the page skips it.
- Claims nobody can check. “The best” and “never back down” give an assistant nothing to confirm, and comparative or superlative claims are what bar advertising rules scrutinize.
After: The Version AI Can Quote
Same firm, same practice area, rewritten to answer the client’s question. The brackets are where your real details go.
Who we help. People hurt in a crash in [County] or [County] when another driver may be at fault, including passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. If the other driver’s insurance company has already called, you can tell them a lawyer will be in touch before you give any recorded statement.
What happens in the first week. We get the police report, send the insurers a letter so they contact us instead of you, and ask you to keep every medical bill and photo. [State] sets a deadline to file an injury claim. We tell you on the first call where you stand against it.
How fees work. We work on contingency. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover money for you, and the percentage is written in the agreement you sign before we start. We explain case costs in that same agreement.
Who answers. A paralegal answers [hours]. An attorney calls you back [same day / next business day].
[Your state’s required advertising disclaimer stays here, for example that past results do not guarantee a future outcome.]
| What changed | Why the client cares | Why an assistant can use it |
|---|---|---|
| Heading names the matter and the counties | They know right away this page is about their problem, where they live | Matches a prompt that names a crash and a place |
| “Who we help” replaces the firm history | Answers “is my situation a case?” before they call | A plain sentence it can quote for “do I need a lawyer” |
| First week laid out | Takes the fear out of the first call | Answers the “what happens next” follow-up |
| Fees in plain words | Removes the most common reason people wait | Answers “free consultation” and “how much does it cost” prompts |
| Who answers the phone, and when | Sets an expectation the firm can keep | Concrete detail instead of “call today” |
| Awards, “best” and “aggressive” removed | Nothing lost; they were not answering anything | Fewer claims it cannot verify |
Two cautions. First, legal advertising rules still apply to every word. ABA Model Rule 7.1 bars any false or misleading communication about a lawyer’s services, and your state’s version may add its own disclaimer and wording requirements. Promise process, never outcomes, and have the responsible attorney approve the copy. Second, this is a rewrite for the client, not for a machine. Google’s guide says you do not need to write in a special way for AI search. A page that answers the client’s actual question is the page AI tools can use.
Where AI Checks You Outside Your Site
Your website is one source. Google’s guide says Google Business Profile details can help local businesses show up in AI responses, and OpenAI says ChatGPT may share a general location with third-party providers to get local information such as nearby business listings. Other sources a client or an assistant can find include legal directories and review sites. Treat the list below as what to check, not a ranking of which source matters most.
| Source | What to keep consistent | Who usually owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Firm name, address, phone, hours, categories, services by practice area, service area | Firm administrator or office manager |
| Avvo | Each attorney’s practice areas, licensing, firm website link | Each attorney |
| Justia lawyer directory | Attorney and firm profiles, practice areas, website link | Each attorney or the firm |
| Martindale-Hubbell | Firm and attorney listings, address, practice areas | The firm |
| State bar directory | Attorney name as licensed, address of record, license status | Each attorney, through the bar |
| BBB | Firm name, address, phone, if the firm is listed | Office manager |
| Review sites (Google reviews, Yelp and others) | Firm name format, responses to reviews, the practice areas reviews mention | The firm, with each attorney’s input |
The fix is usually dull: one firm name, one address format and one phone number everywhere, and practice areas that match the pages on your site. If an attorney left or the firm moved, the old directory listings are the first place to look.
What Not to Waste Time On
Google’s guide has a section on tactics you can ignore for Google Search. Three come up with law firms all the time:
- llms.txt and other AI files. Google says Google Search does not use them. They neither help nor hurt there.
- “AI schema.” Google says there is no special schema.org markup to add for AI features. Normal structured data is still worth having for rich results, and FAQ markup belongs only on FAQs a visitor can actually see.
- A page for every way of asking. Google says its AI systems understand synonyms, so you do not need separate pages for “car wreck lawyer,” “auto accident attorney” and every other variant.
Paying for placement is not an option either. OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT, but its ads help page says ads run on separate systems, are labeled as sponsored, and do not influence ChatGPT’s answers.
One technical check is worth five minutes. OpenAI’s help page says a site must allow its OAI-SearchBot crawler, and the site’s host or CDN must allow traffic from OpenAI’s published crawler IP addresses, to be eligible for ChatGPT search results. A firewall or bot-blocking setting can shut that out without anyone noticing. OpenAI lists its crawlers on its crawler overview page.
How We Check It Every Month
This is how we run AI visibility for the law firms we work with. There is no tool that shows you every AI answer, so we keep a log.
A fixed prompt set. With the firm, we write prompts like the three above for each practice area and city it serves, worded the way clients describe their problem. The set stays the same from month to month so the results can be compared.
A dated log. Each month we run the set in the same assistants and record the prompt, the tool, the date, the location, which firms were named and which sources were shown.
Search Console next to it. The Generative AI performance report shows which of the firm’s pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode and how often. It shows impressions by page, country and device, with no prompts and no clicks, so it tells you where you appear but not why. The log fills that gap.
Fixes come from the log. If a directory with an old address keeps showing up as a source, that gets fixed first. If a practice area never comes up, its page gets the before and after treatment above.
The same approach works across industries. Our guide to AI search visibility for local service businesses covers it outside legal.
Find Out Which Firms AI Names in Your Market
We are a Google Partner agency with a money-back guarantee. Book a call and we will run your practice-area prompts, show you who gets named and which sources come up, and tell you what to fix first. See how our AI search visibility work fits in.
Book a Strategy CallSources, read October 11, 2026. Google Search Central: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search and the May 15, 2026 announcement. Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search). OpenAI Help Center: Searching the web with ChatGPT and Ads in ChatGPT. OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers. American Bar Association: Model Rule 7.1.