If you’re in legal marketing I’m sure you have by now been thinking about AI. But have you thought about AI SEO? I don’t blame you if you haven’t – it’s starting to feel a bit like stepping into the Matrix. The way people search for content and services is shifting fast across every industry, including legal. And legal services are not exempt! The good news is that you have a brilliant opportunity to evolve your approach to planning and creating your content to avoid becoming invisible where your future clients are actually looking. And instead, make an impression on them far earlier in the customer journey.
AI SEO is an art and a science but essentially, it’s about optimising your content to appear in AI-generated search results.
AI SEO = Optimising your content to appear in AI-generated search results like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews. It’s about being found when people ask long-form questions to AI—not just traditional search engines.
These tools are rewriting the rules for how people search. Whether you are a legal founder or legal marketer, you need a strategy to make sure your blogs, FAQs and thought leadership content is showing up there – to build trust, generate leads, and stand out.
This bit is important: you do not need to be an AI expert to make progress here. I’m certainly not. But I am someone who sees opportunities for innovation and getting ahead. And well – this is an exciting one. You just need to embrace the changing landscape then take small, strategic steps to make sure your content keeps having an impact.
Ready to get nerdy? Let’s go.
What is AI SEO – and why should legal marketers care?
If SEO is the process of improving your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google, then AI SEO is the process of improving the visibility of your website content in the responses generated by AI tools.
As more people take to tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity – zero-click behaviour is becoming a lot more common. In simple but compelling terms, this means potential clients are increasingly getting answers to their legal questions from these AI tools or Google’s AI Overview a question without feeling the need to click through to your website.
It’s definitely not about ditching your SEO strategy. Content still needs to reach those committing to deeper, more considered research. But instead it’s about making a plan to also earn a place in AI answers itself. Because there is a brand new golden opportunity to reach potential clients when and where they are reading, learning, and deciding.
Perhaps it’s a CEO asking “can I cancel a supplier contract early?” or “what’s the law on hybrid working?” Maybe it’s a consumer asking “can I get a divorce without a solicitor?” or “what rights do I have as a parent if we split up?”
So whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, your legal marketing must address the fact that future clients are turning to AI to ask these longer-form questions so they can understand their rights, research options and get fast answers to broader but more complex issues.
They want clarity, speed, and language that speaks to them – not legalese or 1,500 words of waffle.
So, if your website doesn’t serve up well-structured, plain English answers to the questions your clients are asking? You won’t appear in their decision-making journey. And worse still, you may be overtaken by competitors or content farms with more AI-optimised answers, even if their expertise doesn’t come close to yours.
How AI tools are changing the way clients search for legal advice
Earlier in 2025 TechRadar reported that already 13% of consumers favour AI tools when it comes to search. And I have no doubt that number will rise significantly over the next few years.
Your clients are going to AI tools with a much more intentional, task-orientated mindset. They’re asking for templates, drafts, frameworks and when they’re asking questions they’re often doing so to solve a problem. Often in an exploratory fashion.
Whether we like it or not, online browsers are impatient with their time. Tools like ChatGPT provide a beautiful blend of breadth and depth. As a user, you can almost immediately get one specific answer to a broad question where the work of scouring the multiple sources offered up by Google has already been done for you.
It’s the difference between wanting to learn, compare or find a simple answer or solution (Google) AND wanting ideas, brainstorming or to creatively solve a complex problem (ChatGPT).
In an overwhelming and noisy online world, in the words of ChatGPT’s own response to my research in this area: “people increasingly want answers, not options.”
For legal marketing, there is a massive opportunity to leverage the fact that often your clients don’t know what to ask Google. They know they need legal services but they don’t know what they don’t know or where to start. Using tools like ChatGPT as a ‘virtual assistant’ means they can literally start there and end up getting a clear answer to their problem.
Meet Google’s AI overviews and what they mean for you.
Before we get into the meaty methods of how we can use this shift towards AI tools like ChatGPT to our advantage for legal marketing, let me familiarise you with Google’s AI Overviews. They are already rolling out in the UK, and they fundamentally change how people consume search results. Instead of scrolling through links, users are now presented with a summarised answer generated by AI and often shown before any organic search results.
These AI tools pull from online sources they deem credible, structured, and clear. So, we legal marketers need to start asking: Is my content formatted in a way that will make it appealing to AI tools and summaries?
Building an AI SEO strategy for legal marketing.
Start with a content audit.
Fear not. The first step to conquering the world of AI content isn’t about writing something new. It’s about reviewing what you already have. Dig into your data to find out:
- Which blogs or pages are currently performing well in traditional search
- If they are structured with H1s, bullet points, and summaries that could be picked up by AI tools
- Whether they demonstrate your authority and expertise clearly
- If they answer specific questions a client would ask.
According to Mailchimp, “In recent years, one framework has become increasingly important in determining search rankings: E-E-A-T, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.” And the good news is that legal marketing is well-positioned to deliver on that, especially when we make sure our content is accessible and searchable.
Structure your content for AI visibility
AI search tools favour clear, scannable content. So structure really does matter. So now that you have the data on what existing content is already performing well, it’s time to make a plan to optimise it, with:
- Use clear, easy to scan H1, H2 and H3 headers to structure content
- Strategically include keywords into headings – where relevant and without stuffing
Create summaries and add FAQs
- Consider including a 1-2 sentence overview under key headings that tackles the question upfront, and can often tackle immediate objections.
- If you’re writing AI optimised content around the question “can I get a divorce without a solicitor?” An example summary might be: “Yes, you can get a divorce without a solicitor, especially if it’s uncontested but legal advice can help avoid delays or mistakes in the process.”
- These summaries are great opportunities for your legal marketing content to be pulled into AI summaries.
- You could also consider adding a set of related FAQs at the bottom of your blog content, written in plain, jargon-free language.
- Pro tip: upload your blog draft into your AI tool and ask it to provide some questions that it gets asked a lot, that are related to your blog topic.
Write with Google’s E-E-A-T in mind.
In line with Google’s E-E-A-T framework, AI also favours authoritative and credible content.
Once you have identified your highest performing website and blog content, you can upload each one to your AI tool and ask it to assess them based on structure, authority and alignment to the data they have on questions they are being asked. When it comes to optimising or writing content in particular for AI SEO, a shift in thinking could be helpful. You’re not just writing for a search engine—you’re writing for people. Specifically how people ask their questions. That means optimising for long-tail, natural language queries.
These are the questions AI tools are asked—and the ones your content needs to be answering.
Let AI show you what clients are really asking.
SEO research is essentially reverse-engineering your strategy by investigating what people are searching for. While traditional SEO focuses on specific keywords to create content around, AI SEO is all about literally asking AI what questions they are most frequently asked.
Let’s put this in real-terms and show you a snapshot of the results when I asked ChatGT what specific marketing questions it gets asked by legal professionals:
“How can I use LinkedIn to grow my legal practice?”
Legal professionals ask how to leverage LinkedIn for both personal branding and client acquisition. They often want advice on profile optimisation, content creation, and networking strategies.
“What types of content should I post on LinkedIn to attract clients?”
They’re curious about the kinds of posts that will engage their audience, like industry insights, client stories, educational content, or case studies. The question often includes timing and frequency.
“How can I create a compelling legal brand?”
Many legal professionals are looking for guidance on defining their brand identity, establishing credibility, and differentiating themselves in a crowded market.
“What are the best ways to generate leads using LinkedIn?”
This question typically focuses on how to turn connections into clients, whether through direct outreach, content marketing, or leveraging LinkedIn tools like InMail.
“How do I optimise my LinkedIn profile to attract more clients?”
This question focuses on specific strategies for improving profiles to make them more appealing to potential clients—through headline optimisation, adding media, and writing compelling summaries.
Do remember: tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity don’t replace SEO tools like Semrush or Frase.io. Instead – they can add an AI-specific layer to your SEO strategy. With a particular focus on long-tail, conversational queries.
Blend traditional SEO With AI-led research.
When it comes to planning and creating new content, there is a certain sweet spot right in the middle of the machine/human Venn diagram that pleases both parties. And that’s valuable content that your ideal clients need which happens also to please the AI algorithms because it proves authority and credibility. It is educational content that answers a question or solves a problem for your client, such as:
- Explainer content (“What is constructive dismissal?”)
- Step-by-step guides (“How to settle a dispute without going to court”)
- FAQs (“Do I need a solicitor for a small claims court case?”)
- Legal definitions in plain English
The AI + Human magic happens when you combine your legal expertise with clear, actionable education while presenting it in an engaging, helpful and human way.
Refresh and repurpose your legal content strategically.
So as you can see from everything in this blog so far – yes, you can use AI to create brand new content and a simple AI SEO strategy can start with asking your AI tool what content you should be creating. But – this can be a phased approach, and it’s important to balance that with optimising existing content. The tactics below can actually yield quicker wins as making current, often high-performing content work even harder.
Optimise existing blogs for AI tools
This includes adding clear formatting, FAQs, summaries.
Turn evergreen content across formats
E.g. checklists, one-pagers, video scripts – great for reach.
Add depth to short or underperforming posts
Where you suggest aiming for 800–1,200+ words.
Mind the gaps: Accuracy, ethics and regulation
Any AI-generated content should go through a legal review by an actual human, in order to fact-check the information and add relevant disclaimer or contextual nuance. AI tools can hallucinate or oversimplify. So use them for drafting, ideation and optimisation—not final outputs. Have a read of AI in Legal Marketing: Take Your First Steps Without Selling Your Soul to read up on the legal considerations of creating content with AI.
But as a quick summary, make sure any AI-generated content does not:
- Misstate legal facts
- Give generic or misleading advice
- Lack proper disclaimers
- Violates SRA or ASA advertising regulations
You don’t need to be an AI expert – just start with a plan
A word of assurance: this does not need to be overwhelming. You’re not overhauling everything overnight – this can be a gradual process. But it should be exciting! AI brings brilliant opportunities for reaching your clients in new ways, and in new places.
Your simple action plan to get started could look like this:
- Audit and optimise your top-performing blogs
- Refresh older content with enhanced structure and depth
- Create new content based on real client questions.
Legal marketing really is perfectly placed to win at AI, when done well. You already have the expertise and the authority. You just need to make it visible in the age of AI, so it can work hard for your business.
If you’d like to learn more about how to create and use your own Custom GPTs for your legal marketing, join the waitlist for new services coming soon: The Quiet Queue