Keyword Research for Lawyers: How to Choose the Keywords That Bring Clients

Keyword research for lawyers means finding the exact phrases prospective clients type into Google when they need your help, then keeping the ones that are searched, relevant to your practice, and realistic to rank for. For most firms, that means practice area plus city searches, the questions people ask before hiring, and one page per keyword group.

Below: how to think like your future client, which tools to use, how to map each keyword to a page, a worked example for an employment lawyer in Denver, and a sample of our own keyword data. New to SEO? Start with our complete guide to law firm SEO.

What is a keyword for a law firm?

A phrase, not a single word

For Google, a keyword is the full phrase someone types into the search bar: "divorce lawyer houston," "fired from my job for no reason," "best immigration lawyer in los angeles." Some come from people ready to call a lawyer today, others from people trying to understand their situation. Your SEO job is to capture both.

The four types of search intent

• Informational: the person wants to understand. "can i sue for wrongful termination in an at-will state."
• Commercial investigation: the person compares options. "best employment lawyer denver," "employment lawyers denver contingency."
• Transactional: the person wants to hire now. "wrongful termination lawyer denver."
• Navigational: the person looks for a firm or a lawyer by name, or for their reviews.

Each search intent calls for a different page: a practice area page for the hiring searches, an article or a FAQ for the questions.

Start with your client, not with a tool

Listen the way you do in a first consultation

SEO starts with a skill every lawyer already uses: listening. People rarely search for a firm name. They describe a problem that is often urgent, sometimes painful, and hard to put into legal terms. Before opening any tool, ask yourself what this person is going through, what they type, and what they want: advice, a lawyer, or a template letter.

Plain words beat legal jargon

An employee just fired in Denver will not type "employment litigation counsel, retaliatory discharge." They will type "wrongful termination lawyer denver" or "fired from my job for no reason." The right keyword is not the one in your head. It is the one your client uses. Your intake calls and emails are a free source: note the exact words people use when they first contact you, without any client details.

How to choose keywords for SEO: the three tests

Searched, relevant, accessible

1. Searched: real people type it. For a local practice, a few dozen searches a month can be enough.
2. Relevant: it matches your services, the area where you practice, and the clients you want.
3. Accessible: you have a realistic chance of reaching the first page.

"lawyer" alone is far too broad. "severance agreement review lawyer in lower downtown denver" is probably too narrow. "severance agreement lawyer denver" is a good balance. And think in groups: one main keyword, its variants, and the related questions, often called long-tail keywords.

Words your state bar cares about

Some searches contain words you cannot simply echo in your copy. Under ABA Model Rule 7.1 (comment 3), an unsubstantiated comparison with other lawyers may be misleading, which makes "best" risky. Rule 7.2(c) bars you from implying that you are a certified specialist unless an approved or ABA-accredited organization certified you and you name it. You can still serve these searches with facts. See our guide to lawyer advertising rules.

The practice area plus city pattern

The core formula

The keywords that bring calls usually follow one pattern: practice area + lawyer or attorney + city or state. Then come the variations:

• Lawyer, attorney, law firm: people use all three, so cover them on the same page.
• Specific problems: "wrongful termination," "car accident," or "child custody" often say more than the practice area name.
• Modifiers: "free consultation," "contingency," "cost," "near me."

These geo-targeted keywords are the most valuable and the most competitive, because the person is close to hiring.

"Near me" and the suburbs you serve

You do not need to write "near me" on your pages: Google already knows roughly where the searcher is. A complete Google Business Profile matters more, as our guide to local SEO for law firms explains. And do not list every suburb at the bottom of a page: Google's spam policies name "blocks of text that list cities and regions that a web page is trying to rank for" as keyword stuffing. Create a location page only when you have something specific to say about that place.

Long-tail keywords: the questions people ask before hiring a lawyer

Questions show where someone is in their decision

When we typed a few phrases into Google with US settings in October 2026, autocomplete suggested, among others:

• how much is a wrongful termination lawyer
• do i need a lawyer for wrongful termination
• wrongful termination colorado statute of limitations

Each question reveals a worry: cost, need, or timing. These searches bring few visits each, but the people behind them know exactly what they need.

Turn questions into answers

Answer recurring questions in a FAQ block on the matching practice area page. Give the bigger ones, such as "how much is a wrongful termination case worth," their own article linked to that page. Our guide to content marketing for law firms shows how to plan them.

Keyword research tools for lawyers

You do not need an expensive subscription to start doing SEO for your law firm.

Free tools from Google

• Autocomplete and People Also Ask: type "employment lawyer" and your city, then read the suggestions and the related questions. They show how prospective clients think.
• Google Keyword Planner: "a free resource," in Google's words, showing estimated monthly searches and what advertisers pay per click for the location you choose. You need a Google Ads account with a campaign created, and estimates are less accurate for small areas.
• Google Search Console: once your site is live, its Performance report shows the real queries behind your impressions and clicks, with average position. No other tool shows your own data.

Paid and freemium tools

• Ahrefs: Keywords Explorer gives search volume and a 0 to 100 keyword difficulty score based on the links pointing to the pages that rank.
• Semrush: the Keyword Magic Tool lists volume, difficulty, CPC, and search intent, and isolates question keywords.
• AnswerThePublic: it surfaces the questions, comparisons, and related searches people type around a topic.

How to read the numbers

Search volume is a monthly average. Cost per click (CPC) is what advertisers pay on Google Ads, so a high CPC means a click is worth money to firms like yours (see Google Ads costs for lawyers). Keyword difficulty estimates how hard the first page is to reach. Each tool computes it its own way, so compare scores within one tool only.

Worked example: an employment lawyer in Denver

Step 1: the seed list in your clients' words

A solo lawyer representing employees in Denver starts with "employment lawyer denver," "employment attorney denver," "wrongful termination lawyer denver," and "labor lawyer denver." Lawyers separate labor law (unions) from employment law. Many searchers do not: "labor lawyer denver" sits right next to "employment lawyer denver" in Google's suggestions.

Step 2: expand, then check the numbers

In October 2026, "employment lawyer denver" drew suggestions such as "free consultation," "contingency," and "reddit." Fees worry people, so the page must explain how you charge. "Reddit" means people want opinions from peers, so your reviews matter. Then check the list in Keyword Planner with the location set to the Denver area, and expect small numbers for a single city.

Step 3: sort by intent and assign a page

Sample keywords with volumes and CPC: our own research

We ran the same process for our own US site. Here is a sample, with DataForSEO data (Google Ads US volumes and average CPC, our research, October 2026). The subject is marketing for lawyers, but the logic is the one you will apply to your practice.

Synonyms share one page

"law firm seo" and "seo for lawyers" describe the same need, so both point to one guide. Two pages would only compete with each other.

CPC shows what a click is worth

"law firm web design agency" gets 110 searches a month against 1,600 for "law firm website design," yet its CPC is higher: $149.52 against $96.06. The word "company" signals someone ready to hire, so it gets a service page, not an article.

Small volume is not small value

This article targets "keyword research for lawyers": about 90 searches a month, difficulty 0. "how to choose keywords for seo" has 260, but speaks to every business. A narrow phrase you can win, read by the right people, beats a broad one you cannot.

How to map keywords to pages

One page, one main keyword group

A "wrongful termination lawyer denver" page also covers "wrongful termination attorney denver," because the intent is identical. "Severance agreement review" is a different need, so it gets its own page or section. Keep a simple spreadsheet (keyword group, intent, target URL): it becomes your site plan, as our guide to law firm website structure shows.

Match the page type to the intent

• Hire: a practice area page with your phone number and a consultation form.
• Compare: sections on that page about fees, process, and reviews.
• Learn: articles and FAQ blocks that link to the practice area page.

Together, these pages form a topic cluster.

Avoid pages that compete with each other

When two pages target the same group, Google has to choose between them. In Search Console, filter the Performance report by a query and open the Pages tab. If two URLs share the impressions, merge them or give each a distinct angle.

Where to place keywords on the page

Place your keywords in the pages of your law firm website where Google and readers look first, without robotic writing. If the terms are new to you, see our SEO terms for beginners.

Title tag and meta description

The title tag is the clickable headline in Google results. Put the keyword near the start; Google cuts off long titles, so about 60 characters is safe. Example: "Wrongful Termination Lawyer in Denver | Rivera Law." The meta description below it does not move your ranking, but it shapes the click: keyword, action verb, clear promise, about 150 characters. See our meta description examples.

H1, H2, and H3 headings

One H1 per page, with the main keyword: "Wrongful Termination Lawyer in Denver," never "Welcome" or "Our Services." Use H2 and H3 subheadings for variants and for client questions, phrased the way they type them: "Can you sue for wrongful termination in Colorado?"

Body text, URL, alt text, and links

• Body text: the keyword once in the first paragraph, once or twice more in a 500 to 1,000 word page, then natural variants.
• URL: /wrongful-termination-lawyer-denver, not /page-123456.
• Image alt text: "Attorney Maria Rivera meeting an employee in her Denver office," not "image1.jpg."
• Internal links: descriptive, varied anchors, never "click here." See internal linking.

What not to do: "Our wrongful termination lawyer Denver team is the wrongful termination lawyer Denver trusts." Google calls this keyword stuffing. Better: "If you were fired in Denver and think it was illegal, we review your situation and explain your options."

Keyword research for lawyers, step by step

The eight steps

1. List the problems you solve in your clients' words.
2. Add your practice area, "lawyer" or "attorney," and your city.
3. Expand with autocomplete, People Also Ask, and AnswerThePublic.
4. Check volume, CPC, and difficulty in Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Semrush.
5. Apply the three tests: searched, relevant, accessible.
6. Sort each keyword by intent: learn, compare, hire.
7. Assign one main keyword group per page.
8. Place keywords in the title tag, H1, headings, and text, then track results in Search Console.

After a few months, the first results show. To check where you stand, read our guide to the law firm SEO audit.

What comes next

It is not up to the reader to guess what you offer: it is up to you to show them, page after page. The next step is structure. Our guide to H1, H2, and H3 tags shows how to organize each page so Google and visitors understand it at a glance.