Definition
A keyword is the phrase a person types into a search engine to find legal information or a legal service, and the term around which a law firm structures its content so that it appears in the search results for that phrase.
In plain English
Every day, thousands of people type searches such as "divorce lawyer Denver," "how to fight a wrongful termination," or "how long do I have to sue my employer" into Google. Those phrases are keywords. They express an immediate, often urgent need, and they are the starting point of any online content strategy.
For a law firm, finding the right keywords means understanding the vocabulary of prospective clients. A consumer does not search for "employment litigation procedure" but for "what to do after being wrongfully fired." That difference in wording is crucial: it decides whether your page gets found or not.
Keywords are ranked by intent. Some are informational ("what is at-will employment"), others transactional ("employment lawyer Charlotte"). The transactional ones are more targeted and convert better. Those are the phrases you optimize your heading tags for and build your pages around, to improve your position in the SERP.
For a law firm
Take an employment law firm in Portland. It finds that "workplace harassment lawyer Portland" draws 90 local searches a month, with strong intent to get in touch. The firm creates a dedicated page, /workplace-harassment-portland, covering the process, the deadlines, and the evidence needed. Within six months, the page ranks third on Google for that keyword. The result: 12 consultation requests directly attributable to it, which turned into 8 new paying cases.
The common mistake is targeting keywords that are too generic ("lawyer Chicago": huge volume, competition out of reach) or too technical ("anticipatory repudiation remedies": too few searches to matter). The right keyword combines enough volume, clear intent, and a realistic chance to rank. A five-lawyer firm should go after "severance agreement lawyer Denver" rather than "lawyer Denver."
The Hendy figure
Across the law firms we work with, a local keyword plus practice area (for example, "divorce lawyer Tampa") generates 4 times more contact requests on average than a generic keyword with the same search volume. Measured across 23 firms since 2026, all practice areas combined.
Volume alone is a poor guide: a smaller local keyword with clear intent brings in more clients than a broad one.
Key takeaways
- A keyword reflects how your clients search, not how you talk about the law internally.
- Favor keywords with transactional intent and measurable local volume (50+ searches a month).
- Every strategic keyword deserves its own page, not just a mention in a generic text.