Technical SEO ensures search engines can efficiently crawl, understand, and index your law firm's website. Without a solid technical foundation, even the best content may never reach potential clients. Think of technical SEO as the infrastructure that makes all other SEO efforts effective.
Site Architecture
How your website is structured affects both search engines and users. A logical architecture helps Google understand your content hierarchy and makes it easy for visitors to find what they need.
Ideal Law Firm Site Structure
- Homepage: Overview with clear paths to key pages
- Practice Areas: Parent page linking to individual practice area pages
- Attorney Profiles: Individual pages for each lawyer
- About: Firm history, values, differentiators
- Resources/Blog: Educational content organized by topic
- Contact: Clear contact information and forms
- Locations: Pages for each office (if multiple)
URL Hierarchy
- /practice-areas/
- /practice-areas/personal-injury/
- /practice-areas/personal-injury/car-accidents/
- /attorneys/
- /attorneys/john-smith/
- /resources/
- /resources/what-to-do-after-car-accident/
Crawlability and Indexing
Robots.txt
Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site to crawl:
- Allow access to all important content
- Block admin areas and duplicate content
- Don't accidentally block CSS or JavaScript
- Include sitemap location
XML Sitemap
- Include all important pages
- Update automatically when content changes
- Submit to Google Search Console
- Keep under 50,000 URLs per sitemap
- Use sitemap index for larger sites
Indexing Controls
- Noindex: Use for pages you don't want in search results
- Canonical tags: Point duplicate content to the original
- Meta robots: Control indexing and following on page level
Site Speed and Performance
Page speed is a ranking factor and significantly impacts user experience and conversions.
Core Web Vitals
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Main content loads within 2.5 seconds
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Pages respond to interaction within 200ms
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Visual stability score under 0.1
Speed Optimization Tactics
- Compress and optimize images
- Minimize CSS and JavaScript
- Enable browser caching
- Use a content delivery network (CDN)
- Choose fast, reliable hosting
- Lazy load images and videos
- Reduce server response time
Mobile Optimization
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning the mobile version of your site is the primary version for rankings.
Mobile Requirements
- Responsive design: Site adapts to all screen sizes
- Touch-friendly: Buttons and links easy to tap
- Readable text: No horizontal scrolling required
- Fast loading: Optimized for mobile networks
- Click-to-call: Phone numbers are tappable
HTTPS Security
HTTPS is a ranking factor and essential for user trust, especially for law firms handling sensitive information.
- SSL certificate properly installed
- All pages served over HTTPS
- HTTP properly redirects to HTTPS
- No mixed content warnings
- HSTS enabled for additional security
Structured Data
Schema markup helps search engines understand your content and can generate rich results.
Essential Schema for Law Firms
- Organization: Firm details, logo, contact info
- LocalBusiness: Physical location details
- Attorney: Individual lawyer information
- LegalService: Practice area descriptions
- FAQPage: Q&A content for rich snippets
- Review: Client testimonials
- BreadcrumbList: Navigation path
Handling Duplicate Content
Common Duplicate Content Issues
- WWW vs. non-WWW versions
- HTTP vs. HTTPS versions
- Trailing slash variations
- Parameter-based duplicates
- Printer-friendly pages
- Similar practice area content
Solutions
- 301 redirects for URL variations
- Canonical tags for preferred versions
- Consistent internal linking
- Parameter handling in Search Console
International and Multi-Location
For firms serving multiple locations or languages:
- Hreflang tags: For multi-language sites
- Location pages: Unique content for each office
- Local business schema: For each location
- Consistent NAP: Name, address, phone for each location
Technical SEO Audit Checklist
Crawling and Indexing
- Robots.txt allows important pages
- XML sitemap exists and is submitted
- No unintended noindex tags
- Canonical tags properly implemented
- No crawl errors in Search Console
Performance
- Core Web Vitals passing
- Mobile-friendly design
- Images optimized
- Fast server response time
Security and Infrastructure
- HTTPS properly configured
- No mixed content
- Clean URL structure
- Proper redirects in place
Structured Data
- Schema markup implemented
- No structured data errors
- Rich results appearing in search
Technical SEO as Foundation
Technical SEO may not be glamorous, but it's essential. A law firm website with excellent content but poor technical implementation will struggle to rank. Conversely, a technically sound site gives your content and link building efforts the foundation they need to succeed.
Regular technical audits should be part of your ongoing SEO maintenance. As your site grows and changes, new technical issues can emerge. Stay on top of these fundamentals, and you'll maintain the search visibility your firm needs to attract clients.