How law firms show up in ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers

How AI answers find a law firm

ChatGPT search, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity all work in a similar way. They don’t “know” your firm. When someone asks a question, the tool runs web searches, reads some of the pages it finds, and writes a short answer with links to its sources.

OpenAI says ChatGPT “can turn the request into one or more search queries” before it reads results. Google calls its version “query fan-out”: the AI runs several related searches across subtopics at once. Gemini uses content from the Google Search index too, a step Google calls grounding.

So the question is not “how do I get into the AI?” It is “when the AI searches, does it find clear, trustworthy pages about my firm?”

Do this: think of AI answers as one more kind of search result. The firms that show up are usually the ones that already show up well in normal search and on Google Maps.

What Google says: no special tricks

Google has a page for site owners called AI features and your website. It is very direct: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.” It also says “The best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI features.”

Google adds that you don’t need new “AI text files” or special markup, and there is “no special schema.org structured data” you must add. To be shown at all, a page has to be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet.

The basics Google lists:

• Let Google crawl your site, in robots.txt and in your hosting or CDN settings
• Put important content in text, not only in images or videos
• Give visitors a good page experience
• Make sure structured data matches the text people see on the page

Do this instead of buying an “AI optimization” package: fix the basics. A fast site, one clear page per practice area and a complete Google profile do more than any trick.

How ChatGPT search finds your site

OpenAI uses a crawler called OAI-SearchBot to find pages for ChatGPT search. Its crawler page says: “To help ensure your site appears in search results, we recommend allowing OAI-SearchBot.” OpenAI’s publisher FAQ says “Any public website can appear in ChatGPT search,” as long as you aren’t blocking that crawler.

OpenAI has a separate crawler, GPTBot, for training its AI models. Blocking GPTBot is a different choice from blocking OAI-SearchBot. Many firms are fine with being found in search but don’t want their content used for training. You can allow one and block the other.

Google works the same way. Its crawler list says blocking Google-Extended (the training and Gemini control) “does not impact a site’s inclusion in Google Search.” Perplexity says its crawler, PerplexityBot, indexes pages “similar to the way any other search engine does.”

Do this: ask your web developer to open your robots.txt file and confirm that Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot are not blocked. Some security plugins and hosting firewalls block bots without telling you, so check those settings too.

Put clear facts on your own site

AI tools pull short facts from pages. If your site only says “aggressive representation you can trust,” there is nothing to pull. Spell out the plain facts, in text, on your home page and about page:

• Who: your attorneys’ names, bar admissions and years in practice
• Where: office addresses, the cities and counties you serve, the courts you appear in
• What: the case types you take, and the ones you don’t
• Fees: free consultation or not, contingency fee or hourly, in plain words
• Languages: only the ones your team really speaks

Then add an FAQ with short, direct answers to the questions people ask on the phone. “Do I need a lawyer for a small car accident?” “How much does it cost?” One question, then two or three sentences that answer it.

Structured data is a small block of code that labels these facts for search engines, like your firm name, address and phone. It isn’t required, but it helps, as long as it matches what the page says.

Do this: make sure a stranger could answer “who, where, what cases, what does it cost” from your site in one minute. Our free website check shows what is missing.

Make the rest of the web agree

AI answers often cite directories, review sites and Google Maps, not just your own site. If Avvo says you have two offices, your website says three, and your Google Business Profile has an old phone number, the AI has to guess. It may guess wrong.

Google’s own local ranking help page says businesses with “complete and accurate info” are more likely to show up in local results, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help. The same facts and reviews are what AI tools read.

• Use the same firm name, address and phone everywhere
• Fill out the main legal directories completely
• Keep your Google Business Profile up to date
• Ask happy clients for honest reviews, and reply to them

Do this: once a year, search your firm name and fix every profile that shows old or wrong details.

Check what AI says about your firm every month

Nobody controls AI answers. They change from day to day and from person to person. So don’t chase one result. Watch the pattern.

Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Google (AI Mode), Gemini and Perplexity a few questions and save the answers:

• “What do you know about [your firm name]?”
• “Best [case type] lawyer in [your city]”
• “Does [your firm name] offer free consultations?”

Look for wrong facts, missing practice areas and which sources the answers link to. A wrong fact usually comes from a page somewhere on the web. Find it and fix it at the source. This is a big part of our AI search work at araRank.

Do this: keep a simple sheet with the date, the question, the tool and the answer. After a few months you will see whether things are getting better.

Want help with this? See Show up in AI answers.

Written by Sevag Boghossian

Sevag is the founder of araRank and a web developer with 6 years in law firm marketing and SEO. He builds every site we make, from Los Angeles.

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