- Copy-paste city pages and bought links can hurt you more than they help.
- A few strong, useful pages beat hundreds of thin ones.
- Measure signed cases, not just rankings.
1. Copy-paste city pages
You have probably seen it: “Car accident lawyer Pasadena”, “Car accident lawyer Burbank”, “Car accident lawyer Glendale”. Same text on every page, only the city name changes.
Google has a name for this. Its spam policies call it doorway abuse, and one of the examples is “pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.” These pages rarely rank for long, and they can drag down the rest of your site.
Do this instead: make a city page only when you have something real to say about that city. An office there, the courthouse your cases go to, the roads and intersections where crashes happen, the kind of cases you handle for people who live there. Five real city pages are worth more than fifty copies.
2. Buying links
“100 high-authority backlinks for $299.” Every law firm gets these emails. Google’s spam policies are clear: “buying or selling links for ranking purposes” is link spam. At best you waste the money. At worst Google stops trusting your site.
Do this instead: earn links from places that make sense for a law firm:
- Your local and specialty bar associations
- Local news, when your attorneys comment on a case or a new law
- Community events, schools and charities you really support
- Legal directories like Avvo and Justia, with complete profiles
- Helpful articles you write for other trusted sites
3. Hundreds of thin, mass-made pages
AI tools make it easy to publish a new blog post every day. But Google’s spam policies also cover scaled content abuse: “many pages generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.” It doesn’t matter whether a person or a tool wrote them.
Do this instead: publish fewer, better pages. Answer the questions clients really ask on the phone. Have an attorney check every page. Add what only your firm knows: how long cases like this usually take in your county, what your intake team asks first, what people get wrong.
4. Keywords in your Google Business Profile name
“Smith Law – Best Car Accident Lawyer Los Angeles” might get a few extra calls for a while. It also breaks Google’s rules. Google says “including unnecessary information in your business name isn’t permitted,” and it can suspend the profile. Losing your Maps listing costs far more than the extra calls were worth.
Do this instead: use your real firm name, exactly as it appears on your sign and your website. We cover the rest in our guide to Google Business Profile for lawyers.
5. A slow, hard-to-use site on phones
Many people look for a lawyer on their phone, often right after something bad happened. If the page takes a long time to load, or the phone number is hard to find, they go back and call the next firm.
Do this instead: check your site on a phone, on mobile data, not office Wi-Fi. The phone number should be one tap away on every page. The case review form should be short: what happened, name, phone. Remove heavy sliders, pop-ups and chat windows that cover the screen.
6. Tracking rankings instead of cases
A monthly report full of keyword positions tells you very little. Ranking #3 for a search nobody makes doesn’t pay the bills.
Do this instead: track every call and form back to where it came from: Google Maps, a practice-area page, an ad. Then mark which ones became signed cases. Now you know which pages to improve and which to drop.
7. Copy that breaks advertising rules
“We guarantee results.” “Specialist in personal injury.” Made-up reviews. These were always risky. In California, since January 1, 2026, people can sue over some advertising violations and ask for $5,000 to $100,000 per violation. Your website counts as an advertisement.
Do this instead: read our plain-English checklist of California advertising rules and have an attorney review every page before it goes live.
What good law firm SEO looks like
- A fast site with one clear page for each practice area
- Real city pages only where you have real local presence
- A complete Google Business Profile with steady, real reviews
- Links you earned, not links you bought
- Pages that answer real client questions, checked by an attorney
- Tracking that shows calls, cases and cost per case
None of this is a shortcut. It is slower at the start, but it keeps working, and it doesn’t put your license or your Google listing at risk.
Sources
Is your website making these mistakes?
Check it free in 30 seconds and get a plain list of what to fix.
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.
About Sevag →
