Local SEO for a law firm: which offices actually qualify
Local SEO decides whether a firm appears in the map results for its own town, and eligibility is the part that catches firms out. A Google Business Profile needs an address staffed during the hours it publishes, clients received there in person, and permanent signage. All 3 conditions, not one of them.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
Which of a firm's addresses actually qualifies?
The ones a client could turn up to and be seen at, during the hours the listing states.
Google's guidelines for representing a business set the same conditions for a solicitor as for anyone else. The address has to be one where the firm makes in-person contact with clients, it has to be staffed while the published hours say it is open, and the firm's own name has to be visible on permanent signage at that address.
| Type of address | Eligible for a profile |
|---|---|
| Own premises, reception staffed, name on the building | Yes |
| A floor in a shared building with the firm's own signed, staffed suite | Yes, if clients are received there |
| A serviced office used two days a week, no signage | No |
| A registered office or accountant's address where nobody sits | No |
| A mail-forwarding address or post box | No |
| A fee earner's home, where clients are never received | Not as a listed address |
The last row is the one that surprises people. A firm run from home is not excluded from local search; it is excluded from publishing that address, and the profile is set up to show the area served rather than the street.
What happens when a firm has more than one office?
One profile per office that meets the conditions, and none for the ones that do not.
This is where a lot of local work goes wrong, because the tempting move is to list every town the firm takes instructions from. The rule is narrower than that. A profile represents a place where the business can be reached in person, not a place it has clients.
So a firm with a staffed head office, a genuine branch and a hot desk in a third town has two profiles, not three. The third town is reachable through the ordinary results, using a page about the work rather than a listing about a place.
Each qualifying office also needs its own page on the site, and those pages need to agree with the profiles exactly: same firm name, same street address, same telephone number, same opening hours. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the problem long before any ranking factor is.
Does a serviced office or a shared building count?
Sometimes, and the test is specific rather than a matter of judgement.
A coworking or serviced address is eligible only where all three of the following are true at once:
- The firm's own signage is on display, permanently, identifying that suite as the firm rather than as the building operator.
- Clients are received there in person. Not occasionally, and not by appointment somewhere else in the building.
- The address is staffed during the hours the profile publishes. If the listing says 9 to 5, somebody from the firm is there from 9 to 5.
A desk taken for two mornings a week fails the third condition, and usually the first as well. A virtual address that receives post fails all three. The distinction matters because a listing that does not meet the conditions can be suspended or removed, and a firm that has built its local visibility on it loses the visibility and the reviews attached to it at the same time.
We do not decide this for a firm and we do not submit a claim we think will fail. Where an address does not qualify, the honest answer is to say so and to build the ordinary-results side properly instead.
Can a firm appear in a town where it has no office?
Not in the map results, and no supplier can arrange otherwise.
The map is chosen partly on distance from the person searching, and distance cannot be bought, argued with or written around. A firm in Leeds does not appear in the Bradford map results by wanting to. What it can do is rank in the ordinary results below the map, which are not distance-bound in the same way, by having the page that answers what a Bradford client is actually searching for.
A supplier offering to place a firm in the map results of towns where it has no staffed office is describing something the guidelines exclude. That is worth treating as the single clearest disqualifying signal on a local search proposal.
What does the website have to carry for each office?
A page per qualifying office, and the details in a form that agrees with the profile.
- The full address as the profile states it, character for character, including the postcode.
- The telephone number that office answers, not a central number that routes elsewhere.
- The opening hours, matching the profile, including the days it is closed.
- The fee earners who actually sit there, named, with the work they do.
- The areas of work that office takes, which are frequently not all of the firm's areas of work.
The fee-earner list is the part with the most value and the least attention. A person choosing a solicitor in their own town is choosing a person, and an office page listing three named fee earners answers a question that a page listing an address does not.
Who currently ranks for this search in the UK?
Not the local agencies a firm would expect, which is itself informative.
| Name | What it is | Published a price |
|---|---|---|
| lexisnexis.co.uk | Legal publisher | Yes |
| mltdigital.co.uk | Marketing agency | No |
Two of the results a UK firm meets when it searches this term are a legal publisher and an agency, and only one of them is a supplier you could instruct for this work. They rank because they publish substantial material on the subject, which is the same mechanism this page is describing.
⚠ We record whether a price appeared on the page, not what it was. The figures our tooling collected mixed genuine fees with case values and fragments, so attributing a number to a named business would publish something unverified.
What does it cost?
| What | Price |
|---|---|
| Price Transparency Pack | £890, delivered in 10 working days |
| Firm Site | £2,400 |
| Firm Site+ | £4,200 |
| Authority Build | £6,900 |
| Retainer | £600, £1,200 or £2,400 a month, no minimum term |
Take £700 off a build when it is taken with six months of retainer.
Of 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read in full on 3 August 2026, twelve published a price at all and one offered work with no minimum term. We never charge per enquiry or per matter, in any market: LASPO 2012 section 56 prohibits referral fees in prescribed legal business including personal injury, and it binds the firm paying as well as the party being paid.
What this is worth where you are
In Leeds, 1,180 people a month search for a conveyancing solicitor, and Google charges around £13.80 for one of those clicks. We hold the same figures for 52 cities.
The free report gives you yours, plus which of the pages the rules ask for are missing from your site, and what 40 suppliers charge.
No call required. Our own prices are on that page.
Where should I read next?
For what a search engagement includes and excludes: seo services for law firm.
If the town is contested and the firm needs instructions sooner: law firm ppc.
On how the firm presents itself once people arrive: branding a law firm and digital marketing lawyer.
If the question is who does this work internally: law firm marketing positions.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a law firm office eligible for a Google Business Profile?
Three conditions together: clients are received at the address in person, the address is staffed during the hours the profile publishes, and the firm's own permanent signage is on display there. An address that fails any one of them is not eligible.
Can a firm list a serviced office or coworking address?
Only where the firm has its own permanent signage, receives clients at that address, and staffs it throughout its published hours. A desk used two mornings a week, or an address that only receives post, does not qualify.
How many profiles should a firm with three offices have?
One for each office that meets the eligibility conditions, which is often fewer than three. An office that is a hot desk in a shared building without signage or staffing is reached through the ordinary results instead, using a page about the work.
What happens if a listing does not meet the conditions?
It can be suspended or removed, and the reviews attached to it go with it. That is why an address that does not qualify is better addressed honestly at the start than claimed and then lost after a firm has built its local visibility on it.
Can a firm rank in the map for a town where it has no office?
No. The map is chosen partly on distance from the person searching, and distance cannot be bought. A supplier offering placement in towns where a firm has no staffed office is describing something the guidelines exclude.
What does an office page on the site need to contain?
The address exactly as the profile states it, the number that office answers, the opening hours, the fee earners who sit there by name, and the areas of work that office actually takes. Where the page and the profile disagree, the disagreement is the problem.
Can a solicitor working from home do local SEO?
Yes, without publishing the home address. The profile is set up to show the area served rather than the street, and the ordinary results below the map are reached with pages about the work rather than the place.