SEO for law firms. The searches that buy, and what links cost.
Local, urgent and very valuable: one client can be worth thousands. Practice-area pages per location do most of the work.
Searches: DataForSEO, United States, English. Link prices: Placement API Backlink Price Index, September 2026. Collected 2026-09-28.
Ship· Page improvements
The searches that buy.
Buying and comparing searches with at least 100 a month, ranked by volume times what advertisers pay per click. These are the pages worth improving first.
- 'Near me' and city searches are buying searches even without a buying word.
- Legal content must be accurate for the jurisdiction; generic national content rarely ranks locally.
| Search | Kind | Searches/mo | Ads CPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| personal injury lawyer near me | Comparing | 301,000 | $148 |
| personal injury lawyer | Comparing | 201,000 | $171 |
| motorcycle personal injury lawyer near me | Comparing | 49,500 | $197 |
| divorce lawyer | Comparing | 246,000 | $29.97 |
| motorcycle personal injury lawyer | Comparing | 22,200 | $330 |
| uber personal injury lawyer | Comparing | 6,600 | $594 |
| personal injury lawyer for slip and fall | Comparing | 12,100 | $244 |
| personal injury lawyer best | Comparing | 14,800 | $161 |
| personal injury lawyer houston texas | Comparing | 18,100 | $127 |
| best lawyer personal injury | Comparing | 14,800 | $146 |
| car accident personal injury lawyer | Comparing | 9,900 | $217 |
| personal injury lawyer in las vegas | Comparing | 12,100 | $177 |
| employment injury lawyer | Comparing | 9,900 | $164 |
| los angeles ca personal injury lawyer | Comparing | 18,100 | $82.52 |
| lawyer for divorce near me | Comparing | 60,500 | $23.59 |
| employment lawyer near.me | Comparing | 49,500 | $25.62 |
| best personal injury lawyer near me | Comparing | 8,100 | $150 |
| personal injury lawyer contingency | Buying | 5,400 | $224 |
| personal injury lawyer in atlanta | Comparing | 9,900 | $120 |
| divorce lawyer near me | Comparing | 40,500 | $24.33 |
- Lower quartile
- $81.00
- Median
- $168
- Upper quartile
- $325
| Claimed DR, all subjects | Websites | Middle half | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| DR 20–29 | 48,775 | $81–$332 | $174 |
| DR 30–39 | 42,432 | $86–$357 | $171 |
| DR 40–49 | 20,524 | $111–$506 | $232 |
| DR 50–59 | 14,530 | $124–$641 | $260 |
| DR 60–69 | 6,135 | $213–$1,042 | $483 |
| DR 70–79 | 5,108 | $342–$1,647 | $726 |
| DR 80–89 | 834 | $506–$4,148 | $1,399 |
| DR 90–99 | 115 | $383–$3,651 | $1,062 |
Scale· Backlinks
What links cost here.
What websites in legal ask for a link: the cheapest price for each website across every marketplace, suspect websites left out. Higher-rated websites cost more, as the table shows; these are asking prices, not what was paid.
Your numbers
Would links pay back for you? Enter what a customer is worth.
Each search is modelled moving from #7 to #4 into the top four. That takes 20 to 50 links depending on how well linked the results above are, priced from the table above: the legal median, or a higher DR band where the competition is stronger. Half the modelled gain is counted, as a hedge against rankings that don't move as planned.
Starting assumptions for a typical law firms business, not data: replace them with yours. At these, each visitor from a buying search is worth $300.
20 of 20 buying searches pay back within 12 months.
$35,400/month for 3 months
A link budget that funds all of them at a natural pace, expected to bring in $7,325,850 a month once the links are live (risk-adjusted).
- Searches a month
- 18,100
- Extra clicks, #7 → #4
- about 796
- Value per visitor
- $300
- Extra revenue a month
- $238,800
- × 50% confidence
- $119,400/mo
- 40 links at $260 (DR 50–59)
- $10,400
- Payback
- under a month
| Search | Extra revenue/mo | Payback | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| personal injury lawyer | $1,326,600 | under a month | Worth it |
| divorce lawyer | $1,623,600 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer near me | $1,986,600 | under a month | Worth it |
| lawyer for divorce near me | $399,300 | under a month | Worth it |
| motorcycle personal injury lawyer near me | $326,700 | under a month | Worth it |
| employment lawyer near.me | $326,700 | under a month | Worth it |
| motorcycle personal injury lawyer | $146,550 | under a month | Worth it |
| divorce lawyer near me | $267,300 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer best | $97,650 | under a month | Worth it |
| best lawyer personal injury | $97,650 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer for slip and fall | $79,800 | under a month | Worth it |
| car accident personal injury lawyer | $65,400 | under a month | Worth it |
| employment injury lawyer | $65,400 | under a month | Worth it |
| los angeles ca personal injury lawyer | $119,400 | under a month | Worth it |
| best personal injury lawyer near me | $53,400 | under a month | Worth it |
| uber personal injury lawyer | $43,500 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer houston texas | $119,400 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer contingency | $35,700 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer in las vegas | $79,800 | under a month | Worth it |
| personal injury lawyer in atlanta | $65,400 | under a month | Worth it |
Extra revenue is risk-adjusted: 50% of the modelled gain.
Big, but not for links
Searches to answer, not to buy links for.
The biggest learning searches in this industry. Worth good content and internal links to the pages that sell; rarely worth link money.
| Search | Kind | Searches/mo |
|---|---|---|
| employment lawyer | Learning | 135,000 |
| business lawyer | Learning | 90,500 |
| lawyer employment | Learning | 40,500 |
| lawyer employment discrimination | Learning | 14,800 |
| lawyer fee for divorce | Learning | 8,100 |
| lawyer in business | Learning | 8,100 |
| lawyer employment harassment | Learning | 6,600 |
| new york employment lawyer | Learning | 5,400 |
Run this on your own site. With your real numbers.
Ship/Scale replaces the guesses on this page with your Search Console and analytics data, then shows which of your law firms pages would pay back.
Pro is $99/month. Free has no subscription fee: you pay your own AI and data providers. Backlinks cost extra on both plans.