A small law firm should build the pages that answer "can this firm help me, and how do I start?" before anything else: a home page that says who the firm helps and where, one page for each practice area it wants new matters in, a bio for each attorney, an intake page that explains the first conversation and fees, and a contact page naming the responsible lawyer. Blog posts, FAQ pages, and city pages earn their place after those core pages answer what clients ask before calling.
A new firm, or a firm rebuilding a dated site, may not have the budget to do everything at once. The temptation is to start with a blog because it feels like momentum. But a reader who lands on a helpful article and clicks through to a thin practice area page has nowhere to go, and neither does anything trying to summarize what the firm does.
This is a content-planning question for firm owners and marketing leads, not legal advice. Advertising rules apply to a firm's website from the first page, and they differ by state, so the responsible attorney should review everything before launch.
Start with the pages that answer "can this firm help me?"
The first job of a law firm site is to let a prospective client decide whether to call. That decision rests on a few facts: what the firm handles, where, who the lawyers are, what it costs to start, and how to reach someone. Articles can support those facts later. A blog is not a substitute for a practice area page, and a site with forty posts and three thin service pages has its effort in the wrong place.
A home page that lists ten practice areas in a grid tells a reader less than one that says, in a sentence or two, which matters the firm wants and where it takes them.
Google's guidance points the same way. Its helpful content self-assessment lists, as a warning sign, content where the answer to "Is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines?" is yes. Its guide to generative AI features says "There's no ideal page length, and in the end, make pages for your audience, not just for generative AI search," and that to appear, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet." Core pages built for clients are the place to start.
The first five pages and what each must answer
| Page | Question it answers | Facts the firm supplies |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Who does this firm help, and where? | Practice areas, locations served, and the first step. |
| Practice area pages | Does this firm handle my kind of matter? | Matter types taken and declined, the process, the fee basis. |
| Attorney bios | Who would I work with? | Focus areas, admissions, languages, how each lawyer works. |
| Intake and fees | What happens when I reach out, and what does it cost? | Who responds, consultation terms, documents to bring. |
| Contact | How do I reach someone? | Phone, address, hours, and the responsible lawyer's name. |
Practice area pages deserve the most attention, since they carry the decision. Before writing any of them, sit down with the partners and settle one question: "Which matters do we want more of next year?" A firm that handles five areas but wants growth in two should build those two pages first and build them well. Our page on what a practice area page should answer before a client calls covers their contents in detail.
Rules that apply from page one
A firm website describes the lawyer's services, so the ABA Model Rules on communications are the baseline to review. Model Rule 7.1 says a lawyer "shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services." Model Rule 7.2(d) adds that "Any communication made under this Rule must include the name and contact information of at least one lawyer" or law firm responsible for its content.
For a first build, that means three practical habits. Put a responsible lawyer's name and contact information where the firm's counsel says it belongs. Keep claims about experience, results, and specialization to what the firm can support. And check your state's version of the rules, since states adopt their own text and some add requirements the Model Rules do not include. Our page on writing attorney bio pages for clients and AI covers the specialist language bios need to handle carefully.
Some problems are easy to miss on a first build: an attorney's name spelled two ways, a practice area listed on the home page with no page behind it, or an office address that is really an occasional meeting location. Each is small. Together they make the firm harder to describe accurately.
Gather the facts before the writing starts
Five good pages depend on a few hours of the attorneys' time. Collect the facts each page needs: matter types taken and declined, the fee basis for each practice area, the intake steps, each lawyer's admissions and focus, and any results the firm is prepared to present with context. A writer hired to build five pages should not have to invent the firm's practice focus or reconstruct its intake steps from a voicemail greeting. When those facts are missing, the copy fills the gap with phrases like "aggressive advocacy" and "personalized service," which say nothing a competitor could not also say.
Give each page a reviewer and an owner. The reviewer is the attorney who approves the facts. The owner is whoever keeps the page current when fees, hours, or attorneys change.
What comes next, in a fictional example
Take a fictional solo criminal defense lawyer in Kentucky opening a practice. Her first build is a home page, two practice area pages (DUI and drug charges, the two areas she wants to grow), her bio, an intake and fees page, and a contact page. Only after those are live and reviewed does she add a firm-specific FAQ built from her first months of calls, then articles answering the questions callers kept asking. City pages wait until she has something specific to say about each courthouse she appears in.
The order matters more than the count. Each new page should answer a question the core pages could not hold, and link back to the service it supports. When an existing page could carry the answer instead, improving it may be the better move, as our article on deciding whether to update pages or create new content explains. Before adding anything, check the core pages the way a client would: search the firm's name, open each practice area page on a phone, and try the contact form. Fix what breaks first.
In Hudson South's process, the Authority Asset gathers approved business knowledge and evidence, such as practice focus, fee basis, intake steps, and admissions. Hudson Twenty-One records how the firm communicates across 21 dimensions, so the first pages sound like the lawyer a client will meet. Market Intelligence researches the questions prospective clients ask and how competing firms answer them. AEO Creation turns those inputs into answer-first content. More pages for firm owners are in our law firm content guide.
Decide which pages to build first
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- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-15.
- Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-15.
- Rule 7.1: Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-15.
- Model Rule 7.2: Information About Legal Services. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-15.