Back in December 2024, we wrote about how AI was starting to influence legal directory submissions. At the time, this was pretty revolutionary stuff, particularly for a copywriting agency. Wasn’t AI going to pinch all our jobs? The big question at the time was: can AI write this stuff for me… and maybe also should it.
Less than a year later and we are already starting to see that the question has shifted. Not just because the tools are better (although they are), but because client behaviour, search engines, and expectations have all started to move on.
When we first wrote that article there weren’t many firms looking at using AI to support with directories. Since then we’ve worked with three top ten firms to help them develop their internal Copilot prompts to better support the development of first draft matter descriptions and even overview arguments within their submissions.
And this doesn’t just apply to directories.
AI isn’t the writer. It’s the assistant.
We’ve seen a huge shift over the past year in how firms are using AI for website content and this presents another new reality:
- In theory, anyone can create content.
- Needless to say not everyone can create trusted content.
- AI can help speed up writing.
- But it can’t fix fuzzy positioning, mixed messaging, or unclear page structures.
And in principle, it makes sense. AI can help you:
- See what questions potential clients are asking
- See what your competitors are doing in specific areas
- Draft faster (especially first passes)
- Structure pages around real intent
- Check for errors or improvements
- Reformat and repurpose content
But if you’re relying on AI to actually nail the tone, trust, accuracy, all of it you may well be in trouble.
As one of our SEO partners Monday Clicks found, AI-generated blogs and pages only performed well when humans stepped in to edit, structure, and shape the content. Generic, shallow posts? Dead on arrival.
Your voice still matters. Your tone still matters. So does whether a page feels like it was written by someone who actually understands what’s at stake for a client. And – at least at the moment – we don’t think AI can’t do that without help.
Search has changed – and not in your favour
Despite all this AI is here to stay and has an impact on how you (and we) write your law firm website.
Search engines now use AI to generate answers on your behalf. Google’s new Search Generative Experience (SGE) means fewer users click through to your site because they get a summary instead.
Most importantly, the summary isn’t randomly written, it’s pulled from websites that are:
- Structured clearly. Pages that use clear headings (H1s, H2s), bullets, and tables of contents make it easier for AI tools to extract and summarise content accurately. Sites that mirror the way people ask questions, like “What are the risks of shareholder disputes?” or “When should I use a settlement agreement?”, tend to surface more often in featured answers. FAQs in particular are hugely underrated. They\’re not just helpful to readers, they give machines clean, digestible chunks of information that can be quoted or linked to directly.
- Written in plain English. Clarity isn’t optional anymore. If your page is dense, abstract, or overly formal, AI models (and users) will ignore it. Content that mirrors natural speech – short sentences, active verbs, clear subject-verb-object structure – is far more likely to be lifted for summaries. Think “This applies when…” or “You should consider…” rather than “It is incumbent upon the client to…”
- Actually helpful. AI search tools are increasingly trained to value content that solves a problem, not just ticks an SEO box. This is where Google’s E-E-A-T principles (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) really kick in. Content that shows real-world application – what the law means for this type of client, in this type of situation – is far more likely to be trusted. So is content that includes named authors, contact information, citations or links to authoritative sources, and a clear “next step”.
As Monday Clicks explain, Google’s AI chooses content that’s structured like a human would explain it – direct, reliable, and useful.
And as brilliant web agency and ELE friend, Tela, puts it: “Content with structure, clarity and credibility will be what Google trusts to inform the answers.”
They’re right. The same characteristics that make a good piece of legal advice make a good piece of legal content.
This is one of the reasons why Legal 500 in particular is always in the top places visited when Google, Chat GPT, Perplexity and others are asked about where to find legal expertise. In short, because it’s a website that applies all of these guidelines. Content that meets these standards is more likely to be surfaced in AI responses.
So your job now isn’t just to rank. It’s to be the source Google quotes when it writes the answer itself.
What AI-ready legal content actually looks like
We’ve worked as legal copywriters on a lot of law firm sites over the last few years. The same issues show up time and again, especially on pages that were written to satisfy a keyword checklist rather than a real client.
What works now?
Clear structure
Use headings that reflect real client questions. Think “What are the redundancy laws?” or “What happens if I need to make employees redundant?” – not “Our Employment Law Services”. Group related content under those headings. Add a short intro, use bullets to explain key points, and keep paragraphs short. If you can include an FAQ section, even better – this is where AI summarisation tools often go looking for pull quotes.
Clarity over cleverness
Cut the jargon. Don’t repeat the word “bespoke” three times in one paragraph and you are certainly never “pragmatic”. If you wouldn\’t say it out loud to a client, don’t write it on your website. Plain English wins every time – not just for readers, but for search engines looking to extract meaning quickly.
A point of view
Too many firms explain what the law is, but not what they do. Great content explains what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters. And ideally it does it in a way that sounds like you, not everyone else. You don’t need a slogan or a manifesto, but you do need a message. And that message should come through in every page, especially your practice area content.
A human tone
You don’t need to be quirky, chatty or informal. But you do need to sound like someone a client could trust with a serious issue. That means stripping out copy that’s cold, robotic or overly formal. Warm, confident and clear is where most firms should aim.
Evidence of credibility
Add examples where you can – industries served, typical case types, links to case studies or thought leadership. You don’t need to write war stories into every page, but searches will assume that a general counsel or business owner wants to know you’ve seen this before and will consider you more credible if your claims are supported by examples as well as author bios, photos, or “meet the team” links.
Plan your content with data rather than hunches
If you’re still writing blogs and case reports on what you think clients need to know then it’s time to change.
Your content plan should be based on:
- What clients are searching for (Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush)
- What pages convert (GA4, heatmaps, enquiry tracking)
- What’s already working (or not working) on your site
Use the data. Don’t guess. If a practice area page gets traffic but no calls, something’s off. If you have five pages that all say vaguely the same thing, condense them.
And, importantly, if you aren’t already using an LLM such as Chat GPT to analyse and interpret this data – prompting it to set out recommendations for improvements and ways to set your content apart from specified competitors – then you’re really missing a trick.
We build this kind of content plan as part of our Messaging & Content Strategy work, before a rewrite even starts.
What we do (and why it works)
At ELE, our Web Content Rewrite service is designed for law firms that are:
- Clear on what they do, but not saying it well
- Drowning in SEO waffle from five years ago
- Getting traffic, but not converting this to enquiries/instruction
- Growing fast and outgrowing their current site
We write (or rewrite) practice area pages, team bios, homepages, careers pages, blog templates, and more. A particularly growing area is landing pages and resource hubs, designed to drive traffic through to tailored resources, reports and case studies. Importantly, everything we write is done with clarity, structure and tone in mind. And it’s always rooted in proper data and planning.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t always have AI use firmly front of mind – whether that’s in how we research and prepare for each page we write or how we work out the best ways to phrase and structure things, to get the results you want. When we do decide to use it it’s because AI can be a hugely valuable tool that helps our copywriting experts deliver a significantly better service… and because our clients’ clients are all using it increasingly to make decisions.
Incidentally, not everyone needs a total rewrite. Some firms just need a plan. That’s why we also offer standalone content strategy work, so you can take a step back and see what might need to change in this new, AI-driven world.
Final word
AI hasn’t killed law firm content. But it has changed what “good” looks like.
If your website sounds like it was written by a committee – or worse, a 2010 SEO company – and you’re not sure what to fix first, we can help. Get in touch today.
