82.2% of law firm websites don't use Attorney or LegalService schema, the code that tells Google a site belongs to a law firm, and 39.8% miss at least one of four basic SEO elements on their homepage, above the 37.9% average across 15 industries.
Analysis of 744 law firm websites · US law firm Google Business Profiles and their websites, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.82.2% of law firm websites don't use Attorney or LegalService schema, the code that tells search engines the site belongs to a law firm.
- 2.39.8% of law firm websites miss at least one basic SEO element on their homepage, the sixth highest rate of 15 industries and above the 37.9% average.
- 3.25.4% of law firm homepages have no H1 heading, the main headline search engines read to understand a page, the most common basic problem.
- 4.24.7% of law firm homepages have no meta description, the summary Google can show under the link in its results.
- 5.26.6% of law firm websites have no schema markup of any kind, fewer than the 32.9% average across 15 industries.
Summary
Someone injured in a crash, facing a divorce or starting a business searches for a lawyer by practice area and city, looks at the firms on Google's first page and clicks one or two. A law firm website is where most of those prospective clients decide whether to call, and a large share of them find it through search.
Search engines need a few basic signals to understand what a page is about and show it well: a page title, a short description, a main heading, a secure connection and, increasingly, schema markup, code that states in machine-readable terms what the business is, where it is and what it does. These cost almost nothing to add and help both Google's regular results and its AI answers describe the firm correctly.
Most law firms leave the most specific signal out. 82.2% of law firm websites don't use Attorney or LegalService schema, the markup made for law firms. And 39.8% miss at least one of the four basics on their homepage, most often the main H1 heading, which is missing on one law firm homepage in four.
What we measured
In September 2026 we took 744 law firm websites listed on US Google Business Profiles and checked each homepage for four basics: a title tag, the page name shown as the blue link in search results; a meta description, the summary Google can show under that link; at least one H1 heading, the main headline on the page; and HTTPS, the secure connection shown by the padlock in a browser. A site fails the basic check if its homepage misses any of the four.
We also recorded whether the homepage title was too long to show in full on Google, whether any page on the site could not be added to Google's index, whether the site had an XML sitemap, the file that lists a site's pages for search engines, and which schema types each site used. We ran the same checks on websites in 15 industries, from accounting to HVAC, so each law firm figure can be compared with the 15-industry average.
Most law firm sites never tell Google they are a law firm
Schema.org, the shared vocabulary Google and other search engines read, has types made for law firms: Attorney and LegalService. They let a firm state its name, address, phone number, practice areas and hours in a form search engines can use directly. Only 17.8% of law firm websites use either one. 26.6% of law firm websites have no schema at all, fewer than the 32.9% average across 15 industries, so most firms that add schema stop at the generic types.
The schema law firm websites do use is mostly what a website builder or SEO plugin adds automatically. The most common types are WebSite (57% of law firm websites), SearchAction (38%), WebPage (37%) and ImageObject (33%). They describe a website, not a law practice. 26.8% of law firm websites use any local business type at all, the family of schema types that marks a site as a business with a location.
Four in ten law firm homepages miss a basic SEO element
That is above the 37.9% average across 15 industries and the sixth highest rate of the 15. The most common gap is a missing H1 heading, on 25.4% of law firm homepages, followed closely by a missing meta description on 24.7%. Missing page titles (2.3%) and sites without HTTPS (2.2%) are rare.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 744 law firm websites · US law firm Google Business Profiles and their websites, September 2026
| Check | Law firms | 15-industry average |
|---|---|---|
| Fail at least one basic check | 39.8% | 37.9% |
| No H1 heading | 25.4% | 24.5% |
| No meta description | 24.7% | 23% |
| Title too long | 23.8% | 20.1% |
| No XML sitemap | 18.1% | 18.3% |
| Page not indexable | 12.9% | 15.2% |
| No title tag | 2.3% | 2.8% |
| Not on HTTPS | 2.2% | 2.2% |
| No schema markup | 26.6% | 32.9% |
Titles are the other weak spot. 23.8% of law firm homepages have a title too long to show in full in Google's results, against a 20.1% average, a common result of listing every practice area in the title. 18.1% of law firm websites have no XML sitemap, and 12.9% have at least one page that Google cannot add to its index.
Law firms sit in the middle of 15 industries
Across the 15 industries, the share of websites failing at least one basic check runs from 26% for HVAC companies to 53.1% for accounting firms. Law firms, at 39.8%, sit sixth from the top, behind accounting, manufacturing, restaurants, real estate and financial advisors.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 744 law firm websites · US law firm Google Business Profiles and their websites, September 2026
WordPress runs 50.7% of law firm websites, and law firm sites on WordPress fail the basic checks 34.7% of the time, below the 39.8% rate for law firms overall. WordPress SEO plugins fill in titles, descriptions and sitemaps by default, which likely closes some of these gaps without extra work.
What this means for law firms
Start with the homepage and your main practice area pages. Each needs a title that names the practice area and city in under about 60 characters, a meta description that says who you help and where, and one H1 that matches the page. Then add Attorney or LegalService schema with your firm's name, address, phone number, hours and practice areas, so search engines and AI answers describe you correctly.
Next, check the pages built from templates, such as attorney bios, location pages and practice area pages, which often skip the description or the H1. Make sure every page you want found is in your XML sitemap and none is blocked from Google's index by mistake. Suff Digital's seo for lawyers work starts with exactly these checks, because they are the cheapest ranking gains a firm has.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/law-firm-website-seo-audit">82% of Law Firm Websites Have No Attorney or Legal Service Schema - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). 82% of Law Firm Websites Have No Attorney or Legal Service Schema. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/law-firm-website-seo-audit
82% of Law Firm Websites Have No Attorney or Legal Service Schema - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/law-firm-website-seo-audit