Most law firms jump straight to content — blog posts, city pages, practice-area copy — before the technical floor is solid. That is backwards. Google cannot rank what it cannot crawl, and thin content on a broken site compounds nothing.

1. Confirm crawl access

Check robots.txt and meta robots tags. Ensure your sitemap is submitted in Search Console and returns valid URLs. Block only what you mean to block.

2. Schema on every major page type

Organization, WebSite, and BreadcrumbList sitewide. LegalService and FAQPage on practice-area and location pages. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test.

3. Canonical URLs

Every indexable page needs a self-referencing canonical. Duplicate city URLs or www/non-www splits dilute authority — pick one scheme and redirect the rest.

4. Meta title and description limits

Titles ≤60 characters, descriptions ≤160. Google truncates beyond those limits. Front-load keywords; put brand at the end.

5. Core Web Vitals

Mobile performance matters for rankings and intake. Compress images, minimize JavaScript, and test on real mobile connections — not just desktop Lighthouse.

6. Internal linking structure

Practice-area hubs should link to location pages and supporting blog content. Orphan pages with no internal links rarely rank.

Fix these six items before you scale content. LawVert runs this checklist as part of every managed SEO engagement — because the floor has to hold before the building goes up.

Law Firm SEO Checklist: What to Fix Before You Publish More Content