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This is a checklist for a law firm's Google Business Profile, written down once so that nobody has to remember it on a busy Tuesday. It covers the profile, the records that have to agree with it, reviews and photos, and four habits that undo the rest.
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Work through it in order. Write down what you find rather than fixing as you go, because the fixing has an order of its own and changing one thing at a time shows you what worked.
Know what you are actually being scored on
Google is public about this, and its help page on local ranking is linked at the end. Map results are decided by relevance (how well the profile matches what someone typed), distance (how far the business is from the searcher), and popularity (how well known the business is). Distance is not something you can argue with. The other two are largely made of the items below.
| Factor | What Google says it means | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | How well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for | Yes, through categories, services and a complete profile |
| Distance | How far the business is from the customer who is searching | No |
| Popularity | How well known a business is, including links to it and its reviews | Partly, through directories, reviews and replies |
So the honest framing for a solo in a suburb is that some searches are winnable and some are not, and the list is about winning the ones that are. Google's same page says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking, so nothing below costs money.
The profile itself
- Verified. Open the profile. If it does not say verified, nothing else on this list matters yet. Verification is the first item on Google's own list of ways to improve local ranking.
- Primary category. Read it out loud. Does it name the work you want more of? "Attorney" puts you in a pool with every practice area in the county. "Family law attorney" and "Divorce lawyer" are narrower doors. Check the choices against the live list Google offers today.
- Secondary categories. Google's guideline is to use as few categories as possible to describe the core business. Add the ones that complete the sentence "this business is a", and stop there.
- Business name. It should be the firm's actual name and nothing else. Google's guidelines say the name should reflect your business's real-world name, as used on your signage, website and stationery, and they do not allow marketing taglines, service words or location words in it.
- Address and suite. Present, correct, and formatted the same way it is formatted on the letterhead. If you do not meet clients at the address, Google's guidelines say a service-area business (one that goes to its customers rather than receiving them) should hide its address and set a service area.
- Service area. Set to the counties you actually take files in. Not the whole state, and not a single zip code.
- Hours. Accurate, including the hour when the phone actually starts rolling to an answering service. Holiday hours set for the next three months.
- Phone. Google asks for a local number rather than a central call-centre line wherever possible. If you use a call-tracking number, my rule is that it is the same number everywhere the firm is listed.
- Description. Written for a nervous person rather than for a search engine. Say what you do, who you do it for, and where.
- Services. Fill this in properly. Every service you offer, named in the words a client would use rather than the words a lawyer would.
- Attorney listings. Google allows a practitioner their own profile when they are public-facing and reachable at the verified address during stated hours. So: one per lawyer who is genuinely there, none for anyone who has left. A solo gets a single profile in the form "Firm name: Attorney name".
- Ownership. The account controlling the profile belongs to someone who still works there and is not a personal address from 2014.
The information that has to agree
Google says popularity is partly built from links to your business. For a law firm, the records below are where those links live.
- Search your own firm name in Maps. Then the previous name, then every address the firm has ever had, then each attorney's name plus the city. Note every listing that comes back.
- Duplicates. If there is more than one, do not delete anything today. The duplicate profiles guide explains the order that keeps your reviews.
- The bar directory. Your state or provincial listing is the record of your firm that the regulator itself publishes, and it can also be the one nobody has updated since the firm's first office. Check it first.
- Legal directories. Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Martindale-Hubbell, Lawyers.com and Super Lawyers. Name, address, suite, phone. Letter for letter.
- Old phone numbers. Search any number the firm has retired, in quotes. Whatever comes back is still telling Google something about you.
- Suite formatting. Pick one, Suite 210 or #210 or Ste 210, and use that one everywhere. It is an easy inconsistency to create because nobody ever decides it.
When you fix a directory listing, write down the date and what you changed. Without the date you will not know whether a mismatch you see next month is old or new.
Reviews and photos
- Every review has a reply. Including the old ones and especially the bad ones. Keep replies short and free of any matter detail, and have your bar counsel approve the template once.
- A review link exists and somebody uses it. Pull it from the profile, shorten it, and give it to whoever closes files.
- The asking moment is defined. A single point in the file where the ask happens, rather than an automated sequence that fires ninety days later. The details are in the review requests guide.
- Photos are yours. Exterior, so people can find the door. Interior of the room where meetings actually happen. Attorney portraits. Photos other people have added that show an empty parking lot should be pushed down by better ones.
- The plain questions are answered. The questions your intake line answers every day should have an answer in the description, the services list, or the page your profile links to.
What to stop doing
- Changing the primary category every couple of weeks because six days passed and nothing moved. The checklist's rule is to give a change a month before judging it.
- Judging your ranking from your own searches. Google says results are customised using your activity and location, even when you are signed out, so your own view is the least reliable evidence you have. Private and incognito search explains what to look at instead.
- Marking an old listing permanently closed to get rid of it. Closed is a public statement about the firm, and the wrong tool for a duplicate. The duplicate guide covers merging.
- Buying a virtual office in the next county to rank there. Google's guidelines say a virtual office where the business does not operate is not eligible for a Business Profile, and Google reserves the right to suspend profiles that break the guidelines.
Telling whether it worked
Give it ninety days, then read the profile's own performance report rather than your impressions. Google reports calls, direction requests, website clicks, and the search terms people used when your profile appeared. The search terms are the real signal, because they separate people who typed your firm's name from people who typed a problem and found you.
Then read the private search guide before you draw conclusions, because family law undercounts in a predictable direction and the raw numbers will make you pessimistic for the wrong reason.
If this list turned up more than you want to handle on a Tuesday night, that is what the Good size at $1,200 is for, one payment, no retainer. The full breakdown is on the homepage, the solo version of this problem is on the solo practitioner page, or email hello@divorceseo.com with your firm name and county.
Checked against Google's Business Profile help pages on 2026-09-21: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Guidelines for representing your business on Google, About Business Profile performance, Search customisation and your activity
Common questions
Does the checklist need the firm's Google login?
Only four items do: the verified flag, the category list, the review link and the performance report. Everything else is done from a plain browser, so find out who holds the login before you start.
Why does the search-terms report lag behind the rest?
Google's help page says the searches metric is updated at the start of each month and can take up to five days to appear. So the ninety-day read should be taken a week into a month, not on the first.
We rent a desk in a co-working building. Does that count as an office?
Google's guidelines allow a co-working address only when the business has clear signage there, clients can visit during the stated hours, and staff are present. A mailbox or a remote P.O. box is not accepted as an address.
Can I pay Google to move up in the map results?
No. Google's ranking page says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. If a vendor offers guaranteed map placement, that page is the reply.
How is "Firm name: Attorney name" different from two listings?
It is one profile with both names in the title, the form Google's guidelines set out for a solo practitioner who is also the firm's brand. Two profiles at one address split the reviews between them.
Canadian? The same three sizes in Canadian dollars are on the CAD pricing page.