Lead Generation for Lawyers in 2025

To ensure a consistent cash flow, law firms need billable work rolling in from new clients every month. Let’s take a look at establishing lead generation for lawyers processes so that your practice gets a reliable number of high-quality prospects every month.

As law firm marketing experts, we first hand see attorneys struggle at the lead generation game. Low utilization rate is an industry-wide problem. At 31% in 2021, lawyers continue to get distracted with non-billable work. Billable client work adds up to merely 2.5 hours in an 8-hour workday.

To get a consistent stream of high-quality legal leads, you need to map the buying journey of your prospective client (or a lead) from the first touchpoint to buying from you. Then build a lead generation process around it and consistently optimize the pipeline to smoothen the prospect’s journey.

Let’s briefly look at the tactics of lead generation for lawyers and the frequently asked questions around attorney leads. Later, we’ll cover each of these law firm marketing tips in detail.

Frequently Asked Questions About Lead Generation For Lawyers

Now that we’ve tackled the basics of lead generation let’s look at five quick ways to scale it (including a bonus tip) and grow your law practice.

Invest in a Professional Attorney Website

A website is equivalent to your law firm’s online home, where a prospect will form first impressions about you. Clio Legal Trends 2021 report indicates significant spending on “marketing website and domain”:

So if you feel the need to revamp the website design for your site, here are some tips:

• Use a color scheme representing your brand: As soon as your website visitors land, they form perceptions about your law practice.

Your color palette has a huge role to play in these first impressions leading up to them clicking on the “get a consultation” button on your site, so choose a color scheme wisely. Huesnap is a decent tool to create your palette by uploading images or using the color wheel.

• Make the site responsive: Given many visitors today will visit you from mobiles or tablets, it’s important to use responsive themes that adapt to different screen sizes. If you’re using WordPress as your content management system (CMS), it offers many premium themes that will work well across devices.
• Ensure it’s SEO-friendly: Your website’s code and content should be optimized for search engines so that their crawlers can easily crawl your site and understand its content.

Again, WordPress offers out-of-the-box solutions in the form of plugins and themes for ensuring your website is loved by search engine bots. Choose your toolset wisely and ensure it’s lean to ensure a fast-loading website.

• Keep it interactive and engaging: Static websites will not appeal to your potential clients. You need interactive elements such as graphics, videos, and maybe even a quiz to keep the attention of your visitors.

As an agency providing premier law firm web design services, we’ve provided custom website development to many outdated websites. Improving your core web vital scores and engagement on the site (through redesign) not only can improve your rankings and traffic across the board — it can improve your lead generation as well!

Just one of our recent website redesign SEO projects, we improved the leads from 95 (in November and December):

To 141 in Jan and Feb:

Get Instant Traction With PPC Advertising

Once you have a responsive website ready for your law firm, the quickest way to start lead generation is through online advertising. Google Ads are an instant ticket to the top of Google search results, bypassing — in some cases — millions of other websites competing for important keywords in your locality.

There’s one major challenge of generating leads In the legal industry through Google’s pay per click advertising, though — a high cost per click (CPC). You may need to pay even between $500 to $1000 for a click for super competitive keywords:

That’s why our law firm PPC services are based on finding keywords with relatively less competition that still indicate prospects with a buying intent.

Here are some additional tips for PPC advertising for law firms:

• Create custom landing pages: To improve your lead quality and conversion rates, you can create a custom landing page for every campaign that follows the promise you made in the ad.
• Test and optimize your campaigns: Measure and analyze each step of the campaign, including the keywords, ads (copy and creative), the landing page design, CTR, CPC, and the like.

You can also append UTM parameters to your landing page’s URL for a more granular understanding of the conversions. Here’s Google’s guide on them:

Start Search Engine Optimization For Your Firm

Law firm SEO is one of the most lucrative lead generation tactics because its results compound with time. For one of our clients, Stroleny Law, we achieved a 4175% increase in monthly leads in 10 months:

Indeed in our decade of experience offering law firm SEO, we have delivered results via:

• Personal injury lawyer SEO (our sweet spot!)
• DUI lawyer SEO
• Immigration lawyer SEO
• Divorce and family lawyer SEO

Getting your law firm’s website to the top of organic search results just works. It lends you more of those high-quality leads looking for your legal services right now.

The only problem?

SEO can take six months or even more before you see those search engine rankings for your site pick up.

Here are some law firm SEO tips to get started:

• Plug your site inside an SEO tool like Ahrefs and find your low-hanging fruit opportunities — the pages on your site that rank on page 2. For these pages, either content optimization, link building for law firms, or technical SEO improvements can push your website rankings to the first page.

Do you find multiple opportunities?

Then choose the keywords (or pages associated with them) related to your primary law practice area or primary business location.

• If you want to invest more resources and time in SEO, conduct a thorough competitor analysis using tools such as Ahrefs and Google PageSpeed Insights. The goal is to find how you stack against the competition in terms of content, links, and overall website performance.
• Find your website lacks a sufficient amount of quality content? Then conduct keyword research targeting prospective clients across the complete marketing funnel.

Top-ranking websites tend to have hubs of content around their practice areas. For instance, here’s one of our clients:

Every page you write should also be optimized for its targeted keyword by studying the top spots on the search results page. Taking help from a tool like Surfer SEO can ensure stellar on page SEO. We do all of our optimizations based on its suggestions:

• Is your website’s authority relatively low? Then identify websites you can build links from through a backlink gap analysis. Here’s an example of what it might look like:

• If you find your website is slow and doesn’t work well across devices, invest in an out-of-the-box solution like premium WordPress themes. However, you’ll need to hire a website developer for advanced customizations.

Work on the aspects of your website related to SEO that remain underserved.

Offer a Free Consultation

Most of your website traffic won’t buy from you on their first visit. Instead of letting your visitors bounce, you can build a relationship with them by adding value upfront.

How do you go about the same?

By showing them a free preview of your legal expertise through a free consultation. For instance, here’s a car accident law firm in Los Angeles offering to “schedule free consultation”:

And here’s the information they are asking from a prospect for the same:

Given that you’re asking for detailed info from the visitor, you’ll get an understanding of the lead quality.

There’s another way to give free value to your website visitors. It’s by showing your legal expertise in an Ebook, webinar, checklist, or another similar “lead magnet.” In exchange, typically, you can ask for the prospect’s contact information, but that’s not essential.

For instance, here’s a personal injury law firm, Murphy & Prachthauser, that answers key questions of their prospective clients on how to prepare for a legal case after meeting an accident:

After getting this free and valuable help, the reader is more likely to contact Murphy & Prachthauser. Especially given that the firm places a regular call to action (CTA) for their free consultation throughout the Ebook, and at the end of it:

Now how do you generate leads through your free consultation?

Well, you can put up forms in the right sidebar of your blog.

You can create dedicated “free consultation” landing pages for your law practice and drive traffic to them via SEO and PPC. Depending on your law practice, social media may also get some traction. One of our law firm website design clients, Henningsen Injury Attorneys, PC, offer a free consultation on their homepage:

Provide Stellar Legal Services (and Get Word of Mouth Rolling!)

Nothing beats good old word-of-mouth marketing for service businesses. Indeed traditionally, attorneys have relied on building a reputation at the courthouse and referrals from existing clients for acquiring leads.

The best aspect of word of mouth?

Ones coming from your ideal clients will be super high quality.

For this lead generation tactic, you need to provide high-quality legal services. While this is a no-brainer, you might have a lot on their plate.

Marketing, design, and non-client activities can eat a significant amount of your time, thereby affecting your legal services.

So outsource all the activities that don’t make business sense to invest your time in. The 2020 Websites & Marketing American Bar Association (ABA) report found that tasks related to site design (36%), search engine optimization (27%), and social media (24%) are likely to be handled by external marketing consultants (like On The Map Marketing).

Optimize Your Client Intake Process

You want a smooth client experience from the minute a prospect lands on your practice area landing page. You should collect relevant client information as soon as they land on your website. Of course, if you offer free consultations, the prospects will share their needs. You want to use email marketing automation to ensure quick response times.

If you allow prospects to call, your intake specialists should be empathetic and helpful. Ultimately your goal should be to streamline your customer engagement by using legal CRM and practice management software. It ensures a stellar experience from the first time someone lands on your website to timely follow up via phone, email, etc—all the way down to closing the lead.

Get More Reviews to Improve Your Presence in Local Search Results

Lawyer reviews are the number one way prospective clients judge their quality of services. They are treated almost as “personal recommendations” by consumers.

​​

So once you’ve clients that have a positive experience with you (by providing stellar services), encourage them to leave a review on your Google Business Profile and other legal directories (where you have a presence). Online reviews are important for your local rankings and overall local SEO for attorneys.

Good Old Content Marketing Works

Do you’ve informational content related to your audience’s questions and concerns? Blog posts, legal educational guides relevant to your practice area, and even videos of attorneys answering FAQs of your prospects are all valuable. They can establish trust with potential clients, cement your authority in your niche, and also land you targeted leads.

If your team has the bandwidth to post content related to your niche on social media that can also improve your brand awareness.

11 Best Lead Generation Services for Lawyers

There’s been a rise in lead generation services these days, and many specialize in law firms and legal professionals. Here are the top picks if you’re looking for the best lead generation services for lawyers.

1. Nolo

Nolo provides lead generation for attorneys using a pay-per-lead model, which means you only pay for the leads you get. This setup is ideal for smaller firms or any firm that prefers a flexible, cost-effective option.

Nolo users can view real-time statistics of all leads in a unified dashboard and leads can be sent via e-mail or a legal customer relationship management (CRM) system. Law firms who’ve used this service appreciate the quality of leads they received and like that the pricing structure is budget-friendly.

Services offered: Lead generation, Online directory

Practice areas: Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Family Law, Estate Planning

Pricing: Not available

2. Avvo

Avvo is an established lead generation service for lawyers and is known for its high-traffic legal online directory. Lawyers are notified of potential clients looking for legal services that match their practice area and are given 24 hours to respond to the inquiry. Reviews indicate that Avvo’s system is simple and easy to use for lawyers and that the platform ensures it delivers qualified leads.

Services offered: Pay-per-lead, Direct leads, Lead Intake

Practice areas: Personal injury, Family Law, Employment, Estate Planning, Criminal Defense

Pricing: Starts at $399 per month

3. Expertise

Although it’s not exclusive to the legal industry, Expertise.com is a platform that matches professionals with potential clients using advanced algorithms, verification, and screening. The platform acts as a matchmaker for potential clients and lawyers in many practice areas. In addition, lawyers can create a profile to help boost their visibility and attract prospective clients. Lawyers who have used this service noted an increase in quality leads.

Services offered: Lead generation, Concierge service

Practice areas: Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Defamation, Medical Malpractice, Employment, Immigration, Family Law

Pricing: Not available

4. FindLaw

FindLaw is a resource for legal information online and includes a growing lawyer directory where people can find lawyers in all practice areas. Users can find a lawyer by location, legal issue, lawyer profile, or name. FindLaw also provides marketing services for lawyers including website development, search engine optimization (SEO), and lead generation. According to reviews, lawyers benefit greatly from the platform’s wide reach but others say that limited top positions in its directory search results can limit the attorney profiles that clients see.

Services offered: Lead generation, Legal directory, Case evaluation, SEO, Web design, Content marketing

Practice areas: Bankruptcy, Business, Education, Elder Law, Employment Law, Immigration, Litigation & Appeals, Medical Malpractice, Real Estate, Wrongful Death

Pricing: Not available

5. Unbundled Attorney

Unbundled Attorney is a lead generation service that offers exclusive leads for lawyers offering limited-scope representation. Leads are offered to one lawyer only and are sent in real-time via email and SMS. Law firms that used this service are happy with the results, with most of them increasing their revenue and growing their clientele.

Services offered: Exclusive leads

Practice areas: Family Law, Immigration, Bankruptcy, Estate Planning

Pricing: Not available

6. Thumbtack

Thumbtack is an online directory that features local service professionals in various industries from home improvement to professional services like law firms and lawyers. The platform lets potential customers search for a service they need and Thumbtack shows them vetted professionals in their area. While the service is free for customers, service providers need to pay a fee to interact with inquiries from prospective customers. Reviews indicate quality and relevant attorney leads, while others note that some leads are far from their business’s location.

Services offered: Lead generation, Marketplace profile, Quote and bid management, Payment processing

Practice areas: Family Law, Personal Injury, Employment, Immigration, Bankruptcy

Pricing: Not available

7. Lawyers.com

Lawyers.com is a popular online legal directory that also offers marketing services like lead generation, SEO, and paid advertising. Law firms can pay to appear on top of search results, add dofollow backlinks to their site, and answer client inquiries via a call-answering feature called LawyerLine. Law firms prove to have had varied success with this platform, with most reviews indicating a boost in online presence and a stream of new, qualified leads.

Services offered: Legal directory, Paid listings, Custom Websites, Lead generation via LawyerLine

Practice areas: All practice areas (Here’s a full list)

Pricing: $277/month (Paid listings); Cost per lead varies per practice area

8. LegalZoom

LegalZoom is a legal directory where users can enter the state and practice area of the lawyer they’re searching for. Customers can sign up for a monthly subscription to consult with lawyers for a fixed fee. Lawyers can list their profiles in the directory and connect with prospects within the platform. There’s no membership fee for creating a listing but the service follows a pay-per-lead model. Lawyers who have used this service appreciate the monthly income from user subscriptions and that there are no referral fees.

Services offered: Attorney referrals, Registered agent services, Document preparation, Subscription-based legal advice, Lead generation

Practice areas: Business, Estate Planning, Family Law, Personal Injury, Intellectual Property, Bankruptcy

Pricing: Not available

9. LegalMatch

LegalMatch finds licensed attorneys for clients who need legal assistance. Potential clients submit a form on the LegalMatch website with details about their case. Qualified lawyers on this service receive a notification of new case submissions and decide if they want to take them on. Lawyers who sign up for this service pay a membership fee based on location and specialization. Reviews of this service note that they received high quality leads and that the service had high returns on investment.

Services offered: Lawyer profiles, Lead generation

Practice areas: Family Law, Personal Injury, Bankruptcy, Employment, Intellectual Property, Criminal Defense, Business, Immigration, Real Estate

Pricing: Starts at $455/month

10. 4LegalLeads

4LegalLeads is a lead generation service for lawyers that provides exclusive leads in most practice areas. Leads are delivered in real time and are exclusive to you. 4LegalLeads verifies the phone numbers and emails of incoming leads to ensure their legitimacy. This service requires a subscription to gain access to leads and the partner portal. Lawyers in competitive practice areas (like a personal injury firm) appreciate that leads from this service are exclusive so it gives them more chances of conversions.

Services offered: Lead generation

Practice areas: Personal Injury, Bankruptcy, Business, Consumer Law, Criminal Defense, Employment, Estate Planning, Family Law, Foreclosure Defense, ID Theft, Immigration, Intellectual Property, Real Estate

Pricing: $20 – $1500 per lead (depends on practice area)

11. Leading Response

LeadingResponse is a customer acquisition platform serving businesses in the finance, legal, and healthcare industries. The company uses multi-channel marketing campaigns like digital advertising, workshops, and in-person seminars to generate leads. This platform follows a cost-per-lead (CPL) model along with setup costs and monthly retainer fees. Law firms who’ve availed of this service liked that legal leads are exclusive and received in real-time, but others report that leads didn’t meet their expectations.

Services offered: Lead generation, Digital advertising, Seminar marketing

Practice areas: Personal Injury, Worker’s Compensation, Medical Malpractice, Mass Torts, Immigration, Social Security Disability

Pricing: $40 to $400 per lead (depending on the industry/specialization)

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth Investing in Lead Generations Services?

Paying for leads can be a great way to grow your practice quicker, but remember that lead generation services are worth it only when you achieve:

• Consistent client acquisition
• Faster results
• A competitive edge
• Improved online presence

To avoid making the wrong investment, do your research thoroughly and read reviews on different platforms about the lead generation service you’re considering. As much as possible, go for services that provide exclusive leads and not ones that churn out the same lead for multiple firms.

If you want to learn more about getting a steady flow of clients in the long term, focus on creating a digital marketing strategy.

You can invest in a law firm digital marketing agency like On The Map Marketing, which provides comprehensive marketing plans that help your firm grow its online presence and attract new clients with proven strategies that make a lasting impact. Contact us today to get started.

Up next, you can read our articles on lead generation for specific practice areas:. personal injury leads, family law leads, DUI lawyer leads, or mass tort marketing for lawyers.