Local SEO for conveyancing solicitors: a UK guide

This guide is for partners and practice managers at SRA-regulated firms that do residential conveyancing. It covers the Google profile rules, the page behind the profile, reviews, and a table of how many people search for a conveyancer in each UK city.

It doesn't cover paid ads; for those, see our guide to Google Ads for conveyancing solicitors. It isn't legal advice, and your COLP (compliance officer for legal practice) should see anything you publish.

How does Google decide who shows for "near me"?

Google's own help page names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is "how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for".^[1] Distance is "how far each business is from the customer who's searching".^[1]

A firm can't change distance, because the searcher's location sets it. It can work on relevance with a complete, accurate profile, and on prominence with reviews and a name people recognise. Google also says: "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."^[1]

Nobody can sell you a place on the map. Google states that "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."^[1] Be wary of anyone who promises one.

What are the Google Business Profile rules for a conveyancing firm?

There are four, and they come down to being exactly what you say you are. Google sets the first two, and our reading of Google's distance factor gives the others.

1. One profile per real office. Google says to "Create your Business Profile for your actual, real-world location."^[2] A rented mailing address where nobody works is "also known as a virtual office", and Google says "that location isn't eligible for a Business Profile".^[2]
2. Use the firm's real name and nothing added. Google's guideline says your name "should reflect your business's real-world name".^[2] So don't add "Conveyancing Solicitors Leeds" to a name that doesn't say it.
3. Service areas don't rank. Whitespark, a local SEO software company, tested adding a service area to a profile and concluded this "still has no impact on local rankings".^[3] That fits Google's distance factor, which is measured from your address.
4. Service-area profiles are for firms that travel. A conveyancing firm whose clients come to an office, or who works by phone and email from one, should use that office as its address. It shouldn't hide the address to look wider.

Whitespark's test is one company's controlled test, so treat the third rule as our working assumption. Check your own profile for these four points before you do anything else.

A profile checklist for a conveyancing firm

Work down this list in order. Print it or keep it open while you check your profile.

How many people search for a conveyancer in each city?

Most searches add a place or "near me". Google UK shows about 9,900 monthly searches for the plain phrase "conveyancing solicitors" and about 5,400 for "conveyancing solicitors near me".^[8] Adding a city splits that demand into much smaller pieces.

The table lists the 15 biggest of 25 city phrases we pulled from DataForSEO, a keyword data service. Each phrase follows the pattern "conveyancing solicitors" plus the city name.

London is the largest single phrase at 1,300. After it come three cities at 720 each. No other city is above 590, so a firm in one town competes for a small number of searches.

That is still a clear signal: the person typing it wants a conveyancer in a particular place. These counts leave out other wordings, such as "conveyancers in Leeds", so treat them as a floor.

Should you build a page for every city?

No, unless you have an office there. Google lists, as an example of doorway abuse, "Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page".^[4] A page for each of the 25 cities in the table above would look like that.

Build one page for each real office instead, with its address, opening hours, the people who work there and the price information for the work done there. The table shows where demand is. It's not a list of pages to write.

What should the page behind the profile say?

It should show your conveyancing prices where a visitor can find them. The SRA Transparency Rules cover residential conveyancing, which means sales, purchases and remortgages. They say the cost information must be "clear and accessible and in a prominent place on your website".^[5]

That page is also what a local searcher compares. Our SRA Transparency Rules checklist lists what to publish, and the conveyancing marketing page shows how to compare what each referral source earns you.

If your profile's website link goes to the home page, point it at the office page that carries the price information. A visitor shouldn't need three clicks to find a price.

What happens after a visitor asks for a quote matters as much as the click. Our conveyancing quote software page covers that step.

How do reviews help, and what are the limits?

Reviews help in two ways. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, and the SRA says "Proactively managing online reviews and engaging with comparison websites can be extremely helpful".^[6]

The limit is honesty. Google says "That's why we take fake and/or incentivised reviews and ratings on businesses very seriously."^[7] So don't pay for reviews or offer a discount for one.

Ask every client at the same point in the process, not only the ones you expect to be happy. That last point is our practice, not a Google rule.

The same SRA code that covers your website covers what you say about reviews. Publicity must be "accurate and not misleading".^[9] Check your review wording with your COLP.

When do people search for a conveyancer?

Searches drop sharply in December and dip through the summer. They were highest in March 2026 (12,720) and October 2025 (12,280). The 25 city phrases together ran from 12,720 in March 2026 down to 6,900 in December 2025.^[8]

Our reading is that the quiet months are the time to fix the profile and the price page, so both are working before the January rise. One year of data shows a pattern, not a rule.

Do directory listings and consistent details matter?

Yes, as a tidy-up job, not a trick. Use the same firm name, address, phone number and SRA number on your website, your Google profile and any directory that lists you. Mismatches confuse people as well as search tools.

Start with the listings people already see for your firm, such as comparison sites and your SRA record. Correct anything out of date, and ask for removal of duplicates. Publicity on those sites is still your firm's publicity, so your COLP should see any text you supply.

How do you measure local SEO for a conveyancing firm?

Count what reaches the firm: calls, quote requests and instructions, by source. Rankings and impressions are only a guide, because they do not show who became a client.

Record where each enquiry came from when it arrives, and mark the ones that instruct. Check the Google profile's own call and website-click counts monthly. Compare them with your CRM, as the conveyancing CRM guide explains.

What can this guide not tell you?

It gives the rules and the market data, not results. We have no ranking numbers to publish for a conveyancing firm, and nobody can promise a firm a position on the map. Search counts are Google estimates, and the real number of people near your office will differ.

For wider SEO work, including pages, links and AI answers, see our local SEO and AI search service and the guide to SEO for solicitors. You can also check how AI tools describe your firm with the AI visibility checker.

One firm's search clicks show what we can and can't say. For one conveyancing firm we work with, searches that didn't use the firm's name brought these Google clicks:

That counts all non-brand Google search clicks, not only local ones. We had no access to its Business Profile figures, so we can't say how much came from the map results. Results vary by firm, area and market.