Optimising a law firm’s Google Business Profile: a 20-point audit

Optimising a law firm’s Google Business Profile comes down to 3 things: real and complete details, precise categories and a steady flow of reviews obtained without cheating. Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence, and almost everything within your control acts on the first and the third. The most tempting shortcut, putting your practice area and your city in the name, is prohibited and can get your profile suspended.

Below you will find Google’s rules applied to law firms, a 20-point audit and a model message for asking for reviews that respects professional secrecy (secreto profesional). If your business is not a law firm, or you simply do not show up on the map, start with the general guide on how to appear on Google Maps.

Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence

According to Google’s official page of tips to improve your local ranking, local results are mainly based on 3 factors:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what the person is searching for. Google asks for complete, detailed information so that it can make that match.
• Distance: how far your firm is from the person searching. If that person does not share their location, Google uses what it knows about them.
• Prominence: how well known the business is. Google mentions the number of websites that link to your business and the number of reviews. More reviews and positive ratings can improve your local ranking.

The same page makes clear that you cannot request or pay for a better local ranking. And the categories help page adds a useful fact: the categories you choose influence your local ranking.

Google gives no further details of the algorithm: it says it keeps them confidential. Here we separate what Google documents from what is our own approach.

Your firm needs a real office with a sign to have a profile

Google only accepts profiles for businesses where someone deals with customers in person during the stated hours. For a law firm, the address guidelines translate into 4 rules:

• A virtual office, meaning a registered address with no activity, cannot have a profile.
• A desk in a coworking space only qualifies if there is clear signage and firm staff are there to attend clients during opening hours.
• The address must have a fixed, permanent sign with the firm’s name.
• If you give a PO box as your address, Google suspends the profile.

Nor can you have one profile per practice area. Google considers profiles of the same business that offer different services to be duplicates and does not show them. Employment, family and tax law go on the same profile, as services.

Google chooses the verification method, not you

Without verification, the profile does not let you reply to reviews and does not show your photos. The help page on how to verify your business lists these methods: phone or SMS, email, live video call, post and video recording. Google automatically decides which ones it offers you, and they cannot be changed.

• After you complete the steps, the review can take up to 5 working days.
• By post, most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. While you wait, do not change the name, address or category.
• If it offers you video, Google recommends it. The name on the sign has to match the one on the profile.

In the video, Google prohibits showing private information or other people’s faces. Film the sign, the building entrance and reception, but do not point the camera at case files, screens or clients in the waiting area.

The profile name is the one on your sign, with nothing added

The name must match your real name: the one on your sign, your website and your stationery. The name guidelines prohibit adding slogans, service information or location information. And they warn that, if you do, Google could suspend your profile.

Let’s say there is a firm called García Ruiz Abogados:

• Correct: “García Ruiz Abogados”, if that is how it appears on the sign, the website and the invoices.
• Incorrect: “García Ruiz Abogados | Divorce and Inheritance Castellón”.
• Incorrect: “Divorce Lawyers Castellón García Ruiz”.

The word “Abogados” (lawyers) can stay if it is part of the real name. What has to go is the practice area and the city, which belong in categories, services and description.

If your profile has already been suspended, correct the name before you appeal. The evidence you provide, such as utility bills, must show the same name and address as the profile. While it is under review, do not create another one.

Each lawyer can have their own profile if they deal with the public

Google uses the term “practitioners” for people who deal with the public personally and usually have their own client base. It gives lawyers and financial advisers as examples. According to the guidelines for practitioners, a practitioner can have their own profile if they meet 2 requirements:

• They deal with clients personally. Support staff should not create their own profile.
• Clients can contact them at the verified location during the stated hours.

And on these conditions:

• Only one profile per practitioner, even if they have several practice areas.
• If they share an office with other practitioners, the firm has its own profile. The lawyer’s profile carries only their name, without the firm’s, and can include their title.
• If they are the only public-facing practitioner at a branded office, the recommendation is a single profile: “Brand: practitioner’s name”.

Our approach, not a Google rule: create individual profiles only for people whose clients search for them by name. Each profile needs its own reviews. And agree in writing which account is the owner, because the guidelines do not explain what happens to the profile when a lawyer leaves.

The same applies to tax and accounting firms and administrative agencies (gestorías). What counts is the definition, not the job title.

Address, service area and opening hours must reflect how you serve clients

Address. Enter the exact physical address. The floor or the office number goes in address line 2, as the guidelines indicate.

Service area. This is for businesses that travel to the client. A hybrid business serves clients at its address and also visits or delivers. You can set up to 20 areas, and their boundaries should not be more than 2 hours’ drive away.

If your clients come to your office, you do not need a service area. Entering “all of Spain” exceeds that limit, and the help page does not say that expanding the area makes you appear in more cities.

Opening hours. Enter your usual client service hours. Summer working hours can go in as seasonal hours, and local holidays as special hours.

There is a nuance: the hours guidelines say that businesses that only work by appointment should not list opening hours. If your office has a reception and a phone that is answered during a set time slot, that slot is your opening hours.

Phone and website. Use a local number that the firm controls, not a call centre number or a premium-rate one. The linked website must represent that location. If you have several offices, our approach is to link each profile to the page for its office.

Categories say what your firm is, not what it does

Google asks you to choose categories that complete the statement “This business IS a”, not “This business HAS a”. And it asks you to use as few as possible, and the most specific ones.

You can choose one primary category and up to 9 additional ones, always from the list. You cannot create your own.

Imagine a firm that only handles family law. If the list offers a category for that practice area, it should be the primary one, not the generic one. A multidisciplinary firm will do the opposite: a general category as the primary one and few secondary ones.

2 warnings before you touch anything:

• Changing or adding categories may require you to verify the profile again.
• If you are a lawyer, article 20.3 of the General Statute of the Legal Profession (Estatuto General de la Abogacía) requires you to be able to prove the practice areas you advertise as specialisms. Apply that filter to categories and services.

Services, description and attributes: this is where your practice areas go

The services editor is the place to list what you do. According to the services help page, when someone searches for one of your services, it may be highlighted on your profile.

You can create custom services with a description. Do not put prices, phone numbers or personal data in the service name, because they get rejected.

The description allows up to 750 characters, with no links or HTML. Google suggests explaining what you offer, what makes you special and when you opened, and not focusing on promotions or prices.

If you are a lawyer, article 20 of the Statute adds 2 limits: no promising results and no mentioning clients without their authorisation, which the Code requires in writing (art. 6.3.e). The details are in advertising for lawyers: what the Code allows. The Code of Professional Conduct (Código Deontológico) also requires you to state in your advertising which Bar Association (Colegio de la Abogacía) you belong to (article 6.3). Our approach: treat the profile as advertising and name your Bar Association in the description.

Attributes are details such as whether the entrance is accessible. Google says that, with some attributes, your business could appear in searches for places with those features. Review the ones your category offers you and tick only those that are true.

Google recommends photos, but does not say that posts help you rank

Adding photos and videos is one of Google’s tips for local ranking, and photos only show once the profile is verified. Google recommends JPG or PNG, from 10 kB to 5 MB and 720 x 720 pixels, without excessive editing. Upload the façade with your sign, the reception and the team, with no case files or screens in view.

Posts are for news, offers and events, and Google archives those older than 6 months if they have no dates. The local ranking page does not mention them as a factor. Use them to inform, not as a ranking lever.

Questions and answers are not solid ground either. Google retired its API on 3 November 2025, and the help page says the section is only available in some regions and categories. Your clients’ frequent questions are better answered on your website.

You can ask for reviews, but Google prohibits 6 practices

Asking for reviews is allowed, within the limits set by the Google Maps content policy. For any business, we cover it with templates in how to get Google reviews. It is prohibited to:

• Offer incentives in return, such as money, discounts or free services. A free first consultation in exchange for a review falls under this.
• Discourage negative reviews or ask only satisfied clients for them. This is known as review gating.
• Demand or pressure clients to write the review while they are at the office.
• Ask for specific content, for example that they mention an employee by name.
• Post reviews with a conflict of interest: from employees, former employees, relatives or competitors.
• Post from several accounts or ask someone else to do so.

The consequences go beyond losing those reviews. Google can block new reviews for a while, hide existing ones and show a notice saying it has removed fake reviews. If it detects a pattern of violations, it can restrict the account and suspend all its profiles.

What is allowed is asking clients to share their experience, with no incentives and without influencing the rating or the content. Google gives you your own link and QR code: on your profile, go to “Read reviews” and then “Get more reviews”. You can send it by email or WhatsApp.

Our approach: send the request to every client when the matter is closed, not just to those the partner sees as satisfied. If the trigger is closing the case file, nobody filters. And do it then, not months later. Cautious approach: ask within the following 30 days, the period that art. 20.4 of the Consumer Protection Law (Ley de Consumidores) has referred to since Law 10/2025.

Model message for asking for reviews

This text offers nothing, does not ask for stars or for anyone to be named, and recommends not sharing details of the matter. That recommendation does not influence the rating: it protects the client and professional secrecy.

Subject: Your feedback on [firm name]

Hello [client name],

We have now closed your matter. Thank you for trusting us.

If you like, you can share your experience with the firm on Google. It is voluntary, and your feedback helps us whether everything went well or you think something could be better.

For your privacy, we recommend that you do not include personal details or details of your matter. Because of professional secrecy, we will not comment on them either when we reply.

Here is the link: [Google review link]

Kind regards, [name and position]

Short version for WhatsApp:

Hello [client name]. Thank you for trusting [firm name]. If you would like to share your experience on Google, here is the link: [review link]. We recommend that you do not include details of your matter. Best wishes.

The same text works for tax and accounting firms and administrative agencies. If your code of professional conduct provides for professional secrecy, keep the expression. If not, use “confidentiality”, the duty that article 5 of the LOPDGDD, Spain’s data protection law, imposes on anyone who processes personal data.

Your reply to a review cannot confirm anything about the matter

Google advises replies that are short, polite and signed, never sharing the writer’s private information. Replies are public, Google checks them before they are published and the author receives a notification, according to the reviews help page.

At a law firm the limit is stricter. Article 542.3 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial) requires lawyers to keep secret everything they learn through their professional work.

Article 22 of the General Statute says that this duty does not expire and that you must make your collaborators and staff respect it. It only releases you from it for matters that affect only your client and with their express authorisation (art. 22.6). The Code of Professional Conduct adds that the client’s consent does not excuse you from preserving it (art. 5.10). Cautious approach: a client publishing a review does not authorise you to comment on their matter.

In practice: even if the client tells their story, your reply neither confirms nor qualifies anything. As a precaution, do not confirm or deny that they are a client either. If an agency or someone on your team replies, give them these instructions in writing.

Model reply to a negative review:

We are sorry that your experience was not what you expected. Because of professional secrecy, we do not comment on any matter in public. If you would like to talk about it, write to us at [email] or call us on [phone] and we will go through it with you. [Name], [position].

Model reply to a positive review:

Thank you for taking a moment to write this review. Because of professional secrecy, we do not comment on any matter in public, but we read all feedback. Kind regards, [name].

If a review breaks the policy, for example spam, insults or content from someone with no connection to the firm, you can report it. Google will not remove it just because you disagree with it.

20-point audit for a law firm’s profile

Check your profile with this table or with the interactive version, which gives you a score and lists what is failing in order of priority. The “Type” column shows the weight of each point:

• Rule: required by Google’s guidelines or by the applicable regulations.
• Suspension risk: according to Google, breaching it can get the profile suspended.
• Review risk: Google can remove reviews, block new ones and show a public warning.
• Good practice: a non-mandatory Google recommendation or our own approach.

One extra point that does not fit in the table: log in to the profile at least once a month. Google can revoke access for owners who are inactive for long periods.

What to do on Monday

1. Open the profile with the owner account. Check that it is verified and that the firm owns it.
2. Review points 3, 5, 18 and 19 of the audit first. They are the ones that can cost you the profile or the reviews.
3. Copy the review link and save the model message as a template in your email or your practice management software.
4. Agree in writing who replies to reviews and within what limits.
5. Set aside 30 minutes a month for the performance dashboard. There you can see which searches find you, how many calls you receive and how many clicks reach your website.
6. Check that your details match in your professional association’s register (censo del colegio) and in the directories that matter. You will find the verified ones for each sector in where to list your business.

If you would rather not do it alone, at NOR studio we work on local SEO for law firms with these same criteria. You will find more context by sector on our pages for law firms and for tax and accounting firms and administrative agencies. And if your profile is already in good shape but your website does not convert, carry on with what the website of a law firm or a tax and accounting firm should include. Then follow the 90-day plan for SEO for lawyers.