Technical AEO Foundation for Law Firms
If AI crawlers can't read your site cleanly, nothing else you do shows up. We build the machine-readable layer underneath it all.
What the technical foundation actually does
The foundation is the plumbing that lets engines find, read, and understand your content: server-rendered pages AI crawlers can actually parse, clean descriptive URLs, fast load times, a logical site structure, and structured data (JSON-LD) — FAQPage, LegalService, Person, and LocalBusiness schema — that labels who you are and what each page answers. Be candid about the research: schema is best understood as useful infrastructure, not a magic citation lever. The most rigorous controlled study found no statistically significant citation lift from adding schema alone, while other analyses show meaningful gains for specific types like FAQPage and for Google's own surfaces. The honest synthesis: structured data makes a well-built, high-quality page legible to machines — it amplifies good content rather than replacing it. We build the foundation so your genuinely strong, attorney-authored content has every chance to be read and cited.
Cited pages overwhelmingly have structured data
Pages that get cited by AI are nearly 3x more likely to have JSON-LD structured data than non-cited pages.
Schema alone didn't move the needle in the best-controlled test
The most rigorous controlled test — 1,885 pages that added schema, matched against 4,000 controls — found no statistically significant citation lift from schema alone; AI visibility is driven by content quality, entity authority, and sourcing.
The right schema on the right content pays off
Where schema clearly helps: FAQPage and structured data have been associated with citation lifts in the ~30–44% range for the right content types and platforms (notably Google's AI surfaces).
Being citable matters when the click disappears
AI Overviews now appear on more than 20% of Google searches, and when present they reduce click-through by roughly 60%; in 2026 fewer than one-third of Google searches still send a click at all (zero-click ~68%).
Blocking AI crawlers removes you from consideration
Blocking AI crawlers is generally counterproductive — Google's AI Overviews pull from the same crawl as traditional search, and blocking other engines' crawlers removes your firm from consideration entirely.
Answers to the questions firms ask first.
- Is schema markup actually worth it? +
- As infrastructure, yes — cited pages overwhelmingly have it, and the right types help on certain platforms. But we're honest that schema alone doesn't manufacture citations; content quality does. We build both.
- What schema types do you implement? +
- FAQPage, LegalService, Person, and LocalBusiness JSON-LD, matched to what each page actually contains.
- My site looks fine to me — why does 'crawler-readable' matter? +
- Many sites render content in ways AI crawlers can't parse, or accidentally block them. If the crawler can't read it, none of your content can be cited. We verify and fix that.
- Does this replace good content? +
- No. The foundation makes good content legible to machines. It amplifies expertise; it can't substitute for it.
- Why mention the conflicting studies at all? +
- Because attorneys are trained to weigh evidence, and an agency that overclaims is an agency to distrust. The honest position is the stronger sell — and it keeps us on the right side of advertising rules.
See exactly how your firm appears in AI answers today.
The free AI Visibility Audit is the same first step every Sirianni engagement begins with. No obligation, no spam — real findings, in your jurisdiction.