Stop Renting Attention: Build Digital Real Estate With Law Firm SEO

Most law firms think SEO is another way to generate leads. Jason Xu thinks that misses the point entirely. In this episode of The SELL Life Podcast for Lawyers, I sit down with Jason, a former lawyer and founder of Commersion Legal, to unpack what effective SEO for law firms actually looks like — and why your website should be treated as an asset rather than another marketing expense. Jason has worked both in-house and in private practice, including at MinterEllison, before leaving legal practice to help law firms turn their expertise into something Google, AI search engines and prospective clients can actually find and understand. We get practical very quickly. Jason explains why most law firm websites are structured incorrectly, why every meaningful service and sub-service deserves its own landing page, how Google decides which lawyers to recommend, and why traffic means very little if it never produces enquiries or clients. We also explore what happens as search moves increasingly towards tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini — and why building genuine authority online may become even more important rather than less. One of my favourite ideas from the conversation is simple: Paid advertising rents attention. Your website is digital real estate you actually own. For independent lawyers in particular, that distinction matters. If you have spent years developing specialist knowledge, credibility and experience, your digital presence should make that expertise obvious to the people searching for exactly what you do. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 – Introduction 07:40 – The biggest load of BS law firms are told about SEO 08:00 – What SEO is actually supposed to achieve 10:00 – Why Jason left legal practice 14:50 – Why former lawyers may have an advantage in legal marketing 19:30 – The first thing a new law firm should do with its website 20:00 – Why every legal service needs its own landing page 23:40 – Your website should feel like a conversation with the client 25:00 – Increasing a prospective client's confidence in choosing you 27:20 – Why specialist positioning matters 28:15 – Why your homepage is still incredibly important 30:00 – Turning your first clients into a referral flywheel 31:30 – How to tell whether an SEO agency actually knows what it is doing 35:00 – What law firms should demand from SEO providers 38:00 – How long should SEO take to work? 40:00 – Traffic versus enquiries versus actual revenue 42:30 – The danger of vanity metrics 44:00 – How lawyers can find content topics clients actually care about 45:40 – Is AI going to kill traditional SEO? 46:50 – Why Commersion Legal joined League Loot 49:00 – Stop renting attention and start building digital real estate 52:00 – How to connect with Jason LINKS & SHOW NOTES Commersion Legal: https://commersion.legal League Loot member offer: https://leaguelootperks.thesell.life Join The Self Employed Lawyers League: https://thesell.life ABOUT THE SELL LIFE The SELL Life is the podcast for lawyers who want more control over their career, clients, income and life. We speak with independent lawyers, legal innovators, business owners and industry leaders about what actually works when building a modern legal practice. Subscribe for conversations about: Independent legal practice Business development for lawyers Law firm marketing Legal technology Client acquisition Law firm growth Lawyer entrepreneurship The future of legal services