Google’s AI Overviews Are Stealing Your Traffic: What Law Firms Must Do Now

Google’s recent developments in artificial intelligence, particularly its introduction of AI Overviews in search results, are already reshaping how people access information online. While this may be a leap forward for user experience, it spells a potential crisis for organic web traffic — especially for law firms that rely heavily on content marketing, SEO, and visibility to generate leads. If your firm has worked hard to rank in organic search, the rise of AI-powered summaries could be eating into your hard-won clicks, and it’s time to understand what this shift means — and what you must do now to stay ahead of the curve.

What Are Google AI Overviews?

AI Overviews, previously known as Google Search Generative Experience (SGE), leverage generative AI to deliver summarised, direct answers at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). For example, if someone searches for “What compensation can I claim after a road traffic accident in the UK?”, the AI Overview may preemptively provide a paragraph outlining estimated compensation ranges, timeframes, and next steps — synthesising information from various pages without requiring the user to click through to any of them.

Google cites this as an evolution intended to save users time. But this streamlined experience presents a major dilemma for law firms: when Google itself becomes the primary source of answers, users are far less likely to click on your blog posts, FAQs, or service pages. Your traffic could fall, even as your content powers the very engines that are circumventing it.

Why Are Law Firms At Risk?

Legal content is particularly susceptible to being “scraped” and abstracted by AI Overviews. Law firms invest substantial time and resources into building detailed, accurate, and SEO-optimised content to provide clarity on often complex legal matters. This content — especially evergreen topics like personal injury claims, criminal liability, family law proceedings, and conveyancing processes — is exactly the type that gets pulled into AI-generated summaries. Here’s why that matters:

• Law firm websites are often written for clarity and accuracy, ideal for AI training and summarising.
• Legal information is repetitive across jurisdictions, making it easier for AI to condense and present generalised versions.
• Fewer users are clicking through to the firm’s site, meaning fewer opportunities for lead conversion, brand trust building, and long-form content engagement.

This Isn’t About the Future — It’s Already Happening

Initial studies from SEO platforms such as Moz and Semrush have shown a significant decline in click-through rates (CTR) for informational search queries surfacing AI Overviews. In some cases, CTRs have dropped by over 30%. For law firms who depend on thought leadership to generate awareness and trust, this is a profound issue.

Major search terms such as “UK divorce process”, “how to write a will”, or “when to hire an employment solicitor” are increasingly resulting in no-click searches. Prospective clients are consuming brief but seemingly sufficient summaries and leaving, never seeing the solicitor’s expertise or calls to action.

How AI Chooses What to Display — And Why You Must Optimise Differently

Under the hood, AI Overviews work by analysing top-ranking search results and cross-referencing authoritative content to compose a unified summary. As a law firm, you’re stuck in a paradox: you want your content to be seen as credible enough to feed the AI, but you also don’t want to lose traffic as a result of the AI answering users directly.

This requires a strategic shift. Rather than competing only for top ranking positions, law firms must create content that nourishes AI engines while also offering irreplaceable value to users who do click through. This means designing content that entices engagement, drives curiosity, provides interactive tools, and, most importantly, builds trust in your brand.

The Role of Structured Data and Schema Markup

Google’s AI systems rely heavily on structured data to understand the context and content of webpages. Law firms not implementing proper schema — such as LegalService, FAQ, or Article markups — may be bypassed by AI Overviews or misrepresented.

Adding structured data can feed the AI the right information while ensuring it attributes assertions correctly back to your site. This may also increase the odds of featured snippets, rich results, and link inclusion within AI Overviews. Technical SEO is no longer an optional enhancement — it’s an essential defence against losing traffic to generative algorithms.

Shift Your Strategy from Keywords to Queries and Context

Historically, law firms have focused on optimising content around specific keywords or legal phrases. But AI doesn’t think in keywords — it thinks in semantically rich queries, context, and natural language. Your content must now match the intent behind complex questions.

Writing FAQ-style content, creating conversational blogs, and answering compound user questions gives your pages a greater chance of being referenced — or clicked on when users feel summaries are too vague. Instead of just targeting “probate solicitor in Leeds,” think about full query-context phrases like “how long does the probate process take in Leeds?” or “what documents do I need for a probate application?”

Build Authoritativeness Through Real Human Expertise

One major advantage law firms still hold over AI is real human authority. Google’s helpful content update and E-E-A-T principles (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) remain important, especially in YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) sectors like legal services. Including solicitor profiles, credentials, video explainers, and posted-by lines improves legitimacy and personalises your advice in a way AI cannot replicate.

Testimonials from past clients, firm-specific insights on local legal procedures, and strategic thought leadership commenting on legislative trends will continue to set your firm apart. AI Overviews can summarise generic laws; they can’t deliver insight based on decades of real-world client outcomes.

Opportunities Hidden Within the Threat

This disruption is also an opportunity. Law firms that adapt rapidly can use the current AI revolution to their advantage. How?

Firstly, use your domain expertise to create AI-informed content strategies. Use AI tools like ChatGPT Plus, Claude, or Gemini to understand how generative engines interpret and restructure legal content. Explore prompts such as “Summarise steps to contest a will in the UK” and observe what the AI responds with. Reverse engineer your own superior version that adds value and accuracy, then publish accordingly.

Secondly, invest in interactivity. AI Overviews can’t replicate downloadable templates, assessment tools, video explainers, or real-time contact with qualified solicitors. Building these into your content ecosystem can turn passive visitors into engaged leads.

Finally, target middle- and bottom-funnel content. Top-level informational content is most likely to suffer from AI disruption. However, content addressing firm comparisons, processes, pricing structures, and testimonials remains valuable and less likely to be digested into AI snapshots. Focus on content such as “Why choose a local solicitor for divorce proceedings?” or “What’s included in our fixed-fee conveyancing service?”

Rethink Metrics and Conversion Strategies

Your key performance indicators (KPIs) need to evolve. Pure traffic metrics are becoming less meaningful in the AI-driven search landscape. Instead, focus on:

• Engagement rate: Are users scrolling, clicking, and reading multiple pages?
• Form submission rate: Are your enquiry forms converting at a steady pace?
• Time to contact: How quickly are users converting from a search query into personal contact?
• Brand mentions: As AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous, measure how often your firm is cited in AI back end references, industry blogs, or within online legal directories.

Use AI Yourself — Strategically

The final shift law firms must embrace is adopting AI internally not merely to defend against its effects — but to lead in its application. AI offers extensive use cases in modern law firm marketing and operations: from generating initial content drafts, summarising legislation updates, or automating basic case triage.

Intelligent email marketing sequencing, AI-powered live chatbots, and predictive lead scoring based on user behaviour can all elevate your digital strategy. AI won’t replace legal expertise, but firms that intelligently synchronise it with traditional skill sets will deliver faster, leaner, more engaging client experiences.

Conclusion: Don’t Resist the AI Shift — Redefine Your Position in It

Google’s AI Overviews are not going away. In fact, they will become more prominent, more accurate, and more integrated with Google’s full suite of tools in the coming months. For law firms, this marks both a challenge and a pivotal moment of reinvention. Traditional SEO methods are steadily declining in effectiveness. To thrive, firms must innovate through strategic value, human expertise, advanced optimisation, and intentional use of AI tools internally.

In the age of generative AI, true differentiation lies not in ranking #1 — but in being the most indispensable source of clarity, context, and trust.

Explore how tailored AI strategies can keep your law firm ahead of these changes by visiting AI for Law Firms.