The Hidden Cost of AI in Search: How Law Firm Websites Are Losing Clicks in 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to dominate headlines across every sector, and the legal industry is no exception. While AI-driven innovation undoubtedly creates opportunities for law firms to automate tasks, improve client services, and enhance cost-efficiency, it’s not without its drawbacks. One of the less-discussed, yet increasingly pressing, issues in 2025 is how AI-search advancements—particularly in Google and Microsoft’s search engines—are inadvertently costing law firms valuable website traffic.

Search engine experiences are evolving rapidly, moving away from traditional links and blue pages toward a landscape dominated by AI-generated responses. Despite the many ways AI can empower solicitors and law firms, the looming concern for digital marketers in the legal sector is this: how do you ensure visibility and engagement when your potential clients may not even need to click your link to get the answer they’re searching for?

The Shift from Blue Links to AI-Powered Answers

AI in search is not entirely new, but 2025 marks a significant turning point. Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Microsoft’s Bing AI are now the default for many users, offering concise and often accurate summaries directly on the search engine results page (SERP). While impressive, this trend has an unintended side effect: fewer users are clicking through to websites, including those of highly specialised law firms.

These AI summaries scrape data from top-ranking pages, often condensing multi-page articles or complex legal advice into digestible, one-paragraph answers. The search engines retain the user’s attention within their interface, and the law firm, though perhaps cited, loses the chance to make a direct impression, build trust or convert visitors into clients.

For law firms who have historically invested heavily in SEO, this is a sharp jolt to the system. Organic traffic—once the holy grail of inbound marketing—is now at risk of declining, even when your website ranks first.

Why This Matters for Law Firms in Particular

Legal services are uniquely affected by this trend due to the high value placed on trust, authority, and nuanced understanding. Clients rarely decide on legal representation based on a single sentence summary. Whether it’s family law, corporate litigation or conveyancing, legal consumers require context, credibility, and ultimately, human reassurance. Losing the opportunity to draw them into a rich content experience on your website reduces not just traffic, but conversion potential.

This situation is amplified in 2025 as more legal consumers begin their journey online. According to recent studies, over 80% of clients now research solicitors via online search before making contact. If AI answers their surface-level questions, they may never progress deeper into the more informative, conversion-oriented content you’ve invested in creating.

Understanding Where the Clicks Are Going

The concept of “zero-click searches” has exploded in relevance. This refers to search results that provide answers so complete that users don’t need to click anything to resolve their queries. Featured snippets, knowledge panels, and AI summaries are all contributing to this phenomenon. Law firm websites, particularly those that rely on in-depth blogs, service pages and case study-based SEO, are suffering from an engagement drain.

When a potential client searches “What does a conveyancing solicitor do?”, an AI answer may provide a summary derived from authoritative sources—including possibly your firm’s content—without attribution or engagement opportunities. That’s traffic lost, relationships unrealised, and client opportunities forfeited.

Is SEO Still Worth Pursuing for Law Firms?

Absolutely—but it must evolve. Traditional SEO remains a critical component of digital strategy, but savvy law firms are now expanding their focus to build resilience against AI-driven SERP changes.

This involves aligning legal content specifically with the informational needs AI models are trying to meet, but ensuring that more detailed, personalised, or localised information sits behind a click wall that requires user engagement. Examples include gated case studies, interactive tools like ‘Do I have a case?’ widgets, or downloadable client guides that encourage website visitation.

Moreover, AI in search does not replace the value of branded search queries or unique name recognition. Ensuring that clients know to search your firm directly rather than rely on general search is now more valuable than ever. Reputation building through review platforms, thought leadership and branded content distribution is key in addressing this shift.

How AI Is Changing Legal Content Strategy

Law firms must adapt by shifting the format and goals of their content. Where past SEO strategies may have focused on keyword density and long tail optimisation, 2025’s environment requires a more strategic and humanistic approach.

Google’s AI is trained to prefer content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust (E-E-A-T). Legal firms are well placed to win here—if they showcase real, human expertise. Strategies include publishing articles penned directly by solicitors, including client testimonials that go beyond generic stars, and embedding video to humanise service offerings.

Additionally, forward-thinking firms are beginning to explore AI-aware content schemas—structured data formats that help AI better understand your site’s authority and authorship. Transparent authorship and legal credentials are beginning to influence how the AI engine ranks or credits your content in its summaries.

Fighting Back with Legal AI

Ironically, the same AI systems threatening your digital visibility can also be weaponised in your favour. AI tools aren’t limited to search engines—they’re increasingly accessible for managing your own firm’s content, marketing and client communications.

Law firms using AI chatbots on their websites, for instance, are reporting higher on-site engagement and lead conversion rates. These tools ensure that even if fewer people click from Google, those who do gain a personalised, fast, and information-rich experience that encourages contact.

Moreover, AI-based analytics can help you understand where your engagement is leaking. By aggregating user behaviour insights across platforms, firms can now see exactly where traffic is stalling—be it in the SERP, the landing page or deeper down a conversion funnel.

There’s also rising utility in using AI to develop predictive content strategies. Platforms driven by natural language processing can forecast the kinds of legal questions clients will ask next month—not just analyse what they asked last month. Law firms embracing these insights can get ahead of the curve, creating ‘future-proof’ content that attracts traffic before AI summaries cannibalise it entirely.

Practical Strategies for Law Firms in 2025 and Beyond

To mitigate the erosive effects of AI-powered search and maintain marketing efficacy, law firms should adopt a diversified content and visibility strategy.

• Invest in local SEO and community engagement, which AI tools are less likely to distil into simple answers.
• Focus on brand-building and direct marketing tactics to reduce dependence on organic search alone.
• Develop proprietary tools and client resources that offer real value, encouraging users to engage onsite.
• Offer multi-modal content—video, podcast, visual explainers—that differentiates your firm beyond text.
• Implement schema markup and structured data to contribute directly and accurately to AI-generated content.

Importantly, train your marketing team or partners to understand AI’s strengths and limitations. The better you know how these engines retrieve and present information, the more strategically you can position your content for maximum visibility and impact.

The New KPIs of Success in an AI-Centric Search Landscape

In 2025’s digital ecosystem, traditional KPIs like sessions and bounce rate are being reevaluated by sophisticated legal marketers. Engagement metrics—like content depth, time on page, return visits, and interaction with on-page tools—are becoming more important than organic traffic alone.

Use AI-driven reporting platforms to assess not just quantity of traffic but quality. Are visitors who arrive via search actually converting? Are certain types of content resulting in more consultations or file openings?

As the SERP becomes increasingly competitive and opaque due to AI interpretation, law firms must reclaim control over parts of the client journey that AI can’t reach—principally, what happens on your site, how deeply users engage, and how satisfied they are with the experience.

Embracing the Future: Don’t Compete with AI—Collaborate with It

The answer isn’t to rage against AI. It’s to understand its impact, embrace its promise and strategically adapt. For law firms, the hidden cost of AI in search is manageable and, with the right approaches, reversible. Those who analyse, evolve and innovate will thrive in this new legal marketing landscape.

The firms who will lead in 2025 are the ones who use AI not just to react, but to anticipate. This includes using AI in client services, marketing automations, analytics, and yes—even in content creation when applied ethically and expertly.

Conclusion

While AI in search brings new challenges for your law firm’s visibility, it’s also ushering in an era of deeper, more intelligent legal marketing. Don’t just optimise for what the search engines need; optimise for what your clients want—and what your firm excels in providing. By pairing legal expertise with marketing agility and AI collaboration, your firm can not only survive but flourish in 2025 and beyond.

Explore how you can future-proof your practice with strategic AI implementation by visiting our service page offering AI for Law Firms.