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The Core30 Methodology

Law Firm SEO Audit Framework — Thirty Checks, In This Order

The thirty-point audit Rubiks runs at the start of every law-firm engagement. Architecture, on-page, technical, local, content, reporting. Open framework.

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The Core30 Methodology

Why every Core30 engagement opens with the audit

The audit is the diagnosis the rest of the engagement is built from. Without it, the work is guessing what the firm needs. With it, the priority order is obvious, the 90-day outcomes are predictable, and the firm can verify what was found.

The audit framework below is the same one we run on every engagement. We publish it because firms running this internally should be able to use it; because firms hiring an agency should know what a real audit looks like; and because publishing the framework defines the category — the audit other agencies copy is the one that gets remembered.

law firm seo audit

Before any new content is written, before any GBP work, before any link outreach — the audit.

The Core30 Methodology

The thirty checks, by category

01

Architecture (5 checks)

  1. Silo coherence — Are practice areas, local pages, and content separated into clear silos with their own pillars?
  2. Internal-link spine — Do pillars link down to all children? Do children link up to pillars? Are cross-silo links restricted to children?
  3. Orphan + dead-end count — How many pages have zero inbound or zero outbound internal links?
  4. Cannibalization — How many keyword-targeted pages are competing with siblings for the same query?
  5. URL structure — Are URLs lowercase, hyphenated, descriptive? Are there legacy URLs that need redirects?
02

On-page (8 checks)

  1. Title tags — Under 60 characters, primary keyword present, brand at end?
  2. Meta descriptions — Page-specific, under 155 characters, click-worthy?
  3. Heading hierarchy — Single H1 per page, H2/H3 structure clean, no skipped levels?
  4. Soft-CTA H2 trap — Are CTA-style headings being used for substantive H2 slots?
  5. Attorney bio depth — Are bios 1,000+ words with proper schema?
  6. Internal-link anchors — Varied (branded, partial, exact, generic)?
  7. Image alt + filenames — Descriptive, not stuffed?
  8. Practice-area page completeness — Are pillars covering the topic at depth?
03

Technical (6 checks)

  1. Schema implementation — LegalService, Attorney, LocalBusiness, FAQ, BreadcrumbList present and valid?
  2. Core Web Vitals — 75% pass threshold across LCP, INP, CLS?
  3. Mobile UX — Click-to-call visible, forms usable, text readable on a 5-inch screen?
  4. Hreflang — Implemented correctly if multilingual?
  5. Redirects — Every retired URL redirected to closest equivalent, chains ≤1?
  6. Sitemap + robots — Valid sitemap submitted, robots.txt not blocking critical content?
04

Local (6 checks)

  1. GBP completeness — Categories, custom services, photos, posts, products, attributes, Q&A, hours all set?
  2. Review program — Volume, recency, velocity acceptable? Compliant solicitation in place?
  3. Map-pack ranking — Grid-rank baseline established for priority queries?
  4. Citation parity — NAP consistent across legal directories and general business citations?
  5. Local content — State-specific procedural content present? City-specific where applicable?
  6. Geo + location pages — One per office, one per genuinely-served city, differentiated content?
05

Content (3 checks)

  1. Content inventory — Has the site been inventoried? Topic gaps identified?
  2. Editorial cadence — Is the firm publishing? At what cadence? Attorney-reviewed?
  3. Cross-silo content rules — Do supporting articles link up to silo pillars?
06

Reporting (2 checks)

  1. Attribution stack — Call tracking, form attribution, GA4 events, GBP-to-CRM tagging in place?
  2. Cost-per-signed-case — Can the firm answer this question, by source, today?
The Core30 Methodology

How to score the audit

Each check produces one of three outcomes: pass, partial, fail. The audit's headline metric is the pass-rate across all 30 checks. A firm at 18/30 pass is in average shape. A firm at 24/30 is well-engineered. A firm at 9/30 has structural problems that need to be addressed before any new spend.

The output of the audit is not the score — it's the priority-ordered fix list. The fixes that move the most ranking with the least effort go first. Architecture problems first (they unlock everything else), then on-page, then local, then technical, then content, then reporting.

See the same 30-point audit we ran on ourselves.

Before a dollar is spent, you see exactly where your site leaks equity and which structural fixes compound.

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The Core30 Methodology

What the audit costs and what it produces

The audit is a fixed-scope deliverable.

The output is a written report (typically 25–40 pages), the inventory + topic map, the architecture diagram, the priority fix list, and the 90-day, 180-day, and 12-month outcome forecast.

We deliver it whether or not the firm engages us for the rest of the work — the audit standalone is its own deliverable.

Keep reading

More from The Core30 Methodology

Core30 Method The Core30 Framework Read → Core30 Method Silo Architecture for Law Firms Read → Core30 Method Content Inventory & Topic Mapping Read → Core30 Method On-Page SEO for Law Firm Sites Read → Core30 Method Technical SEO for Law Firms Read → Core30 Method SEO Reporting & Attribution Read →

SIGN MORECases.

See the same 30-point audit we ran on ourselves. Before a dollar is spent, you see exactly where your site leaks equity and which structural fixes compound. No vanity metrics, no obligation.

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