Part of our law-firm search visibility guide. For the workflow behind this advice, see our approach to discovery research.
Do not confuse a plausible explanation with evidence
A firm can appear in one answer and disappear in another. The question wording, location context, product mode, and sources available at the time may differ. Without access to the platform's decision process, an outside observer cannot assign an exact weight to a biography, review, or citation.
Treat claims such as 'this firm appeared because it has schema' as hypotheses unless a controlled investigation supports them. Even then, a small experiment does not reveal a universal algorithm.
Read the answer as an artifact
Save the complete response, including caveats and links. Identify which businesses are named, how they are characterized, and whether a cited page supports that characterization. A list of options is different from a direct answer to whom a client should hire.
Try a question with an explicit jurisdiction and matter type. Then change one element, such as the need for mediation, while keeping the rest consistent. Differences can reveal useful question coverage gaps without proving how the system ranks firms.
Use uncertainty to improve the next decision
Create three columns in your research notes: observed, possible explanation, and next check. 'No family-law page linked from navigation' is an observation. 'Harder to discover relevant expertise' is a possible explanation. 'Check crawlability and internal links' is an action.
The aim is a defensible decision about information you control. It is not reverse-engineering a private ranking system from a handful of screenshots.
Questions worth asking
Can you tell us the exact ranking factors?
No. We distinguish platform documentation from interpretation and label uncertain explanations.
Should we test only prompts that already work?
No. Freeze a representative question set before measuring progress to reduce selection bias.
Sources & scope
Platform documentation below supports the technical context. The suggested workflows and examples are our editorial recommendations, not claims of measured customer results or access to private ranking systems.
OpenAI: crawler controlsContinue the investigation
- How Law Firms Can Show Up in ChatGPT Recommendations
- How to Measure Whether Your Business Appears in AI Answers
- How to Audit Your Law Firm's Visibility Across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google
Make the method concrete: explore an example visibility report. The tool is a demonstration, not a live audit.