For many law firms, the best local SEO strategy includes both cities and counties—but only when those locations accurately represent where the firm practices and serves clients. Potential clients may search for an attorney by city, suburb, county, or general geographic area, so a website should clearly communicate the firm’s actual reach.

For Chicago-area law firms, that could mean building visibility for Chicago while also targeting relevant suburbs and counties such as Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry. The goal is not to create as many location pages as possible. It is to help potential clients, Google, and AI-powered search platforms clearly understand where your firm provides legal services.

Why Target Individual Cities?

City-focused searches can have strong local intent. Someone searching for an “attorney in Arlington Heights,” “lawyer in Aurora,” or “law firm in Algonquin” is identifying a specific geographic area.

A useful city page can explain your firm’s practice areas, the communities you serve, and information relevant to prospective clients in that market.

Each page should be unique. Simply copying the same page and replacing one city name with another provides little value to potential clients and can create a weak local content strategy.

Why Should Law Firms Target Counties?

County pages can make sense when a law firm serves clients across multiple communities within the same county.

For example, a firm may serve clients throughout Cook County rather than only Chicago. Another practice may work across several communities in Kane, DuPage, Lake, or McHenry County.

County-focused content gives the firm an opportunity to clearly communicate this broader geographic reach.

County targeting may be especially relevant for legal services connected to county courts and local legal processes.

Can a Law Firm Target Both Cities and Counties?

Yes. When appropriate, cities and counties can work together as part of the same local SEO strategy.

A law firm could have a primary page for its office location, individual pages for important cities it genuinely serves, and broader county pages supporting those markets.

These pages should complement each other rather than compete with one another.

The content, page titles, internal links, and overall website structure should make it clear what each page covers.

What About Chicago Neighborhoods?

Chicago law firms may also consider neighborhood-level content when it is genuinely relevant to their practice.

However, creating pages for every Chicago neighborhood simply to target additional keywords is unlikely to create a strong long-term strategy.

Focus on geographic areas that matter to your firm and where you can provide meaningful information to potential clients.

How Many Location Pages Does a Law Firm Need?

There is no ideal number.

A firm serving three primary communities may only need a few strong location pages. A larger practice with multiple offices and a broader geographic reach may need considerably more.

Quality is more important than quantity.

Before creating a page, ask whether the location represents a real market for the firm and whether you can provide useful information that is different from your other location pages.

How Do Practice Area Pages Fit Into Local SEO?

Location pages should not replace detailed practice area pages.

Your website should clearly explain the legal services your attorneys provide. Practice area pages establish those services, while location content helps establish where the firm provides them.

Together, these pages can give search engines a clearer understanding of both your firm’s legal focus and geographic reach.

Does Location Content Help With AI Search?

Clear geographic information can also make a website easier for AI-powered search platforms to understand.

Your website should consistently identify your firm’s office locations, attorneys, practice areas, communities served, and other relevant business information.

FAQs, attorney biographies, practice area pages, location pages, and locally relevant blogs can provide additional context about the firm.

AI visibility cannot be guaranteed, but clear and accurate information gives search systems better information to work with.

Avoid Creating Duplicate City Pages

One of the biggest mistakes law firms can make is creating dozens of nearly identical location pages.

Changing “Chicago” to “Schaumburg” or “Aurora” while leaving everything else the same does not create genuinely useful local content.

Each page should have a reason to exist.

Strong location pages can include unique information about the firm’s services in that market, relevant legal considerations, nearby areas served, frequently asked questions, and other information useful to prospective clients.

Build a Smarter Local SEO Strategy for Your Law Firm

Windy City Law Designs develops local SEO strategies specifically for attorneys and law firms. We help firms determine which cities, counties, and geographic markets make sense based on their office locations, practice areas, competition, and growth goals.

Our services include custom law firm website design, city and county pages, practice area optimization, local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, attorney biographies, blogging, technical SEO, and AI-friendly content development.

For Chicago-area firms, a carefully planned combination of city and county targeting can create a stronger local presence without filling your website with unnecessary pages. The goal is to clearly show potential clients, Google, and AI search platforms what your firm does, where it practices, and which communities it serves.