The job mix problem
Most legal sites are built to rank for one broad phrase and nothing else, which fills the calendar with a free consultation that goes nowhere. Retained matters in your primary practice area are entirely separate searches, and almost nobody builds a real page for them.
Speed decides the urgent jobs
When somebody has just been arrested, served or injured, nobody scrolls and nobody waits. Your position and your load time settle that job before the phone rings. Both are fixable in weeks.
Licence and proof belong up front
Customers hiring legal work are nervous about it. Licence, bonding, insurance and real photos of your own work shown plainly lift form fills measurably, and most contractor sites bury all of it in the footer.
Every town you serve needs its own page
Legal searches carry a location almost every time, and jurisdiction matters to the client. A real page per town and county you practise in signals both relevance and local competence, which a single service-area list never does.