SEO for wills, probate and estate planning departments

How private client search actually behaves

• Wills are researched, then deferred

  "How to make a will", "do I need a solicitor to make a will", "what happens if I die without a will", "how much does a will cost". The reader is usually prompted by a life event (a child, a house, a diagnosis, a parent's death) and is often not ready to act. They may come back in six months. The firm whose guide they read, and whose name they remember, gets the instruction when they finally do. In the meantime, last-click analytics shows nothing.

• Probate is urgent, confused and arrives at a bad time

  "Do I need probate", "how long does probate take", "probate solicitor near me", "what is a grant of probate". The searcher has just lost someone, is dealing with a bank that will not release funds, and does not know what they need. They want a plain explanation, a realistic timescale, a clear fee, and a person. The SRA Transparency Rules require price publication for uncontested probate, so the fee page is not optional; the question is whether it is good.

• Lasting powers of attorney are the growth search

  An ageing population and widespread awareness of dementia have pushed LPA searches up year on year. "How to set up lasting power of attorney", "LPA cost", "can I do an LPA myself". The Office of the Public Guardian's own service means many people attempt it themselves, so the firm's page has to explain what a solicitor adds. At J Scott & Co in Maidenhead, "who can help me set up a lasting power of attorney" is one of the four questions we track monthly across five AI assistants. The firm is named 46 times and ranks third, but it is listed rather than recommended. That is a content gap with proven demand behind it, and we are filling it.

• Inheritance tax and trusts are the high-value tail

  Lower volume, higher value, longer research. "Inheritance tax threshold", "how to reduce inheritance tax", "discretionary trust", "gifting property to children". These are the searches that lead to estate planning instructions worth many times a simple will, and they are won on depth and demonstrated expertise.

• Contested probate is its own market

  "Contest a will", "Inheritance Act claim", "undue influence will". Emotionally charged, litigation-led, and more like family law in how it converts. If the firm does contentious probate it needs its own section.

Competing with online will writers and probate services

The private client market has more non-solicitor competition than almost any other. Online will writers, bank probate services, unregulated will-writing companies, and the government's own LPA service all compete for the same searches, usually on price.

A solicitor's firm does not win that fight on price. It wins on three things that the online services cannot credibly claim: regulated advice from a named person, the ability to handle complexity (second marriages, business assets, property abroad, vulnerable beneficiaries, inheritance tax), and the reassurance of a local office the family can walk into when the time comes. The content has to make those advantages concrete rather than asserting them. A page that explains what goes wrong with a DIY will, with real examples, does more than a page that says "our experienced solicitors".

The firm should also be honest about where the online services are fine. A single person with no children, no property and a simple estate may not need a solicitor. Saying so builds trust with everyone else, and it is the kind of plain answer AI assistants cite.

What 36,463 enquiries tell us that applies to private client work

Two findings from our Conveyancing Conversion Report transfer.

Google rating predicts conversion (+0.56); review count does not (-0.17). Private client work is chosen on trust at a vulnerable moment. A probate team with 30 reviews at 4.9 outconverts one with 300 at 4.1. Review requests should go out when the grant arrives or the estate is distributed, which is when a grieving client is most likely to want to thank someone.

And direct enquiries convert far better than shared ones. Private client has fewer comparison sites than conveyancing but it has will-writing lead generators and probate referral platforms that sell the same enquiry to several firms. The client who read the firm's guide on what happens if you die without a will, and came back six months later to search the firm's name, is a different proposition from the one on a shared lead sheet.

The pages that win private client instructions

• A plain probate fee page

  that meets the SRA Transparency Rules and goes further: what is included, what the disbursements are, what changes the price, how long it takes, and who does the work. This is the page the bank's leaflet sends people to search for, and most firms' versions are a wall of caveats.

• A probate process guide

  that explains, in order, what happens from the death to the distribution, with realistic timescales for the Probate Registry and for HMRC. Attributed to a named solicitor with a last-reviewed date, because registry turnaround times change.

• A wills section

  that goes beyond "we make wills": what a will can and cannot do, what happens without one (intestacy rules explained properly), mirror wills, wills for blended families, wills with business assets, and an honest page on when a simple will is enough.

• An LPA section

  that explains both types, what a solicitor adds over the OPG's online form, what happens without one (the deputyship route and why it is worse), and the cost.

• An inheritance tax and estate planning section

  for the high-value tail: thresholds, the residence nil rate band, gifting, trusts, and when to get advice. Written by the firm's most senior private client lawyer in their voice.

• A page per office

  with a real local presence, because "probate solicitor near me" is a map pack search made by someone who wants to walk in.

• Solicitor profiles

  with STEP membership, Solicitors for the Elderly accreditation, years in practice, and a short paragraph that sounds like a person.

Private client and AI search

Private client questions are exactly the kind an assistant answers from a few sources. "Do I need probate if there is a will", "what is the inheritance tax threshold in 2026", "can I make my own LPA". The answers are factual, process-led and quotable. The firm whose page on each of those topics is clear, attributed, dated, and corroborated by third-party listings is the one the assistant names.

The ChatGPT answer for J Scott & Co, a Maidenhead firm we run a conveyancing and private client campaign for, names the firm second for "which solicitors handle probate and estate administration near Maidenhead" with 42 mentions in a month, and third for LPA with 46. That visibility came from the same method we use for conveyancing: a proper section with a main page and supporting guides, a named author, a tidy Google Business Profile with 65 five-star reviews, and consistent listings on the Law Society, ReviewSolicitors and solicitors.com, which are the sources the assistants read. Across all four tracked questions the firm was named 687 times in July 2026 against 15 for its nearest rival.

Accuracy has a hard edge here. The inheritance tax threshold, the residence nil rate band, the probate fee, the LPA registration fee: all change. A figure that is wrong in an AI answer under your firm's name does damage. Every figure on a private client page needs an owner and a review schedule.

Attribution: how to judge the work honestly

The biggest risk in private client SEO is not that it fails. It is that the firm cannot see it working. A will enquiry in September may trace to a guide read in March. A probate enquiry arrives on the day of a death, from someone who searched the firm's name because they remembered it, and the analytics records a branded search with no visible origin.

We handle this in three ways. We report branded search growth and direct traffic alongside organic, because in private client those are usually organic enquiries arriving by a longer road. We ask the firm's reception to log how each new client heard of the firm, and we reconcile it against the analytics monthly. And we set expectations at the outset: visibility in weeks, enquiries over months, and a twelve-month view before judging the practice area.

Seasonality and triggers

Private client search has a shape. Will enquiries rise in January (resolutions), after the summer holidays (people have flown with children and thought about it), and after any widely reported death or inheritance story. LPA searches track dementia awareness campaigns and the OPG's own fee changes. Probate searches are steady with a winter rise. Inheritance tax searches spike around Budget announcements. We publish and update to that calendar.

What the work looks like each month

For a private client team the month runs on currency, reviews and patience. We check every published figure against the current position. We publish and update guides on the seasonal calendar. We run review generation timed to grants and distributions. We keep the Google Business Profile for each office accurate, because the map pack decides "near me". We track a set of real client questions across five AI assistants. We earn mentions in local press and community sources on the stories private client lawyers are well placed to comment on: inheritance disputes, dementia and capacity, the cost of dying. And we reconcile the enquiry list with the firm monthly, including the branded and direct enquiries that last-click reporting would miss.

Common mistakes in private client SEO

Judging the practice area on a 90-day window. A probate fee page that is technically compliant and practically unreadable. One wills page that tries to cover everything. No LPA content when LPA searches are growing faster than any other private client term. Out-of-date thresholds. Anonymous content from a practice area where the client is choosing a person. No offices page when the client wants to walk in. Review requests at the first meeting instead of at the grant. And competing with online will writers on price instead of on what a regulated solicitor actually adds.

Wills, Probate & Estate Planning: your questions

• How long before private client SEO produces enquiries?

  Visibility usually moves within four to eight weeks for local and technical work. Enquiries follow over months because of the deferred nature of wills and the event-driven nature of probate. We set a twelve-month view and report attribution honestly, including branded search and direct enquiries.

• Do we have to publish probate fees?

  For uncontested probate, yes, under the SRA Transparency Rules. The question is whether the page is good: included services, disbursements, timescales, who does the work. We write fee pages that are compliant and that actually help a grieving person decide.

• How do we compete with online will writers?

  On the things they cannot claim: regulated advice from a named person, complexity, and a local office. The content has to make those concrete. We also recommend being honest about when a simple online will is enough, because that honesty is what builds trust with everyone else.

• Does AI search matter for wills and probate?

  Yes. The questions are factual and quotable, and people take them to an assistant first. Our Maidenhead client is named second for probate and third for LPA across the questions we track, and we are working on moving LPA from listed to recommended.

• What about Australia?

  Wills and estates is the largest practice area among small Australian firms: 45% of NSW solicitors in one-to-four-principal practices report it, and 28% of suburban Sydney solicitors do. The Supreme Court of NSW probate process, NSW enduring powers of attorney and guardianship, and the absence of inheritance tax change the content, not the method. We work with private client firms across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.