Start with the guide that matches your question. If you want the definitions side by side first, read how the three terms differ, then come back to the state and practice-area guides below.
Three terms, one job
Answer engine optimization
Shaping pages so a search feature or assistant can lift a direct, accurate answer from them.
Generative engine optimization
Earning a citation or a named mention inside answers that AI assistants write.
AI SEO for lawyers
The technical and structural search work underneath both: indexing, crawlers, structure, and links.
What does not change
Google's own guidance says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, and the usual search practices still apply.
Your state's advertising rules do not change either. A sentence an assistant quotes from your site is still your communication about your services, and it carries the same duty not to mislead.
AI search guides by state
Every state guide covers that state's advertising rules for lawyers, what its bar or courts have said about AI, and the local questions prospective clients ask. Choose your state below.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
AI search guides by practice area
Questions differ by practice. An injury victim searching from the roadside asks something very different from a parent planning a trust.
Answers to common questions
The answers library gives one direct answer per question, each linked back to the guide that goes deeper. A good place to start is how a firm can tell whether AI is citing it.
Common questions
Is AI search replacing Google for legal questions?
Not on the evidence available today. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode sit inside Google Search itself, so for most firms the practical change is that search results now include written answers, and those answers link to supporting pages.
Do I need separate pages for AEO, GEO, and AI SEO?
No. One well-built page serves all three. The terms describe different goals, quoted answers, citations inside AI responses, and technical visibility, that the same page can meet.
Where should a firm start?
With the practice-area pages for the matters it wants most. Those pages decide whether a reader calls, and they are the pages most likely to be quoted.