Last month I wrote in these pages about the slow collapse of SEO as a meaningful visibility tool for Indian law firms. That piece struck a chord with many partners who were privately tired of seeing their work repackaged into 400-word keyword-stuffed blogs - and even more tired of paying for the privilege.

In all fairness I must acknowledge the more interesting shift that has indeed quietly happened.

Some of the best institutional firms in the country have already moved on. They're no longer playing the SEO game at all.

They’re not blogging “What is a DRHP?”, they’re publishing anonymised regulatory heatmaps. They’re not listing the benefits of arbitration but releasing deal-side clause checklists, showing how those clauses play out in real negotiations. They’re publishing founder readiness kits, sectoral compliance timelines, and forensic case insights, not because it’s “good content,” but because it reflects how they already think.

And it shows. These firms have built quiet but powerful authority in niche practice areas. And it's not by chasing attention, but because they earn trust by giving away the frameworks behind their work.

But now there’s a new layer of challenge.

GEO (Generative Search Optimization) is the new visibility battleground. And it isn’t fought through backlinks or blog frequency.

GEO is what happens when your client - a founder, GC, family office principal, opens ChatGPT or Google Gemini and types a question like: “What compliance red flags delay listings on SME platforms?”

“How can arbitration clauses be made founder-friendly?”

“What legal structures help family-owned businesses retain control post-IPO?”

The answer they see won’t come from the blog that ranked first on Google. It will come from the firm that:

1. Consistently shaped the language used in the domain

2. Codified its legal intelligence into repeatable mental models

3. Authored frameworks that trained both users and AI to think in that pattern

That’s the quiet power of GEO. It’s not just about being seen. It’s about being quoted, even when your name isn’t visible.

This piece isn’t for firms trying to get “more traction.”

It’s for the ones who already have content that educates the market and are now asking: How do we make it compounding?

Here’s what that looks like:

1. Codify, Don’t Just Comment

You’re already publishing good insight. But can it survive outside the post?

You need to turn your sectoral observations into standardised timelines. And then you need to convert client alerts into diagnostic tools or readiness checklists. And also, don't forget to extract the 5-part frameworks that partners already use but haven’t named. Firms that name the framework often become the framework.

2. Own the Vocabulary of Your Niche

Generative platforms love clarity. The firms that get cited over time are the ones that give legal complexity its own language.

If your team coined the phrase “founder-overhang clause” or “reverse dilution squeeze,” you don’t just answer the question - you become part of how the question is phrased.

3. Teach Machines How to Explain Your Domain

This is the real frontier. GEO isn’t about getting indexed. It’s about teaching search models how to summarise your space. It's ‘your’ space, right? What's stopping you from branding it with structured visuals and layered reference-ready PDFs that go beyond social-media friendly LinkedIn posts or Mailchimp newsletters?

Design for clarity, not cleverness. You’re not optimising for views. You’re optimising for retention both by human and machine.

4. Anchor a Category, Not Just a Topic

Some of you have already become the go-to voice for areas like, “Listings and exits in mid-market companies”, “Arbitration in infrastructure and family business disputes”, “Sectoral compliance in fintech, gaming, or SaaS."

Now ask: have you made yourself indispensable in that narrative? Is your insight reference-grade?

GEO rewards firms that don’t just speak to the issue, they structure how the issue is understood.

The firms I’m speaking to aren’t playing catch-up. You’ve already won the trust of founders, investors, and institutional clients who understand nuance.

But visibility - especially in the generative era -  is no longer about volume or virality. It’s about memorability, attribution, and repeatability.

The question isn’t: Are we being seen?

It’s: Are we shaping how our practice area is understood when we’re not in the room?

If your content already reflects your practice depth, you’re closer to GEO leadership than most.

The next step is designing your insights to outlive the format:

1. Create the playbooks that build muscle memory

2. Turn your partner philosophy into scalable language

3. Let your work become the structure through which others (even AI) explain the law

We're not speaking “content strategy”, right now. Something far more crucial is at stake - your legacy.

If your firm is already publishing thoughtful, high-trust content, think of this more as a refinement instead of a reinvention.

What generative search surfaces now is what your best clients were already asking for:

- Deep answers, not just quick opinions

- Point of view, not performance

- Language that signals: “we’ve done this before and we’ll do it again”

The firms that win in the next wave aren’t louder or trendier, but clearer and more codified. They're more consistently legible to both humans and machines.

And the biggest opportunities from here won’t come from better blog cadences. They’ll come from better infrastructure behind the insight, whether in terms of:

1. Systems that standardise how the firm thinks; or

2. Content that teaches the ecosystem how to explain the problem; and

3. Visibility assets that have network effects

Most firms won’t go this far. But the ones who already could, should.

About the author: Prachi Shrivastava is a lawyer-turned-journalist-turned-founder who got tired of watching great lawyers stay invisible. She built Lawfinity Solutions as a full-stack ecosystem for brand architecture, positioning, and trust-building in the legal sector. She also created Vakil Vetted, India's first matchmaking platform for trusted lawyers. If you're a good lawyer with no visibility, she probably already has a system to fix that injustice.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s). The opinions presented do not necessarily reflect the views of Bar & Bench.