How does a family lawyer show up in ChatGPT and Google's AI answers?

"How much does a divorce lawyer cost"

The answer gave hourly ranges, a cost table by type of divorce and state examples. Most rows cited 10lawyersnearme.com; the rest cited legalpracticegroup.com, divorcecostestimator.com and FindLaw. No family firm and no court site were cited.

"How is child custody decided in Texas"

The answer explained conservatorship, the joint managing conservatorship presumption and the "best interest" standard, and named Texas Family Code section 153.002. It cited divorce.law and recordinglaw.com, not the statute on the Legislature's own site and not a Texas firm.

Section 153.002(a) says "the best interest of the child shall always be the primary consideration of the court" in deciding conservatorship and possession. A Texas firm's custody page that quotes that line, links the statute and then explains how judges apply it in that county is a stronger source than a national site, and AI answers are built to prefer the page that settles the question. The broader picture of where AI tools read about lawyers is in our guide to where AI tools find lawyers.

1. 1

   How child support is worked out in your state

   The guideline, the inputs (income, parenting time, health insurance), and how to ask for a change. Link the state's own calculator or guideline page if one exists.

2. 2

   What a divorce costs, and what changes it

   Contested versus uncontested, children, property, a business, how many hearings. Explain how your firm bills. If you publish a flat fee, make it exact and say what it covers.

3. 3

   How custody is decided under your statute

   Quote the statute, link it, then explain the factors judges weigh in your courts. In Texas that is Family Code section 153.002 and the conservatorship terms.

4. 4

   Divorce without a lawyer: when it works and when it doesn't

   The honest answer to a question searched 3,600 times a month. It builds trust with the people who will need you later.

5. 5

   Your process, step by step

   From the first call to the final order: what you need from the client, how long each stage takes, how you communicate. AI answers about "what to expect" quote these.

6. 6

   A bio for each lawyer

   Admissions, years licensed, any certification with the certifying body named, languages, and the courts they appear in.

Write the answer in the first two or three sentences of each page, then explain. Our guide on how to show up in ChatGPT covers the format, and Google says its AI features need nothing beyond ordinary search guidance, so the work is good pages, one question at a time. Many family firms also do well with short videos answering the same questions; our short video guide covers that. A different family firm we work with now gets almost every new client from Instagram and TikTok.

We write a set of questions in the words divorcing parents use, for the firm's state and city: cost, custody, support, "do I need a lawyer", and the matters the firm wants more of. We ask them of ChatGPT, Google's AI features, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, note whether the firm is named and which sources are cited, and repeat the same set on a schedule. Our self-check guide is the version any firm can run in half an hour.

Calls from AI answers tend to come from people who have already read about the firm, which is why the firm in our case study describes their lead quality as incredible. Track them by adding an AI option to "how did you hear about us"; our guide to measuring AI search traffic covers the rest.