AI search sources
Which websites do ChatGPT and Google's AI use when they recommend a lawyer?
The sites AI tools read before naming a lawyer: what Google, OpenAI and Microsoft document, what one 1,000-answer study found, and what a firm controls on each.
By Santiago Alvarez, Founder, Ad Hoc Digital
Last updated
The short answer
If you read one part of this page, read this.
They use whatever their search returns for the question: firm websites, legal directories such as Justia, Avvo, Lawyers.com and Martindale, review platforms, the Google Business Profile, and bar or law society listings. Which mix shows up changes with the tool, the case type and the city.
The companies document the pipes, not a list of favorite sites. Google says its AI features ground answers in its Search index and names the Business Profile. OpenAI says ChatGPT uses search partners and outside providers for nearby business listings, and Yelp says ChatGPT surfaces its reviews and business details. In one study of 1,000 ChatGPT answers for injury lawyers, Justia appeared in 227 of 500 personal injury answers and only 12 of 500 car accident answers.
So the practical answer is to look at the sources cited for your own practice and city, then make each of them accurate. We work with law firms across the US and Canada, and also in Australia and the UK.
Tool by tool
Each company documents where its tool reads from, and none of them publishes a directory list.
Start with what's official. It's thinner than most marketing claims, but it tells you which pipes matter.
| Tool | What the company documents | Named outside sources |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Grounding in the Search index; Business Profile named in its AI advice | Business Profiles can show reviews from trusted non-Google sites |
| Ask Maps (Google Maps) | Draws on over 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors | None named beyond Maps contributors |
| ChatGPT search | Its own crawler (OAI-SearchBot), search partners, and providers of nearby business listings | Microsoft and Shopify privacy policies; Yelp says ChatGPT surfaces its content |
| Microsoft Copilot | Grounded in web search results, centered on high-ranking web content, with citations | None named |
| Perplexity | Its own crawler (PerplexityBot) surfaces and links sites in its results | None named |
Two lines in that table deserve a closer look. OpenAI's help page says ChatGPT may share a person's location with "trusted third-party providers" that supply nearby business listings, without naming them. Separately, Yelp's own blog said on August 10, 2026 that its integration surfaces Yelp's reviews, ratings, photos and business details inside ChatGPT. Neither page mentions lawyers specifically, so treat Yelp as one listing ChatGPT can read, not as the source.
The tool-by-tool mechanics are in our guides to ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. This guide is about the sites themselves.
What one study saw
In 1,000 ChatGPT answers for injury lawyers, the cited directories changed with the case type.
Juris Digital captured 1,000 ChatGPT answers on October 1, 2026 and counted the sites each one cited. It's one snapshot, by a marketing agency, not a rule, but it's specific and it publishes its data.
| Site | Personal injury answers | Car accident answers |
|---|---|---|
| Justia | 227 of 500 | 12 of 500 |
| Avvo | 120 of 500 | 207 of 500 |
| Lawyers.com | 71 of 500 | 151 of 500 |
| Expertise.com | 52 of 500 | 37 of 500 |
| Martindale | 32 of 500 | 24 of 500 |
- The case type changed the sources
Same cities, different wording, and Justia went from nearly half the injury answers to a handful of the car accident ones. A firm that wants crash cases and checks only "personal injury lawyer" is looking at the wrong list.
- The city changed them too
In the study's Denver example, two of five injury answers cited Avvo and two cited Lawyers.com, while none cited Justia, the national leader for that phrase. Three of five Denver car accident answers cited one firm's own website.
- What it can't tell you
The authors say plainly that a citation isn't a ranking, that every prompt ran once with a national US setting rather than from each city, and that a cited directory profile isn't evidence it produces cases. Read the numbers as a list of pages worth checking, not a reason to buy anything.
What you control
On every source that shows up, the firm controls more than it thinks.
Most of these are free to claim. The work is making each one say exactly what your website says, and keeping it that way.
- Your own website
The one source you fully control, and the one AI tools cite when a firm is the clearest local answer to a specific question. A page per case type that answers the client's question in its opening lines is how a firm site ends up cited next to the directories. It's how we build law firm websites.
- Google Business Profile
Google compiles it from your website, licensed third-party data and user contributions as well as what you enter, so it can drift. Keep categories, services, hours and phone current, and check it against the website monthly.
- Legal directories: Justia, Avvo, Lawyers.com, Martindale, FindLaw
Claim the free profiles, with the same name, address, phone, lawyers and practice areas as the website. Some need the lawyer to verify bar details personally. We never pay for an upgraded listing to chase AI citations; nothing in the study or the platforms' documentation says paid placement is what gets cited.
- Yelp
Claim the listing, pick the lawyer category, and make every detail match. Don't ask clients for Yelp reviews: Yelp says its software may not recommend reviews that look prompted by the business.
- Bing Places and Bing Webmaster Tools
Copilot is grounded in web search results, and Bing's guidelines ask sites to name people, organizations and locations clearly and consistently. A Bing Places listing with the real phone number and a verified site cover the Microsoft side.
- Bar and law society listings
The lawyer updates these personally, often in ten minutes. They carry weight because a regulator publishes them, and an outdated address there contradicts everything else.
- Selection-based lists
Super Lawyers and similar peer-selected lists show up in some answers. They're earned through nomination, not bought, and how you describe an honor in your own ads is a bar rule question; our lawyer advertising rules hub links each jurisdiction.
Find your own list
Your sources are the ones cited for your case types in your cities, so collect them yourself.
National lists are a starting point. Twenty minutes with the citations for your own market gives you the real one.
Write prompts per case type, not per practice
"Car accident lawyer in [city]", "truck accident lawyer in [city]" and "personal injury lawyer in [city]" can cite different sites, as the study showed. Use the case types you actually want.
Run them in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Copilot
Signed out, in a private window, with search on in ChatGPT. Our self-check guide has the full setup and a log to fill in.
List every cited domain
Not only the ones that name you. A directory cited three times for your city is in play whether or not your profile there is any good.
Open your profile on each one
Check name, address, phone, lawyers, practice areas and the link to your site. Missing profile, wrong facts, or fine: one of three.
Fix in order of how often each appears
The domain cited most for your case types gets fixed first. Then run the same prompts next month and see whether the list changed.
Outside the US
In Canada, the UK and Australia the pipes are the same, and the directories are local.
The tools and their documentation don't change by country. The sites their searches return do.
For our Ontario clients, the listing work covers the Law Society directory, Bing, Yelp, Facebook and Canadian directories such as YellowPages.ca, Canada411 and 411.ca, with "lawyer" everywhere and never "attorney" in our own wording. In the UK and Australia, the regulator's register and the directories that appear in local answers take the place of the US names.
Don't import a US directory list. Run the same citation check with your country's wording, such as "solicitor" in the UK, and work from what comes back.
A worked example
Hypothetical: one firm, two case types, two different source lists.
This is an illustration, not a result. The firm and its findings are invented to show why the check runs per case type.
More on how injury clients search in personal injury marketing.
What we see
In our client work, a firm's own page gets cited when it's the only first-hand local answer to the question.
Directories win the broad questions. Firm sites win the specific ones nobody else has answered well.
When we onboard a firm for AI search, we keep one master record of its name, address, phone, hours, lawyers and practice areas, and copy it to every listing character for character. Listings come first because they're quick and they're already being read; pages come next because they take longer and win the narrower questions.
For one family law firm, showing up first in ChatGPT has added 50 to 100 calls a month over the last three months. Another moved from family law into estate planning, and prospective clients started finding it inside ChatGPT and similar tools once its new reputation existed on the sites those tools read.
For a new firm, the sources barely know it exists. A business and labor law firm spent six months building a credible presence everywhere a prospect might look, and now prospects and referral partners reach out first.
Common mistakes
Where firms go wrong.
We see these when we check the sources behind firms' AI answers.
Paying for upgraded directory listings first
The free profile, accurate and complete, is what gets read. Spend nothing until you've seen that a directory is cited for your case types and city.
Using a national list instead of your own
The study's own Denver example cited different sites from the national counts. Your city and case types decide your list.
Asking for Yelp reviews because ChatGPT reads Yelp
Yelp says its software may not recommend reviews that look requested. Claim the listing, keep it accurate, and put your review asks into Google.
Tracking numbers on directories
A different phone number on each listing gives the tools several versions of one firm. Keep the real number on listings and track calls elsewhere.
Ignoring the firm's own site
Directories win broad questions, but the narrow, local ones go to whoever answered them. Firms without a page for a case type hand that citation to someone else.
Real results
What this looked like for real firms.
Two firms clients now find inside ChatGPT, and one new firm whose six-month build put a consistent picture on the sites AI tools read.
Identifying details are anonymized to protect our clients. Individual result, not a promise or prediction of any specific outcome for your firm.
FAQ
Questions lawyers ask us.
Straight answers to the questions that come up most.
Do we need to pay for Avvo, Justia or Super Lawyers to show up in AI answers?
No platform says so, and the study counted citations to directory pages, not paid placements. Claim the free profiles on the directories cited for your case types and city, and make them accurate. Super Lawyers and similar lists are selection-based, so they're earned, not bought. Check the citations first, then decide if anything is worth paying for.
Does ChatGPT use Yelp to recommend lawyers?
Yelp said in August 2026 that its integration surfaces Yelp reviews, ratings, photos and business details in ChatGPT. Neither Yelp nor OpenAI says how that applies to lawyers, and OpenAI doesn't name its listings providers. So claim your Yelp listing and keep it accurate, without asking clients for Yelp reviews, which Yelp discourages.
Which legal directories matter for my practice area?
The ones cited when you ask about your case types in your city. In one study of injury searches, Justia led for personal injury wording and Avvo for car accident wording, in the same cities. Run your own prompts, list the cited domains, and fix the profiles that show up most. Our self-check guide shows how.
If directories get cited, is our website still worth the effort?
Yes. Directories tend to win the broad questions; firm pages get cited when they're the clearest local answer to a specific one. In the same study, three of five Denver car accident answers cited one firm's own site. The directories also link to your website, so it's where a reader lands after the AI names you.
Does our bar or law society listing matter?
It's a regulator's page about you, so it carries a different kind of trust from a marketing directory, and it's often out of date. Have the lawyer check address, phone and firm name there, since an old address on an official page contradicts every listing you've fixed.
Does Google's AI use directories or just Business Profiles?
Both can appear. Google says its AI features ground answers in its Search index, where directories rank, and it names the Business Profile in its advice for these features. Profiles can also show reviews from trusted non-Google sites. The Google side is covered in our guide to AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Can you check which sites AI tools cite for our firm?
Yes. It's part of the first week of our AI search work: we run the prompts for your case types and cities, list every cited source, and fix the profiles in order of how often they appear. To get a first read for your market, schedule a consultation.
Where we do this
The services this guide touches.
What this looks like when we run it for a firm, with a demo for your practice on each page.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Official pages we read when writing this page. Platforms and rules change, so check the current version before you act on any of it. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
- Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search
- Google Business Profile Help, How Google sources and uses info in Business Profiles
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage customer reviews
- Google Blog, Ask Maps and Immersive Navigation (Mar 2026)
- OpenAI Help Center, Searching the web with ChatGPT
- OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Yelp Official Blog, Yelp Brings Reservations and Waitlist to ChatGPT (Aug 2026)
- Yelp Support Center, Don't Ask for Reviews
- Microsoft Support, Microsoft Copilot Transparency Note
- Bing Webmaster Tools, Webmaster Guidelines
- Perplexity Docs, Perplexity Crawlers
- Juris Digital (third-party study), What ChatGPT Cites for Injury Lawyer Searches in 100 U.S. Cities (Oct 2026)
Written by
Founder of Ad Hoc Digital. Leads strategy and works directly with every client firm on AI search, Local Services Ads, Google Ads and Meta ads.
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