CASE STUDY
Delivering a High-value International Case
and Local Market Share through SEO
Services delivered:
Client overview
Leonard Solicitors LLP had expanded its physical presence by opening a new branch in Bournemouth. While the firm had strong digital visibility and steady enquiry flow in Southampton, it had no meaningful online presence in Bournemouth and therefore no way to compete with established firms in that area. Leadership wanted to secure market share quickly, especially in family law and conveyancing, while maintaining its local reach in Southampton.
To achieve this, the firm required a strategic website restructure that would deepen its authority, strengthen national visibility, and build a dedicated digital footprint for Bournemouth from the ground up.
“When we opened our Bournemouth branch, we needed to establish a presence in a competitive local market and generate enquiries quickly.
Mikey’s website restructure made an immediate difference. He created a full Bournemouth-specific section of the site, strengthened our overall content and improved visibility across multiple departments.
As a result, we began receiving consistent enquiries in the new area and even secured a high-value matter through national SEO coverage. His work and professionalism added real value to the success of our new office. Would thoroughly recommend.”
The challenge
The existing website had been built with Southampton in mind. Its structure, content and metadata only supported a single-location model, meaning the firm could not appear in Bournemouth search results for any meaningful legal search terms. Competition in Bournemouth was high, local firms were well-established, and Leonard Solicitors had no local relevance signals.
At the same time, much of the service page design and content needed a refresh. There was an opportunity not only to introduce Bournemouth-focused pages but to strengthen the overall architecture, improve conversion rates, and elevate the quality of service pages nationally.
The goal was twofold:
- Capture local market share in Bournemouth, with particular focus on family law and conveyancing.
- Strengthen national visibility across specialist practice areas, enabling the firm to win higher-value instructions.
The approach
The project began with a complete review of the existing website structure, keyword performance and local visibility. It was clear that the firm needed two parallel frameworks: one for national SEO, and one for location-based search in both Southampton and Bournemouth.
A new sitemap was built from the ground up. National pages were restructured and strengthened, while two fully localised ecosystems were created, each containing dedicated service pages, optimised headers, location-specific metadata and clear internal linking.
Bournemouth received its own:
- Location landing page
- Location based service pages
- Supporting subpages for long-tail and intent-based queries
- Branch-specific contact details and CRO elements
- A dedicated Bournemouth Google Business Profile
In parallel, every service page across the entire website was rewritten or enhanced. This included new layouts designed for clearer narrative flow, stronger trust signals, and enhanced improved conversion. FAQs were added, processes were explained, and each page was aligned with all the questions real clients were asking. The goal was to rank well in Google search results and build rapport with website visitors.
The restructure was supported by a detailed tracking sheet, ensuring every page across national, Southampton and Bournemouth, met high standards for SEO, content quality and user experience.
The results
The restructure delivered results across both national and local search.
In Bournemouth, the firm began ranking for targeted search terms across family law, immigration, criminal defence, and conveyancing. Search Console data showed strong impression and average position growth for key Bournemouth queries, including “family solicitors Bournemouth”, “immigration lawyer Bournemouth”, “criminal defence solicitors Bournemouth”, conveyancing solicitors Bournemouth”.
This visibility converted directly into real enquiries. Through the contact form alone, the Bournemouth office averaged 4-5 enquiries per week, with family law generating the highest volume. When combined with phone calls, the true enquiry level was even higher.
Most importantly, the national improvements were equally strong. Strengthening the site’s structure and service depth resulted in the Maritime Crime Solicitors page generating a high-value international criminal instruction, which was the subject of BBC News coverage. This client, a company based in Germany, found Leonard Solicitors through the firm’s authority across niche practice areas.
The firm successfully maintained its dominance in Southampton while securing significant new market share in Bournemouth and attractive national-level instructions. All through a strategic, site-wide restructure that unified content quality, SEO strategy and user experience.
Google Search Console Performance results based on the Bournemouth location parent page: https://leonardsolicitors.co.uk/contact-us/solicitors-in-bournemouth/
