SEO
SEO for law firms
The chapter pages, exemption content and slow compounding work that wins a city plus "bankruptcy lawyer" over six to twelve months.
Practice Areas · Bankruptcy
They're searching "how much does it cost," and most sites refuse to say.
Bankruptcy is the practice area where the client is most afraid to call and most likely to research alone. They want to know what it costs, what they lose, and whether the garnishment stops — before they'll speak to anyone. A site that answers those three questions plainly wins the call. FirmForte builds for that reader. $3,500 flat, 21 days, code and domain stay yours.
Why this market is different
Shame does the searching. Plainness does the converting.
Almost nobody arrives at a bankruptcy site casually. There's a wage garnishment that started last pay period, a foreclosure notice, a repossession, or a debt collector calling the office. And there's embarrassment on top of it, which is why so much of the research happens late, alone, on a phone, without anyone being told. That reader will not fill in a form to find out what something costs. They'll read three or four sites, decide which one talked to them like an adult, and call that one.
Which makes this the practice area where the standard law firm website fails hardest. "Fresh start." "Take back control." "Free consultation." None of it answers what the person came to find out. Meanwhile the specific questions — what Chapter 7 actually costs, what property is exempt in this state, whether filing stops a garnishment, what happens to a co-signer — go to Google and increasingly to an AI engine, which answers them in general terms and sometimes names firms. The firm whose site explains it clearly is the one that gets named and the one that gets called.
What this looks like
The cost question goes to an AI first.
Illustrative, not a real firm. This is roughly what someone gets when they finally type the question they've been avoiding. The firms named here published a straight answer about fees and exemptions instead of a consultation prompt. No trick, no markup magic. A clear answer an engine can quote, attached to a firm it can identify.
How much does it cost to file Chapter 7, and will I lose my car?
Chapter 7 has two separate costs: the court filing fee, which is set federally and the same for everyone, and the attorney's fee, which varies by region and by how complicated your case is. Most consumer Chapter 7 attorneys quote a flat fee and expect it paid before filing. Whether you keep your car depends on your state's exemptions, how much equity you have in it, and whether you're current on the loan — many filers keep a financed vehicle. A few firms that publish their fees and explain the exemption rules where you live:
- yourfirm.com — publishes flat Chapter 7 and 13 fees; explains state exemptions and what happens to a financed car.
- a-bigger-firm.com
- another-firm.com
Exemptions and filing fees differ by state and change over time. Confirm current figures with a lawyer licensed where you live before relying on any of this.
What changes when the practice area is bankruptcy
When they search
the moment
Late and alone, with a garnishment already running
What the site has to be
the structure
A page per chapter, plus cost and state exemptions
What proof carries weight
the evidence
Published fees and the federal §528 disclosure done right
What we build for bankruptcy firms
Cost first. Then what you keep.
Every bankruptcy build starts from the $3,500 Launch foundation and gets shaped around a frightened, price-sensitive reader on a phone. Four things matter more here than almost anywhere else.
01
A real answer on cost, not a consultation prompt
This is the search that brought them, and burying it costs you the client. If you charge a flat fee, publish it. If it depends, publish the range and say plainly what moves it — assets, income, a business, a prior filing. A page that explains the filing fee separately from your fee, and says what's included, does more for conversion than any trust badge. It also happens to be the page an AI engine can quote, because it contains an actual answer.
02
A page per chapter, and a page for "what do I keep"
Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 are different products bought by different people in different situations, and one "Bankruptcy" page can't rank or get cited for either. We build both, plus the page nobody builds and everybody searches: what property is exempt where you practice. Exemptions are state-specific and genuinely confusing, which makes a clear local explanation one of the most defensible pages a bankruptcy firm can own.
03
The federal disclosure, done properly
Bankruptcy attorneys are "debt relief agencies" under the Bankruptcy Code, which the Supreme Court settled in 2010, and 11 U.S.C. § 528 requires advertising of bankruptcy assistance to disclose clearly and conspicuously that the services concern bankruptcy relief, using the statutory statement or one substantially similar. We place it so it's genuinely conspicuous rather than shrunk into a footer, and it goes through your review before launch alongside your state bar's advertising rules.
04
Written for someone who is embarrassed
Tone is a functional requirement here, not decoration. No lecturing about financial responsibility, no "fresh start" cheerfulness that reads as sales, no stock photo of a couple looking relieved. Short sentences, direct answers, and an explicit line that filing is a legal process a lot of people use. The firms that convert in this market are the ones that sound like they've had this conversation a thousand times without judging anyone. We write that in your voice.
Chapter and situation pages
The pages this practice actually needs.
Two anchor pages come with the Launch build. The rest get added on Launch + Grow as your caseload and the local competition dictate. Each one is written for a specific situation and the question behind the search.
Chapter 7
Chapter 13
What it costs
Exemptions in your state
Stopping foreclosure
Stopping garnishment
Vehicle repossession
Medical debt
Chapter 11 and Subchapter V, small-business filings, and creditor-side work sit alongside these and speak to an entirely different reader. If you handle them, they get their own pages with their own voice rather than being folded into consumer content. We don't bolt on chapters your firm doesn't actually take.
What it costs
$3,500 flat for the build. Same number for every firm.
A bankruptcy site costs the same as any other Launch build: $3,500 one-time, 21-day delivery, posted on the pricing page for everyone. No premium for the practice area. If you want the ongoing content and AI-citation work that wins a crowded, price-led market, Launch + Grow adds $1,750 a month and you can cancel after month three. For context, that's roughly half the legal-industry median retainer of about $4,000 a month.
Common questions
About bankruptcy websites.
If your question isn't here, drop it in the audit form below. We answer everything within a business day.
At FirmForte, $3,500 flat for the Launch build: a five-page custom WordPress site with chapter pages, a real answer on fees, an exemptions page for your state, AEO answer blocks, the federal debt relief agency disclosure placed properly, and bar-compliant copy, delivered in 21 days. Same price as any other practice area. Ongoing content and AI-citation work is $1,750 a month on the Launch + Grow retainer, cancellable after month three. The wider legal-marketing industry quotes anywhere from $1,500 for a swapped-color template to $50,000-plus for a premium agency build.
In this practice area, yes, and it's the single highest-leverage thing on the site. Cost is the search that brought the visitor, and a page that answers it beats one that trades the answer for a form. Publish the flat fee if you charge one, or the range and what moves it if you don't, and separate your fee from the court filing fee so nobody is surprised. If your fees vary too much for a single number, publish the structure instead. The firms that refuse to say anything lose the visitor to the firm that will.
Bankruptcy attorneys who provide bankruptcy assistance for payment are debt relief agencies under the Bankruptcy Code, which the Supreme Court confirmed in 2010. Section 528 requires advertising of bankruptcy assistance directed to the general public to disclose clearly and conspicuously that the services concern bankruptcy relief, using the statutory statement or one substantially similar. Your website advertises those services, so it carries the disclosure. Courts have recognized some flexibility in how a firm words it, but 'clearly and conspicuously' rules out shrinking it into a footer nobody reads. Confirm the wording and placement with your own counsel; this is general information rather than legal advice.
That's what the AEO architecture is built for. People ask AI engines what Chapter 7 costs, whether filing stops a garnishment, and what property they get to keep, long before they contact a firm, and the engine sometimes names firms in its answer. To be one of them you need content that answers those exact questions in plain language the engine can quote, attached to a firm it can clearly identify. We write that content and reinforce the entity footprint. Schema sits underneath as hygiene, not as the trick. AI citations for a clean entity usually start showing inside about ninety days; Google ranking is a six-to-twelve-month compound.
Yes, and most firms don't have them. They're different filings, chosen by people in genuinely different situations, and a single 'Bankruptcy' page answers neither question well enough to rank or get quoted. Chapter 7 traffic is dominated by cost and exemption questions; Chapter 13 traffic is dominated by keeping a house and restructuring arrears. The Launch build includes two anchor pages, and the rest, including the state exemptions page that almost nobody builds, get added on the Launch + Grow retainer.
All copy gets a pass against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state's variation before launch, on top of the federal disclosure. The specific trap in this practice area is implying a guaranteed outcome, since discharge is a court decision and eligibility turns on facts we can't promise. We never write outcome guarantees, we're careful with words like 'eliminate' and 'wipe out' where they imply certainty, and we add disclaimers where the rules call for them. If you have a designated compliance reviewer, final copy routes through them.
Often, yes. The Audit + Fix tier is $1,500 and targets what's holding an existing site back: no fee answer anywhere, one catch-all bankruptcy page instead of chapter pages, a missing or buried federal disclosure, no schema, slow mobile load, an empty blog. We run a free audit first so you can see exactly what's wrong before choosing between a focused fix and a full rebuild. If the foundation is sound, a fix is the honest call and we'll say so.
Two clocks. AI citations and Google Business Profile visibility can move within weeks to a couple of months for a firm with a clean setup and no dominant competitor already owning the queries. Organic ranking for a city plus 'bankruptcy lawyer' is a six-to-twelve-month compound, and this is a competitive category in most metros. The fastest lever is usually the cost and exemptions content plus local visibility, because those searches convert at the moment someone decides to stop researching and call.
You own all of it. WordPress, fully exportable, with your choice of editor (Divi, Elementor, or the block editor). Domain stays in your registrar. Google Business Profile under your Google account. Hosting in your name on a vendor you pick. No proprietary CMS, no 12-month contract. If you ever leave, you take the whole thing with you. That's the entire point of how FirmForte is built.
Related services
What carries a bankruptcy firm after launch.
The site is the floor. In a crowded, price-led market, these are what move you up it.
AEO
AEO for law firms
Get named when someone asks an AI engine what Chapter 7 costs or whether filing stops a garnishment. Built into every site at launch.
GBP
Google Business Profile
Map-pack ranking and a review strategy for a client who is checking whether you're real before they'll call.
Digital PR
Digital PR & Attorney Branding
Bylines and earned placements that build the trust a frightened, embarrassed reader is looking for before they dial.
Want the deeper playbook? Read the psychology of law firm CTAs and what actually belongs on a practice-area page on the field guide.
Other practice areas
Same build, shaped differently.
Every vertical is the same $3,500 Launch foundation. What changes is the page structure, the questions answered first, and the tone. If you practice in more than one of these, we build the pages that carry the most weight for you.
Practice area
Business law
Matter pages, stated fees and a bio that sells, for a founder weighing you against a template.
Practice area
Criminal defense
Click-to-call and a page per charge, for the 2am search after an arrest.
Practice area
Employment law
A side declared above the fold and a page per claim, for two audiences with opposite fears.
Practice area
Estate planning
Education-led pages per instrument, for a client comparing firms over a week.
Practice area
Family law
A page per matter for a private client who reads for days before calling.
Practice area
Immigration
Plain copy that translates cleanly, for a deadline-driven client often searching from abroad.
Practice area
Personal injury
Intake-first pages for a client searching from a phone in the hours after a crash.
See it built
The same $3,500 foundation, shaped per practice. Here's what it looks like shipped.
- Wai, Connor & Hamidzadeh, LLP
- Markey Law Partners
- Evan Sugar Law
- Strawhun Law, PLLC
- +5 more
Free website & AEO audit
A second pair of eyes on your current site.
Send us the URL. Within 48 hours, we'll come back with a 6-page report covering what's converting, what's leaking, and where your firm shows up (or doesn't) in AI search.
- Homepage + top 3 practice-area pages reviewed
- AI citation check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude
- Schema markup & page speed audit
- Top 3 highest-impact fixes, ranked by ROI
- Competitor citation comparison
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