Law firm AI search visibility: a case study in measurable results

How a focused generative engine optimisation programme took Burt Brill & Cardens Solicitors from near-zero ChatGPT presence to a 93% appearance rate, and what the data reveals about how each AI platform needs to be approached differently.

Published by LegalVIS · Updated June 2026

Burt Brill & Cardens Solicitors is a Brighton-based law firm with practice areas covering wills and probate, residential and commercial conveyancing, lasting power of attorney, and disputed wills. The firm engaged LegalVIS in February 2026 for a structured AI visibility programme running across ChatGPT and Gemini.

, with ongoing AI prompt testing across a set of prompts mapped to the firm's practice areas. Six audit runs were completed between February and June 2026.

ChatGPT showed the steepest and most consistent gains across the programme. The recommendation rate reached 93% in the final run on 21 June 2026, up from 33% in the first run on 28 February. The pattern reflects how ChatGPT responds to third-party corroboration: as editorial citations, directory consistency, and knowledge graph entries strengthened, the recommendation rate rose accordingly. The gains took effect within weeks, not months.

Named solicitor profiles with practice area data

Schema and JSON-LD on practice area pages

E-E-A-T signals and author credentialing

FAQ-structured content and Core Web Vitals

Being named first in an AI response matters because clients reading an AI answer tend to contact the firm named first. The programme produced a 150% increase in ChatGPT #1 mentions and a 200% increase on Gemini from first run to last.

Source note: Yext analysis of 6.8 million citations across 1.6 million responses from Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity (published 2025). Platform signal prioritisation aligned with GEO Tracker AI multi-engine analysis (May 2026), LLMrefs GEO Guide (March 2026), and ClickRank Gemini vs ChatGPT report (March 2026).

Six audit runs were completed across the programme period. Each run tested Burt Brill & Cardens across a structured set of AI prompts mapped to its practice areas, recording appearance, recommendation, and position data per platform.

Combined across both platforms per run. ChatGPT-only figures for Jun 21: 93% recommend rate, 91% appear rate. Perplexity was removed after the second run to focus the programme on the two platforms with the highest user reach.

ChatGPT rewards third-party corroboration fastest. The steepest gains came as external citation signals strengthened. These took effect within weeks, not months.

Gemini requires a longer horizon and a different input set. Its dependence on Google's live indexing signals means schema implementation, E-E-A-T signalling, and FAQ-structured content are the priority levers. The +200% growth in Gemini #1 mentions signals that compounding is now under way.

"Gemini trusts what your brand says. ChatGPT trusts what the internet agrees on. Winning visibility means aligning to both, not gaming either."

Adapted from Yext — AI Visibility in 2025

, covering AI discoverability, structured entity data, citation presence, and knowledge graph coverage.