The New Reality: AI Is Choosing Sides
If you’re a divorce attorney in Tampa, you’ve probably noticed something strange happening with your online visibility.
You search “Tampa divorce lawyer” or “How to file for divorce in Hillsborough County,” and Google’s new AI summary pops up. But instead of quoting your firm, it’s pulling content from another attorney across town, maybe one you know isn’t even as experienced.
Frustrating, right?
It’s not that your firm isn’t good at what it does. It’s that your website isn’t built for the new way Google’s AI reads, understands, and delivers answers.
Traditional SEO Can’t Compete with AI Overviews
For years, law firms have played the SEO game the same way: chase backlinks, add a few keywords, and publish 500-word blogs about legal topics.
That strategy doesn’t work anymore.
Google’s AI Overviews now generate answers instantly, pulling structured, machine-readable content from websites it trusts most. If your divorce law pages don’t have that structure, AI skips over you completely.
You’re not being penalized. You’re just invisible.
When Google’s AI scans your website, it’s looking for organized information, such as schema markup, FAQs, and clearly identified entities like “Divorce Attorney,” “Family Law,” and “Tampa, Florida.”
If it can’t find them, it doesn’t know how to summarize you.
So instead of quoting your page, Google picks your competitor, the one who’s optimized for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
What Is AEO — and Why It Matters for Family Law Firms
AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is the evolution of SEO in the AI era.
Traditional SEO is about getting clicks.
AEO is about getting picked.
When someone searches, “How long does a divorce take in Florida?” or “What happens to property after a divorce in Tampa?”, Google’s AI doesn’t show a list of links — it shows a summarized answer.
If your website is structured correctly, your words become the answer.
If not, you disappear from the conversation entirely.
AEO requires you to give Google’s AI everything it needs to understand your expertise:
- Structured data markup (schema), identifying your services and location
- Well-formatted FAQs written like real client questions
- Internal links connecting each practice area to supporting topics
- Clear entities — attorney names, cities, practice categories, and court jurisdictions
Without these, your content may read beautifully to humans, but it isn’t very sensible to AI.
The Real Problem: Unstructured Family Law Pages
Let’s take a look at a typical Tampa divorce law page.
It might say:
“We help clients navigate divorce with compassion and experience.”
That’s fine for human readers — but for Google’s AI, it’s vague. It doesn’t know who “we” is, where “here” is, or what specific legal services you provide.
Now imagine your competitor’s page says:
“Our Tampa-based divorce attorneys help clients file for uncontested divorce, negotiate child custody agreements, and divide marital property under Florida Statute 61.13.”
That page uses entities (divorce attorney, Tampa, child custody, Florida Statute 61.13) and structured information AI can digest and summarize.
So, when Google’s AI pulls an answer for “child custody laws in Tampa divorce cases,” it picks your competitor — every time.
How to Fix It: The Veridictas Approach
At Veridictas, I rebuild law firm websites to make them visible to both people and AI.
Here’s how I help family law firms in Tampa get picked by Google’s AI instead of skipped:
1. Add LegalService Schema
Schema markup helps Google’s systems identify who you are, what you do, and where you operate. For divorce attorneys, that means coding your pages so Google understands “Divorce Attorney in Tampa, Florida.”
2. Create Answer-Based FAQs
I craft real-world questions, such as “Who gets the house in a Tampa divorce?” and structure answers in concise, authoritative sentences that AI can quote directly.
3. Map Entities and Relationships
Each page is connected — attorneys, courts, and services — so Google’s AI recognizes your firm as a trusted authority for divorce law in Hillsborough County.
4. Focus on Local Authority
I create content for every nearby area you serve — Brandon, Riverview, Wesley Chapel, and Clearwater — so your visibility expands across Tampa Bay.
5. Build for Conversion, Not Just Traffic
Once AI summaries bring potential clients your way, your site is designed to make them call, not click away.
Why I Know This Works
Before I founded Veridictas, I spent over 30 years working for the NSA, FBI, DHS, and Department of Defense, specializing in how systems interpret, trust, and process information.
Now I use that same precision to help law firms navigate Google’s new AI-driven search world.
When you combine structured data, credible content, and local legal authority, your firm becomes the one AI trusts and quotes.
The Bottom Line: You Can’t Fake AEO
Google’s AI doesn’t play favorites. It doesn’t care who’s been practicing longer or who bought more ads. It cares about clarity, structure, and trust signals.
If your Tampa divorce law firm isn’t showing up in AI summaries, it’s not because your content is harmful; it’s because it’s unstructured.
That’s the gap I close.
I’m Daniel Scott H., founder of Veridictas, and I help law firms like yours stop chasing clicks and start getting chosen by Google’s AI.
If you’re ready to make your family law website the one Google quotes, let’s talk.
Ready to get started?
Schedule your strategy session today.
