Key Takeaways
- Texas had 116,127 active attorneys at the end of 2024, up 20% from 96,912 in 2014 (State Bar of Texas, Attorney Statistical Profile 2024-25). Three counties, Harris, Dallas and Travis, hold 54,888 of them, roughly 47% of the state.
- Density prices the competition, not headcount. Travis County had one attorney per 118 residents in 2021, Dallas County 1:153, Harris County 1:192, Bexar 1:315, Tarrant 1:379 and the McAllen MSA 1:788 (State Bar of Texas, Attorney population by MSA and county, 2011–2021).
- The state modifier is thin. “texas law firm seo” draws 40 searches a month (Ahrefs, US, pulled September 2026); the head term “law firm seo” draws 4,400 nationally (Google Keyword Planner, United States, pulled September 2026).
- Clients search by metro and practice, never by state. “houston car accident lawyer” averages 18,100 searches a month; “dallas divorce lawyer” 4,400 (Google Keyword Planner, Texas, pulled September 2026).
- Build one page per real market, ordered by county attorney counts, with Texas in the brand rather than the keyword.
By ByteZero Editorial Team · Updated September 13, 2026
Most pitches for law firm SEO in Texas open with the size of the state. This one opens with a county table, because clients never type the word Texas.
The Texas Attorney Map Is a County Map
Texas licensed 116,127 active attorneys as of December 31, 2024, a 20% increase on the 96,912 licensed in 2014 (State Bar of Texas, Attorney Statistical Profile 2024-25). Attorneys are not spread evenly across the state.
Where the Attorneys Are
The State Bar publishes county profiles, and three counties dominate. Harris, Dallas and Travis together hold 54,888 active attorneys, roughly 47% of every lawyer in Texas (State Bar of Texas, 2024).
| County (principal city) | Active attorneys 2014 | Active attorneys 2024 | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harris (Houston) | 23,183 | 25,667 | +11% |
| Dallas | 16,037 | 17,620 | +10% |
| Travis (Austin) | 9,991 | 11,601 | +16% |
| Statewide | 96,912 | 116,127 | +20% |
Source: State Bar of Texas, Department of Research & Analysis, Attorney Statistical Profile (2024-25), county profiles as of December 31, 2024.
The concentration goes further. The ten largest Texas metros hold 90.57% of in-state attorneys, and the Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth metros alone hold roughly 63% (State Bar of Texas, Attorney population by MSA and county, 2011–2021). A firm in Lubbock or the Rio Grande Valley competes in a different market from a firm in Houston.
Density Prices the Competition
| Area | Active attorneys 2021 | Residents 2021 | Attorneys : residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travis County (Austin) | 11,071 | 1,305,154 | 1:118 |
| Dallas County | 16,886 | 2,586,050 | 1:153 |
| Harris County (Houston) | 24,688 | 4,728,030 | 1:192 |
| Bexar County (San Antonio) | 6,439 | 2,028,236 | 1:315 |
| Tarrant County (Fort Worth, Arlington) | 5,615 | 2,126,477 | 1:379 |
| McAllen–Edinburg–Mission MSA | 1,117 | 880,356 | 1:788 |
Source: State Bar of Texas, Attorney population by MSA and county, 2011–2021, figures as of December 31, 2021.
Read the top and bottom rows together. An Austin firm competes against one lawyer for every 118 residents; a McAllen firm against one for every 788. In Austin the work is differentiation inside a crowded result. In the Valley it is showing up at all, often in Spanish.
Where the Clients Actually Search
The keyword data splits into two markets: what law firms search when they look for an agency, and what their clients search when they look for a lawyer. Both point away from the word Texas.
The Head Terms Carry the Volume
On the agency side, the unmodified national phrases hold nearly all the demand. Google Keyword Planner (United States, 12-month average pulled September 2026) reports the following.
| Keyword (national) | Avg monthly searches | Top-of-page bid, low | Top-of-page bid, high |
|---|---|---|---|
| law firm seo | 4,400 | $29.32 | $78.00 |
| lawyer seo | 3,600 | $35.52 | $100.00 |
| attorney seo | 3,600 | $35.52 | $100.00 |
| law firm website design | 2,400 | $30.35 | $95.27 |
| law firm marketing | 1,600 | $29.25 | $81.02 |
| best law firm seo companies | 880 | $33.41 | $93.59 |
| legal marketing agency | 390 | $30.00 | $120.75 |
Source: Google Keyword Planner, geo United States, 12-month average monthly searches and top-of-page bid range, pulled September 2026.
The State Modifier Is Thin
Now add Texas to any of those phrases and the volume collapses. “texas law firm seo” draws 40 searches a month and “texas law firm marketing” 80 (Ahrefs, US, pulled September 2026). Google Keyword Planner puts “law firm marketing texas” at 10 (United States, 12-month average pulled September 2026).
The city modifiers do better, and Houston does best. Keyword Planner shows “houston law firm seo” at 50 searches a month, “dallas law firm seo” at 40 and the Austin variants at 10 each (United States, pulled September 2026). Ahrefs is more generous: “law firm seo houston” at 200 and “dallas law firm seo” at 100 with a keyword difficulty of 1 (Ahrefs, US, pulled September 2026).
The reading is simple. A page titled for “texas law firm seo” is built for 40 people a month. A page built for “law firm seo” plus Houston competes for the 4,400 who type the head term and the 50 to 200 who add the city. Texas belongs in the brand name, not the primary keyword.
What the Consumer Side Says About Each Metro
The more important dataset is the one the firm’s clients generate. It proves which practice pages each city needs, and it shows that every Texas metro has a different lead category.
| Keyword (Texas) | Avg monthly searches | Top-of-page bid, low | Top-of-page bid, high |
|---|---|---|---|
| houston car accident lawyer | 18,100 | $175.00 | $414.72 |
| houston personal injury lawyer | 14,800 | $100.59 | $383.82 |
| houston truck accident lawyer | 14,800 | $226.24 | $1,000.00 |
| dallas divorce lawyer | 4,400 | $12.31 | $58.00 |
| dallas personal injury lawyer | 3,600 | $104.93 | $425.00 |
| austin personal injury lawyer | 3,600 | $112.00 | $328.36 |
| san antonio personal injury lawyer | 3,600 | $112.00 | $239.55 |
| san antonio car accident lawyer | 2,900 | $174.23 | $370.00 |
| el paso immigration lawyer | 1,000 | $3.68 | $23.02 |
| mcallen personal injury lawyer | 720 | $58.68 | $213.89 |
Source: Google Keyword Planner, geo Texas, 12-month average monthly searches and top-of-page bid range, pulled September 2026.
Each row is a different market. Houston is a vehicle-injury market with the most expensive clicks in the state, broken down in our Houston personal injury analysis. Dallas is a divorce market first, 4,400 divorce searches against 3,600 for personal injury, which our Dallas guide covers. Austin pairs the highest attorney density in Texas with a DWI and business mix: “austin dwi lawyer” averages 720 searches a month with bids of $22.74 to $315.70 (Google Keyword Planner, Texas, pulled September 2026).
San Antonio is a bilingual injury market: 64.6% of its 1,548,422 residents are Hispanic or Latino (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, V2025). El Paso, 81.2% Hispanic or Latino by the same source, is an immigration market where the top-of-page bid never exceeds $23.02.
How to Build a Texas Law Firm Site Around This
Head Term Plus City, Texas in the Brand
Title the practice pages for the phrase clients type: the practice, the word lawyer, and the city. “Houston truck accident lawyer” is a page. “Texas truck accident lawyer” serves neither Houston nor Dallas. The state name earns its place in the firm name, the footer and the schema.
One Page Per Real Market, in County Order
Build city pages in descending order of county attorney counts, then let the metro’s consumer keyword table decide which practice page leads. In Houston that is car and truck accident. In Dallas it is divorce, with the suburbs given their own pages: “frisco divorce lawyer” draws 1,300 searches a month, more than double “plano divorce lawyer” at 590 (Google Keyword Planner, Texas, pulled September 2026). In Fort Worth, Keyword Planner returns no measurable volume for “fort worth personal injury lawyer”, so the page targets the metro term and earns Tarrant County relevance through named entities.
Sentences an Answer Engine Can Lift
Every number in this article is written as a self-contained, sourced sentence, and that is deliberate. AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity quote statements that survive being pulled out of the page and checked. “Travis County had one active attorney for every 118 residents in 2021 (State Bar of Texas)” can be lifted and attributed. “Texas’s leading law firm marketing agency” cannot. Our GEO and AI search work is built on that one rule.
Write to Rules 7.01 to 7.06 From the First Draft
Texas regulates lawyer advertising through Rules 7.01 to 7.06 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, amended effective July 1, 2021. Rule 7.05(b) exempts a law firm website from filing, except the homepage. A sentence that satisfies the rules is a sourced, verifiable sentence, which is also the kind an answer engine quotes; the filing table is in our plain-English guide to Rules 7.01 to 7.06.
What Measurable Looks Like
The only performance figures we publish are verified ones. For Defend My Biz, an employer-defense practice that has run Google Ads since 2021, signed clients measured by Letters of Engagement rose 82% while cost per signed client fell from $626 to $412, a 34% reduction (client’s own Google Ads and LOE ledger). That case study is published on our California sister site. Texas results will be reported the same way, from signed cases rather than sessions.
The delivery standard is the same across both sites: an average of seven days to go live, a target PageSpeed score of 95 or higher, and a reply in under two hours on average. A firm can see where it stands in AI answers today with our free 25-point AI visibility audit, which takes about 60 seconds, and the full Texas programme is on our law firm SEO page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many lawyers are there in Texas?
The State Bar of Texas counted 116,127 active members as of December 31, 2024, up from 96,912 in 2014 (State Bar of Texas, Attorney Statistical Profile 2024-25). Harris County holds 25,667 of them, Dallas County 17,620 and Travis County 11,601, so those three counties account for 54,888 attorneys, roughly 47% of the state.
Which Texas city has the most competitive legal market?
Austin, measured by attorney density. Travis County had one active attorney for every 118 residents in 2021, against 1:153 in Dallas County, 1:192 in Harris County, 1:315 in Bexar County and 1:379 in Tarrant County (State Bar of Texas, Attorney population by MSA and county, 2011–2021). Houston has the most attorneys in absolute terms; Austin has the most per resident.
Should a Texas law firm target the keyword “texas law firm seo”?
Not as a primary keyword. Ahrefs shows “texas law firm seo” at 40 searches a month in the US and Google Keyword Planner shows “law firm marketing texas” at 10 (both pulled September 2026). The unmodified head term “law firm seo” draws 4,400 searches a month nationally, and the city modifiers for Houston, Dallas and Austin carry the rest. Pages should target the head term plus the city, with Texas carried in the brand and supporting copy.
What do clients of Texas law firms actually search for?
It differs by metro. In Texas, “houston car accident lawyer” averages 18,100 searches a month, “dallas divorce lawyer” 4,400 and “austin personal injury lawyer” 3,600 (Google Keyword Planner, Texas, 12-month average pulled September 2026). Houston is a vehicle-injury market and Dallas is a divorce market first.
How much does a legal marketing click cost in Texas?
It depends on the practice area. Google Keyword Planner (Texas, pulled September 2026) shows top-of-page bids of $175.00 to $414.72 for “houston car accident lawyer” and $226.24 to $1,000.00 for “houston truck accident lawyer”, against $12.31 to $58.00 for “dallas divorce lawyer”. The agency-side term “law firm seo” carries a national bid range of $29.32 to $78.00.
What results can a Texas firm reasonably expect from law firm SEO?
The only performance figures we publish are verified ones. For Defend My Biz, an employer-defense firm running Google Ads since 2021, signed clients rose 82% while cost per signed client fell from $626 to $412, a 34% reduction (client’s own Google Ads and Letter of Engagement ledger). Texas results will be reported the same way, from signed cases, not sessions.
