An SEO agency for New York firms competing in the hardest search market in the country

Why search in New York is different

In most US cities a law firm, clinic or agency competes with a few dozen rivals. Here it competes with hundreds, plus national brands, directories and publishers that all want the same page-one spots. Local results also split by neighborhood: someone in Astoria searching for a dentist sees a different map than someone in the Financial District, so a firm can lead in one borough and be invisible two subway stops away.

Search itself has also changed. More buyers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude for a recommendation, or read the AI Overview at the top of Google and never scroll. Being described correctly and consistently across the web now matters as much as ranking a page. That is the work of generative engine optimization (GEO), and we run it alongside classic SEO rather than as a separate product.

Before you hire any SEO agency, New York based or remote, ask to see three things: a recent monthly report, how they decide which pages to write, and what they changed when a client's rankings fell. The answers tell you more than any ranking screenshot.

What our SEO and GEO work includes

• Technical SEO: crawl errors, site speed, indexing, structured data and internal links
• Local SEO and Google Business Profile for each of your locations, with categories, services, photos and reviews managed properly
• Content: service, practice and location pages written to answer the question first, then go deeper
• How your business is described across the web: directories, profiles, press and industry listings kept accurate and consistent
• Answer-first pages that AI assistants can quote, with clear facts, sources and dates
• Outside mentions from relevant publications and partners, earned rather than bought
• Monthly reporting tied to leads: calls, forms and booked consultations, plus rankings and AI answer checks

Personal injury and law firm SEO in New York

Law firms are among the most competitive searches in New York, and accuracy matters as much as rankings. We write monthly SEO content for US personal injury firms and check every statute before it is published. For New York pages that means getting details right, such as the three-year limit for most personal injury claims, the shorter window for medical malpractice, and the 90-day notice of claim usually required before suing a city agency. One wrong deadline on a page can mislead a reader and embarrass a firm.

Practice pages are built around how people actually search: by injury, by borough, by situation, such as a construction accident on a Manhattan job site or a crash on the BQE.

Other New York sectors we optimize for

• Healthcare and aesthetics practices on the Upper East Side, in Midtown and across Brooklyn: provider pages, treatment pages and booking
• Real estate brokerages and developers: neighborhood guides, building pages and listing visibility
• Professional and financial services: expertise pages that read well to clients and to compliance
• Fashion, beauty and retail brands: product and category SEO for e-commerce, and store pages for SoHo or Williamsburg locations
• Technology and SaaS companies: comparison, integration and use-case pages that bring in qualified demos

Proof: top-five rankings and AI answers

Right now, 10 of the businesses we work with sit in Google's top five for their main searches and show up in ChatGPT's answers. We also ran a 35-question, five-AI-engine search audit for a US aesthetics practice, testing how each assistant described the practice and its competitors, then fixed the gaps that made the assistants get it wrong.

How it works: Talk, Plan, Build, Grow

Talk: we look at your current rankings, Google Business Profile, competitors and how AI assistants describe you today. Plan: a ranked list of fixes and pages, with the first three months agreed in writing. Build: technical fixes first, then content and listings. Grow: monthly content, outside mentions and reporting, adjusted to what the data shows.

What New York clients ask before hiring us

SEO is a remote discipline by nature, so distance makes little difference to results. Reports and fixes follow a written monthly plan, and review calls are booked at times that suit your team.

Your Google Business Profile, your site and your reviews are what rank you, so most of the work happens there. We visit New York when the project needs it.

What SEO costs depends on

• How competitive your searches are, which in New York varies a lot by sector and borough
• Number of locations and practice or service areas
• The technical health of your current site
• How much new content you need each month
• Whether we also handle your website, ads or video

Why 22 Signals

SEO works faster when the people doing it can also change the site, shoot the video and run the ads. We can. Our web team fixes technical issues directly, our video team produces content that earns links, and our paid media team shares search data so budgets go to terms that convert. Related: web development, paid media, video and animation, and AI consulting.

Questions

How long does SEO take to work in New York?

Technical fixes and Google Business Profile changes tend to show first. Competitive New York searches, such as personal injury or cosmetic dentistry, take longer and need steady content and outside mentions. We agree milestones in writing and report monthly, so you can see what is moving and what is not.

Can you rank us in Brooklyn and Queens as well as Manhattan?

Yes, if you serve those areas. Local rankings depend on your real address, your Google Business Profile and pages that genuinely serve each borough. We build borough and neighborhood pages with useful local detail, not swapped place names, which Google treats as spam.

What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?

GEO is about how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews, describe and recommend you. SEO focuses on ranking pages. They share most of the groundwork: clear facts, consistent listings, strong pages and outside mentions help both. We run them together and check AI answers monthly.

Do you work with New York law firms?

Yes. We write monthly SEO and content for US personal injury firms and check every statute and deadline before publishing. For New York firms we cover practice, injury and borough pages, attorney profiles, and the listings and reviews that matter for legal searches.

What do you need from us to get started?

Access to Search Console, analytics and your Google Business Profile, plus a list of the services and neighborhoods that matter most. We run an audit, then send a written plan within 5 to 7 days. When the plan calls for it, the same team can also build pages, run ads and make video.

How much does SEO cost in New York?

It depends on competition, number of locations, site health and content volume. We do not publish prices. After a 15-minute call and a quick look at your current rankings, we send a written proposal with the scope and the first three months planned.

Book a 15-minute call.

A fit check, not a pitch. A few questions, an honest answer and a clear next step. Not every call ends in a proposal.

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