I was digging through a personal injury firm’s website the other day and nearly spit out my coffee. Right there, sandwiched between real practice area pages, were articles like:
- “Lakeway & Travis County Hospitals”
- “Lakeway & Travis County Restaurants”
Seriously? A law firm website with a page about local tacos.
This isn’t an isolated case. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the agency playbook: crank out useless “local SEO” pages to make it look like they’re doing work. They sell you on the idea of “building local authority,” but in reality, they’re dumping irrelevant junk on your site that does nothing for your brand or your caseload.
Let’s break down why this happens, why it’s harmful, and what you should demand instead.
The Scam: Content Quotas Disguised as Strategy
Most agencies sell “content packages” like 10, 20, maybe 30 new pages a month. The pitch is simple: more content = more keywords = more leads.
Sounds great, right?
Except here’s the problem: real, valuable legal content is hard to produce. You need subject matter expertise, research, and a strategy that ties into actual user intent. That takes time.
So instead of writing about what injured people actually search for (like “what to do after a hit and run” or “how long do I have to file a lawsuit”), agencies pump out filler:
- Lists of local hospitals
- Restaurant guides
- “Things to do in [city]” articles
- Cookie-cutter neighborhood pages with no legal substance
It’s fast. It’s easy. And it checks the “we delivered 20 new pages this month” box.
But let’s be real for a second: no one in Lakeway is Googling “best fajitas near me” and then suddenly deciding, “You know what, I should hire a personal injury lawyer while I’m at it.” Crazy.
Why It’s Worse Than Just “Pointless”
It’s tempting to shrug and say, “Who cares if they add fluff, as long as it doesn’t hurt?” But here’s the reality: it does hurt.
1. It Kills Your E-E-A-T
Google’s algorithms are obsessed with E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Personal injury is a YMYL topic (“Your Money or Your Life”) which means the quality bar is even higher.
When Google crawls your site and finds a mix of legal pages and “restaurant guides,” it sends mixed signals. Are you a law firm? Or a lifestyle blog? That inconsistency can drag down your authority across the board.
2. It Dilutes Topical Authority
You want Google to see your site as the authority on car accidents, truck crashes, wrongful death claims, and injury law. Every irrelevant page you add waters down that signal. Instead of strengthening your core topics, you’re spreading thin over nonsense.
3. It Wastes Crawl Budget
Google only crawls so much of your site at a time. If its bots are busy indexing “Best Coffee Shops in Lakeway,” that’s crawl equity wasted on trash instead of on your important practice area or blog pages.
4. It Damages User Trust
Imagine a potential client clicks on your site, looking for help after a serious accident. Instead of useful info, they land on a page about local BBQ joints. They bounce. Worse, they might start questioning your professionalism.
5. It Eats Your Budget
You’re paying an agency thousands per month. And they’re using your money to churn out pages any intern could slap together in 20 minutes by copy-pasting Yelp. That’s not strategy. That’s a rip-off.
Why Agencies Keep Doing It
So if it’s so bad, why do agencies still push this? Simple: it’s profitable for them.
- It’s cheap to produce. No lawyer review, no research, just lists of places and boilerplate text.
- It inflates deliverables. They can proudly say, “We created 25 pages this month!” without mentioning that 20 of them are useless.
- It sounds good in reports. “We’re building local relevance by adding neighborhood pages.” To a non-marketer, that sounds impressive.
- Most lawyers don’t know better. Agencies count on clients being too busy (or too uninformed) to question whether these pages actually drive cases.
It’s SEO theater: activity that looks like progress but delivers nothing.
What Law Firms Should Be Doing Instead
If you want your site to rank, bring in cases, and actually work for your firm, you don’t need more fluff. You need content that balances two things: legal relevance and local credibility.
Here’s what that looks like.
1. Local Pages With Legal Relevance
Instead of “restaurants in Lakeway,” build a “Lakeway Car Accident Lawyer” page that:
- References local crash statistics
- Talks about dangerous intersections or highways in the area
- Explains how courts in Travis County handle PI claims
- Mentions nearby hospitals but in the context of treatment after an accident
Now you’ve got a page that ties your practice to a location while staying 100% relevant to injury law.
2. Answer Real Questions
Stop guessing. Use tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, or even your intake staff’s call notes to identify what people actually ask. Build content around that:
- “Do I have to talk to the insurance company after a wreck?”
- “What happens if I was partially at fault in Texas?”
- “How long will my case take?”
These are the pages that drive conversions.
3. Quality Over Quantity
One strong, well-researched piece can outperform 50 fluff pages. A detailed guide on “Texas Statute of Limitations for Car Accidents” will attract links, rank in AI Overviews, and actually help users.
4. Show Real Experience
Bring in case examples, attorney quotes, or firm wins. That demonstrates actual expertise, something no generic “hospital directory” can do.
The Bigger Problem: Agencies Selling Illusions
The real issue isn’t just these garbage pages. It’s the mindset behind them: agencies that sell the illusion of activity instead of the reality of results.
They’ll point to vanity metrics like, “look how many new pages we added,” “look how many keywords you rank for.” Meanwhile, none of that translates into signed cases.
And that’s what matters, right? Cases. Not clicks, impressions, or a top-10 ranking for “restaurants in Lakeway.”
How to Tell If Your Agency Is Feeding You Junk
Here are some quick red flags:
- Your site is full of neighborhood or city pages with no legal relevance.
- You’re getting “content reports” with tons of new pages, but no clear case attribution.
- They push “keyword coverage” as the main KPI instead of signed clients.
- You find yourself embarrassed by what’s on your own website.
If that’s happening, you’re not getting SEO. You’re getting smoke and mirrors.
Closing It Out
Law firms don’t need pages about restaurants or coffee shops. They need strategies that bring in cases.
If your marketing agency is stuffing your site with irrelevant fluff, they’re not helping you. They’re padding their invoices.
And if your agency can’t deliver that? Fire them.