Employment law has strong, steady search demand in Canada. “Employment lawyer” draws about 9,900 searches a month, “employment lawyer Toronto” about 2,400 and “wrongful dismissal lawyer” about 1,300. Competition is high, and many people who search have just lost their job and want one answer: is my severance offer fair? Employment firms that win online answer that question better than anyone else, then make it easy to get an offer reviewed.
This guide covers how employment law firms in Canada win clients online, for both employee-side and employer-side practices: the searches that matter, the pages and offers that convert, local search and reviews, paid search economics, content that earns trust, referral channels, the rules that apply and how to measure the program.
Two practices, two marketing plans
Employment law attracts two very different buyers, and a single marketing plan rarely serves both.
| Employee side | Employer side | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical searches | “wrongful dismissal lawyer”, “severance pay calculator”, “fired without cause” | “employment contract lawyer”, “how to terminate an employee Ontario”, “workplace investigation” |
| Main worry | Money, timing and the cost of a lawyer | Risk, liability and getting it right |
| Decision speed | Days, often driven by a deadline to sign | Weeks, often with HR and finance involved |
| Best channels | Search, Google Ads, reviews | Content, LinkedIn, referrals from accountants and HR consultants |
| Offer to lead with | Severance package review | Contract review, termination planning, HR policy audits |
We help Canadian law firms rank for their practice areas and the cities they serve.
If you act for both sides, build two clear paths through your website, each with its own pages, articles and calls to action. If you act for one side only, say so on the first screen so the wrong enquiries filter themselves out.
What employees are really searching for
Employee searches cluster around a few moments:
- The termination: fired without cause, let go after years, termination letter, what am I owed.
- The offer: severance package review, is my severance fair, should I sign the release.
- The workplace: toxic workplace lawyer, harassment at work, constructive dismissal, demotion or pay cut.
- Rights questions: human rights complaint, accommodation at work, leave and return to work.
The common thread is a decision with a deadline. Your marketing should help people understand their situation quickly and get the right advice before they sign anything.
The severance review: the offer that drives employee-side growth
A clear severance review offer converts better than a generic “free consultation”. Explain on one page:
- What a review covers: the offer, the employment contract, the termination letter and the release.
- What the client needs to send, with a secure upload.
- How quickly you respond, if you can commit to a time.
- What it costs, or how fees work, stated accurately.
- What happens next if the offer looks low.
Support the page with a plain explanation of how entitlements work. In Ontario, for example, the Employment Standards Act sets minimum termination pay and, for qualifying employees and employers, severance pay, while common law reasonable notice can be considerably more depending on age, length of service, position and the availability of similar work, unless a valid contract limits it. Every province has its own statute, so pages should name yours and be reviewed by a lawyer. Avoid promising a multiple or a figure, because every case differs.
Severance calculators: handle with care
“Severance pay calculator” is a popular search. A calculator can attract traffic, but it can also mislead if it implies an outcome. If you build one, limit it to statutory minimums, explain clearly that common law entitlements depend on many factors, and invite a review rather than presenting a number as an answer.
Matter pages that rank
Build a page for each matter you want more of:
- Wrongful dismissal and termination without cause.
- Constructive dismissal.
- Severance package review.
- Workplace harassment and toxic workplaces.
- Human rights and accommodation at work.
- Employment contracts, non-competes and non-solicits.
- Executive employment and exit negotiations.
For employer-side practices:
- Terminations and restructuring.
- Employment contracts and policies.
- Workplace investigations.
- Human rights complaints and responses.
- Advice for growing teams and HR departments.
Each page should explain the issue, what the client should do now, how your firm helps, who handles it and how to start. Link each page to the lawyers who do the work and to supporting articles.
Local SEO and reviews
Many employment searches include a city or “near me”, so the map results matter.
- Use your real firm name and the most accurate categories on your Google Business Profile.
- Keep one profile per real office, with accurate hours and real photos.
- List your services by matter type.
- Keep your details consistent across law society directories, legal directories and business listings.
- Ask clients for reviews once a matter is resolved, never offer anything in return, and never confirm a client relationship or discuss a matter in your replies.
Employee clients are often happy to review a firm that helped them through a difficult time, which makes reviews a real advantage in this practice area.
Google Ads economics for employment firms
Paid search works well for employee-side firms because searchers are ready to act. Set budgets by working backwards from a retained file: cost per click divided by the share of clicks that enquire, book and retain. Then protect the spend:
- Separate campaigns for wrongful dismissal, severance review, constructive dismissal and harassment, each landing on its own page.
- Exclude searches for job postings, employment insurance applications, government forms and Ministry of Labour contact details unless you serve them.
- Schedule ads for when your intake can respond quickly.
- Track calls, forms and document uploads, and feed retained files back into your reporting.
Employer-side firms usually get more from LinkedIn content, webinars for HR teams and search campaigns for specific advisory needs than from broad paid search. See Google Ads for lawyers, LinkedIn Ads for B2B and the cost per click by practice area.
Content that earns trust
| Topic | Audience | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| What to do in the first week after being let go | Employees | Urgent, practical and widely shared |
| Should I sign my severance release? | Employees | Matches a high intent question |
| Statutory minimums versus common law notice | Employees | Explains why advice matters |
| How employment insurance interacts with severance | Employees | A common source of confusion |
| How to terminate an employee properly in your province | Employers | High intent advisory search |
| Workplace investigations: when to bring in outside counsel | Employers | Reaches HR leaders |
| Are your employment contracts enforceable? | Employers | Leads to contract review work |
Keep content accurate for your province, date it and update it when legislation or major court decisions change the picture. Have a lawyer review every article.
Referral channels
Employment firms receive many files through other professionals: lawyers in other practice areas, accountants, financial advisors, HR consultants and career coaches. A short page for referral partners, quick acknowledgement of every referral and a habit of reporting back keep those channels active. Referral fees may only pass between licensees within your law society’s limits, never to non-licensees such as consultants or coaches.
Intake built for deadlines
An employment enquiry often arrives with a time limit: an offer that expires, a release to sign or a limitation period approaching. Strong intake:
- Answers or returns calls the same day.
- Collects the termination letter, contract and offer through a secure upload.
- Screens employee and employer enquiries to the right lawyer.
- Flags urgent deadlines.
- Records the source of every enquiry.
A CRM keeps this organized and makes follow-up reliable. See choosing a CRM for small business in Canada.
Rules that apply to employment law marketing
- Accuracy. Marketing must be true, accurate and verifiable and must not mislead, under the Federation of Law Societies’ Model Code and your society’s rules.
- Results and recoveries. Figures such as “we recovered” or typical severance multiples can create unjustified expectations. Use them only within your society’s rules, with context.
- Fees. If you advertise contingency arrangements or free reviews, state accurately what is included and any conditions.
- Titles. Only lawyers certified by their society may use specialist titles.
- Superiority claims. Avoid unverifiable words such as best or top.
- Email. Newsletters to clients and contacts need consent under Canada’s anti-spam law.
Read lawyer advertising rules in Canada for more.
Measuring the program
| Measure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Enquiries by source | Which pages, profiles and campaigns bring people in |
| Severance reviews requested | Whether your main offer is working |
| Consultation and retain rates | Whether enquiries are the right fit |
| Cost per retained file | Where to put the next dollar |
| Employer enquiries | Whether advisory content and referrals are working |
Employer-side marketing in depth
Employer clients rarely search once and hire. They are business owners, HR leaders and finance teams who want a firm they can call whenever an employment issue arises. Marketing for this audience is a long game built on usefulness:
- Webinars and short briefings on legislative changes, termination planning, workplace investigations and policy updates. Record them and publish them on your site.
- An HR newsletter with practical updates, sent only to people who have agreed to receive it under Canada’s anti-spam law.
- LinkedIn presence for each employer-side lawyer, sharing commentary on decisions and changes in plain language.
- Templates and checklists that help HR teams, such as a termination planning checklist, positioned as general information rather than legal advice.
- Industry focus. Pages for the industries you serve most, such as construction, health care, technology or retail, explaining the employment issues each faces.
- Retainer or advisory packages for growing companies that want predictable access to advice, described accurately.
Employer-side work often grows through accountants, payroll providers, HR consultants and business associations. Speaking at their events and writing for their newsletters is often more productive than paid advertising.
Website conversion for employment firms
An employment law website must serve a frightened employee and a busy HR manager in the same visit. A few practical choices help:
- Two clear paths on the homepage: one for employees, one for employers.
- A visible severance review button with secure document upload for employees.
- A short contact form for employers that asks about company size and the issue.
- Fast loading on mobile, because many employees search from their phone the day they are let go.
- Accessible design with readable fonts and good contrast.
- Clear information about consultation fees or free reviews, with any conditions stated.
Lawyer profiles and video
People choose an employment lawyer they feel they can talk to. Detailed profiles that explain each lawyer’s focus, whether they act for employees, employers or both, their year of call, languages and publications help readers decide. Short videos explaining what happens in a severance review or how a workplace investigation works make the firm feel approachable and give search engines and readers more reasons to trust your expertise.
The first consultation
Marketing brings the enquiry; the first consultation wins the file. Prepare it well:
- Collect documents before the meeting so the lawyer can give useful advice.
- Explain the options, likely next steps and timelines in plain language.
- Be clear about fees, including any contingency arrangement and what it covers.
- Send a written summary of next steps after the call.
- Follow up if the client has not decided, especially when a deadline is close.
A worked example
Consider a five-lawyer employment firm acting mainly for employees in a large city. Its website mixes employer and employee content, its contact page has only a phone number, and most enquiries come from word of mouth. In the first month it splits the site into employee and employer paths, launches a severance review page with upload and starts tracking calls and forms. In the second month it runs Google Ads for wrongful dismissal and severance review searches with negatives for job and government form searches, and starts asking resolved clients for reviews. In the third month it publishes three articles drawn from its intake questions and a short guide for employers on terminations. By the end of the quarter the firm can see how many severance reviews each channel produced and how many became files, and can decide whether to expand paid search or invest more in content. Results differ for every firm, but the method holds.
A 90 day plan
- Days 1 to 30: decide your audience split, build or rebuild the severance review page with secure upload, clean up your Google Business Profile and set up tracking.
- Days 31 to 60: launch matter-based Google Ads with tight negatives, publish wrongful dismissal and constructive dismissal pages and start a review routine.
- Days 61 to 90: publish three articles from your intake questions, contact referral partners and review cost per retained file by channel.
Common mistakes
- One page trying to serve employees and employers at once.
- Promising severance multiples or outcomes.
- Calculators that present numbers as answers.
- Slow intake when the client has a deadline to sign.
- Ads that pay for job seekers and government form searches.
Want help growing an employment law practice? See our employment lawyer SEO service and our SEO for lawyers program, or read the law firm marketing playbook.
Frequently asked questions
How do employment lawyers get clients?
Employee-side firms win most clients from search, reviews and a clear severance review offer. Employer-side firms rely more on content, LinkedIn and referrals from accountants and HR consultants.
What is the best offer for an employee-side employment firm?
A severance package review with secure document upload, clear fees and a fast response usually converts better than a generic free consultation.
Should we build a severance calculator?
Only with care. Limit it to statutory minimums, explain that common law entitlements depend on many factors and invite a review rather than presenting a number as an answer.
Should employee and employer services be on separate pages?
Yes. The two audiences search differently, worry about different things and decide at different speeds.
Do Google Ads work for employment lawyers?
Yes, especially for wrongful dismissal and severance searches, if campaigns are split by matter, negatives remove job seekers and intake responds quickly.
Can we publish severance amounts we recovered?
Be careful. Figures can create unjustified expectations, so use them only within your law society's rules and with context.
What content works for employment lawyers?
What to do after being let go, whether to sign a release, statutory versus common law notice and, for employers, how to terminate properly and when to investigate.
How do we handle reviews?
Ask once a matter is resolved, never offer anything in return and never confirm a client relationship in your replies.
Can we pay HR consultants for referrals?
No. Referral fees may only pass between licensees within your law society's limits.
How do we measure employment law marketing?
Track enquiries and severance reviews by source, consultation and retain rates, and cost per retained file by channel.
