30 September 2026 · 6 min read · Oscar Markham
Conveyancing is won before the client ever searches
Most people buying a house in Ireland do not research solicitors. They ask the estate agent, or the mortgage broker, or whoever sold them the house, and they go with the name they are given. That makes conveyancing a referral business with a search component rather than the other way round, and firms that market it purely through advertising are working the smaller half.
Referrers recommend whoever makes their job easier
An agent's nightmare is a chain that stalls because a solicitor will not return a call. A broker's nightmare is a drawdown missed because paperwork sat on a desk.
The firm that never causes either problem gets recommended repeatedly, and it has nothing to do with legal ability. It is responsiveness, and it is the one thing referrers will tell you about openly if you ask.
Ask for the referrals directly
Firms assume this happens by osmosis. It does not. Agents and brokers have a short list and it is usually whoever last made an impression.
A conversation with the agents and brokers in your town, saying plainly that you want conveyancing work and this is how you handle it, is a morning's work with a better return than any campaign. Almost nobody does it.
Then be findable for the ones who are not referred
A meaningful minority do search: people who have moved to the area, people who did not like the recommendation, people buying without an agent involved, and increasingly people who simply want to check.
For them the website is the whole decision, and what it needs to do is explain the process to somebody who has never done it.
Write the process out in plain English
Contracts, searches, requisitions, closing. A first-time buyer knows none of those words and will not ask.
A page that sets out the stages, roughly how long each takes and what the client has to supply is useful, ranks well because it matches what people type, and quietly filters out the clients who would otherwise need most handling.
New-build purchases deserve their own page
Buying from a developer runs differently, with its own timelines, contract issues and buyer supports.
Where there is a lot of new building, a firm with a page written specifically for it will out-rank one with a single generic conveyancing page every time.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.