The Fee Question That Decides Whether ChatGPT Recommends Your Firm
When someone asks an AI assistant how much a solicitor or accountant costs, most firms have no answer on their site at all. That missing number is often the entire reason a competitor gets named instead of you.
Ask ChatGPT how much a conveyancing solicitor costs in Leeds and it will name two or three firms, each with an actual number attached. Ask about firms whose site says nothing more specific than contact us for a quote and they are left out of the answer entirely, even when they outrank everyone else on Google for that same search.
The Question Every Client Types Before They Ever Call You
Pricing pages get treated as a sales problem inside most accountancy and law firms. Show a number and it might scare off a complex case that would have been worth far more. So the page says contact us for a quote, and the firm assumes a phone call will sort out the details. AI search engines do not make phone calls. They read the page in front of them, find no number, and move on to a competitor who gave them one.
1. AI Search Rewards Facts It Can Extract, Not Facts It Has To Ask For
A language model answering how much does a solicitor cost near me is not booking a consultation. It is scanning the pages it has access to for a concrete answer it can state with confidence. A specific figure, a starting rate, or a fixed fee range gives it something to quote. Contact us for a quote gives it nothing, so the page gets skipped in favour of the next result that actually answers the question.
2. What Contact Us For A Quote Actually Costs You
Hiding pricing does not protect complex cases from being underquoted. It removes the firm from the shortlist before a client ever reaches the stage of describing their case. Firms that show up in AI answers do the opposite of hiding:
- State a starting rate or a fixed fee for the standard version of the service
- Give a realistic range for anything that varies by complexity, not just one word like variable
- Answer the exact question a client would type, such as how much does probate cost, in a single direct sentence
- Repeat the figure on the page itself, not only inside a downloadable PDF a model cannot read
- Update the number the moment it changes, an outdated figure quoted by an AI assistant becomes a complaint before the client even calls
3. Ranges Beat Silence Every Time
Put the three approaches next to each other and the pattern is obvious.
| Approach | Effect on a human reader | Effect on AI search |
|---|---|---|
| No pricing shown | Feels evasive, some clients leave without calling | No number to extract, page gets skipped entirely |
| Vague pricing language | Reads as marketing, trust drops slightly | Words like affordable or competitive are not extractable facts |
| Clear starting rate or range | Sets expectations before the first call | Gets quoted directly in ChatGPT and Google AI Overview answers |
4. Where To Put The Number So A Model Can Actually Find It
The figure needs to live in plain text on the page, close to the question it answers, not buried in a downloadable brochure or an image. Pair it with FAQPage schema so the question and answer are marked up explicitly. A line like fixed fee conveyancing starts at 850 pounds plus VAT for a standard freehold purchase gives a model everything it needs to quote your firm by name.
A model cannot quote a number your site refuses to state. Silence does not read as premium, it reads as no answer available.
Silence Is Not Neutral, It Is A Skip
Every professional service firm worried that a published price will scare off high value cases is also invisible to every AI assistant answering a pricing question on their behalf. The client asking that question was never going to call a firm with no answer at all. They were going to call whichever firm gave the model something to say.