For law firms, a website isn’t just a marketing tool; it’s a long-term institutional asset. When taking on a website project, the stakes are high, the timelines are long, and the margin for error is slim. When Sheppard (previously Sheppard Mullin) embarked on a complete rebrand, domain migration, and website overhaul, they needed more than a web development team. They needed a strategic SEO and GEO partner embedded in the process from day one.

That’s where 9Sail came in.

Case Study Highlights

• Successful execution of a full site, name, and domain migration with no preventable loss of core visibility
• Consolidated multiple off-site blogs onto the main domain, strengthening topical authority and long-term SEO and GEO value
• Site Health improved from 60% to 81%
• AI Search Health increased from 54% to 77%
• Crawlability improved from 85% to 92%

Client Overview

Sheppard is a nationally recognized, Am Law 50 law firm with offices across the globe, including key U.S. markets. In 2025, the firm began a complete digital transformation project—new name, new brand, new domain, and an entirely new website—which launched in February 2026.

Projects of this scale are rare, and for good reason. The complexity is significant, the internal coordination required is substantial, and the risk to organic search visibility is real. Sheppard engaged a web development agency to lead the build and leveraged 9Sail as their dedicated SEO and GEO partner to ensure the transition strengthened, rather than jeopardized, their existing digital presence.

Navigating a Major Website Overhaul Without Losing Ground

For law firms, a website project is never just a website project. The site has to serve clients, prospects, partners, and associates simultaneously, and the decisions made at the outset shape the firm’s digital presence for years.

Sheppard faced a convergence of challenges that are common in the legal industry:

• Coordinating across multiple stakeholders (internal teams, firm leadership, the web development and design agencies, and any other involved parties)
• Future-proofing the new site’s technical architecture to support the firm’s long-term growth, as well as performance in both traditional search and AI-driven discovery
• Executing a full domain and brand migration without losing brand value/recognition or triggering the ranking volatility that often accompanies changes of this magnitude
• Migrating and reviewing a large volume of content, including content spread across multiple off-site blogs, without sacrificing quality or search relevance
• Auditing practice and industry pages to eliminate duplication, improve content organization, and identify opportunities for new pages aligned with firm experience, user needs, and search demand
• Rewriting attorney bios to align with revised practice and industry pages and emphasize individual attorneys’ experience
• Protecting existing search equity accumulated under the legacy brand and domain
• Maintaining organic traffic continuity during and immediately following migration

These aren’t abstract concerns. A single misstep in coordination, content, or technical execution can quietly erode years of built-up brand recognition and search authority.

How 9Sail Supported Sheppard

Embedded SEO & GEO Partnership From the Start

Rather than being brought in after decisions were made, 9Sail worked alongside Sheppard and their web development and design agencies throughout the project. This allowed SEO and GEO requirements to be built into the site architecture from the ground up, not retrofitted after launch.
9Sail served as the connective tissue between the firm’s internal goals, the development team’s build decisions, and the realities of how search engines and AI platforms would evaluate the new site.

Primary Domain Migration: sheppardmullin.com to sheppard.com

Among the most technically consequential decisions of the entire project was the migration of the firm’s primary domain, moving from sheppardmullin.com, a domain with years of accumulated authority and search equity, to the new sheppard.com. This is the kind of change that, without careful planning and execution, can trigger significant ranking volatility and sustained traffic loss that takes months or years to recover from.

9Sail guided Sheppard through this process with a clear-eyed understanding of the risks and a deliberate strategy to mitigate them. This included advising on redirect architecture for the primary domain transition, reviewing the site map to ensure structural continuity, and conducting a thorough post-launch audit to confirm the migration executed cleanly and without introducing new technical issues.

For firms considering a similar move, this is one of the highest-stakes elements of any rebrand or website project. It requires a digital visibility partner who has done it before and understands not just the technical mechanics, but the downstream implications for long-term search and AI visibility.

Migration Strategy and Redirect Architecture

A domain and brand migration without a rigorous redirect strategy is one of the most common ways firms lose years of accumulated search authority. 9Sail provided expert guidance throughout this process by reviewing the site map and offering recommendations to the firm as the redirect mapping was being built out by their development agency. Following launch, 9Sail conducted a thorough post-launch audit to verify that the redirects were implemented correctly and hadn’t introduced new errors.

As a result, organic click volume held steady following launch, maintaining the firm’s visibility during what is typically a volatile period.

Off-Site Blog Consolidation

Sheppard accumulated a meaningful library of content across multiple off-site blogs hosted on separate domains. Rather than leaving that content scattered, 9Sail provided strategic guidance on how to consolidate it into the new main site in a way that maximized its long-term value and minimized website bloat.
9Sail helped establish parameters for what to bring over and what to trim, cutting the list from over 34,000 pages to fewer than 10,000, ensuring that only content worth preserving made the move. With the help of the blog platform and managed services provider, redirects were implemented from the legacy blog domains to the appropriate pages on the new site, protecting the authority those URLs had built over time.

The broader benefit is compounding. By consolidating this content onto the main domain, Sheppard strengthened its topical authority across key practice areas, signaling to both traditional and AI search engines that the firm is a credible, comprehensive source on the subjects that matter most to its prospective clients. Over time, this positions the site to drive more organic traffic and earn more visibility in AI-generated responses than fragmented, off-domain content ever could.

Technical Foundation Overhaul

One of the most consequential contributions 9Sail made was working alongside the development team to ensure the new site launched with a dramatically cleaner technical profile than the legacy site:

• Technical errors reduced from 1,200 to 44
• Technical warnings reduced from 3,000 to 269
• Site Health improved from 60% to 81%
• Crawlability improved from 85% to 92%
• HTTPS coverage increased from 70% to 98%

These aren’t just housekeeping metrics. A clean technical foundation directly impacts how search engines crawl and index a site, how AI platforms surface and cite content, and how efficiently the firm can make future updates without inheriting a backlog of technical debt.

User Experience Improvements

Technical health and search visibility don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re directly tied to how users experience the site itself. 9Sail helped to ensure the new Sheppard site delivered meaningful improvements in performance and usability alongside its stronger technical foundation:

• Site Performance improved from 84% to 91%
• Internal Linking Score increased from 73% to 81%
• Streamlined navigation and content structure improved overall discoverability

A faster, better-connected site means search engines can crawl and index content more efficiently, users can find what they’re looking for more easily, and the firm presents a more authoritative, professional experience to prospective clients.

AI Search Readiness (GEO)

As AI-powered search continues to reshape how users discover legal services, 9Sail ensured the new site was positioned for this evolving landscape. AI Search Health improved from 54% to 77%—a meaningful gain that reflects how well-structured, authoritative, and citable the site’s content is for AI-driven discovery platforms.

For a firm investing in a website meant to last the better part of a decade, this future-proofing isn’t optional. It’s essential.

The Results

The February 2026 launch of the new Sheppard site, under a new brand, a new domain, and a new technical architecture, delivered across every key metric.

More importantly, the firm emerged from a complex transformation with a stronger digital foundation than it had going in, one built not just on cleaner technical infrastructure, but on a more authoritative, consolidated content presence that is better positioned to drive organic traffic and AI-driven visibility for years to come.

Results of this scale are the product of strong collaboration, and credit is shared with Armitage Consulting, the Website Project Manager, Living Group, who led the firm’s rebrand and visual identity, and Altudo, who built and developed the new site.

Ready to Make Your Next Website Project a Win

Website projects are one of the highest-stakes investments a law firm can make. Done right, they set the firm up for a decade of strong digital performance. Done without the right SEO and GEO strategy in place, they can quietly erode years of visibility.

9Sail specializes in helping law firms navigate exactly these moments by working alongside your internal team and your development agency to make sure search is built in, not bolted on.
If your firm is planning a website project, we’d love to discuss how we can support you.