A read on all 67 search terms we track for markobrienlegal.com.au across Google Australia, spanning defamation and reputation management, commercial litigation, corporate crime and regulatory investigations, and employment law. Below: the priority commercial terms and exactly where they sit, the full spread of rankings, an estimate of the search traffic being captured now versus the volume still on the table, and the terms to win first.
First, the money terms. These are the high-intent searches someone types when they need a defamation, commercial litigation, corporate crime or employment lawyer in Sydney right now. Position here matters more than anywhere else, because these are the searches that turn into enquiries. This is where Mark O'Brien Legal sits today.
Mark O'Brien Legal owns its name-making practice, defamation and reputation management, with a #1 ranking and four terms on page one. But every commercial litigation, corporate governance, corporate crime and employment law term returns no ranking at all. The firm is practically invisible in organic search for three of its four practice lines.
Across all 67 tracked terms, here is how the rankings spread. The defamation and reputation practice is genuinely strong at the very top, but the overwhelming majority of the account, including entire practice areas, sits outside the top 100 altogether.
Just 4 of 67 terms sit on page one, all of them in defamation and reputation, and only one of those reaches the #1 spot where the clicks concentrate. Meanwhile 57 terms, 85% of everything tracked, are invisible past the top 100. The good news: the #1 ranking for "reputation management lawyer Sydney" proves the site can win competitive Sydney legal terms. The job now is bringing that same result to commercial litigation, corporate crime and employment law, where there is currently nothing to build on.
The reason position matters is clicks. Ranking #1 for one term versus not ranking at all for sixty of them is the difference between a steady, low-cost stream of enquiries and near total dependence on referrals and paid media. Applying standard click-through rates by position to an estimated search volume for every tracked term, here is roughly where Mark O'Brien Legal stands.
How this is modelled: each term's estimated AU monthly search volume is multiplied by a standard organic
click-through rate for its current position (roughly 27% at #1, 15% at #2, 11% at #3, tapering to under 1%
past page one and effectively zero beyond the top 100). The "on the table" figure is the extra clicks from
lifting each term to a strong top-three-equivalent click-through rate, floored per term so terms already
ranking well are not counted against the opportunity.
Important: unlike the ranking positions above, which come directly from the Google AU rank export,
the search volumes used here are illustrative placeholder estimates for a boutique Sydney legal practice.
They have not been pulled from Ahrefs, SEMrush or Google Search Console. They are useful for showing the
shape of the opportunity, ranked terms versus a near-total absence in three practice areas, but the
dollar figures should be treated as directional only until a live keyword-volume export replaces them.
Figures are indicative, not a guarantee.
Not every term is worth chasing at once. The quickest returns come from three places: terms already ranking that just need tightening, high-intent terms sitting just off page one, and the highest-value searches where Mark O'Brien Legal has no ranking at all. Here is the order we would work them.
Grouping the terms by practice area shows where the missed clicks concentrate. This is how we would prioritise page and content work: the biggest gaps are entire service lines with essentially no organic footprint at all.
First, tighten the six terms already ranking on pages two to five, fastest clicks for least work, and lift the three page-one defamation terms into the top three. Then build dedicated pages for employment law and commercial litigation, which carry the largest untapped volume and currently return nothing in Google at all. In parallel, begin the longer build-out for corporate crime, investigations and corporate governance, smaller volume individually, but a full practice area with zero visibility today. That sequence turns the estimated 413 clicks on the table into booked enquiries in the order they pay back quickest.
The complete set of 67 terms, grouped by where each one sits. The top of the list is on page one; expand the panel for everything on page three, beyond, and not yet ranking, which together make up 62 of the 67 terms tracked.
| Search term | Practice area | Est. vol | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| reputation management lawyer Sydney | Defamation & reputation | 90 | 1 |
| defamation lawyer Sydney | Defamation & reputation | 260 | 6 |
| defamation solicitor Sydney | Defamation & reputation | 90 | 6 |
| celebrity defamation lawyer Sydney | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 7 |
| Search term | Practice area | Est. vol | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| reputation crisis lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 20 | 19 |
| Search term | Practice area | Est. vol | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| online defamation lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 70 | 29 |
| defamatory content takedown lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 33 |
| cyber defamation lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 34 |
| social media defamation lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 20 | 40 |
| corporate crime lawyer Sydney | Corporate crime & investigations | 50 | 45 |
| Search term | Practice area | Est. vol | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| employment lawyer Sydney | Employment law | 480 | 101+ |
| commercial litigation lawyer Sydney | Commercial & corporate litigation | 170 | 101+ |
| Google review defamation removal | Defamation & reputation | 90 | 101+ |
| restraint of trade lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 90 | 101+ |
| unfair dismissal lawyer Sydney | Employment law | 90 | 101+ |
| shareholder dispute lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 40 | 101+ |
| commercial dispute lawyer Sydney | Commercial & corporate litigation | 40 | 101+ |
| ASIC investigation lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 40 | 101+ |
| white collar crime lawyer Sydney | Corporate crime & investigations | 40 | 101+ |
| workplace investigation lawyer | Employment law | 40 | 101+ |
| corporate governance lawyer Sydney | Corporate governance | 30 | 101+ |
| internal investigation lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 30 | 101+ |
| ACCC investigation lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 30 | 101+ |
| Fair Work Commission representation | Employment law | 30 | 101+ |
| executive employment lawyer | Employment law | 30 | 101+ |
| media law firm Sydney | Defamation & reputation | 20 | 101+ |
| defamation damages claim NSW | Defamation & reputation | 20 | 101+ |
| suppression order lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 20 | 101+ |
| concerns notice defamation | Defamation & reputation | 20 | 101+ |
| security for costs application | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| breach of contract litigation | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| contract dispute solicitor Sydney | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| partnership dispute lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| insolvent trading advice | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| fiduciary duty breach | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| shareholder oppression lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 20 | 101+ |
| breach of directors' duties | Corporate governance | 20 | 101+ |
| directors' duties lawyer Sydney | Corporate governance | 20 | 101+ |
| corporate fraud defence | Corporate crime & investigations | 20 | 101+ |
| proceeds of crime lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 20 | 101+ |
| regulatory investigation lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 20 | 101+ |
| bullying and harassment claim lawyer | Employment law | 20 | 101+ |
| sexual harassment lawyer Sydney | Employment law | 20 | 101+ |
| adverse action lawyer | Employment law | 20 | 101+ |
| discrimination lawyer Sydney | Employment law | 20 | 101+ |
| redundancy dispute lawyer | Employment law | 20 | 101+ |
| pre-publication advice lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| media crisis management lawyer | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| contempt of court media law | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| injunction to restrain publication | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| public interest defence defamation | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| qualified privilege defence | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| offer of amends defence | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| serious harm threshold defamation | Defamation & reputation | 10 | 101+ |
| urgent interlocutory relief | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| Federal Court litigation lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| Supreme Court NSW litigation | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| freezing order lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| property and commercial dispute lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| ASIC director disqualification defence | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| board dispute lawyer | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| statutory derivative action | Commercial & corporate litigation | 10 | 101+ |
| section 232 oppression remedy | Corporate governance | 10 | 101+ |
| royal commission representation | Corporate crime & investigations | 10 | 101+ |
| dawn raid search warrant lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 10 | 101+ |
| section 19 examination ASIC | Corporate crime & investigations | 10 | 101+ |
| AUSTRAC investigation lawyer | Corporate crime & investigations | 10 | 101+ |