Exeter Solicitor Digital Visibility Index — Q4-2026

The PYC Exeter Solicitor Digital Visibility Index ranks 8 solicitors in Exeter on how well they perform online — website speed, technical SEO, local presence, search visibility, AI search presence and content & trust — each scored 0–100 to a single Digital Visibility Score. Measured 3 October 2026 to the published methodology.

As of Q4-2026, 0% of the 8 solicitors in Exeter measured on Speed & Core Web Vitals score below 50 on mobile (PYC Exeter Solicitor Digital Visibility Index, measured 3 October 2026).

Who owns the first page

Across 12 keywords there are 120 first-page organic slots. The firms in this index hold 17 of them (14.2%); 108 distinct domains appear in total.

this index (17) directories, national chains and firms not indexed (103)

Ranking well but not currently indexed:

reviewsolicitors.co.uk — 6 top-10 slots, best #1
sleeblackwell.co.uk — 6 top-10 slots, best #5
yell.com — 4 top-10 slots, best #1
rundlewalker.com — 4 top-10 slots, best #1
facebook.com — 4 top-10 slots, best #2

85.8% of the first page belongs to businesses outside this index — directories, national chains and local firms not tracked here. These firms are not mainly competing with each other.

The league table

#	Exeter Solicitor	Score	Spd	Tech	Local	Vis	AI	Cont
1	Gilbert Stephens	76	78	100	77	49	60	87
2	Wollens	72	65	100	83	25	80	70
3	Amicus Law	70	68	100	83	21	60	74
4	Dunn & Baker	66	63	100	82	35	20	83
5	Stephens Scown	66	55	100	98	25	20	87
6	Setfords Exeter	65	87	100	70	21	20	70
7	Porter Dodson	58	75	88	65	17	0	100
8	WBW Solicitors	58	63	88	75	17	20	70

Which keywords are contested, and which are open?

Every firm against every keyword, shaded by position. Darker is stronger; blank means outside the top 100. Read down a column for a contested term, across a row for a firm's reach.

	solicitors	family law solicitors	employment solicitors	wills and probate	personal injury solicitors	divorce solicitors	legal advice	solicitors St Leonards
Gilbert Stephens	5		2	3	1	4	7
Wollens		7	5	19	15	24	2
Amicus Law	14			17	19	13	16
Dunn & Baker		58	19	2	2	6	19
Stephens Scown		1		25	42	11
Setfords Exeter	17			29	61		33	36
Porter Dodson		3		10	20	21
WBW Solicitors		12		12	25	31

1–3 4–10 11–20 21+ absent

No firm in this index reaches the first page for “best solicitors Exeter”, “conveyancing solicitors Exeter”, “solicitors St Leonards” and 2 other keywords. That is uncontested ground, and it is invisible in a league table.

Where each firm is visible

Where each firm is visible: ranked in the organic top 10 for at least one keyword, present in the local 3-pack, or named in at least one AI answer. 3 of 8 appear in all three.

Visible in	Firms	Which
All three channels	3	Gilbert Stephens, Dunn & Baker, Stephens Scown
Organic + local pack	0	—
Organic + AI	1	Wollens
Local pack + AI	0	—
Organic only	1	Porter Dodson
Local pack only	0	—
AI only	3	Amicus Law, Setfords Exeter, WBW Solicitors
None of the three	0	—

3 of 8 firms are visible in all three channels.

Search visibility against AI presence

Search visibility against AI search presence. The dashed diagonal is parity; a firm far from it is strong in one channel and weak in the other.

horizontal: search visibility → vertical: AI presence ↑

Wollens is the widest split: AI engines name it far more readily than search surfaces it (AI 80, visibility 25) — brand without search. Those are different problems behind a similar overall score.

Closest to the first page

Ranked between #11 and #20 — one page from the first, ordered by how close.

Stephens Scown	Stephens Scown — divorce solicitors Exeter	#11
WBW Solicitors	WBW Solicitors — family law solicitors Exeter	#12
WBW Solicitors	WBW Solicitors — wills and probate Exeter	#12
Amicus Law	Amicus Law — divorce solicitors Exeter	#13
Amicus Law	Amicus Law — solicitors Exeter	#14
Wollens	Wollens — personal injury solicitors Exeter	#15
Amicus Law	Amicus Law — legal advice Exeter	#16
Amicus Law	Amicus Law — wills and probate Exeter	#17
Setfords Exeter	Setfords Exeter — solicitors Exeter	#17
Wollens	Wollens — wills and probate Exeter	#19

14 winnable positions across 7 firms sit between #11 and #20 — one page off, and closer than any keyword the index does not already measure.

Reputation: reviews against rating

Google review volume (log scale) against average rating. Bubble size is review count.

horizontal: reviews (log) → vertical: rating ↑

Review volume spans 2 to 214 and ratings 3.8 to 5, yet the Local pillar separates these firms by only 33 points — the raw figures discriminate where the score does not. Most reviews: Stephens Scown (214). Highest rating: Porter Dodson (5).

What the keyword basket is asking

Search intent across the measured keyword basket, classified by DataForSEO.

commercial		11 of 12
navigational		1 of 12

Local pack coverage across the city

Local 3-pack for “solicitors near me” searched from 9 points on a 3×3 grid across a 7.5-mile square centred on 50.718, -3.534. North is up; each cell names its position and carries its coordinates and the firms found there. Each cell counts how many indexed firms hold a pack slot at that location; a chain counts wherever any of its branches appears. 6 of 9 points contain at least one indexed firm, and 5 of the 8 indexed firms appear somewhere on the grid.

Indexed firms holding a local pack slot, by grid position from north-west to south-east
1NWnorth-west, 50.773, -3.619 — Gilbert Stephens	1Nnorth, 50.773, -3.534 — Dunn & Baker	1NEnorth-east, 50.773, -3.449 — Stephens Scown
1Wwest, 50.718, -3.619 — Amicus Law	1·centre, 50.718, -3.534 — Stephens Scown	1Eeast, 50.718, -3.449 — Wollens
SWsouth-west, 50.664, -3.619 — no indexed firm in the pack here	Ssouth, 50.664, -3.534 — no indexed firm in the pack here	SEsouth-east, 50.664, -3.449 — no indexed firm in the pack here

none 1 firm 2 3 of the pack

What changed since last quarter

Change between Q3-2026 and Q4-2026 on the 6 pillars measured in both quarters — Speed & CWV and Technical and Local presence and Visibility and AI search presence and Content & trust. The other pillars were not measured in Q3-2026, so no comparison is possible and none is drawn.

Dunn & Baker	-80	AI search presence
Amicus Law	-40	AI search presence
Stephens Scown	-40	AI search presence
Porter Dodson	-40	AI search presence
WBW Solicitors	+38	Technical
Amicus Law	-25	Visibility
Porter Dodson	-25	Visibility
WBW Solicitors	-21	Visibility
Gilbert Stephens	+20	AI search presence
Gilbert Stephens	+20	Content & trust
Wollens	+20	AI search presence
Dunn & Baker	-20	Visibility

Hollow mark is Q3-2026, solid is Q4-2026. Showing the 12 largest of 31 changes. 17 readings unchanged and not drawn, across 7 firms that moved.

Dunn & Baker moved furthest: AI search presence down 80 points since Q3-2026. 31 of 48 comparable readings changed at all — which is what a quarter of movement actually looks like.

Which solicitor in Exeter has the best website?

Gilbert Stephens tops the Q4-2026 index with a Digital Visibility Score of 76/100. Each firm has a full diagnostic scorecard linked from the table above.

How this is measured

Every score follows the same six-pillar methodology: Speed & Core Web Vitals (20%), Technical foundation (20%), Local presence (20%), Visibility (15%), AI search presence (15%) and Content & trust (10%). Each pillar links to the knowledge-base article that explains what it measures; the statistical methods behind the scoring are written up separately. Download the full dataset: JSON · CSV.

Who publishes this

The index is compiled and published by PYC, a search consultancy run by Phil Yarrow. It exists because the questions it answers — who is actually visible in a local market, and by how much — were being answered with opinion. The collection and scoring code is open source, so any figure here can be recomputed rather than taken on trust.

Related reading on the practice behind the measurements: topical authority, generative engine optimisation, and case studies from comparable service businesses.

Using this data

This dataset is published under CC BY 4.0. You may reuse it, including commercially and in AI-generated answers, provided you credit Phil Yarrow (PYC) by name and link back. That credit is a condition of use, not a courtesy.

Phil Yarrow (PYC) — Local Digital Visibility Index. https://hub.pyc.agency/indices/

That one credit covers every dataset on this site — one figure or all of them. When quoting this particular dataset precisely, the fuller form is:

Phil Yarrow (PYC) — Local Digital Visibility Index: Exeter Solicitor, Q4-2026. https://hub.pyc.agency/indices/exeter-solicitors/

Full terms: licence and attribution.

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