The first three questions that filter 80% of agencies
(1) What percentage of your active clients are law firms, and how many in my specific practice area? (2) Can I speak to two current clients in my practice area, unfiltered, before I sign? (3) Show me three case studies with month-by-month organic case data, not rankings, not sessions, cases signed. If an agency stumbles on any of these three, thank them for their time. A legal-first agency has these answers in a deck; a generalist agency will improvise.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Guaranteed first-page rankings inside a specific timeframe. 'Proprietary algorithm' as the explanation for how they work. PBNs, 'private link networks', or vague 'authority link' packages. Contracts longer than 12 months with no exit clause or performance out. Refusal to name the specific people doing the work on your account. Reporting decks built entirely on rankings and sessions with zero conversion data. Any single one of these is disqualifying; two is malpractice-adjacent.
Pricing, what is normal in 2026
Specialist legal SEO retainers range from $350/month at the solo tier up to $15,000+/month for enterprise multi-market programs. Below $350 you are almost certainly getting content mills and outsourced GBP posts with no strategy layer. Above $15,000 you should expect a dedicated strategist, dedicated content team, aggressive link acquisition, and weekly working sessions. Our pricing page shows the exact tier ladder we use and what is included at each level.
Reporting that actually matters
Tracked phone calls per practice area, form submissions per practice area, signed cases attributable to organic, organic-to-consultation conversion rate, ranking velocity for your priority keywords, and blended cost per signed case. Anything else is a supporting metric. If the agency's demo report opens with 'organic sessions' and never gets to signed cases, it is the wrong report and probably the wrong agency for a serious firm.
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How to structure the trial engagement
Start with a paid audit deliverable (30–60 days, fixed fee) before signing a monthly retainer. A serious agency will happily do this because it lets both sides evaluate fit against a real project. Agencies that refuse to do a paid audit and insist on jumping straight to a 12-month retainer are optimizing for their revenue, not your outcome. The audit-first path also gives you a fallback deliverable if the fit isn't right.
The 12-month evaluation framework
Months 1–3: technical and on-page fixes shipped on a documented sprint plan. Months 4–6: ranking velocity visible on Tier 2 keywords, first content library published, review-velocity workflow running. Months 7–9: first new clients clearly attributable to organic, first ranking wins on Tier 1 keywords. Months 10–12: compounding traffic and case volume, blended CAC dropping quarter over quarter. If you are not seeing this trajectory, raise it formally, and if there is no credible plan to fix, end the engagement.
The three questions to ask yourself, not the agency
Do we have the internal capacity to review attorney-authored content on a monthly schedule? Can we make an attorney available for one interview per month for content and expertise capture? Are we prepared to redirect budget quarterly based on what is actually producing cases? If any answer is no, the agency will not save you, internal execution capacity is the ceiling on external SEO returns.