Can a legal marketing agency handle both new and established law firms? Yes, and the first ninety days differ substantially — a new firm is building from zero with no baseline and no reviews, while an established firm needs an audit, a migration plan and protection of what already ranks.
Starting from nothing is simpler than starting from something that half works. The second needs an audit before anything is touched.
- Published pricing — $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month, on the site.
- Month to month. No contract is holding you anywhere.
- A former attorney of 17 years who filed 5,000+ cases works your account.
- You see your rankings move for 14 days before you are billed a dollar.
- Law firms only — no other industries, ever.
| Attorney Pro Marketing | Scorpion | FindLaw | Typical legal agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing published on the website | Yes — $2,500 / $3,500 / $4,500 per month | Not published | Not published | Rarely published |
| Contract term | Month to month, 30 days’ notice | Not published | Not published | Commonly 12 months |
| Who works on your account | A former attorney of 17 years, in every account | Assigned account team | Assigned account team | Account manager, often across industries |
| Your website is built on | Standard, portable code | Proprietary platform | FirmSite platform | Varies — ask before signing |
| See results before you are billed | Yes — 14 days, then you decide | No | No | No |
| Ad spend billed by Google directly to you | Yes, no markup | Ask | Ask | Often passes through the agency |
“Not published” means the figure does not appear on that company’s own website as of October 2026 — check for yourself before you sign anything, with them or with us.
A New Firm: Construction
A firm opening its doors has one advantage and one disadvantage, and both are significant.
The advantage: nothing to protect. No legacy site, no migration risk, no inherited spam links, no content written for the wrong audience, no proprietary platform to escape. Everything can be built correctly the first time, which is cheaper than fixing it later.
The disadvantage: nothing to build on. A new domain has no history, which means organic results take longer than they would for an established site. No reviews, which in consumer practice areas is the largest single conversion factor. No conversion data, so paid campaigns start cold. No idea yet which matters are actually profitable.
- Google Business Profile first, because it ranks faster than a new domain and it is free. Verification, categories, full service list, photographs, first posts.
- Site built on portable code, domain in the firm's name, phone-first, tracking installed from day one rather than retrofitted.
- Reviews started immediately. The long pole. Every matter from month one should be a review request, within state rules.
- Paid search funded early if the budget allows, because it produces while organic matures — and it reveals which terms convert, which is information a new firm does not otherwise have.
- Patience on organic. Six to twelve months on a new domain, longer on competitive terms. Anyone promising faster is guessing.
An Established Firm: Audit First
An established firm has assets and liabilities, and both need identifying before anything is changed. Starting work without an audit is how agencies destroy value they were hired to grow.
- Record a baseline. Rankings, traffic, Map Pack position, call volume, indexed pages — dated, before anything is touched. If the previous agency never did this, it is the first deliverable.
- Find what already ranks. Search Console shows which pages earn impressions and clicks. Those pages survive any redesign intact, and knowing which they are prevents the most common migration disaster.
- Check the link profile for inherited spam, which a previous agency may have purchased.
- Check Search Console for manual actions, and for the signature of an earlier botched migration — a dated collapse.
- Audit ownership. Domain, site files, content licensing, ad account, profile. An established firm frequently discovers here that it does not own what it thought.
- Only then plan changes, with a redirect map if URLs move.
The established firm's advantage is that results come faster — an existing domain with history can move on competitive terms in months rather than a year. The risk is that a careless rebuild forfeits that advantage permanently.
Where the Two Diverge
Timeline. New firms should expect six to twelve months for organic and should fund paid search to bridge it. Established firms frequently see organic movement in three to six.
The first deliverable. New: the profile and the site. Established: the audit and the baseline.
The main risk. New: impatience, cancelling at month four before anything has matured. Established: a migration that loses accumulated position.
Reviews. New: start from zero, and it is the long pole. Established: usually some exist, and the work is response and consistency rather than accumulation.
Targeting information. New: nobody knows which matters are profitable yet, so the first quarter is partly discovery. Established: the firm knows, and the agency should ask rather than assume.
What Is Identical
Worth naming, because it is most of the engagement and it is why one agency can do both.
The technical standards are the same: portable code, domain in the firm's name, phone-first design, tracking installed and tested. The measurement is the same: a dated baseline, keywords chosen by the firm, cost per signed case. The intake work is the same, and it is where both kinds of firm lose most of the output. The advertising-rule obligations are the same. And what the firm has to supply is the same — approval, the signed-case list, and the decision about which matters it wants.
Attorney Pro Marketing works with both, and the difference shows up in the first week rather than in the price. For a new firm: profile first, site built and launched within three days, tracking from day one, reviews started immediately. For an established firm: the day 0 baseline doubles as the audit's starting point, with what already ranks identified before anything moves and a redirect map prepared if URLs change.
Both get published pricing at $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month, no setup fee, month to month with 30 days' notice, everything in the firm's name, and the day 14 report before being billed for that period.
See it before you pay for it.
We snapshot your rankings on day 0, build and launch your site within three days, and show you the movement on day 14. If it has not moved enough to be worth continuing, you owe nothing for that period and you keep the Google Business Profile work.
Related Questions
A new firm has nothing to protect — no legacy site, migration risk, inherited spam links or proprietary platform — so everything can be built correctly first time. But it has no domain history, no reviews, no conversion data and no knowledge yet of which matters are profitable, so organic takes six to twelve months.
Audit before changing anything: record a dated baseline, identify which pages already earn impressions and clicks in Search Console so they survive any redesign, check the link profile for inherited spam, check for manual actions or a dated collapse from an earlier migration, and audit ownership of the domain, content, ad account and profile.
An established firm, usually — an existing domain with history can move on competitive terms in three to six months where a new domain takes six to twelve. The trade-off is risk: a careless rebuild can forfeit that accumulated advantage permanently, which is why the audit comes first.
Most of it: portable code with the domain in the firm's name, phone-first design, tracking installed and tested, a dated baseline, keywords chosen by the firm, cost per signed case as the measure, intake work, advertising-rule obligations, and what the firm must supply — approval, signed-case data and targeting decisions.