The questions that actually tell you something
Skip the questions every agency has a rehearsed answer to. Ask the ones where the answer, or the dodge, tells you who you're dealing with.
- 1
Who actually does the work?
Is it an in-house team, or is the SEO subcontracted to an offshore shop you'll never talk to? Neither is automatically disqualifying, but you want to know who is writing your practice-area pages and touching your Google profile. Vague answers here usually mean the person selling you isn't connected to the person doing the work.
- 2
What is your reporting tied to?
The right answer is consultation calls, form fills, and signed cases. The wrong answer is "traffic," "impressions," or "keyword rankings" in isolation. Traffic that doesn't turn into calls is theater. Ask to see a real sample report and check what it actually measures.
- 3
Do I own the website and content when we're done?
Some agencies build your site on a proprietary platform you can never take with you, so leaving means starting from zero. You should own your domain, your site, and the content you paid for. If the answer is no or "it's complicated," you're renting your own firm's presence.
- 4
How does the pricing break down?
A clear answer separates the monthly program, the one-time website, and ad spend (which goes to Google, not the agency). A murky "one flat fee for everything" often hides either a thin scope or a pile of future add-ons. Ask what costs extra later. See how law firm pricing should break down.
- 5
Do you understand my state's bar rules?
Most generalist agencies don't. If they can't talk about outcome-claim restrictions, testimonial disclaimers, and the "specialist" rule, they can write you copy that earns a grievance. This question alone eliminates a lot of otherwise-slick pitches. See what bar-compliant advertising requires.
Green flags and red flags
After enough sales calls the patterns are obvious. Here's the short version of what to move toward and what to walk away from.
Reporting tied to leads
They measure consultation calls and signed cases, and they'll show you a real report. The metric is your phone ringing, not a traffic line going up.
Ranking guarantees
Nobody controls Google. A guaranteed #1 is either a bait-and-switch on a phrase nobody searches or a sign they'll cut corners that get you penalized.
You own your site and content
Your domain, your site, your content. You can take it with you. The agency earns your business every month instead of holding it hostage.
Reselling shared leads
Selling you the same lead three other firms are buying. You never own anything, and the flow stops the day you stop paying.
They know bar advertising rules
They can talk about disclaimers, outcome claims, and the specialist rule without blinking. They write aggressive copy that stays compliant.
Vague pricing and 30-day promises
"Contact us for a quote" with nothing behind it, or a promise of results in 30 days. Real SEO compounds over months; anyone selling instant is selling smoke.
Why the cheapest option is usually the most expensive
The "$500 a month, no contract" pitch is engineered to look like the safe choice. It isn't. That price almost never buys the actual work. It buys a rank-tracker subscription, an automated report, and a token amount of activity, while the unglamorous work that ranks a firm (real practice-area pages, citation cleanup, review systems, the technical foundation) quietly doesn't happen. Six months later you've spent $3,000 and moved nowhere, which is more expensive than a real program that signed you cases.
"No contract, cancel anytime" sounds friendly too, and sometimes it is. But often it's how an agency signals they don't expect to be around long enough for you to notice nothing changed. Meaningful SEO results show up over months, not weeks, so a firm that's confident in the work isn't afraid of a reasonable term tied to that timeline. The term isn't the red flag. The guarantee is. See how the pricing actually works.
Does the agency need to specialize in law firms?
Not necessarily "law firms only," but they do need to genuinely understand two things a generalist usually doesn't: how legal clients search, and the rules your profession runs on. Legal search is different from a plumber's or a dentist's. A defense client searches at 2 a.m. in a panic; a family law client researches quietly for weeks; an injury client is making the biggest financial decision of their life. An agency that treats all of that like generic "local SEO" will leave cases on the table.
And an agency that doesn't know bar advertising rules is a liability, not an asset. The right partner can talk about how injury outcome claims need disclaimers, why "specialist" is restricted, and what a compliant testimonial looks like, because they've done it before. Ask for examples of legal work they've done and how they handled compliance. If the honest answer is that they mostly do other industries and would "figure out" the bar rules, keep looking.
What real, provable results look like
Ask any agency for a result they can actually stand behind, with real numbers over real time, not a screenshot of a spike. Here's ours.
A result we can stand behind · CCRS Law (personal injury)
Over a 12-year partnership with the personal injury firm CCRS Law, in the most competitive corner of legal search, we grew their site from invisible to more than 1,000 ranking keywords and roughly $768K in cumulative organic traffic value. The partnership ended only when the partners retired. That's the kind of answer to look for: specific, measurable, and sustained, not a promise.
Read the CCRS case study →"We contracted with Michael to develop a series of websites and the results have far exceeded expectations. Their results-oriented approach delivers a strong return on investment."
Thomas C.
Savo Group client
Before you sign with anyone
Three quick moves that save firms from the wrong agency.
Ask for a real sample report
Not a mockup. A real, recent client report (redacted is fine) so you can see whether they measure calls and cases or just traffic. What they choose to show you is the answer.
Get the pricing in writing, itemized
Monthly program, one-time website, and ad spend as separate lines, plus what costs extra later. If they won't put it in writing, that's your answer.
Get a second read on your own market
Send us your firm name, practice area, and city. We'll show you who ranks above you and why, so you can judge any agency's pitch against what's actually happening in your market.