LAW FIRM MARKETING · GUIDE 05

\"SEO takes time.\" Fine. What should be moving in month two?

Yes, law firm SEO takes 6–12 months to show cases. No, that isn't a blank check. Here's what should be measurably moving each month, so you know the difference between patience and being stalled.

There's a version of "SEO takes time" that's true, and a version that's an excuse, and they sound identical on a phone call.

The true version: Google needs months to trust new pages and new links, the Map Pack moves faster than organic, and for most law firms the compounding starts somewhere between month six and month twelve. Anyone who promises page one in ninety days is either lying or targeting keywords nobody searches.

The excuse version: nothing has happened for four months, the report still shows the same chart, and when you ask, you get the phrase.

The way to tell them apart is not patience. It's knowing what should be moving before the cases show up — the leading indicators — and checking them month by month. Here's the timeline I hold my own team to.

Month 1 — Setup. Everything is visible, nothing has moved yet.

What should be done: tracking numbers live on GBP, site and ads; intake tagging leads by source; Google Business Profile rebuilt (right primary category, services, photos, hours, attorneys); technical audit finished and the top ten fixes done; the 18-month plan written down with what happens each month; content calendar for the first quarter approved by you.

What you should be able to see: a baseline. Your Map Pack position for six core searches, your page-one keywords, your current calls by source, what the AI models say about you. If you don't get a baseline in month one, you'll never be able to prove anything moved.

Red flag: "We're still doing research." Research takes a week.

Month 2 — Maps starts to move. Content is going live.

What should be done: first practice-area pages published (three to five, not one); citations fixed on the twenty directories that matter; review process running (intake sending requests; you should see the count go up); first onsite fixes on existing pages; schema on the site.

What you should be able to see: Map Pack position improving on at least some of the six searches — usually the ones where you were 5th–10th, not the ones where you were 30th. Reviews up. Calls from GBP up slightly. Organic rankings: new pages indexed, sitting on pages 3–6. That's normal; that's what "new" looks like.

Red flag: no pages live. Two months without publishing is a team that hasn't started.

Month 3 — The Map Pack should be real. Organic is warming.

What should be done: the first round of practice-area pages complete; location pages if you have multiple offices; first authority links landed (directories, a guest article, a local mention); GBP posts weekly; review count meaningfully higher than month one.

What you should be able to see: Map Pack top three on at least two of six searches in a normal market (longer in a brutal PI metro). Calls from GBP clearly up — this is the first month the phone should tell you something. Organic: new pages climbing from page 4 to page 2, a few long-tail phrases on page one.

Red flag: Map Pack unchanged after three months with reviews flat. Either the profile wasn't rebuilt or the review process isn't running. Both are fixable in a week; neither is "SEO takes time."

Month 4 — Organic pages reach page one for long-tail. AI starts noticing.

What should be done: second wave of content (sub-practice pages — truck accidents, DUI first offense, contested custody); internal links from every blog post to the practice pages; more links; entity work (consistent name/address/phone everywhere, schema, /llms.txt).

What you should be able to see: page-one keywords up by a real number — 5 to 15 more, mostly long-tail ("truck accident lawyer [county]"). First organic calls and forms tagged as such. In the AI check, your firm named for one or two queries where it was absent.

Red flag: page-one count flat while "traffic" is up. Means the traffic is informational and not from your market. Ask which pages.

Month 5 — Core terms move. Cases from organic start.

What should be done: the site should now have 15–25 real practice and location pages; links continuing; the first intake review meeting (missed calls, response time, what happened on the calls); content plan for the next quarter based on what's actually ranking.

What you should be able to see: core terms ("car accident lawyer [city]") from page 3 to page 2, or page 2 to the bottom of page 1. Calls from organic search a visible line in the report. Cost per signed case starting to make sense — not good yet, but calculable.

Red flag: the agency can't tell you which pages produced calls. That's the tracking from month one not being used.

Month 6 — The first honest review.

What should be done: everything above, plus a written six-month review: what moved, what didn't, why, and what changes.

What you should be able to see, in a normal competitive market: Map Pack top three on most of the six searches; page-one keywords 2–3× the baseline; calls from GBP + organic clearly above month one; a handful of signed cases with the source tagged; the AI models naming you for some queries. In personal injury in Houston or Los Angeles, scale these expectations down and the timeline out — and your agency should have told you that in month one, in writing.

Red flag: six months, no signed cases tagged to search, and a report that's still about rankings. This is the moment to leave, and you'll know it because you have the baseline from month one.

Months 7–12 — Compounding, and the part nobody advertises

This is where it works. Pages that ranked at 8 go to 3. Links stack. Reviews stack. The firm's name starts appearing in AI answers without you doing anything that month. Cost per case drops for the first time in a way you'd show a partner. The work log gets more boring — maintenance, expansion into a second practice area or city, the next round of links — and the report gets more interesting.

It's also where most agencies coast, because the client is finally happy. Watch the work log. A quiet month with a reason is fine. Three quiet months is coasting.

The one-page version

Print it. Bring it to the monthly call.

Frequently asked questions

My agency says the Map Pack takes a year in my market. In a top-10 metro PI market, top three can genuinely take 9–12 months. But movement — position 14 to position 7 — should show inside three. Ask for the six-search grid every month.

What if we launched a new website in the middle of this? A migration can cost you 1–3 months of organic progress if done well, more if done badly. It should be in the plan with a date, not discovered in the report.

Is it fair to expect signed cases by month six? Tagged to search, yes — a few. Enough to pay for the program, usually not yet; that's months 9–12 in most markets. What's not fair is having no way to know.

We're at month eight and nothing above has happened. Now what? Get the baseline they recorded in month one (if they didn't, that's your answer). Get the work log. Then get a second opinion — a Growth Plan from us will show you exactly where the market is and what should have moved.

Want the baseline and the timeline for your market before you sign with anyone? Your Growth Plan shows where you stand today on Maps, organic and AI, and what months 1–6 should look like for your practice area and city. Free, in 48 hours. Get your Growth Plan

Attorney advertising services. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Timelines are typical for competitive US markets and vary by practice area and metro.