How much should a law firm spend on a website and SEO? Work it out one department at a time
Set a law firm's website and SEO budget from each department's fee per matter, conversion and spare fee-earner hours, plus the internal time it takes.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 30 August 2026 · 7 min read
A law firm should set its website and SEO budget department by department: what one new matter is worth once the work is done, how many more the fee earners can take, and how many enquiries it takes to win one. The website is a one-off cost that must carry the regulatory pages and a page per department; the monthly work should be judged against the extra matters it brings and stopped if it brings none. We keep prices out of our guides because the answer comes from your figures; our own fees are on the pricing page.
Why a firm-wide marketing figure gives the wrong answer
A percentage of turnover, the usual starting point, spreads money evenly across departments that have nothing in common. A conveyancing team on fixed fees with a steady flow from estate agents needs little from search. A private client team with capacity, good fees and a town full of retired homeowners can use a great deal. A personal injury team faces paid clicks priced for claims companies. Set a figure for each department and add them up; the total usually differs from the percentage, and it is far easier to defend at a partners' meeting.
Five figures to collect before speaking to any agency
| Figure | Where it comes from | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Average fee per matter, net of disbursements | The practice management system, last twelve months | What one extra instruction is worth |
| Enquiry-to-instruction rate | The enquiry log, or a month of reception's notes | How many enquiries each new matter needs |
| Spare fee-earner hours | Time recording against target | Whether the department can take more work at all |
| Onward work | Client records: wills that became estates, buyers who later sold | Which matters are worth more than their first fee |
| Where new matters come from now | One question added to the intake form | What the website must protect, not only add |
Multiply the fee by the conversion rate and by the number of extra matters the team can handle each month, and you have what the department's new work is worth. The monthly spend on search should be a modest share of that figure, and it belongs to the department, not to the firm's general overhead.
An example, with invented figures
This is an illustration, not a client. A private client team wins about one enquiry in three, has room for four more estates a month, and a single estate earns several times what a month of search work would cost. The team needs about twelve enquiries a month from the website to fill the gap. If after six months the enquiry log and Search Console show five, the work pays for itself without filling capacity, and the question becomes whether to add pages or add a paid campaign. If they show none, the money should move elsewhere.
The cost that never reaches the budget: your own people's time
Legal marketing uses hours that do not appear on any invoice. A fee earner must read and correct each practice page, because only they know how the work is done in practice and what the firm can promise. The COLP signs off the fee information and anything that could read as a claim about outcomes. Someone gathers photographs, answers review notifications and keeps the Find a Solicitor and ReviewSolicitors entries in line with the site. Expect several hours from each department head for a new site, and an hour or two a month after that. Price those hours at the charge-out rate and add them in; this part, more than the agency's fee, decides whether a project gets finished.
What the website money has to buy
A list a COLP can tick before signing a proposal:
- A page for each department you want work in, with the process, the people and the basis of charging.
- The price and service information for every regulated service you offer, written as readable pages, with the SRA digital badge and the complaints procedure; our Transparency Rules checklist sets out each item.
- Named fee-earner profiles with qualifications and accreditations.
- An office page for each address, matching its Google Business Profile.
- Forms routed to the right department, tested before launch.
- The domain, the words and the site owned by the firm when the job is done.
Where monthly money goes furthest, by department
Search work costs least per matter where the searches are local and the competition on page one is other high-street firms: wills, lasting powers of attorney, probate and local family work in most market towns. It costs most where national brands and claims companies advertise, which means personal injury everywhere and conveyancing in the cities. Paid search can carry those departments while their pages mature, but the bids for claim terms are among the highest we measure, so the campaign needs a cap and a way of counting signed matters rather than calls. The measured volumes and bid ranges are on our Google Ads for solicitors page.
Warning signs in a legal marketing proposal
- A promise of first place, or of a set number of enquiries. Nobody controls Google, and a supplier happy to make unprovable promises will write your practice pages the same way.
- Review packages, or any offer to lift a rating. Fake reviews and concealed incentives for reviews have been banned practices under UK consumer law since April 2025.
- Personal injury leads paid for per case. Referral fees in personal injury are banned, so ask exactly how the leads are generated and how the payment works, and put the answer in front of your COLP.
- Practice pages written without a fee earner reading them. A page that states the law wrongly is a regulatory problem as well as a marketing one.
- A contract under which the agency keeps the domain or the site.
- A long minimum term before the first report. Ask to see the first quarter's Search Console figures before committing further.
Departments that do not need search money
A department that is full, with work it likes from referrers it trusts, needs accurate pages and nothing more. So does one whose fee per matter is too small to pay for the enquiries it would take: some fixed-fee work only pays at volume, and volume is the online conveyancers' game. The budget then goes to the department with room, and the site stays accurate for everyone else.
What the partners should see each quarter
Impressions and clicks from Search Console for each department's searches, split by office. Enquiries logged by department, and how many became matters. The fee income from those matters set against what the work cost, including your own people's time. If a department's line has not moved after two quarters, move the money. If you want your five figures turned into a proposal, send them with your site address through the quote page.
Questions on this topic
Should a law firm spend a fixed percentage of turnover on marketing?
Use it as a ceiling, not a plan. A figure set per department from fee, conversion and capacity gives the partners a number they can test against results every quarter.
Is it cheaper to have a fee earner write the website?
Cheaper in invoices, dearer in hours at the charge-out rate, and slower. The split that works best is a writer who drafts from a short interview and a fee earner who corrects the draft.
Should we pay for Google Ads or SEO first?
For a department with capacity now and contested searches, a small capped campaign can bring work while the pages mature. For a department whose searches are local and lightly contested, good pages and a correct office profile usually win without ads.
We have several offices. Does that change the budget?
Budget per office as well as per department, because each office competes in its own town's map. An office in a town with little competition may need only an accurate profile and good pages.
How soon should we expect to see a return?
Search Console impressions usually move within the first quarter; enquiries you can trace follow later, and in contested departments it can take six months or more. Agree the review dates before the work starts.