Before hiring a marketing agency, a law firm should ask who owns the website and accounts, what the contract term is, how results are reported, whether the agency serves competing firms in your market, and how it handles bar advertising rules. Clear answers to these protect you later.
Ownership comes first. Ask whether you will own the domain, the website, the Google Business Profile and any ad accounts, and get it in writing. Some legal marketing companies build sites on their own platforms and keep the content if you leave. Ask what happens when you cancel, and whether you can take the site with you. Then ask about the contract. Long terms with early cancellation fees are common in legal marketing, so know what you are signing. Read the fine print.
Next, ask about conflicts and compliance. Does the agency work with other firms in your practice area and city? If so, how does it decide who gets which keywords? Ask how it handles bar advertising rules, review requests and disclaimers, and whether you approve content before it publishes. An agency that cannot answer these clearly is guessing, and your firm carries the risk if something goes wrong. Ask for a sample monthly report too, so you can see whether it shows calls and consults or only vanity numbers.
Ask who does the actual work and how often you will hear from them. Ask for examples of law firm sites they have built and maintained. Finally, ask how success is measured. Good answers involve calls, forms, consults and cost per new client, with monthly reports you can understand. Ask how they track AI search visibility, since that now affects who gets found. Heights Digital works month to month with no contract, you own the site, and we are happy to walk through any of these questions at (210) 729-4008.
Send the site over. We will tell you what is broken, what you could rank for, and whether AI search knows you exist. No charge and no pitch deck.
