How the work goes, from the first email to the twelfth report

It starts with the memo you already have

By the time a firm decides to work with us it has read its memo, so the first week goes to the plan. We turn the memo's three fixes into a dated 90-day document that says what we will change on the profile, which pages we will draft and in what order, what we need from the firm and when, and what the monthly report will measure. The fee is on the same document, in writing, as one flat monthly amount, and that document is what the firm signs.

In the same week the firm adds us as a manager on its Google Business Profile (the firm stays the owner and can remove us), tells us who at the firm approves drafts, and either gives us a login to the website or introduces us to whoever runs it. We ask for about 30 minutes a month of an attorney's time after that, almost all of it reading.

Everything with words in it

Every practice area page, every town page, every edit to the profile's description and services, every post, every review reply. We draft; an attorney at the firm reads and approves, by replying to an email. The advertising rules bind the lawyer, and the lawyer is the one who knows whether a sentence about a truck accident or a custody case is right. Drafts come with the rule cites we relied on, so the review is quick.

We draft to the strictest rule we know and flag anything state-specific; the attorney decides against the firm's state rules. In Texas a website is exempt from filing except its homepage (Rule 7.05), so any homepage change we draft is flagged so the firm can file it with the Advertising Review Committee.

Technical work on the website, such as compressing images or fixing a phone link, changes no words; we list it in the monthly report. Structured data with any text in it goes to the attorney with the page. We never add review or rating markup.

The same six kinds of work, sized by the plan

The profile: categories, services, hours, photos, a post about something true, and a reply to every new review, with the replies drafted for the firm's approval and never saying anything about a client's matter. The practice area pages: the plan says which case types get a page and when (car and truck accidents, divorce and custody, wills and probate, whatever the firm wants more of); a page is 900 to 1,400 words, written around the questions clients ask in the first meeting, sent to an attorney, revised, published. The town pages: for the towns the firm genuinely serves, built around the courthouse that hears those cases and the real office address. The review request: one message the firm sends every client at the close of a matter, with no incentive and no screening. It is built to fit Google's policy and the FTC rule; your attorney confirms it for your state. The technical floor: speed, the phone layout, indexing, broken links, certificates, structured data, checked monthly and fixed. And the report.

Not in the month: ads of any kind, social media, directory upgrades, website redesigns beyond what search needs, anything that touches a client file.

The first three months, as we plan them

From Google's guidance and our search work outside law: profile changes can show in the map within days to a few weeks; a new page can take weeks to months to rank, longer in a town where three firms already have the same page. The report says which is which.

One page a month, written for a lawyer's reading time

Where the firm shows in the map and on page one for the same searches every month (up to ten), checked the same way as the memo. How many times people tapped to call, asked for directions or clicked through from the Google profile, which are the counts Google reports. What we published and the date an attorney approved it. New reviews and the replies we drafted. What we plan next month and why. If a search went backwards we say so on the first line.

One flat monthly amount, in writing, before you sign

The fee is quoted in the free memo, because it depends on how many pages the plan calls for and how much of the technical work the firm's own web person will do. It never moves with settlements or billing, there is no charge per case, per client or per lead, and there is no setup fee. Either side can end the arrangement with 30 days' notice. When it ends, the profile, the pages and the accounts stay in the firm's name, and the firm removes us as manager.

The agreement, in plain words

• Month to month, with no automatic renewal into a longer term.
• Either side can end it with 30 days' notice.
• One flat monthly fee, stated in the agreement. No setup fee, no percentage of fees or settlements, no charge per lead, case or client.
• The firm owns the copyright in everything we write for it. The profile, website, domain and accounts stay in the firm's name.
• While the firm is a client, we don't work for another firm in its town in the same practice area. Family law counts as one practice area.
• Nothing with words in it is published without an attorney's approval.

Six things we say no to, and the reason for each

Ads. Local Services Ads and search ads can be the right call for a firm; they are not search engine optimization and we do not run them. If someone else does, we work alongside them and keep the profile and the pages in one pair of hands.

Bought, filtered or drafted reviews. Google bans incentives and bans asking only the happy clients. The FTC's rule bans fake reviews, reviews bought for a particular sentiment and review suppression. New York's Opinion 1286 bars a lawyer from drafting a client's review. Florida's Rule 4-7.13(b)(9) requires a disclaimer on testimonials. We set up one request for every client and leave the rest to the client.

Pages for offices the firm does not have. North Carolina's bar called a page that implies an office or a lawyer in a town where there is none a misleading communication (2012 Formal Ethics Opinion 6), and Google treats a set of near-identical city pages as doorway pages. A town page describes a town the firm serves from the office it has.

"Top", "best", "specialist" and past results without the disclosures. A comparative claim the firm cannot substantiate is misleading under Model Rule 7.1 and the state rules based on it. "Specialist" and "certified" are reserved for certified lawyers who name the certifier (Texas Rule 7.02(b), Florida Rule 4-7.14). Past results carry disclosure requirements (Texas Rule 7.01 and its Comment 10, amended January 31, 2022). Our drafts do not contain these claims; an attorney may add what the state allows.

"No fee unless we win" without saying whether the client owes case expenses. Texas Rule 7.02(c) requires an advertisement that mentions a contingent fee to state whether the client will be obligated to pay other expenses. Wherever a draft mentions a contingent fee, it carries that statement for the attorney to confirm.

A second firm in the same town for the same cases. One per town per practice area, first come; family law counts as one practice area. If another firm in your town asks, the answer is no.