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What does an SEO firm actually do?
Posted by on February 23, 2026 at 2:16 amI pay $3k a month for the SEO service (distinct from content writing or location software or whatconverts or ppc or backlinks)
I get some screenshots of line graphs showing how I’m faring via Sen rush (usually exceptionally well) 1-3 times a month and that’s kind of it.
They definitely fill out my GMB I know that
I have no idea what else is done
I’m not against paying a fair (cost+profit) rate for a good service, I just find the service to be very opaque and I wonder if that’s my fault or I’m not getting the full picture from them or … I dunno.
The $3k hit is definitely not cheap.
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Here’s a copy pasta from below if it gives more context:
Local legal/law yup—and they’ve done good by me generally; but I worry the amount of work I get for the bill I pay is a bit of a bad business decision by me, I dunno (the “SEO charge” is about 55% of the total bill)
Keyword SERP changes — I have no idea, doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it but no communication about it
Track record — they were recommended by someone in a similar business space but different geo market, and they took me from ground zero to a very respectable GMB position quite promptly
Contract— I am month to month, they will not duck me over if I leave them (I am confident in their follow through because we’ve discussed my own referrals leaving them and their transition process, among other very solid reasons, among those they are good guys and their key referral source I suspect wants things done smooth both ways)
Keyword research— they presented me with the keywords they believed would perform well and have pursued those and I think tinkered with them as they saw fit over the past 3 yrs, though I never asked the question.. context clues suggest the answer is “yes”
Content— they were producing blog articles, I cancelled that last year because budget had grown to about $1k more than we originally discussed would be a short term aggressive ramp up/getting started budget … then when I told them hey it’s been a year time to get to normal they gave me reasons why we need to stay where we are (budget) … but permanent 5500/mo was never what I was sold on at the beginning (and as of now there is no content writing)
Strategy— actually there’s never been a convo about this other than trying to get satellite offices and using those, I guess the strategy is “gmb”
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1 Reply
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[deleted]
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>They definitely fill out my GMB I know that
Local Legal Law?
>I get some screenshots of line graphs showing how I’m faring via Sen rush (usually exceptionally well) 1-3 times a month and that’s kind of it.
Keyword SERP changes?
>if that’s my fault or I’m not getting the full picture from them or
Do they just have a good track record?
Not sure if you have a contract? What did you agree?
Did they do keyword research?
Do they produce content briefs/content calendar?
Whats the strategy?
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What does your SOW say?
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Paying for something with no clarity on what you’re getting is craaaaazy
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On one hand it sounds like you have no idea what you’re paying for
On the other hand you said they got your rank up pretty quickly, did this turn into an increase of closed leads? and how much money have you made from those leads?
If so, then $3k a month/$36k a year is a drop in the bucket, I think most business owners would pay the $36k if it meant measurable revenue growth
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Do you wonder the same about your car mechanic or your doctor?
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3k/month for what sounds like mostly GBP maintenance is hard to justify.
From your description, this feels like maintenance not growth.
What a $3k/month local SEO retainer should include:
Technical SEO:
Full crawl + indexation control
Internal linking optimization
Schema (LegalService, LocalBusiness, FAQ)
Core Web Vitals improvements
Location page architectureAuthority Building:
Ongoing backlink acquisition
Legal directory placements (Avvo, Justia, etc.)
Local citations + NAP audits
Geo-relevant linksContent Strategy:
Practice-area expansion
Long-tail + FAQ clusters
Topical authority building
Conversion-focused landing pagesPerformance Reporting:
Rank distribution (Top 3 / 4–10 / 11–20)
Local grid tracking
Competitor visibility comparison
Organic vs GBP breakdown
Call tracking + form attribution
Cost per leadLine graphs alone aren’t enough.
If content stopped and there’s no active link building, growth will plateau especially after 3 years in legal.
The bigger issue here isn’t necessarily performance. It’s opacity.
You should be able to clearly answer:
What backlinks were built in the last 6–12 months?
What technical changes were implemented?
What keywords moved into Top 3 recently?
How many signed cases came from organic vs GBP?Also I hope you’re running Google Ads. In legal, SEO alone is slow and volatile. Paid search captures high-intent demand immediately.
If it were me:
Reduce the SEO retainer to true maintenance pricing
Hire a more transparent agency
Reallocate budget into aggressive Google Ads
Own both paid + organic locallyMonth-to-month is leverage. Use it.
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Sounds like they’re doing their job well but not communicating it well enough
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Sounds like you have a sorta fluid relationship with them on what they actually do. Which doesn’t mean to say they do nothing, but for clarity, you should ask them to qualify what they do on a routine basis and what you can expect from them. Both in what you should be ranking for and how that will drive in more business.
I niche in the legal space, as long as the SEO firm
isn’t Scorpion, then there’s potential if there’s growth. One thing that helps with my clients is:1. Getting on the same page business strategy wise, i.e. client says I want to close X amount of DUI, PI cases etc from X county, how can we achieve that?
2. Then we go back and forth to build a plan and measure success based on what converts, from where and how.
Most clients don’t need to know every detail but they need to know what our collective goals are and the steps in order to achieve them.
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