What actually happens month-by-month when a family law firm invests in SEO

The first two months are entirely behind-the-scenes. Your law firm's website gets audited for technical SEO issues — page speed, mobile usability, crawlability, structured data for legal content. Citation accuracy is verified across directories like Google Business Profile, Avvo, and state bar listings. Content strategy begins here: keyword research identifies which practice areas and service keywords have realistic opportunity in your market.

During this phase, you'll see no ranking movement. This is normal and expected. Google doesn't know yet that you're optimizing. Your competitor's sites still rank the same. But the technical foundation is being established so future content and link work actually has somewhere to land.

What you should expect to see in your dashboard: audit reports identifying issues, keyword opportunity analysis, content calendar drafts, citation correction requests sent to directories. Phone traffic stays flat. Rankings unchanged. This feels like nothing is happening — but infrastructure takes time.

By month 3, Google has re-crawled your optimized pages and sees the improvements. You'll notice ranking movement, but it's often on lower-difficulty keywords — long-tail phrases like "divorce attorney in [your city] near [neighborhood]" or "child custody lawyer specializing in [specific issue]." These aren't your biggest lead generators yet, but they're proof the strategy is working.

Organic traffic starts appearing in Google Analytics around this time. It's modest — maybe 5-15 new sessions per week, depending on your starting authority and market size. Phone calls from organic search may still be sporadic. Don't expect a flood; expect signals.

Your Google Business Profile begins accumulating impressions if you're doing local-specific work. Search Console shows which keywords are starting to trigger your site. This is when you see which assumptions from the keyword research were correct and where to adjust.

What matters now: are you ranking for anything new? Are impressions climbing in Search Console? These are yes/no questions. You're looking for momentum, not volume.

Months 5-7 are when most law firms feel the strategy start to work. You'll see rankings on harder keywords — not page 1 position 1 yet, but first-page appearances on keywords like "family law attorney [city]," "divorce lawyer near me," or "child support modification lawyer." These are the keywords that actually convert to phone calls.

Organic traffic accelerates noticeably. Many firms report 30-50% month-over-month growth during this window. Phone calls from Google searches become regular enough that you notice the pattern — maybe 3-8 qualified leads per week depending on market size and service scope.

Your Google Business Profile gains traction. Reviews accumulate. Local search visibility improves — you start appearing on more map searches. Seasonal factors matter here: if this period overlaps with divorce inquiry season (January-February or September-October), you may see outsized traffic.

Competitively, you're now visible. Your target clients are finding you. Ranking positions are still climbing — moving from position 8 to position 4, not yet position 1, but the trajectory is clear.

By month 8-10, primary keywords begin ranking on page 1. Your high-intent keywords — the ones that matter most for your practice areas — start converting consistently. A family law firm optimizing for "divorce attorney [city]" will likely hold a page 1 position. Local searches show your profile prominently. Organic lead volume stabilizes into a predictable monthly range.

This is when SEO transitions from investment into operation. You stop asking "Is this working?" and start asking "How do we maintain and grow this?" Many firms report 2-5 qualified leads per week from organic search by month 12, though this varies significantly by market competition, local population, and service mix.

Importantly, your authority continues compounding. Each ranking month adds more visibility, more brand impressions, more reasons for prospects to trust your firm. By month 12, you've accumulated enough ranking history that Google treats your site as an established authority for family law in your area.

Seasonal patterns become visible. You'll see which months drive higher inquiry volume and can plan retainer adjustments accordingly. Winter divorce season and back-to-school custody inquiry peaks become predictable.

The timeline above assumes moderate market competition and a website starting from reasonable technical health. Reality varies.

High-competition markets (major metro areas) may require 10-14 months to see predictable lead flow instead of 8-12. This is because your competitors have been ranking for years and have significant authority advantages. Your rankings climb slower but still follow the same pattern — early small keywords first, mid-difficulty keywords next, high-difficulty keywords last.

Low-competition markets (rural or suburban areas) might see meaningful rankings by month 4-5 and stabilized lead flow by month 7-8. Fewer competitors means faster authority accumulation.

Poor starting technical health (slow site, mobile issues, broken pages) adds 1-2 months to the timeline because Google has to re-evaluate your site after fixes. Strong starting authority (established domain, existing traffic, clean site) can accelerate by 1-2 months.

In our experience working with family law firms, the 8-12 month window is industry-standard, but individual markets and firm situations create variation of 2-4 months in either direction.

Family law doesn't have flat inquiry patterns year-round. Two seasonal peaks matter:

January-February: Post-holiday divorce inquiries peak. Couples who had difficult holidays decide to separate. Resolutions drive divorce research. New Year anxiety about family situations spikes searches. Expect 20-40% higher organic inquiry volume during these months if your rankings are established.

September-October: Back-to-school season creates custody and child support urgency. Families reassess arrangements before school year starts. This creates a secondary peak, typically 15-25% higher than baseline.

Summer and holidays (June-August, November-December): Slightly lower inquiry volume as people focus on vacations and holidays. SEO still works, but absolute lead numbers dip modestly.

This matters for your timeline expectations: if you hit month 7 stabilization in June, you won't see peak lead volume until January. If you hit month 7 in September, you'll see a spike immediately. Your monthly lead predictions should account for season, not assume flat volume year-round.