You are a partner in a law firm in Accra. You spend your days reading contracts closely, spotting the clause that will cause trouble later and protecting clients from commitments they did not fully understand. Yet when an agency offers to make your firm visible online for twelve months, the contract sometimes gets signed faster than any document that crosses your desk. There is a smart presentation, some confident talk about results, and the hard questions never get asked.
The stakes are real. A foreign investor setting up a company in Ghana, a family in London dealing with a property dispute in East Legon, a local business owner facing a dispute with a former employee, a returning professional buying land who wants the title checked properly: before calling a firm, most of them search online and ask an AI assistant for names. Here are the questions to put to any visibility provider, and how to read their answers.
About the outcome
"What should actually change for my firm?"
A good answer describes an outcome, not activity: your firm appears when clients look for a lawyer in your practice areas in Accra, on Google and in AI assistant answers, and you receive more consultation requests from people who did not already know you. It should also describe a realistic timeline and a measured review on a fixed date.
Reassuring: verifiable indicators and a dated review point. Worrying: a promised position, or a pitch that never mentions client enquiries at all.
"Which kinds of matters are you aiming to bring me?"
A corporate and commercial practice, a conveyancing practice and a family law practice do not serve the same clients. The provider should ask which matters you want to grow: company formation, employment, debt recovery, land and property, probate. If they do not ask, expect generic visibility that attracts enquiries outside your expertise.
About professional conduct
"How will you respect the rules of my profession?"
This is the question specific to lawyers. How you communicate is governed by professional rules you know better than any agency. Being findable when a client looks for advice is information; touting for work, promising outcomes or disparaging other firms is another matter. A serious provider asks you to approve everything published in your name and commits to staying within those limits. If they brush the question aside, walk away.
About measurement and transparency
"Who owns the accounts and the data?"
Results should be tracked in accounts registered to your firm, such as your own Search Console. If everything sits in the agency's name, you lose the history the day you change provider.
"What will I receive, and how often?"
Ask for a dated report at a frequency written into the contract, stating what was done and what changed. You keep clients informed of progress on their matters; your provider should do the same for you.
"What exactly do you guarantee?"
Nobody controls what Google or an AI assistant decides to show. The only honest guarantee covers what the provider controls: delivering what was agreed on schedule, with a written remedy if they fall short. In other words, a clearly defined duty of performance with verifiable commitments, which is language you will recognise.
About the contract itself
"Why twelve months, and what happens at month three?"
Visibility builds over time, much like a firm's reputation. A twelve-month commitment is reasonable if it includes a measured checkpoint on a specific date. Ask what will be measured and how. Our guide to questions to ask before signing a 12-month visibility contract goes deeper on this for any small business.
"How many competing firms do you work for in Accra?"
If the same agency represents six commercial firms in Airport City and Osu, it cannot honestly fight for each of them. Ask whether they cap the number of clients per sector and per area, and whether exclusivity is available.
For a full grid to compare proposals, read how law firms can choose a visibility partner they can trust. And to put a figure on what being hard to find is costing your practice, see what an Accra law firm loses when clients cannot find it online.
How Traffic Engine answers
Traffic Engine is Kolonell's service for making your firm visible when clients look for a lawyer in Accra, on Google and in AI assistant answers, so that it receives qualified enquiries. Here are its answers, as they appear on the offer page.
- Entry point: a Visibility Audit at $750 (where you stand, how you compare with other firms, your potential and an action plan), report within 48 working hours, deducted from the $1,650 setup if you start within 30 days.
- Plans: Presence at $1,200 a month, Momentum at $2,100, Flood at $3,850, on a 12-month commitment with a measured review at three months.
- Guarantee: what your plan includes goes live on schedule, or the following month is free; Kolonell guarantees delivery and measurement, not what Google decides.
- Transparency: a dated report every week and results in your own Search Console.
- Competition: 3 seats per sector and per area, with exclusivity available while the sector is still empty.
See the offer and check whether a legal seat is still open in Accra.
Before your next agency meeting
Prepare these questions as you would prepare for a negotiation: in writing, and with the expectation that the answers end up in the contract. A serious provider has no reason to object. If you would like an objective benchmark first, the free website score shows where your firm stands in seconds. For a quick question, the team replies within 24 working hours on WhatsApp.