A founder in Shoreditch has just been handed a shareholders' agreement by an investor and needs it reviewed this week. She has no corporate lawyer. She searches, opens three firm websites, reads what each says about start-up work and fixed-fee reviews, and books a call with the one that sounds as if it has done this before. For that firm, a single search has turned into a client who may need advice for years.
Most partners now accept that some of their future clients will arrive this way. Plenty are willing to invest in being found. What holds them back is a fair question: when will we actually see something? It deserves a straight answer. Here is what is reasonable to expect at three, six and twelve months, and how to tell whether the trajectory is right.
Why no serious provider will give you a date
Visibility for a law firm is not bought like a directory listing. It is built, and in the end Google or an AI assistant decides which firms to show when someone looks for an employment solicitor in Croydon or a commercial property lawyer in the City. Nobody controls that decision. A provider who promises a number of instructions or a position by a given date is selling a certainty they do not have.
What can be described are stages. They do not arrive at the same moment for every firm; they depend on your starting point, your practice areas and how crowded those areas are in London. But the order is consistent enough for you to know what to look for. We explain the underlying logic in why visibility compounds over time.
At three months: foundations and first signals
The first quarter is about groundwork: setting out your practice areas clearly, answering the questions your clients genuinely ask, and making the firm legible to someone who has never heard of it. At this stage expect signals, not a flood of instructions.
The signals worth watching: the firm begins to appear for searches that matter to it, even if not near the top; visits from people who did not already know you start to rise; occasionally, a first enquiry comes in through this channel. If after three months nothing has moved at all in your own data, that is the moment to ask hard questions.
The three-month review is not optional
Insist on a measured review at three months, comparing your starting point with where you are now, using data you can verify. Without it, you are waiting for year end with your eyes shut.
At six months: presence becomes steady
Around the halfway mark, most serious programmes pass a threshold. The firm shows up for more searches, and more specific ones, and the people who find it are increasingly the ones you want: business owners, HR directors, families dealing with a probate matter, overseas buyers of London property.
This is also when quality matters more than volume. A commercial practice that attracts free-advice requests outside its areas has gained little. Two enquiries from companies looking for an ongoing adviser may be worth a year's fees. Record where every new matter comes from; it is the most useful figure you will ever track.
At twelve months: a channel that works on its own
After a year of consistency, the aim is for visibility to have become a genuine source of new business alongside referrals and panel work. Enquiries arrive without partners having to chase them, including while they are in court or at a completion. The firm is established in its areas and harder to dislodge than a competitor who started later.
Twelve months is also when you can run an honest return calculation: how many matters came through this channel, and what they were worth in fees. For many firms, one good commercial client covers the year comfortably.
How to read the trajectory properly
- Watch the slope, not the day. A quiet week means nothing. Month-on-month direction is what counts.
- Judge it in your own tools. Results should appear in your own Search Console, not only in the provider's reports.
- Count useful enquiries. One matter in your practice area beats ten off-topic requests.
- Compare with where you started. A firm moving from invisible to visible is progressing, even if it is not yet at the top.
If progress feels slow, the first thing to examine is whether you chose the right partner. Our guide to the questions a law firm should ask before signing helps you sort that out from the start.
What Traffic Engine provides at each stage
Traffic Engine is Kolonell's service for making your firm visible when clients search for your practice areas, on Google and in AI assistant answers, in a way that respects your professional conduct rules. It starts with a Visibility Audit at £590, delivered within 48 working hours and fully deducted from the setup if you begin within 30 days. You then choose a monthly plan, from Presence at £940 to Flood at £3,000, on a 12-month commitment with a measured review at three months.
Along the way, you receive a dated report every week and follow results in your own Search Console. If what your plan includes is not live on time, the next month is free. Kolonell applied the approach to its own website first, and the curves are on the offer page. Seats are capped at 3 per sector and per area. See the offer and availability for London law firms.
Your next step
Before committing, establish where you start from: it is the benchmark for judging every later stage. The free website score gives you a first reading in seconds. And if you are weighing up the length of the commitment, read why visibility plans run for twelve months.