Nearly nine in ten small law firm websites scored below 90 on Google's mobile PageSpeed test, the score Google considers good, according to a study released today by Constellate, a marketing research firm that works exclusively with law firms. The study tested 80 small law firm websites across five fast-growing markets: McKinney, Texas; Castle Rock, Colorado; Naples, Florida; Carmel, Indiana; and Cary, North Carolina. These are communities where new residents need lawyers and search for them on their phones.
The median mobile score was 60 out of 100, in the range Google says needs improvement. 71 of 80 sites (89%) scored below 90. Most of them, 52 sites (65%), landed in Google's "needs improvement" range of 50 to 89. Another 19 (24%) scored below 50, which Google labels "poor." Just 9 sites (11%) reached 90 or above.
In Google's mobile test, the median site took 7.4 seconds to display its main content. Google rates a load time over 4 seconds as poor, and 58 of 80 sites (73%) crossed that line. Castle Rock, Colorado had the lowest median score at 56. Carmel, Indiana led the group with a median of 74, and a quarter of its sites scored 90 or above.
"Most people search for a law firm on their phone, no matter what kind of legal service they are looking for," said Bruce Kreutzer, Partner and VP of Growth at Constellate. "Seven seconds is a long time to wait. They call the next firm. Most small firms never see this happen, because nobody shows them the number."
"We built Constellate on one idea: law firm marketing should run on real data, measured as it happens," said Chris Bardos, President of Constellate. "This is the first in a series. Search is changing fast, especially with AI answers, and the firms that know their numbers will adapt first."
The study tested the home pages of 82 law firm websites using Google PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse) with mobile settings in September 2026. Two sites could not be scored and were excluded, leaving 80. Firms were identified through Google search. Scores are grouped by Google's published bands: 90 to 100 is good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and below 50 is poor. Load time refers to Largest Contentful Paint, Google's measure of when a page's main content appears, measured in a simulated mobile load and compared against Google's 4-second threshold. Individual firms are not named.
For small law firms, the findings suggest a significant risk of losing potential clients to competitors with faster websites. With mobile search dominating how consumers find legal services, a slow site can mean missed calls and lost revenue. The study also underscores the growing importance of technical performance in legal marketing, especially as search engines and AI tools prioritize speed and user experience. Constellate, which builds and manages websites, SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO) for firms with 1 to 25 attorneys, offers a data pipeline that tracks site performance in real time. More information is available at constellate.com.
