A study released by Constellate, a marketing research firm that works exclusively with law firms, found that 89% of small law firm websites scored below 90 on Google’s mobile PageSpeed test, the score Google considers good. The study analyzed 80 firm websites in five fast-growing markets: McKinney, Texas; Castle Rock, Colorado; Naples, Florida; Carmel, Indiana; and Cary, North Carolina.
The median mobile score was 60 out of 100, which falls in Google’s “needs improvement” range. Of the 80 sites tested, 71 (89%) scored below 90. Most of those, 52 sites (65%), landed in the 50-to-89 range, while another 19 (24%) scored below 50, a level Google labels “poor.” Only 9 sites (11%) reached 90 or above.
Load times were also slow. 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 threshold.
“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.”
The study also found regional differences. 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.
“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.”
Constellate 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.
The findings matter because mobile search is often the first point of contact for potential clients. Slow websites can lead to lost business, as users abandon pages that take too long to load. For small law firms, which may lack dedicated marketing staff, the data suggests a widespread blind spot. 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.
