Law firm SEO costs $2,500–$10,000 CAD monthly for most practices, though the range stretches from $1,500 for basic local work up to $15,000+ for nationally competitive practice areas. The price hinges on three factors: practice area competition, geographic scope, and current site authority. Personal injury, medical malpractice, and class action firms face brutal competition and need deeper budgets. Family law, estate planning, or niche practices in mid-sized cities can rank with leaner spend. Monthly retainers usually include technical audits, content production (2–8 articles or service pages), local citations, link acquisition, and rank tracking. A solid personal injury campaign in Toronto might burn $6,000–$8,000 monthly because you're competing against firms spending six figures annually. A family lawyer in Ottawa targeting three neighborhoods can see traction at $3,000–$4,000 monthly. One-time projects like site migrations, penalty recovery, or foundational audits run $2,500–$7,500 depending on site size. Link building drives much of the cost variance. Legal directories, guest posts on legal blogs, and journalist outreach for newsworthy cases require consistent effort. Cheap SEO in legal verticals almost always means low-quality links or thin content that tanks when Google updates hit. We've seen firms waste $50,000 with agencies that built hundreds of spammy directory links, then spend another $30,000 cleaning up penalties. Watch for agencies quoting $500–$1,200 monthly—those packages rarely move the needle in legal niches. They're either offshoring everything with no strategic oversight or running cookie-cutter tactics across dozens of clients. For Ottawa SEO, we start most law firm engagements at $4,000–$6,000 monthly after a $2,500 audit, adjusting based on practice area and whether the firm has referral momentum we can amplify. Expect 6–12 months before you see meaningful lead volume shifts, longer if your domain is new or penalized. Legal SEO is a compounding game, not a quarter-long sprint.