Study: Nearly 9 in 10 Small Law Firm Websites Fall Short of Google's "Good" Mobile Speed Score

AUSTIN, TX, October 13, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Constellate, a marketing research firm that works exclusively with law firms, today released a study of 80 small law firm websites across five fast-growing markets. Nearly nine in ten scored below 90 on Google's mobile PageSpeed test, the score Google considers good. One in four scored below 50, the range Google rates as poor.

The study tested firms in 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.

Key findings:
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."

Methodology:
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.

Constellate is a marketing research firm that works only with law firms. It builds and manages websites, SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO) for firms with 1 to 25 attorneys, guided by a data pipeline that tracks site performance in real time. Learn more at constellate.com.

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