How to Migrate Away from Scorpion

Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available information, Scorpion's own published statements (including their FAQ, privacy policy, and acceptable use policy), and client-reported experiences from public review platforms. Scorpion does not publish its client contracts, so specific clause language, notice windows, and early termination amounts cannot be independently verified. Contract terms vary between clients and have changed over time. Nothing in this article should be taken as legal advice. Verify all details against your own signed agreement before taking any action.

Leaving Scorpion is not complicated, but it does require planning. Their websites are built on a proprietary platform called CMS-8 that cannot be ported to WordPress or any other CMS. When you leave, they hand you static HTML files and raw content exports, not a working website. What you do with those files is entirely up to you, but without a plan, many attorneys walk away from months or years of SEO momentum and have to rebuild from zero. This guide covers exactly what you own, what you can take, how to prepare before you cancel, and how to handle the migration itself.

What You Own vs What You Don't: The Full Picture

Scorpion's FAQ states that "all the assets, including domains, content, and imagery, are yours" once your contract is complete. That is technically true but practically incomplete. You own the content in the same way you'd own the text from a book you paid someone to write: you can copy it somewhere else, but you cannot take the book itself. The functional website, the design system, the CMS, the hosting infrastructure, and the campaign data all stay inside Scorpion's ecosystem. Here is a full breakdown of every asset type and what you can realistically expect.

Asset	Who Owns It	Can You Take It?	Difficulty	Notes
Domain name	You	Yes	Easy	Confirm registrar access before giving notice. If Scorpion registered it, request transfer auth codes in writing.
Website content and copy	You	Yes, as raw files	Medium	Scorpion provides static files. Content must be manually rebuilt into a new CMS; it does not import automatically.
Website design and templates	Scorpion (CMS-8)	Partial	Hard	The functional site cannot be ported. The visual design can be recreated in WordPress but requires a full rebuild.
Stock images	License-dependent	No	N/A	Stock image licenses are tied to Scorpion's accounts. You will need to re-license or replace them.
Custom photos and video	You	Yes	Easy	Request original high-resolution source files, not web-optimized versions. These are yours outright.
Blog posts and practice area pages	You	Yes, manually	Medium	Each page must be individually migrated. Preserve original URLs where possible and set up 301 redirects for anything that changes.
Google Analytics / GA4	You	Yes	Easy	Scorpion explicitly lists this as transferred. Confirm you have admin-level access to the property before giving notice.
Google Business Profile	Your business	Yes	Easy	GBP stays with the business. Confirm Owner-level access. Update your tracking phone number in the listing after migration.
Google Ads account and history	Unclear	Uncertain	Hard	Google Ads is not listed in Scorpion's FAQ transfer items. Campaign history and optimization data may not be recoverable. Clarify this in writing before canceling.
Local Services Ads (LSA) account	You	Yes	Easy	Explicitly listed in Scorpion's FAQ as transferred. Your "Google Screened" badge stays with your business.
Social media accounts	You	Yes	Easy	Listed in Scorpion's FAQ as transferred. Ensure you have admin access to every profile independently.
Call tracking numbers	Scorpion (via Twilio)	Difficult	Hard	Not mentioned in Scorpion's FAQ. Numbers are provisioned through their Twilio system. Porting takes 4-6 weeks and is not guaranteed. Set up replacement numbers before you cancel.
Lead history and CRM data	Platform-dependent	Limited	Hard	Data inside Scorpion's proprietary dashboard is likely lost at exit. Data in an external CRM like Clio is yours and unaffected.
Reviews (Google, Yelp, Avvo)	The platform	N/A	N/A	Reviews live permanently on their respective platforms and are completely unaffected by your relationship with Scorpion.
Backlinks	External sites	Yes, automatically	Easy	Backlinks point to your domain, not Scorpion's. They transfer automatically as long as you keep your domain and set up proper 301 redirects.
SEO rankings	Earned metric	Partial	Medium	Rankings follow the domain with proper redirects. Expect a temporary dip of 2-4 weeks. Without redirects, losses can be significant and slow to recover.
Hosting	Scorpion	No	N/A	The site goes dark on Scorpion's servers when you cancel. New hosting must be set up before launch.

The two assets that catch most firms by surprise are Google Ads history and call tracking numbers. Google Ads is conspicuously absent from Scorpion's list of transferred accounts, meaning years of campaign data, bidding history, and audience signals may not come with you. Call tracking numbers are built on Scorpion's Twilio infrastructure. If those numbers are on your business cards, your Google Business Profile, and every directory listing you have built up over the years, losing them means misdirected calls during the transition. Address both of these before you give notice.

Before You Cancel: The Preparation Checklist

The single most common mistake attorneys make when leaving Scorpion is giving notice before they are ready. Once you cancel, the clock starts. Do all of this first, while the site is still live and you still have full access to everything.

1. Pull Your Contract and Find Your Renewal Date

   Scorpion's standard contract runs 12 months for marketing technology and SEO, with digital advertising often on month-to-month terms. Many contracts auto-renew unless you provide written notice within a specific window before the renewal date, typically 30 to 90 days depending on your agreement. Miss that window and you may be locked in for another full term. Find your contract, locate the termination and auto-renewal clauses, and calendar your notice deadline immediately. If you cannot find your contract, contact your account manager and request a copy in writing.

2. Confirm You Have Admin Access to Your Domain

   Log in to the domain registrar where your domain is registered and confirm your firm is listed as the registrant. If you are not sure who registered your domain, go to lookup.icann.org and search your domain. The registrar name will appear in the results. Contact that registrar to confirm you have full registrant access. If Scorpion registered the domain on your behalf, request that they transfer registrant ownership to you now, before any conversation about cancellation. This is your domain and your right, regardless of contract status.

3. Confirm Admin Access to Google Analytics

   Log in to analytics.google.com and confirm you have Administrator access to your GA4 property, not just Viewer or Editor. If Scorpion set up the property under their own Google account and only granted you access as a viewer, you may lose the historical data when they remove your access at exit. Ask Scorpion to transfer property ownership to a Google account you control. Do this before giving notice.

4. Confirm Admin Access to Google Business Profile

   Go to business.google.com and confirm you have Owner-level access to your GBP listing, not just Manager. If Scorpion or an agency email is listed as the primary Owner, request ownership transfer to your own Google account now. Your GBP is yours regardless of your marketing relationship and should never be controlled exclusively by a third party.

5. Confirm Admin Access to Social Media Accounts

   Check Facebook Business Manager, LinkedIn, and any other social profiles Scorpion manages on your behalf. Confirm you have admin access with your own credentials and that Scorpion's team members are listed as secondary admins, not the primary owner. If you cannot log in to any of these independently of Scorpion, address it now.

6. Clarify Google Ads Account Ownership in Writing

   Contact your Scorpion account manager and ask directly: is my Google Ads account registered under my business's Google account, or under Scorpion's MCC (manager account)? Request that answer in writing via email. If the account was created under Scorpion's MCC and you have no independent access, ask what the process is for transferring it to your own account before contract termination. If they cannot or will not transfer it, factor the loss of that campaign history into your migration timeline and budget.

7. Set Up Replacement Call Tracking Numbers

   Before you cancel, set up new call tracking numbers through an independent provider such as CallRail or WhatConverts. These numbers will forward to your main office line just like Scorpion's do. Once set up, begin updating your Google Business Profile, your directory listings on Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, and others, and any printed materials to reflect the new numbers. This transition takes time, so start it early. Scorpion's call tracking numbers are provisioned through their own Twilio account and are not guaranteed to be portable when you leave.

8. Crawl Your Existing Site and Export All URLs

   Use a free tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs) to crawl your live Scorpion site and export a complete list of every page URL. This becomes your redirect map. Every URL that exists on your Scorpion site needs a corresponding destination on your new WordPress site. Without this list, you will miss pages, which means broken links and lost rankings. Export the crawl results to a spreadsheet and keep it.

9. Save Copies of All Page Content

   While your site is still live, manually copy the text content from every important page: your homepage, every practice area page, every attorney bio, your contact page, and any blog posts worth keeping. Save these as plain text documents. Scorpion will provide a static file export when you cancel, but having your own copies before you give notice means you are not dependent on their timeline or completeness.

10. Download All Custom Images and Video

    Right-click and save any custom photos or headshots from your site. If Scorpion produced original video for you, request the source files from your account manager now. These are yours by right, but getting them back after cancellation can be slower than getting them while you are still a paying client. Do not rely on screenshots or screen recordings. Request the original high-resolution files.

11. Request Your Full Data Export from Scorpion in Writing

    Before giving notice, send a written request to your account manager asking for: all static website files and design assets, all original content files, all custom images and video in original resolution, transfer of GA4 and LSA account ownership, transfer of all social media account admin access, transfer of domain registrar access if applicable, and a full export of any CRM or lead data stored in Scorpion's platform. Doing this in writing via email creates a record and sets expectations before the cancellation conversation begins.

12. Engage a Developer and Begin Your WordPress Build

    Start building your new WordPress site before you give notice. You want the new site substantially complete before you cancel, so the gap between your Scorpion site going dark and your new site going live is as short as possible, ideally zero. Every day your site is unreachable costs you leads and SEO ground. Your new site should be built on hosting you own. A reliable VPS on DigitalOcean starts at $12/month for a WordPress-capable droplet and gives you full control. Your developer should match your URL structure as closely as possible to minimize the redirect complexity.

The Migration: Step by Step

Once your preparation is complete and your new WordPress site is ready to launch, this is the sequence for cutting over cleanly while protecting your SEO.

1. Finalize Your Redirect Map

   Take the URL list you crawled from your Screaming Frog export and map every old Scorpion URL to its new WordPress equivalent. If the URL structure is identical (for example, /practice-areas/family-law/ on both sites), note that. If a URL is changing, map the old to the new. Any old URL without a direct equivalent should redirect to the closest logical parent page, such as an old subpage redirecting to your main practice area page. Do not leave any old URL unredirected. A 301 redirect tells Google the page has moved permanently and transfers the SEO value to the new location.

2. Implement 301 Redirects Before You Cut Over DNS

   In your new WordPress site, implement your complete redirect map before you change your DNS. The Redirection plugin handles this cleanly and is free. Test every redirect on a staging environment before going live. The moment you flip DNS and your domain points to the new site, those redirects need to be working. If they are not, Google will encounter 404 errors on every old URL, which can cause a significant and lasting drop in rankings.

3. Give Formal Written Notice to Cancel

   Send your cancellation notice in writing to your Scorpion account manager and copy any other contacts listed in your contract's termination clause. State your intent to terminate the contract, confirm the notice date, and reference the section of your contract you are fulfilling. Keep a copy with a timestamp. Your contract will specify the exact method required, so follow it precisely. An email that does not meet the contractual notice requirements may not start the clock.

4. Flip DNS to Your New Hosting

   Once your WordPress site is fully built, tested, and your redirects are in place, update your domain's DNS records to point to your new hosting. DNS propagation typically takes a few minutes to a few hours for most visitors. During this window, some visitors will still see the Scorpion site and some will see the new site. This is normal. Do not make any content changes during propagation. Once propagation is complete, your Scorpion site will effectively go dark and your WordPress site will be live.

5. Verify All Redirects Are Working

   After DNS propagation is complete, test your redirects. Take a sample of old Scorpion URLs from your redirect map and paste them into a browser. Each should redirect to the correct new location with no extra hops. You can use a tool like httpstatus.io to check the full redirect chain for each URL. Fix any that are broken or looping immediately.

6. Submit Your New Sitemap to Google Search Console

   Log in to Google Search Console, confirm your property is verified for the domain, and submit your new sitemap (typically yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml on a WordPress site with an SEO plugin installed). This tells Google where your new pages live and accelerates the re-indexing process. Also use the URL Inspection tool to manually request indexing for your highest-priority pages: homepage, main practice area pages, and attorney bio pages.

7. Update Google Business Profile and Directory Listings

   Update the website URL in your Google Business Profile to point to your new site. If you set up new call tracking numbers during preparation, confirm those are now reflected in your GBP listing. Then work through your major directory listings: Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and any others you have claimed. Update phone numbers and website URLs across all of them. Inconsistent NAP (name, address, phone) data across directories is a local SEO ranking factor. Stale Scorpion phone numbers sitting in directories will send calls to nowhere.

8. Monitor Rankings and Traffic for 60 Days

   Expect some fluctuation in the first 2-4 weeks post-migration. This is normal and temporary when redirects are implemented correctly. Use Google Search Console to monitor any crawl errors, 404s, or coverage issues and fix them as they appear. Track your primary keywords in a rank tracker and watch for any significant drops that do not recover within 4-6 weeks, as those may indicate a redirect that was missed or a technical issue on the new site. Most properly executed migrations stabilize within 30 days.

A Note for Former GNGF Clients

In September 2024, Scorpion acquired Get Noticed Get Found (GNGF), a well-regarded legal marketing agency based in Cincinnati. If you were a GNGF client before that acquisition, you may now be operating under Scorpion contract terms without having explicitly agreed to them. The terms you signed with GNGF and the terms Scorpion is now enforcing may not be identical. Pull your original GNGF contract and compare it against any new agreements Scorpion asked you to sign after the acquisition. If you were never asked to sign new paperwork, your original GNGF contract governs the relationship. Either way, knowing exactly what you agreed to is the starting point for any exit planning.

Your Options After Scorpion

Once you are out, you have a few realistic paths depending on how much you want to be involved going forward.

If you want to handle it yourself, WordPress is the right platform. It is open source, you own everything, any developer in the world can work on it, and it never holds your site hostage. I have built several plugins specifically for law firms, including tools already available on WordPress.org. I am also working on a dedicated Scorpion migration plugin for attorneys who want to take the DIY path, designed to help import your Scorpion content export into WordPress with as little manual work as possible. If that sounds useful, get in touch and I will let you know when it is ready.

If you would rather hand it off, I offer webmaster services starting at $50/week, scaling up to $200/week for larger sites or heavier workloads, with no long-term contracts, no setup fees, and no lock-in. That rate covers your migration out of Scorpion, a new WordPress site built on hosting you own, and ongoing maintenance and support as long as you need it. It is the same rate every client pays regardless of industry, and there is no law-firm premium. If you are spending $3,000 to $10,000 or more per month with Scorpion and not seeing the results to justify it, let's talk.

How Scorpion Got Here: A Brief History

Understanding how Scorpion became what it is today makes the lock-in model easier to understand. It was not always this way, and the shift tracks almost exactly with the arrival of private equity money.

• Scorpion was founded in 2001 by Rustin Kretz in Valencia, California. For the first decade and a half, the company focused almost exclusively on legal marketing, particularly personal injury attorneys, which became a well-known niche. The business grew steadily enough to make the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies every year from 2011 to 2020. During this period, the complaints that exist today were present but less widespread. Scorpion was a niche legal marketing agency that happened to use a proprietary CMS.
• The character of the company began shifting visibly around 2017, when Scorpion acquired Driven Local, a New York marketing firm serving industries beyond legal. This was the first clear signal that legal exclusivity was no longer a strategic priority. By 2018, Scorpion was already reporting revenue of $253.9 million with a workforce of over 650, serving home services and franchise clients alongside law firms.
• The pivotal moment came in April 2021, when Bregal Sagemount, a New York private equity firm managing $4 billion in committed capital, invested $100 million in Scorpion. PE money comes with growth expectations, and growth at that scale typically means increasing recurring revenue, expanding into new markets, and optimizing customer retention. The proprietary CMS that makes leaving expensive is a perfect retention tool in that model. A professional management team was brought in: Daniel Street, with backgrounds at KKR and Nexstar, became CEO, alongside executives from Adobe, McKinsey, and Disney. The company relocated its headquarters from Valencia to Lehi, Utah.
• A rapid acquisition strategy followed in the PE era. Scorpion acquired the AI-powered SEO tool CanIRank in April 2021, rebranding it as Ranking AI. Wheat Creative, a franchise marketing agency, was acquired in September 2021, formalizing a dedicated franchise division. MediaSmack, another legal marketing firm, was acquired in November 2021. In September 2024 came the most consequential legal-industry acquisition: Get Noticed Get Found (GNGF), a respected Cincinnati agency that had built a loyal following among small and mid-sized law firms by operating differently from Scorpion, with transparent pricing and no proprietary lock-in. The GNGF acquisition effectively eliminated one of the more credible independent alternatives in the space.
• Also in 2025, Scorpion announced a strategic partnership with Clio, the dominant legal practice management software, under which Scorpion became Clio's sole preferred marketing partner. Clio's massive installed base of law firm clients now receives Scorpion as the preferred marketing partner for marketing services. For attorneys using Clio who have not looked closely at the Scorpion model, that partnership may feel like an endorsement it does not necessarily represent.
• Rustin Kretz, the founder, returned as CEO sometime around 2022 after Daniel Street's departure. The company today employs between 1,000 and 5,000 people and reportedly generates over $700 million in annual revenue. The business that started as a boutique legal marketing shop now serves home services companies, franchises, healthcare providers, and multi-location brands alongside law firms, with the same proprietary platform and the same contract structure across all of them.

None of this means Scorpion cannot deliver results for some firms. There are attorneys who have grown their practices significantly with Scorpion and are satisfied clients. The issue is not whether the service works. The issue is that the model is designed so that if it stops working, or if you find a better option, leaving costs you significantly more than it should. That structural problem exists independent of whether your account manager is responsive or your leads are converting.

You went to law school to practice law. Your marketing should work for you, not the other way around. If you have been sitting on this decision, the best time to start the preparation checklist above is now, before your contract auto-renews.

Horror Stories: What Clients Actually Reported

The pattern of complaints about Scorpion is consistent across platforms and has been consistent for years. The following are real accounts from public review platforms and forums, quoted or paraphrased from their original sources. They are presented here not to pile on, but because attorneys considering or already locked in a Scorpion contract deserve to know what others have experienced.

On Trustpilot, a reviewer identified as "Nola and cheer" wrote in May 2025: "Scorpion was a complete waste of money. I had a contract for 2 yrs. At the end I had very little to show. They own the webiste (YOUR WEBSITE). The leads were low quality if not suspect. less than 5 percent ever turned into actual clients." Another Trustpilot reviewer, Dave Smith, wrote in August 2024: "Predatory, awful results and terrible at communicating. We paid them for marketing for which they promised us a certain amount of leads every month which they have been nowhere near! We are now stuck with $35k contract that isn't delivering and they now own our website and marketing data for Google! They are an awful company who don't deliver, don't care and who will threaten you with all sorts if you want to leave a contract that they aren't fulfilling."

On the Better Business Bureau, a reviewer identified as Shane R. wrote in January 2026: "We had a website created before signing up with Scorpion. Once the contract ended they left us with no website." Scorpion's own BBB response confirmed their model without disputing it: "As outlined in our agreement, when a client completes their contract, we provide all website content and creative assets so they can be used to be built elsewhere if desired."

On Reddit's r/LawFirm, one attorney called Scorpion "one of the top scumbag agencies" because it "holds clients' accounts hostage via its proprietary platform." Another wrote: "Unfortunately because I was a complete novice to digital marketing when I began with them, they set up all of my firm google, social media, and analytics accounts through their company emails/information." A third reported: "We've been at it for 5 years. Our first year was a near disaster due to hiring Scorpion. After that we hired a local company and things drastically improved." And another: "It has been 3 months and we haven't had a single phone call since hiring Scorpion. We cannot afford the service anymore."

On G2, a reviewer stated: "We don't feel like there is much transparency, which is funny because it's our money and our business they are managing."

LawLytics, a competing platform that has helped many firms migrate away from Scorpion, documented a telling pattern: one attorney delayed his decision to cancel for months because he was afraid that Scorpion was doing something behind the scenes that, if stopped, would cause his web presence to collapse. That fear turned out to be completely unfounded when he finally left, but it cost him significant money in fees paid beyond the point when he had already decided to leave. The fear of what might happen is itself part of the lock-in.

Perhaps the most candid account came not from a client but from inside the company. A 2022 Glassdoor employee review stated: "The sales team aggressively pitches the 'platform' with lofty promises about boosting leads, but the goal for Scorpion is to lock clients into contracts and collect MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue). Everything at Scorpion is beholden to the almighty MRR." The same reviewer added: "Clients do not own their own websites. They do not own their own content. If they leave Scorpion, it all gets deleted. They are basically hostages."

On the sales side, multiple competing agencies have documented that Scorpion sends expensive unsolicited gifts to attorneys who are already working with other firms, including iPads preloaded with video testimonials, Montblanc pens reported to cost upwards of $500, cookie baskets, and Amazon gift cards. Juris Digital's chief strategy officer noted that his clients reported receiving these gifts multiple times per year. The gifts are not the problem on their own. The problem is what they represent: a sales operation built around acquiring clients from competitors rather than earning them through results.

Finally, Scorpion does not offer geographic exclusivity. They will work with your direct competitor in the same city, the same practice area, and the same market simultaneously. That is not hidden, but it is rarely volunteered during the sales process. When you are paying thousands of dollars a month for marketing, the agency optimizing for your competition down the street with the same strategies is a conflict worth knowing about before you sign.

The accounts above are drawn from public review platforms, Reddit, and documented sources. They represent a subset of client experiences. Scorpion has also produced documented positive results for a number of firms, particularly larger practices with substantial paid advertising budgets. This article does not assert that Scorpion is incapable of delivering value, only that the structural terms of the relationship, including the proprietary platform, the contract length, and the non-exclusivity model, create risks that attorneys should understand before signing and plan carefully for before leaving.

Say Something Nice About Scorpion

I'm not a big fan of Scorpion, GoDaddy, and other corporations whose strategies include maximizing customers and revenue while minimizing having to provide real, human support as much as possible. That said, Scorpion does have its place, and I want to be honest about where that is. Genuinely, I cannot think of much that Scorpion does that a good independent developer or small marketing firm cannot also do, with one exception: PPC at scale. Their AI-driven platform, call tracking infrastructure, and lead attribution across thousands of simultaneous campaigns gives them analytical leverage that is difficult to replicate without that volume of data. For a high-volume personal injury firm in a competitive metro market spending $20,000 a month on ads, that infrastructure may be worth the price and the trade-offs.

Their websites, on the other hand, are not a selling point. They are clunky, not particularly well-optimized, and will never get the kind of individual attention a site needs to perform at its best. Clients I have worked with who came from Scorpion consistently report the same frustration: getting basic edits done requires going through an account manager, who escalates to a separate team, who may or may not get to it this week. That is not a support model, it is overhead you are paying a premium for.

It is also worth knowing that their contract structure is not entirely all-or-nothing. Their FAQ confirms that digital advertising services, including Google Ads, LSAs, and Meta, are typically on month-to-month terms, separate from the 12-month technology and SEO contract. That means it may be possible to engage Scorpion purely for PPC campaign management without committing to the longer arrangement that creates the deeper lock-in. If their paid advertising capabilities are what you are actually after, pushing for a standalone ad management contract with explicit month-to-month terms and full account access in your own name is a much more defensible position than signing the full bundled package. Get that separation spelled out in writing before you sign anything.

The problems described in this article are structural, not personal. There are account managers at Scorpion who genuinely care about their clients, and there are law firms that have grown significantly under the arrangement. The issue is that the model is designed so that if the relationship stops working for you, leaving is expensive by design. That is worth naming clearly, and that is what this article has tried to do.