The canonical website scope and roadmap. Phase 1 commercials were signed in Proposal v1.0 (4 May 2026) and are restated here, not re-quoted. Phases 2-4 mapped per Matthew’s 12 May call request: “Recommend everything into the future, then I’ll approve phase one and two and leave phase three and four for down the track.”
Three things to read before anything below makes sense.
Supersedes the Phase 2 Roadmap (4 May 2026). From this point forward, this document is the single source of truth for website + adjacent platform phases.
Phase 1 (WordPress migration) was signed in Proposal v1.0 (4 May 2026) at $4,000 fixed fee, 2 × $2,000. That commercial is unchanged. Nothing in this document supersedes it.
Marketing engagement (Month-1 roadmap, ongoing retainer, content cadence, ads) runs parallel to this build but is priced and managed separately. Visible on the calendar; not priced here.
$4,000 fixed fee · 2 × $2,000 · 4–5 weeks from sign-off · already in flight.
Surfaced from cross-reading this scope against the Business Plan v2.0 + Marketing Brief v1.0 (sent 11 May 2026). Both items reshape Phase 3 / 4 indicative pricing — neither changes the signed Phase 1 fee. See companion document Scope vs Business Plan v2.0 — Cross-Check for the full reasoning.
/verify/{cert-id}). Decision direction: confirming Maven reduces Phase 3 indicative pricing by ~$8–12k.
Grounded in the live audit run on 4 May 2026 (196 URLs crawled, Squarespace API pull, full HTML inspection). The new site keeps everything Matthew already has, then adds what Squarespace can’t do.
| Capability | Squarespace 7.1 (today) | WordPress (after Phase 1) |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting & data sovereignty | US-hosted, single tenant. No control over server location, caching layer, or backups. | AU-hosted on Synergy. Daily backups, Cloudflare edge cache, full DB & file access. |
| Content automation | Manual UI editing only. No API for bulk updates, no programmatic publishing. | Full REST API + WP-CLI. Bulk publishing, programmatic SEO, content cadence at 20–30 posts/mo achievable. |
| SEO & structured data | Squarespace defaults + manual meta. No schema.org templates. Some article slugs are still platform defaults (blog-post-title-four-52x57). |
Rank Math + Article / FAQ / Organization schema by default. Custom slugs everywhere. 301 redirect map at Cloudflare edge for every legacy URL. |
| Service architecture | Inconsistent: homepage shows 2 services, Services tab shows 3 (Matthew’s 4 May email). No dedicated landing page per service. | Three named services across all surfaces: Consulting · Education · Membership. Each with its own landing page + clear conversion CTA. |
| Forms & CRM integration | Squarespace forms route via Zapier-ish bridges. Brittle, no UTM passthrough, lifecycle stage not set on submission. | Native HubSpot embeds. UTM + traffic source captured. Lifecycle stage + lead-source set automatically. |
| Performance | LCP ~3.0s on mobile (per Month-1 audit). Squarespace CDN serves all images at full size, no responsive variants. | LCP target <2.5s. WebP + responsive srcset, edge cache, lazy-load. Lighthouse + CWV report at handover. |
| Future capability ceiling | Closed platform. Cannot host gated portal, LMS, member directory, or AI agent product. Phases 2–4 are not buildable here. | Open foundation. Every phase from Member Portal through Advisory Capture & AI Agent product builds on this base — no second migration ever needed. |
| Look & feel | Squarespace template — serviceable but generic. Limited typographic + layout control. | Custom design within existing colour palette & brand style. Bespoke component library; layouts tailored per page type. |
| 3-year platform cost (AUD) | ~$1,260 (Squarespace Business) | ~$2,060 (Synergy + plugins). +$800 over 3 yrs — offset many times over by content velocity & SEO uplift. |
Migration risk is rated LOW: 196 URLs · 32 articles · 670 image refs · 0 commerce records. The site is small enough to migrate cleanly and large enough to justify the move — this is the right window.
Phase 1 is a migration, not a redesign. The new site keeps the existing information architecture — same nav, same pages, same URLs. Two additions only: Education and Membership get new landing pages (per the 12 May call — resolves the “homepage shows 2, services tab shows 3” issue, see §1.3). Slugs are fixed only where Squarespace forced bad ones. Everything else ports 1:1.
blog-post-title-four-52x57./services/: /education and /membership (per §1.3). What changes for existing URLs: (1) /home → / (301 preserved); (2) two Squarespace default-slug URLs get descriptive replacements (-1 suffixes & blog-post-title-four-52x57); (3) ~126 thin auto-generated tag pages get noindex. Everything else is an exact 1:1 port.Walked every URL from the 4 May crawl (38 top-level pages, 32 articles, ~126 auto-generated tag/category pages). Of 196 indexed URLs, 190 keep their exact path. Only six change — and every one of those is a fix for something Squarespace got wrong, not a strategic decision.
| Old URL | Treatment in new site | In nav? | Strategic reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two new pages added in Phase 1 (per §1.3) | |||
| — | /services/education | Sub-page | Net-new landing page describing the certification offer (Maturity Programme, Procurement Mastery, AI for Legal Leaders). Cohorts launch in Phase 2a. |
| — | /services/membership | Sub-page | Net-new landing page + waitlist form. Member-portal build is Phase 2b. |
| URL changes for existing pages — 6 of 196 | |||
/home | / (301 from /home) | Yes | WordPress convention. /home still 301-redirects so backlinks & bookmarks keep working. Squarespace currently exposes both — SEO-cleaner. |
/legal-technology-strategy-advisory-1 | /legal-technology-strategy-advisory | Yes | Drops Squarespace’s -1 suffix (artefact of a duplicated draft). 8.9k-word page. Old URL 301s. |
/law-firm-growth-operating-system-1 | /law-firm-growth-operating-system | Sub-page | Same fix. 7.8k words. Old URL 301s. |
/legal-process/blog-post-title-four-52x57 | /legal-process/manufacturing-changed-legal-process (or final-titled slug) | Article | Squarespace default slug. Currently leaking SEO equity for “How Manufacturing Changed Legal Process Forever” (2,642 words). Old URL 301s. |
/legal-skills-and-coaching/blog-post-title-four-52x57-kxg3j | /legal-skills-and-coaching/{descriptive-slug} | Article | Same Squarespace default-slug pattern. Slug confirmed at content review with Matthew. Old URL 301s. |
| Auto-generated tag & category index pages (~126) | Stay at same URLs — thin/duplicate ones get noindex | No | URLs unchanged. Rank Math noindexs the thinnest auto-pages (e.g. tag pages with 1 article). Removes Google’s “low-value pages” signal — net SEO win without any 301s. |
| Everything else — same path, same slug, same place in nav | |||
| All 12 nav items | Identical paths | Yes | /inhouse-legal-teams, /law-firms, /services, /capabilities, /legal-technology, /legal-process, /legal-skills-and-coaching, /law-firms-marketing-growth, /client-testimonials, /events-partners, /about, /contact. |
| All 7 service sub-pages | Identical paths | Sub-page | /fractional-growth-officer, /transformation-partner, /legal-consultant, /legal-technology-procurement-framework, /governance-and-risk-framework, /data-analytics-dashboards, /law-firms-marketing-growth. |
| All 3 audience sub-pages | Identical paths | Sub-page | /small-legal-teams, /mid-sized-legal-teams, /large-legal-teams. |
| All 8 lead-magnet / campaign pages | Identical paths | Footer + CTAs | /ai-readiness-pack, /ai-innovation-workshop, /ai-discovery-decision-readiness-workshop, /ebook, /ebook-download, /legal-ops-tech-scorecard, /lawson-intelligence, /peak-client-reference. Critical to keep working — external LinkedIn/email backlinks. |
| Contact-intent pages | Identical paths | Yes / hidden | /contact, /appointments, /online-enquiry, /quotes-pricing, /newsletter. All four kept — each captures a different referrer / form. Rationalising into one page is a future IA decision (§1.3), not Phase 1. |
| All 30 article URLs (32 articles minus 2 with default slugs) | Identical paths under /legal-{collection}/ | Via collection | Pillar pages preserved verbatim — /legal-technology/ai-terminology (5,883 words), /legal-technology/claude-guide (3,280 words), etc. |
| Legal pages | Identical paths | Footer | /privacy-policy, /terms-of-use. |
SEO protection plan: 196 redirect rules built & tested at the Cloudflare edge before cutover (one per sitemap URL even where the path is unchanged — defensive layer covers any edge-case route). Search Console change-of-address logged. Sitemap re-submitted Day 1. Ahrefs + GSC backlink export run Week 1 to catch any externally-linked URL the sitemap missed. Net SEO change: small positive from fixing the 6 broken slugs and tagging thin tag-pages noindex. Otherwise the same site, same URLs, same rankings.
Matthew flagged in his 4 May reply: “homepage shows 2 service offerings, services tab shows 3.” Resolved on the 12 May call: the new site presents three services consistently across homepage and services tab. Each service has a dedicated landing page in Phase 1 build — even where Phases 2–4 will later expand the service’s capability.
Top-tier service line. Fractional growth officer, transformation partner, legal-ops embedded engagements. Matthew-led. The work that funds everything else.
Premium certifications. $10k+ per cert. Live or in-person delivery. Maturity Programme · Procurement Mastery · AI for Legal Leaders. Phase 1 = landing page describing the offer. Phase 2a = first cohort run on Drive + login. Phase 3 = Maven-style education portal integration (enrol hand-off + cert-verify URL).
Layer 2 community for senior legal-ops leaders. Per-seat annual subscription (indicative $2,000/yr/seat, team licensing). Phase 1 = landing page describing the offer + waitlist. Phase 2b = self-serve commerce build.
All three service pages ship in Phase 1 as marketing surface. Education and Membership move from “landing page only” to “working capability” in Phases 2–3 respectively. Consulting is fully operational on Day 1 because it’s how the firm earns today.
Marketing Brief v1.0 specifies a heavy publication cadence (bi-weekly podcast, weekly newsletter, public maturity self-assessment, KPI of 100K+ newsletter subs by FY30). Phase 1 reserves the routes and ships the integrations now — absorbed within the signed Phase 1 fee — so the engine has somewhere to land when content goes live. Build of the assessment tool itself is deferred.
/podcastEpisode template + transcript page pattern. Embed slot for Sounder/Transistor (or chosen platform). Live the day Matthew records episode 1.
Substack / Beehiiv embed (per Matthew’s choice) wired into homepage, footer, and inline within every article. HubSpot subscriber sync.
/maturity-assessmentRoute reserved + landing-page stub describing the forthcoming public scorecard tool. Tool build itself deferred to Phase 2 (separate scope).
Two sub-tracks. Phase 2a runs first on near-zero infrastructure. Phase 2b builds the commerce platform when Matthew is ready to go self-serve.
Per Matthew’s 12 May call: “I don’t think that needs to be any fancier than probably having login details and like a shared Google Drive where it just says like one materials, week two materials, week three materials.” First cohort runs end-to-end on this stack — learn from it before any platform build.
Per Matthew’s 12 May call: “The much bigger piece of work is when we go to set up the memberships and we’re now processing credit cards on the website, we now need people to be able to self serve.”
Mapped per Matthew’s 12 May request, framed against the BP v2.0 four-layer service ecosystem (BP §3). Each phase gets its own scope and quote at the prior phase’s close — deliverable lists below are illustrative shape, not commitments. No commitment to spend in this document.
Triggered when cohort 1 (Phase 2a) completes and Matthew elects to scale beyond manual delivery. Direction set 13 May 2026: a Maven-type education portal (or equivalent purpose-built cohort platform — Maven, Circle, Disco, Mighty Networks) handles enrolment, video, discussion, assessments, certificates and payments. The website’s Phase 3 job is the hand-off layer — not a custom LMS build.
/services/education → cohort enrol button hand-off/verify/{cert-id} for LinkedIn-share validationLayer 4 of the BP’s four-layer service ecosystem (BP §3): productised playbooks, bespoke advisory, managed services, implementation engagements, PE/GE diligence. $25k–$2M+ per engagement, sold to enterprise GCs, BigLaw managing partners, and PE/GE investors. The website’s job at this phase is to be the conversion surface for inbound demand the marketing engine has produced over Phases 1–3.
Per 12 May call: a 121 Group proprietary agent — legal-niche fine-tuned, embedded on Everingham’s site (or a dedicated subdomain), monetised on token mark-up. Matthew already has proprietary domain logic built around legal franchising agreements — productionising that IP is the seed.
Listed here per Matthew’s permission (“happy for you to put that into our roadmap”). No price, no timeline. Triggered separately when both parties have bandwidth and the underlying 121 Group agent infrastructure is shipped.
How the public site & gated areas grow as each phase ships. Green = added in this phase. Routes are indicative; final URLs locked at each phase’s IA workshop.
/services/education + /services/membership (landing pages only at this stage). See §1.2 for full URL coverage.noindex + login redirect.
Website phases (this document) running parallel to the marketing engagement (priced separately). Designed so Matthew can see how the build sequences against the content / LinkedIn / ads cadence already underway.
| Month | Website (this doc) | Education / Membership | Marketing engagement (priced separately) |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 (May) | Phase 1 - build + launch | - | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
| M2 | Phase 1 30-day monitor | Cohort 1 scoping conversation | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
| M3 | - | Cohort 1 brief finalised | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
| M4 | - | Phase 2a - cohort 1 enrolment opens | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
| M5 | - | Phase 2a - cohort 1 runs (live + Drive) | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
| M6 | - | Phase 2a cohort 1 retro · Phase 2b trigger decision | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
| M7–9 | - | Phase 2b portal build (if triggered) · Phase 3 Maven-integration discovery | Cohort 2 recruitment per BP roadmap |
| M9+ | - | Phase 4 Layer 4 capture surface (advisory pages · case studies) | Marketing engine activity per separate scope |
The marketing-engagement column is shown for context only. Pricing, deliverables, and KPIs for that lane live in the Month-1 Detailed Roadmap (28 Apr) and the ongoing retainer agreement — not in this document.
Per Matthew’s 12 May call: “The roadmap and the depth and the sort of indicators to know that when we get to the next stage gate.” No phase auto-progresses; each requires Matthew’s signal.
Hard prerequisite: Phase 1 site is live in production — not staging, not soft-launch. 30-day monitor period clean (no SEO regression, no broken forms).
Trigger: Matthew elects to recruit cohort 1.
Gate decision: Cohort 1 dates locked, enrolment opened. Phase 2a is near-zero infrastructure cost so the gate is operational, not commercial.
Hard prerequisite: Phase 1 site already live in production (carried forward from prior gate). Cohort 1 has run end-to-end and post-cohort retro is complete.
Trigger: Matthew decides to launch self-serve membership commerce.
Gate decision: Phase 2b SOW issued at $2,500 indicative (or revised based on retro learnings). Stripe + auth scope locked.
Trigger: Cohort 1 (and ideally cohort 2) have demonstrated demand at the $10k+ price point. Manual delivery is becoming the bottleneck.
Gate decision: Phase 3 SOW scoped from cohort 1+2 retros — not from a feature wish-list. Build only what manual delivery proved necessary.
Trigger: Inbound demand for Layer 4 advisory & managed services engagements (BP §3) outstripping ad-hoc capture.
Gate decision: Phase 4 SOW scoped from actual advisory-pipeline data at the time, not from speculative buyer-journey design now.
A scope document earns its keep by being clear about what it is not.
Only items relevant to this document. Marketing-engagement asks live in the Month-1 roadmap.
| Phase | What we need | By when |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Brand asset pack (logo SVG, fonts, colours, photo library) | Week 1 close |
| Sign-off on IA + URL map after Week 1 workshop | End Week 1 | |
| Cloudflare DNS access (or delegated authority) | Before Week 4 | |
| Sign-off on staging site + 301 redirect map | Before cutover | |
| Phase 2a | Cohort 1 dates, target enrolment number, syllabus outline | M3 |
| Cohort price point lock | M3 | |
| Phase 2b | Trigger signal: “launch self-serve memberships” | When ready (post-cohort 1) |
| Confirm membership pricing model (per-seat / team licensing tiers) | At Phase 2b kickoff | |
| Phase 3+ | Cohort 1 retro outputs (what manual delivery proved necessary) | Post-cohort 1 |