1. Start with the site and its geographic job
Merriam is recorded as a municipality in Johnson County, Kansas, with a 2020–2024 ACS five-year population estimate of 11,085 and a margin of error of 31. That figure describes the municipality; it does not establish legal demand, website traffic, competition or future client volume. It does establish why geographic definitions should be explicit when you review a law-firm website. Your team should identify whether the site serves Merriam alone, Johnson County, the wider Kansas City metropolitan area or another defined service territory. Those boundaries affect the pages, forms, redirects and measurements the site needs, but they do not by themselves justify a hosting purchase.
Recommended approach
Before comparing hosts, create an inventory of the current public site and its intended geographic scope. Include the main domain, important service pages, contact paths, forms and any Merriam- or Johnson County-related pages. Treat hosting as the foundation for those assets, not as proof that a particular geography will produce cases.
