Law firms · Criminal defense
Criminal defense marketing, tuned for the call that comes at 2 a.m.
People search for a criminal defense lawyer at all hours, often right after an arrest, for DUI, drug, assault, weapons, white collar and federal charges. We rank your Google Business Profile and website for the searches they actually type. We also set up intake so the phone gets answered the first time it rings.
What we see
What keeps criminal defense firms out of Google's top results
These come up in nearly every criminal defense audit we run, and each one can be fixed.
A broad 'Criminal Justice Attorney' category instead of a charge-specific one
Most criminal defense firms choose the broadest category and miss specific ones like DUI Lawyer, Drug Crimes Lawyer and White Collar Crime Attorney. A broad category ranks for broad searches, while a specific one ranks for people with a particular charge in mind, and they are the ones who hire. Set the main category to your highest-value charge type and add the other relevant ones as secondary categories.
No 24/7 intake signal on the profile or the site
Someone arrested at 11 p.m. on a Saturday calls the firm that picks up, and a voicemail that says 'we'll get back to you Monday' sends the case to the next firm in the results. Beyond the answering service itself, the profile has to show it. That means '24/7 intake' in the description, hours that show the after-hours coverage and the same wording in your website footer.
Case-result content without the disclaimers your state bar requires
Case results like 'charges dismissed' or 'not guilty verdict' are the strongest content a criminal defense firm can publish, for ranking and for winning clients. Most firms either skip them out of compliance worry or publish them without the disclaimer their bar requires. We use the disclaimer wording for your bar (California, Florida, New York and Texas each have their own) and a format that ranks and stays compliant.
One 'Criminal Defense' page covering DUI, drugs, weapons, and federal
A first-time DUI client and a federal wire fraud client are different people paying different fees, and one page for both ranks for neither. What ranks is a page for each major charge type, with first, repeat and injury DUI pages where there are enough searches. Add federal and state white collar pages if you handle both, and state pages where the law really differs.
Missing from the map at the hours searches actually happen
Criminal defense searches spike late at night, on weekends and around courthouse hours. For urgent searches Google ranks businesses that are open higher, so a profile that shows 'closed' at those times loses to one that shows 24/7. The fix is accurate profile hours that reflect real after-hours intake, an answering service behind them and pages that show you respond quickly.
What ranks
What Google looks at for criminal defense firms
We work on each of these from the first month, and you can measure every one of them.
A main category that matches your charges
Criminal Justice Attorney, DUI Lawyer, Drug Crimes Lawyer and White Collar Crime Attorney are all categories. Make the main one the closest match to the charge type that earns you the most, and add the others as secondary categories.
One page per major charge type
DUI, drug charges, assault, weapons, white collar and federal charges each get their own page, written for the person facing that charge and linked from your homepage. First DUI, repeat DUI and DUI with injury get their own pages where there are enough local searches.
Visible 24/7 intake signal
Your profile hours show real after-hours coverage, and '24/7 intake' appears in the profile description and at the top of your website. A real answering service or law firm intake service sits behind the phone. Without it, the claim is false and it costs you cases.
Disclaimer-clean case-result content
We publish case results with the disclaimer your state bar expects, anonymized where needed, and put each one on the right charge page. This is the strongest content on a criminal defense site. Firms that do it well outrank firms with thinner sites and bigger ad budgets.
Review requests sent the day the case resolves
Clients who get a good outcome are unusually willing to leave a review quickly. A request sent the day the matter resolves, after counsel has left the courthouse, arrives when the client is most grateful and tends to produce a detailed review that helps you rank. It has to follow your bar's rules on testimonials, and there's no need to wait longer than that.
Services that fit
Services that fit criminal defense firms
Most firms start with one or two services and add more later. Every service has a published price.
Other practice areas
Other practice areas we work with
Each practice area is marketed differently, so each one has its own page.
Family law
Each family law service gets its own page, and reviews are collected in a way that protects client privacy.
See the family law pageImmigration
Each visa type gets its own page, in the languages your clients search in, kept current with USCIS changes.
See the immigration pageEmployment law
Your site takes a clear side, plaintiff or defense, with pages for FLSA, ADA, Title VII and state wage law.
See the employment law pageMass tort
Each active drug or exposure gets its own page, published soon after a filing, with TCPA-compliant intake.
See the mass tort pageDUI defense
We build state, charge-tier and DMV hearing pages, and tell you honestly which searches you can win.
See the dui defense pagePersonal injury
We build injury-type and state pages, and tell you honestly what you can win in the hardest legal market on Google.
See the personal injury pageCriminal defense FAQ
Criminal defense questions
Our state bar has strict rules on advertising criminal defense services. What can we actually publish?
You can publish more than most firms think. Every US state bar allows factual case results with the right disclaimer, usually something like 'past results do not guarantee future outcomes,' and California, Florida, New York and Texas add specific wording that we follow exactly. No bar anywhere lets you imply a guarantee, compare yourself favorably to named competitors or describe an outcome in a way that misleads about the odds, and we review every case-result page against your rule before it goes live.
How do you handle case results when the client is sensitive about being identified?
We anonymize and keep the useful detail, for example 'State v. Defendant, narcotics possession, suppressed evidence at preliminary hearing, charges dismissed.' We use county rather than city, charge type rather than facts, and procedural posture rather than identifying details. Some states allow named results once a record is expunged or the case has been closed long enough, and some clients want their case used, but we default to anonymized.
We don't take federal cases but they keep calling. Should we have federal content?
Only if you can refer those cases out cleanly. Federal defense needs a different bar admission, and a page that brings in federal clients you can't serve leads to refused cases, unhappy callers and strained referral relationships. A better approach is a 'state charges only' note where it matters and a referral relationship with two or three federal lawyers you trust, or a co-counsel arrangement if you want that work.
We have a DUI focus. Should DUI be its own page or sit inside criminal defense?
Give DUI its own page and probably its own group of pages, since DUI is the largest share of criminal defense searches in most US states. It breaks into specific searches such as first DUI, second DUI, DUI with injury, refusal, DMV hearing and ignition interlock, each worth a page where local searches support it. In states with a separate DMV process, California being the best known, 'DMV hearing' is a search very few firms target.
Our intake person is also our paralegal. We cannot do 24/7 phone. What do we do?
Use a law firm intake service after hours. Companies such as Smith.ai, Ruby Receptionists, Alert Communications and Lex Reception offer attorney-trained answering at $1-$3 per call with criminal defense scripts, and they collect enough detail for you to triage the call in the morning. It costs far less than the cases you lose to firms that answer, and it makes your '24/7 intake' claim true.
Get a free audit for your criminal defense practice
It takes 30 minutes on a screen share. We show you where you're missing from Google, what competing firms do differently and the plan to close the gap.
