SEO
SEO for law firms
The charge pages and slow content work that compound on competitive defense terms over six to twelve months.
Practice Areas · Criminal Defense
Your next client is searching at 2am, scared, and ready to call the first firm that answers.
Someone was just arrested — or a spouse or parent is searching in a panic on their behalf. They want a lawyer who handles exactly this charge, in this county, reachable right now. Speed and reachability win this market; a slow, generic site loses the call. $3,500 flat, 21 days, code and domain stay yours.
Why this market is different
Nobody bookmarks a defense lawyer for later.
Criminal defense is the most time-compressed search in law. There's no research phase, no week of comparing firms. There's an arrest, a frightened family member, and a decision made in minutes, often in the middle of the night, almost always on a phone. The site that wins is the one that loads instantly, says plainly that you handle this exact charge in this exact county, and puts a working phone number one thumb-tap away. Everything else is noise in that moment.
And there's a new first stop. Before the call, a lot of people now ask an AI engine what to do after an arrest, whether they need a lawyer for a first DUI, what happens at arraignment. ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews answer, and they sometimes name local firms. If your site clearly explains the charge and the process, you can be named there, at the precise second someone is deciding who to call. If it's a wall of "aggressive defense" boilerplate, you're not in that answer.
What this looks like
The panicked first question now goes to an AI.
Illustrative, not a real firm. This is roughly the answer someone gets when they grab a phone after an arrest and ask what to do. The firms named here wrote content that answered the question directly and built a footprint the engine trusts. No trick, no markup magic. A clear answer an engine can quote, attached to a firm it can identify and reach.
My brother was just arrested for a DUI in Maricopa County. What do we do right now?
First, he should not discuss the case with anyone but a lawyer, and he can decline to answer questions beyond identifying himself. In Arizona, a first-offense DUI carries mandatory penalties, so getting a defense attorney involved before the arraignment matters. Most criminal defense firms offer a free initial consultation and many take calls 24/7. A few Maricopa County firms that handle DUI and explain the process:
- yourfirm.com — handles DUI and drug charges in Maricopa County; 24/7 line and a clear walkthrough of what happens after an arrest.
- a-bigger-firm.com
- another-firm.com
Laws and penalties vary by state and county. Confirm any firm is licensed in the jurisdiction where the charge was filed.
What we build for defense firms
Fast, reachable, and specific.
Every criminal defense build starts from the $3,500 Launch foundation and gets shaped around a fast, frightened, mobile decision. Four things matter more here than in any other practice area.
01
Built for a 2am call from a phone
Click-to-call in the thumb zone on every screen. If you take after-hours calls, the site says so loudly, because availability is half the decision here. It loads instantly, reads in seconds, and reassures a panicked person they've found someone who handles this. PageSpeed past 90 at launch. The slowest, prettiest site loses to the fast one that picks up.
02
A page per charge, not one "Criminal Defense" page
DUI, drug crimes, assault, domestic violence, theft. Each is a different search and a different fear, and a single catch-all page can't rank or get cited for any of them. We build the charges you handle most at launch and add the rest on a retainer. "First DUI Maricopa County" and "felony drug charge" are different people in different trouble; they should land on different pages.
03
Answer blocks for the urgent questions
"What happens after an arrest." "Should I talk to the police." "What's the penalty for a first DUI in my state." "What happens at arraignment." Real questions, answered in plain prose an AI engine can lift and attribute to you. FAQPage and LegalService schema sit underneath as hygiene. The content earns the citation; the schema keeps it readable. We don't pretend the markup is the magic.
04
Results and reviews that pass the bar
Case results are persuasive in defense work and also where firms get into the most bar trouble, because you can't promise outcomes. Every result and review gets a pass against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state's variation before launch, with the disclaimers the rule requires (past results don't guarantee future outcomes). Done right, they build credibility without crossing a line. And the code, domain, and Google profile all stay in your name.
Charge pages
The charges we build pages to win.
Two anchor charge pages come with the Launch build. The rest get added on Launch + Grow as your caseload and the local competition dictate. Each one is written for the specific charge and the question behind it, with the county named where it counts.
DUI / DWI
Drug crimes
Assault & battery
Domestic violence
Theft & property
Weapons charges
Expungement
Probation violations
White-collar, sex crimes, juvenile, and federal cases carry their own stakes and sensitivities. If you handle them, we'll scope them in carefully. We don't bolt on charges your firm doesn't actually defend.
What it costs
$3,500 flat for the build. Same number for every firm.
A criminal defense site costs the same as any other Launch build: $3,500 one-time, 21-day delivery, posted on the pricing page for everyone. No premium for the practice area. If you want the ongoing content and AI-citation work that wins a competitive local market, Launch + Grow adds $1,750 a month and you can cancel after month three. For context, that's roughly half the legal-industry median retainer of about $4,000 a month.
Common questions
About criminal defense websites.
If your question isn't here, drop it in the audit form below. We answer everything within a business day.
At FirmForte, $3,500 flat for the Launch build: a five-page custom WordPress site built for speed, with charge pages, click-to-call, AEO answer blocks, and bar-compliant results and reviews, delivered in 21 days. Same price as any other practice area. Ongoing content and AI-citation work, which is what wins a competitive local defense market, is $1,750 a month on the Launch + Grow retainer, cancellable after month three. The wider legal-marketing industry quotes anywhere from $1,500 for a swapped-color template to $50,000-plus for a premium agency build.
Because the search is the most time-compressed in law. There's no research phase. There's an arrest, a frightened person (often a family member), and a decision made in minutes, usually at night, almost always on a phone. The winning site loads instantly, says plainly that you handle this exact charge in this exact county, and puts a working phone number one tap away. Speed and reachability decide it, not polish.
That's what the AEO architecture is built for. People now ask AI engines what to do after an arrest, whether they need a lawyer for a first DUI, or what happens at arraignment, and the engine sometimes names local firms in its answer. To be one of them, you need content that answers those exact questions in plain language the engine can quote, attached to a firm it can clearly identify. We write that content and reinforce the entity footprint. Schema sits underneath as hygiene. Per Google's 2026 guidance, the content earns the citation, not the markup. AI citations for a clean entity usually start showing inside about ninety days; Google ranking is a six-to-twelve-month compound.
Yes, and you should have them. Each charge is a different search with a different fear behind it, and one catch-all 'Criminal Defense' page can't rank or get cited for all of them. The Launch build includes two anchor charge pages. We add the rest (domestic violence, theft, weapons, expungement, probation violations, and so on) on the Launch + Grow retainer in a measured cadence rather than publishing a stack of thin pages at once.
Carefully. Case results are persuasive in defense work and also the fastest way to a bar complaint, because you cannot promise or imply guaranteed outcomes. Every result and testimonial gets reviewed against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state's variation before launch, with the disclaimers the rule requires, such as past results not guaranteeing future outcomes. If your state requires bar pre-review of advertising or you have a designated compliance reviewer, tell us at kickoff and final copy routes through them before anything goes live.
Only if it's true, and if it is, it should be one of the loudest things on the page. Availability is half the decision in criminal defense, because the search happens at the worst possible hour. If you genuinely take after-hours calls, we make that unmissable and put click-to-call everywhere. If you don't, we won't fake it, because a 2am call to a dead line is worse than an honest 'we respond first thing.'
Often, yes. The Audit + Fix tier is $1,500 and targets what's holding an existing site back: missing charge pages, no schema, a buried or non-tappable phone number, slow mobile load, an empty blog. We run a free audit first so you can see exactly what's wrong before choosing between a focused fix and a full rebuild. If the foundation is sound, a fix is the honest call and we'll say so.
Two clocks. AI citations and Google Business Profile visibility can move within weeks to a couple of months for a firm with a clean setup and no dominant competitor already owning the queries. Organic ranking for competitive terms like a county plus 'DUI lawyer' is a six-to-twelve-month compound. Because defense is a now-or-never call, the fastest lever is usually local visibility and a phone that's easy to find and tap, which is exactly what the build prioritizes.
You own all of it. WordPress, fully exportable, with your choice of editor (Divi, Elementor, or the block editor). Domain stays in your registrar. Google Business Profile under your Google account. Hosting in your name on a vendor you pick. No proprietary CMS, no 12-month contract. If you ever leave, you take the whole thing with you. That's the entire point of how FirmForte is built.
Related services
What carries a defense firm after launch.
The site is the floor. In a fast, local market, these are what move you up it.
AEO
AEO for law firms
Get named when someone asks an AI engine what to do after an arrest. Built into every site at launch.
GBP
Google Business Profile
Map-pack ranking and a bar-compliant reviews strategy, which is where most local defense searches start.
Digital PR
Digital PR & Attorney Branding
Earned media and attorney bylines that build the credibility a defendant weighs before they ever call.
Want the deeper playbook? Read marketing for criminal defense firms: speed wins on the field guide.
Free website & AEO audit
A second pair of eyes on your current site.
Send us the URL. Within 48 hours, we'll come back with a 6-page report covering what's converting, what's leaking, and where your firm shows up (or doesn't) in AI search.
- Homepage + top 3 practice-area pages reviewed
- AI citation check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini
- Schema markup & page speed audit
- Top 3 highest-impact fixes, ranked by ROI
- Competitor citation comparison
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