Criminal defense attorney marketing is built for a client who has just been arrested or charged, or whose family member has, who is searching at night on a phone and will call the first lawyer who answers and sounds like they know the court. The marketing is therefore the profile and the phone before it is the site, the pages by charge before it is the brand, and paid search where the case is worth it, all under the state bar's advertising rule, which governs what a criminal lawyer may say about results, specialisation and fees. This page sets out the night-call path, the charge pages, the review process and its limits, the paid search that pays for a defense practice, and what an agency should report. The law firm SEO company guide on this site covers the organic side; the agencies indexed here are listed on what they publish about legal work.
The night call: the profile, the number and the person who answers
The client searches for a criminal lawyer near them or near the jail, sees the local pack, and calls; the firm's Google Business Profile under the guidelines linked below has to show the right category, hours that say the firm answers at night if it does, the office that is real, and reviews that read like clients. The number has to be answered by a person who can say what happens next and book the consultation; an answering service that takes a message loses the client to the next lawyer in the pack. The marketing spend is wasted if the phone is not staffed, and an agency's plan should start with the phone.
The pages by charge, and what the bar's rule lets them say
The client searches by charge: DUI, drug possession, assault, domestic violence, theft, federal charges, and the site carries a page per charge that says what the charge means, the range of outcomes, what the first days involve, and how the firm handles it, written under the state bar's advertising rule, which in most states follows the ABA model rule on communications about a lawyer's services linked below: no misleading statements, no promises of results, past results only as the rule allows, specialisation claims only where certified. A page that says the firm gets charges dropped is a page the bar can act on. The firm reviews every page.
Reviews: the process, the confidentiality and the limits
Reviews decide the pack for a defense lawyer more than for any other practice, because the client has no other way to judge, and the review process is bounded by confidentiality: the request never references the case, the reply never confirms anything about it, and no review is bought, gated or written by the firm, under the bar's rule and the FTC's rules on endorsements. The firm asks at the end of the matter, in a way its ethics counsel approved, and replies to every review in general terms. An agency offering to generate reviews is offering a bar complaint.
Paid search that pays, and the report to ask for
For a defense practice paid search pays where the case value covers the click price, on the charge terms and the emergency terms in the firm's county, with the ads under the bar's rule and Google's legal advertising policies, landing on the charge page with the number on every screen, and measured in consultations and retained clients matched in intake. The monthly report shows calls and consultations by source and by charge, the profile's calls, the pack position in the county, and reviews. Before hiring an agency: which defense firms it has served and what their retained-client numbers did, how it handles reviews and the bar rule, and who owns the profile, the pages and the ad account at the end.
Questions people ask about criminal defense attorney marketing
What matters most in criminal defense attorney marketing?
The night call: a complete Google Business Profile in the local pack with real hours, and a phone answered by a person who can book the consultation. The charge pages, the reviews and the paid search sit behind that.
What can a criminal defense lawyer say on a website?
What the state bar's advertising rule allows, following the ABA model rule in most states: no misleading statements, no promised results, past results only as the rule permits, specialisation only where certified. The firm reviews every page and ad.
Does paid search work for criminal defense?
Where the case value covers the click price: on charge and emergency terms in the firm's county, under the bar's rule and Google's legal ad policies, landing on the charge page, measured in consultations and retained clients matched in intake.