Urgent Searches · Map Pack · Intake
Criminal Defense Attorney Marketing.
When someone gets arrested, the search for a criminal defense lawyer starts within hours. It happens on a phone, and the person typing is frequently a spouse or a parent rather than the defendant.
At Baltzer Marketing, we help law firms show up in all the places those searches happen and turn them into signed cases.
We have specialized in law firm marketing since 2014. We work month to month, and every report shows the work and what it produced in plain English.
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads Certified
Google Partner and Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional.
Criminal Defense Clients Decide Quickly
Most law firm marketing advice assumes a potential client who researches for weeks and compares consultations. A person facing a criminal charge has an arraignment in days and sometimes a bond hearing in hours. They call the first few firms that look credible on their phone and hire whichever one answers and sounds like it can handle the case.
That urgency puts the search and the hiring decision in the same sitting. A search for a defense attorney is a case deciding where to go. Criminal lawyer marketing is the work of being visible at that moment and easy to hire in the minutes after it. The firm that shows up and answers first will sign cases ahead of a firm with better credentials.
Most Criminal Defense Hires Start With a Search
Those searches happen on Google, and people also ask chatbots such as ChatGPT or Claude. They call the firm that shows up at the top, has strong ratings, and looks ready to take the case.
LSAs, PPC, and Local SEO Each Do a Different Job
Digital marketing for a criminal defense law firm runs mostly through Google, in three placements that stack on the page.
Local Services Ads. LSAs sit at the very top, show the Google Screened badge, and charge per lead rather than per click. Arrest-driven searchers call straight from the ad. The firms that win at LSAs answer fast and keep collecting reviews, because Google ranks the ads partly on both.
PPC. Search ads sit below the LSAs and put your firm in front of high-intent criminal defense keywords the day the campaign launches. That is why PPC for law firms depends on controlling which searches trigger the ads and sending each click to a page written for someone who needs help now.
Local SEO and organic search. The map pack and the organic listings produce calls without a per-click cost, and the results compound. SEO for law firms is the slower build that makes the paid channels cheaper to run over time.
The right mix depends on your market. The best criminal defense marketing plan for a solo DUI practice will not fit a five-attorney criminal defense firm in a competitive market. The digital marketing strategy for either firm gets set by what an audit of its market shows.
DUI and DWI Marketing Is Part of Criminal Defense Marketing
DUI and DWI defense needs its own attention inside a criminal defense marketing strategy. Those searches behave differently from the rest of the practice area. Arrests cluster on weekend nights and holidays, and the searcher holds a citation with a court date printed on it. In many states, the window to request the hearing that saves a driver’s license closes within days of the arrest. A firm that is visible on a Saturday night and explains that deadline clearly gets the call.
Searches like “dui lawyer near me” and “first offense dwi penalties” are questions a charge-specific page can own, and the same structure serves your whole criminal defense practice. One page per charge type, written for what people in that situation search, covering drug charges, assault, theft, domestic violence, and whatever else fills your caseload.
Reviews Build Trust in a Practice Area Where Clients Want Privacy
Reviews are a major map-ranking factor, and they are what a worried parent reads before choosing which defense attorney to call. Criminal defense clients have an understandable reason to stay quiet. Few people want a public review announcing they were charged with a crime.
A client whose charge was dismissed or reduced will often write a review that praises communication and how they were treated without naming the charge. The moment to ask is right after that outcome. Google ranks profiles partly on review count, review velocity, and owner responses, so this is ranking work as much as reputation work.
Search data, not guesswork
Content That Answers the Questions People Search
Some of those searches happen after an arrest. Some happen earlier, from people who know they might need a defense lawyer. We pull the topics from the search data for your market rather than guessing at them. The firm that explains the process in plain English is the firm that sounds competent when they call.
Content marketing for law firms creates that content so a search engine can rank it, and each piece ranks for long-tail criminal defense searches no service page catches.
If you want to see how your firm can show up when somebody gets arrested, book a discovery call and we will walk through your market together.
A Criminal Defense Website Has One Job
Every channel sends people to your criminal defense website, and the site has one job. Get them to contact you. The pages that convert arrest-driven traffic load fast and put a tap-to-call button under the reader’s thumb. They lead with the facts the caller needs, that you defend this charge in this county and that someone answers now. Clear calls to action move the conversion rate more than any visual redesign. When the site itself is the problem, we build law firm websites as part of the same engagement.
The Audit Sets the First Priority for a Criminal Defense Firm
Where we begin depends on what the audit shows. Some firms need their Google Business Profile rebuilt before anything else. Some are invisible for the charges that fill their caseload, and some get traffic that never calls because the website buries the phone number. We sequence the work by what will produce calls soonest.
Our reports show the calls and qualified leads the work produced, and the signed cases behind them. You’ll always know what we did, why it mattered, what changed, and what we’re doing next. Call tracking records the source of every call. We set up the CRM connection as part of the work.
We do not represent competing law firms in the same market.
Rated by the law firm owners we work with
Questions Criminal Defense Lawyers Ask About Marketing
How much should a criminal defense firm spend on marketing?
It varies by city and competition. The return on investment is what matters, and we’ll give you projections for your market on the first call.
Do Local Services Ads work for criminal defense lawyers?
Yes. LSAs sit above everything else on the page, charge per lead, and reward firms that answer fast and keep earning reviews. They sign cases on their own, and the ceiling is how many leads Google sends in your market, so firms that want more volume than the ads deliver add PPC or local SEO on top of them.
How long does criminal defense SEO take?
We ask for 90 days, which is long enough to see rankings and clicks moving. A page already sitting within striking distance of the first page can be rewritten and move in a couple of weeks, because Google is already showing it to people. Content built from scratch, and the head terms in a competitive metro, take longer. LSAs and PPC produce calls the whole time the SEO is building underneath them, so a firm that needs the phone ringing now starts there.
Should my firm run a separate DUI website?
One strong site beats two thin ones. A separate DUI brand splits your reviews, links, and authority in half. A dedicated DUI defense section on your main site reaches the same searches and keeps all of that authority on one domain.
How do we get reviews when clients want privacy?
Ask at the moment of a good outcome and make posting easy. A client whose case was dismissed will frequently write about responsiveness and results without mentioning the charge, and reviews written that way still count in full toward map rankings.
What about Avvo and the legal directories?
Directories rank for criminal defense searches, so a maintained profile with reviews is worth having and can produce new clients. A firm relying on directories alone is renting visibility its own website could own outright.
Does AI search matter for criminal defense yet?
People already ask ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI assistants what to do after an arrest, and they often see an AI Overview for that search. Firms with clear content and a consistent local presence are the ones that get named. We track and build that visibility as part of our SEO work.
See What Criminal Defense Searches Could Produce
We will look at the charges you defend and what it would take to be found when those searches happen.