Law firms
Marketing for DUI Attorneys
Arrested Friday with a court date Monday, and a second search that comes years later from somebody trying to get a job.
Who this is for
The search happens in a parking lot at two in the morning, or the next day with a headache and a court date.
DUI has the tightest window in criminal defense. Somebody is released, they’re frightened, they have a date on a piece of paper, and they start searching almost immediately.
They call two or three firms and retain whoever answers and sounds like they have done this a hundred times. Nobody in that state is comparing hourly rates.
Then there’s a second client entirely, and most firms are invisible to them: the person searching for expungement years later, because a background check just cost them a job. Same practice, completely different search, completely different urgency.
Why this practice is its own challenge
Two clients, years apart, looking for the same firm in different words.
Almost every DUI practice markets only the arrest. That’s the urgent half, and it’s competitive, and it’s the half everybody bids on.
That has three consequences, and each is a marketing problem rather than a legal one.
They find three, and they call them the same night
The list gets built on a phone, often before the person is home.
They dial straight down it.
Being second on that list costs you almost nothing. Being unreachable costs you the retainer, and the person never tells you they called.
Expungement is a whole second practice hiding in plain sight
The person searching to clear a record is nothing like the person who was arrested last night. They’re calm, they have been putting it off, and they’re searching because something forced the issue: a job, a lease, a license.
They also use words no arrest page contains. A firm optimized entirely for the emergency is invisible for the follow-up, which is the easier work and often the same client years later.
Staying in front of somebody who already looked at you matters for that client, because nothing about their timeline is urgent.
Reviews are read for whether you were reachable and straight
Somebody choosing a defense attorney can’t judge the legal work. What they can read is whether other people felt informed, and whether the firm answered the phone when it mattered.
Below about four stars most people simply stop considering you, which BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey puts at 68% of consumers, from 1,002 US adults.
The defensive half matters as much as the offensive one. One unanswered review about a client who couldn’t get hold of anybody is doing more damage than a month of advertising can undo.
The second search
The expungement client is the same person, five years later.
This is the cheapest work most DUI practices aren’t getting. The searches are lower volume, far less competitive, and made by somebody with a reason and no emergency.
It’s also the client you already met. A firm that stayed in touch, or that simply turns up when they search again, gets a matter that costs almost nothing to win.
Most firms never build the page for it, because everything they have is written for the night of the arrest, in words the expungement client would never type.
Where a DUI practice usually starts
Answer the phone, be on the map, then be findable for the second search.
Almost nobody should buy all of it at once, and here the arrest window sets the order.
In the order it usually makes sense
Everything we do is listed here, and how pricing works is on the homepage, including why we won’t quote a number before we’ve looked at your business.
Straight answer
When this isn’t the right call.
If you can’t take the call at night
Then start there and nowhere else. This work arrives after hours by definition, and everything else here delivers those callers to a phone nobody picks up.
If you only want the arrest work
That’s the competitive half. The expungement searches are quieter, cheaper to win, and most firms in your market aren’t showing up for them at all.
If somebody promised you the number one spot
We aim at the top three positions in the maps in Google and keep you there, for what people actually search. Nobody can honestly promise the top spot.
The night it happens, and the search years later.
You’re on the list the night it happens, and you exist for the search that comes years later. Most firms have only the first, which is also the half everybody else is bidding on.
You’ll see it in two numbers you can count without us: how many calls came in, and how many contact requests came from your website. Not website visitors, not a bunch of fancy, multicolored charts and graphs in a ranking report.
No long-term contract. You stop at the end of the month on almost everything; search is the one exception and takes sixty days’ written notice, because it’s booked ahead.
Frequently Asked Questions
The things worth asking before you buy.
Can you get us to the top of Google for DUI in our city?
Yes, into the top three of the local map pack, and we keep you there. That's the block of three businesses that shows above the ordinary results with the map beside it, and it's where the calls come from. You don't need to be first. You need to be one of the three.
The one thing we won't promise is the number one spot, because a position moves with who's searching and where they're standing. Anybody selling you number one is selling you a screenshot.
A ranking promise only means something if it answers two questions: for what, and where. For what, because it's easy to rank a business first for a phrase nobody types, and that's how a ranking guarantee is usually kept. We go after what somebody actually searches when they need you today. And where, because a business ranks in a shape around its address, not everywhere at once. For most that's somewhere between three and seven miles out, depending on how tightly Google draws the map where you are.
And you'll know without taking our word for it. You count the calls and the contact requests from your website. Search takes somewhere between thirty and ninety days to show. If it hasn't, give us our sixty days' written notice.
Read more on this topic: Three questions that cost nothing to ask
What if we want to reach further than three to seven miles?
That's the right ambition and usually the wrong first move. Widening the shape you already have is most of the ongoing work, and every street that comes inside it's people who couldn't see you before and can now. Reaching past it before the near ground is saturated spreads the same money thinner over people who were never going to call you first anyway.
When you genuinely do run out of room, the next move is another area rather than a bigger radius. We build the same shape around an adjoining town, and that repeats for as many areas as you want to take on. There are more advanced ways to push reach as well, and they're worth spending on at that point rather than at the start.
The only real gate is whether you can take the work. We'd rather hold you at one area that's producing than spread you across three that are half fed.
Read more on this topic: Why being first in your own parking lot means little
Is expungement really worth building pages for?
It's the cheapest work most DUI practices aren't getting. Lower volume, far less competition, and the searcher has a concrete reason: a background check just cost them a job or a lease.
They also use words no arrest page contains, so a firm optimized entirely for the night of the arrest is invisible to them. It's often the same client, years later.
The big defense firms outspend us. Is there room?
The fight isn't against their budget. It's about being one of three businesses that shows on a map to somebody a few miles away, and then answering when they call.
A firm with a fraction of the spend and a person on the phone signs retainers that a firm with a billboard and a voicemail box doesn't.
What if we can't keep up?
Then don't buy this yet. Taking on more than you can defend properly produces exactly the reviews this practice can't survive. Staff first.
Read more on this topic: Why we'd rather turn work down
Book a call
“I'd love to learn about you and your business.”
Ten minutes, and it's mostly me asking what you do, where you do it, and what you've already tried. No pitch deck, no discovery fee, no sales pressure.
Send the form on the rightbelow and I'll set up a call. If we're not a fit I'll tell you right up front and do my best to point you in the right direction.
Call me instead (360) 467-6957