Criminal defense SEO case study
By Ihor Lavrenenko · Updated
A criminal defense firm in South Florida asked Rathly to clean up its technical SEO and build links. Its lawyer searches moved onto Google's first page, and this study also shows why clicks didn't follow.
- ✓An audit of charge pages and explainers
- ✓Redirect and broken-link cleanup
- ✓Editorial links to the defense pages
- ✓Lawyer search impressions up 48%
A defense practice people find through legal questions
Many of the firm's visitors arrive with a legal question. They want to know what a third degree felony means or how to seal a record in Florida. Fewer found the firm when they searched for a lawyer.
- 01
What the firm wanted
Its own team writes the content and handles site speed. Rathly fixed the site's technical problems and built new links to the defense pages.
- 02
Dates we compared
Search Console data for January to March 2026, side by side with October to December 2025.
Technical cleanup and links for the defense pages
The firm's explainers already drew traffic. The work pointed that strength at the pages that sell its services.
- 01Step 1
Site audit
We reviewed every page type, from charge explainers to attorney profiles, for broken links and redirect problems.You get fixes sorted by impact - 02Step 2
Cleanup and linking
We repaired broken links and redirects, then linked the legal explainers to the defense service pages.You get stronger service pages - 03Ongoing
Earned links
We placed editorial links to the defense service pages, adding a few each month.You get more authority - 04Today
Find your weak pages
Send your site and we rank the fixes.Talk to us →
Why page one didn't bring more clicks
The firm's lawyer searches gained 48% more impressions, 381K to 565K, but clicks on them fell from 814 to 682. The rankings rose; the results page changed around them.
- 01
Lawyer searches
For dui lawyer, the firm moved from position 35.6 to 3, and Google showed it 117K times with no clicks. Ads and the map pack fill the top of these results, so even an organic top three sits below the fold.
- 02
Question searches
For dui felony new law, position improved from 6.3 to 3.3, but clicks fell from 28 to 4. Google now answers many legal questions on the results page itself.
- 03
What we do about it
We keep building rankings for case-intent searches, and we pair them with map pack and ads work, where the clicks now go.
dui lawyer, from page four to the top three
Search Console filtered to one search. The position jump is the work; the zero clicks are the new results page.
Position 35.6 to 3, seen 117K times
January to March 2026 against October to December 2025. Ads and the map pack sit above the organic results for this search.
Click the screenshot for full sizeDefense searches that moved onto page one
Average position in Google for the defense terms that moved most, fall 2025 against the first quarter of 2026. Searches that include the firm's name don't count here.
| Search | Oct to Dec | Jan to Mar |
|---|---|---|
| dui lawyer | 35.6 | 3.0 |
| criminal record expungement lawyer | 25.5 | 2.0 |
| criminal defense lawyer | 9.7 | 5.5 |
| criminal defense attorney | 20.7 | 8.2 |
| defense attorney | 8.7 | 4.2 |
| drug defense lawyers | 14.2 | 8.0 |
| juvenile crimes lawyer | 26.8 | 10.6 |
| battery lawyer | 19.4 | 10.9 |
In early 2026, 31 more non-branded searches reached page one, per Search Console.
Lessons for a criminal defense practice
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Win more defense cases from Google
- ✓ A ranked list of fixes first
- ✓ Map pack and ads in one plan
- ✓ Accounts in your firm's name
- ✓ A reply the same or next day