A Step-by-Step SEO Diagnostic for DUI Defense Firms — Know What's Broken Before You Fix Anything

This guide is written for DUI defense attorneys who already have a website but aren't getting the organic search results they expect. That could mean your site doesn't appear in the Map Pack for local searches, your phone isn't ringing from organic traffic, or you recently launched a new site and rankings dropped.

It's also useful before you hire an SEO agency. Running this diagnostic first means you'll know what questions to ask, what red flags to watch for, and whether a proposed scope of work actually addresses your real problems.

This is a diagnostic framework, not a checklist of tasks. The goal is identification — finding where your site is losing ground — not implementation. Once you know what's broken, you can prioritize fixes based on impact and effort.

A few situations where this audit is especially relevant:

• You've invested in SEO but haven't seen ranking or traffic improvement after four to six months
• A competitor recently displaced you in the Map Pack or organic results for your primary DUI keywords
• Your site was recently redesigned or migrated to a new platform
• You've received a Google Search Console notification about a manual action or coverage issue
• You're preparing to invest more seriously in SEO and want a baseline before adding budget

If none of these apply and your organic traffic is growing steadily, this guide can still serve as a quarterly health check — but it's not urgent reading.

Technical SEO is the foundation. No amount of content quality or local optimization matters if Google can't efficiently crawl and index your pages. This section covers the most common technical failures found on DUI law firm websites.

Crawlability and Indexation

Start with Google Search Console. Under the Coverage report, check for pages marked as 'Excluded' or 'Error.' Specifically look for:

• Pages blocked by robots.txt that shouldn't be (practice area pages, city pages)
• Pages marked 'Discovered — currently not indexed' — this often signals a crawl budget or internal linking problem
• Redirect chains longer than one hop, which dilute link equity and slow crawl efficiency

Page Speed and Core Web Vitals

Google's Core Web Vitals are a confirmed ranking signal. Use Google PageSpeed Insights on your most important pages: your homepage, your primary DUI practice page, and your top city landing page. Flag anything scoring below 50 on mobile — in our experience, most law firm websites built on bloated page builders fail mobile speed benchmarks by a significant margin.

Mobile Usability

DUI arrest calls happen at night, often from a cell phone in or near a police station. A significant portion of your potential clients are searching on mobile under high stress. Check Google Search Console's Mobile Usability report for touch target errors, viewport configuration issues, or content wider than screen.

HTTPS and Security

Every page on your site should load over HTTPS. Mixed content warnings — pages that load securely but pull in HTTP resources — can trigger browser warnings that damage trust with prospective clients. Run your site through a mixed content checker if you've recently migrated.

Schema Markup

Legal-specific schema (LegalService or Attorney) helps Google understand your firm's services, location, and credentials. Its absence won't tank rankings on its own, but its presence can improve how your listing appears in results. Check your implementation using Google's Rich Results Test.

Content is where most DUI law firm websites lose rankings they should be winning. The issue isn't usually that the site has no content — it's that the content is too thin, too generic, or structured in a way that doesn't match how people search for DUI defense help.

Practice Page Depth

Your primary DUI defense page should not be a 300-word overview. Pages that rank for competitive DUI queries typically answer the specific questions a frightened person types after an arrest: What are the penalties? Will I lose my license? Is there a difference between a DUI and a DWI in this state? What happens at arraignment?

Audit your main practice page by asking: does this page answer the top five questions my potential clients are actually asking, or does it mostly describe my credentials?

Keyword Targeting Audit

Pull your Google Search Console Performance report. Filter to queries containing 'DUI' and sort by impressions. You're looking for two things:

• High-impression, low-click-through queries — you're appearing but not compelling clicks. This is a title tag and meta description problem.
• Queries you're not appearing for at all — searches in the 10–50 range that you should be capturing with dedicated pages or stronger internal linking.

City and Location Page Quality

If your firm serves multiple cities or counties, each location likely needs its own page to rank locally. Generic location pages — where the only difference is the city name — are widely recognized as thin content. Evaluate each city page: does it contain specific, locally relevant information (courthouse addresses, local license suspension procedures, local judges or prosecutors your firm has appeared before), or is it templated filler?

Competitor Content Gap Analysis

Search for your primary DUI keyword in your target city. Review the top three organic results — not the ads, not the Map Pack. What topics do those pages cover that yours doesn't? This gap represents content work with a clear competitive benchmark already established.

For most DUI defense firms, the Google Map Pack drives more qualified phone calls than any other channel. If you're not in the top three local results for '[city] DUI lawyer,' you're invisible to the majority of people who search with immediate intent.

Google Business Profile Audit

Log into your Google Business Profile and check the following:

• Primary category: Should be 'DUI Law Attorney' or the closest equivalent. A generic 'Lawyer' category underperforms significantly in local results.
• Service areas: Are all counties and cities you serve listed? Missing service areas mean missed local rankings in those geographies.
• Business description: Does it clearly state DUI defense and the jurisdictions you serve? Many profiles have boilerplate copy that doesn't reinforce local keyword relevance.
• Photos: Profiles with attorney headshots, office photos, and recent uploads generally perform better than bare profiles.
• Posts: When did you last publish a Google Business Profile post? Recency signals an active, legitimate business.

Review Volume and Recency

Review recency matters more than raw count. A firm with 80 reviews but the most recent from 18 months ago will often lose Map Pack placement to a firm with 25 reviews and three from last month. Audit your review profile: when was your last review? Do you have a consistent process for asking satisfied clients to leave feedback?

Note: Review solicitation practices must comply with your state bar's advertising rules. Offering incentives for reviews is prohibited under ABA Model Rule 7.2 and most state equivalents. Consult your state bar's guidance before implementing any review generation system.

Citation Consistency

Your firm's Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) should be identical across every major directory: Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Yelp, and the core data aggregators. Inconsistencies — even minor ones like 'Suite 100' vs '#100' — can create duplicate listing confusion that suppresses local rankings. Run your NAP through a citation checker and flag every inconsistency.

This section is educational content only and does not constitute legal advice. Advertising rules vary by state and are subject to change. Verify current requirements with your state bar's advertising committee or qualified legal ethics counsel before making changes to your site.

DUI defense attorneys operate under some of the most scrutinized advertising environments in the legal profession. Bar advertising rules — grounded in ABA Model Rules 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 — restrict how attorneys can describe their services, solicit clients, and make performance claims. Violations carry disciplinary risk, and from an SEO perspective, content that makes unsubstantiated claims also signals lower E-E-A-T to Google.

False or Misleading Statements

Review every page on your site for language that could constitute a misleading claim under Rule 7.1. Common red flags include:

• Guarantees of case outcomes ('We get DUI charges dismissed')
• Superlatives without substantiation ('Best DUI lawyer in [city]')
• Implied special relationships with judges or prosecutors

Required Disclaimers

Many states require specific disclaimer language — 'Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome' or 'This is an advertisement' — on attorney websites. Check your state bar's current advertising rules to determine which disclaimers are mandatory on your site, and verify they appear on every page where they're required, not just the footer of your homepage.

Testimonials and Review Display

If you display client testimonials or reviews on your website, verify that your state bar permits it and under what conditions. Some states require disclaimers adjacent to each testimonial. Displaying reviews pulled from Google or Avvo may have different compliance requirements than curated testimonials. Again, verify with your state bar — rules here vary significantly by jurisdiction.

Referral and Lead Generation Disclosure

If your site participates in any lead generation network or pay-per-call program, check whether your state requires disclosure of that arrangement to visitors. Rule 7.2 restrictions on paid referrals have state-level variations that can affect how you structure these relationships and disclose them.

After working through all four diagnostic areas, you should have a clearer picture of where your site is underperforming. The question most attorneys ask next is: where do I start?

Prioritize based on severity and traffic impact, not ease of execution. Use this rough triage framework:

Critical Issues (Fix First)

• Pages that are accidentally blocked from indexing
• Google Business Profile with wrong category or missing service areas
• Bar compliance violations — misleading claims or missing required disclaimers
• No HTTPS or active security warnings

High-Impact Issues (Fix Within 30–60 Days)

• Primary DUI practice page with fewer than 800 words and no structured FAQ content
• Mobile speed scores below 50
• Review recency gap — no reviews in the past six months
• City pages with duplicate or templated content

Optimization Work (Ongoing)

• Content gap pages based on Search Console impression data
• Schema markup implementation
• Citation cleanup across secondary directories
• Regular Google Business Profile posts and photo updates

If your audit surfaces critical issues in three or more categories, that's a signal that self-directed fixes will take longer than most attorneys have available — and that errors in implementation can compound existing problems. In that scenario, working with someone who specializes in DUI defense SEO will typically close the gap faster than working through issues one at a time without a coordinated strategy.

If you want a second set of eyes on your audit findings, or if you'd prefer to hand this off entirely, you can hire a specialist to handle your DUI firm's SEO audit and strategy — we'll identify the highest-priority issues and build a plan around them.