When someone types 'DUI attorney near me' or 'DUI lawyer [city]' into Google, the first thing they see — before any organic results — is the Map Pack: three local listings with a map, star ratings, and a phone number one tap away. For DUI defense, this placement isn't just valuable. It's often the entire game.
DUI searches are almost always transactional. The person searching has been arrested or is helping someone who has been. They need a lawyer quickly, and they're going to call the first credible name they see. Industry benchmarks suggest the top Map Pack listing captures a disproportionate share of clicks compared to position four or five in the organic results below it.
The problem for most DUI firms is that the Map Pack is governed by different rules than traditional SEO. You can have a perfectly optimized website and still be invisible locally if your Google Business Profile is incomplete, your citations are inconsistent, or your review count is thin relative to competitors.
Google evaluates local results on three primary dimensions:
- Relevance: Does your profile clearly match what the searcher is looking for? Category selection, service descriptions, and keyword presence in your profile all contribute.
- Distance: How close is your office to the searcher or the location they specified? This is the one factor you can't fully control — but you can influence it with service area configuration and location pages.
- Prominence: How well-known and trusted is your firm online? Reviews, citations, backlinks, and overall web presence all feed into prominence.
The sections below address each of these dimensions with specific, implementable steps tailored to DUI defense practices.