How a Multi-Location Oregon Criminal Defense Firm Took Over Search Across Three Markets
A decade-long SEO partnership that put a multi-location criminal defense firm at the top of Google in three Oregon markets, owning the local pack for the highest-intent DUI and criminal defense searches in the state. Client name withheld at the firm's request.
Three Oregon Markets, Three Different Competitive Landscapes
This firm handles the cases most people hope they never need: DUI defense, criminal charges, domestic violence, sex crimes, and serious felonies. It serves clients across Oregon from three separate offices in three different cities. The challenge was making each location visible in its own market without cannibalizing the others, in a category where every competitor is bidding on the same handful of "DUI lawyer near me" phrases.
A Long Practice-Area Catalog
The firm covers DUI/DUII, criminal defense, domestic violence, sex crimes, gun crimes, manslaughter, employment discrimination, personal injury, and civil litigation. Each practice area is its own competitive search market with its own keyword profile and intent signals.
Three Cities, One Brand
The firm's three Oregon offices each face distinct competitive dynamics. The strategy needed local depth in each market while maintaining a coherent firmwide identity in organic search.
A Crowded High-Spend Category
Criminal defense and DUI law are two of the most expensive paid-search verticals in the country. Organic SEO had to do the heavy lifting to keep client acquisition cost sustainable.
Owning the Practice Area, Then Owning the Map
The plan was to win the practice-area pages and educational content first, then translate that authority into local pack visibility across all three offices. Compound the work over time rather than chase short-term wins.
Practice-Area Architecture and Educational Content
Built a clean site structure with dedicated pages for every practice area the firm covers. Then layered in deep educational content for the questions people actually search at 2 a.m. after an arrest: second DUI in Oregon, refusing a breathalyzer test, indictment vs. arrest, DUI first offense penalties.
Reference Pages That Become Permanent Assets
Created definitive reference content like an Oregon DUI penalties chart, a third-DUI explainer, and a mugshot and arrest record page. These pages rank for thousands of impressions per month each and feed qualified visitors directly into practice-area calls to action.
Largest Market First, Then Expanding
Optimized the Google Business Profile for each office, built location-specific landing pages, sorted out citations, and tuned the local schema so each market was attributable to its own physical office. The largest market was the first to lock down #1 Local Finder positions for the highest-intent DUI queries. The second market followed. The third is the current focus.
Site-Wide Position Gain Across Every Market
By compounding content depth and local signals year over year, the average position of the entire site climbed from below page 3 into the top half of page 1 across all tracked queries. Monthly impressions more than doubled in the most recent 15-month window.
Top of the Local Pack in the Largest Market, Climbing in the Others
The firm now holds 10 #1 positions in the Google Local Finder across its three Oregon markets, with an average local pack coverage of 41% and average organic position of 18 across tracked DUI and criminal defense keywords. Site-wide average position climbed from 32.7 to 11.7 over the most recent 15-month window in Google Search Console.
Rankings by Keyword Type
Rank Tracker (Local Finder) + Google Search Console positions. City names redacted at the firm's request.
Top Educational Pages Driving Traffic
Top organic landing pages outside the homepage, last 90 days (GA4)
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