We researched 1,606 criminal defense keywords in Semrush, scored 33 charge types by value and difficulty, and turned it into a 127-page sitemap with a build order. Use it to plan your site, or see exactly where your firm is missing.
People searching for a criminal defense lawyer are usually in trouble right now, and they call the first firm that looks like it handles their exact charge. The hub term is huge, but DUI, domestic violence, traffic and federal charges are where most of the hiring intent lives. Build the pages for the charges people actually get arrested for, in the right order.
Key takeaways
Whatthedatatellsyoubeforeyoubuildapage
01
The hub term is enormous
'Criminal defense lawyer' gets 673,000 searches a month, and the hub page covers about 1 million across its keywords, at a $19 weighted CPC and an average KD of 35. It anchors everything else.
02
DUI is the strongest single money page
'DUI lawyer' has 165,000 monthly searches and the DUI page carries the highest weighted CPC in the plan at $29, with an average KD of 25. 'DUI attorney' alone runs about $39 a click.
03
Federal and white collar pay the most per click
The federal crimes page has a $25 weighted CPC at KD 25. Inside white collar, 'health care fraud lawyer' runs $46 a click with 1,000 searches a month.
04
Low difficulty, high intent pages
Drug possession (KD 5), probation violation (KD 6), theft (KD 6) and resisting arrest (KD 5) are some of the most winnable pages in the plan, and people searching them usually need a lawyer this week.
05
Some big terms are harder than they look
Domestic violence covers about 291,000 monthly searches but has an average KD of 61 and a $4.52 weighted CPC. Restraining orders sit at KD 52. Worth building, but not for quick wins.
06
People ask before they call
'Is a DUI a felony' gets 12,100 searches a month and 'what includes domestic violence' gets 9,900. Every charge page comes with the questions to answer, and 54 supporting guides link back to the pages that get the call.
33 practice areas, ranked
Thecriminaldefensepagescorecard
Opportunity weighs what a page's traffic would cost to buy against how hard it is to rank. Longer bars are more valuable and more winnable. Select a practice area to see its keywords.
Build
criminal defense lawyer
1M
$19.43
35
P1
dui lawyer
389.7K
$29.27
25
P1
traffic ticket lawyer
156.7K
$5.99
15
P1
drug crime lawyer
99.8K
$12.64
43
P2
sex crime lawyer
38.8K
$23.38
23
P1
federal criminal defense lawyer
33.4K
$24.52
25
P1
assault lawyer
56.6K
$12.63
16
P1
white collar crime lawyer
75.7K
$9.37
22
P1
domestic violence lawyer
291.3K
$4.52
61
P1
criminal defense attorney for probation violation
29.1K
$10.62
6
P1
juvenile defense attorney
37.6K
$8.68
21
P2
drug possession lawyer
15.5K
$13.46
5
P1
theft lawyer
17K
$12.21
6
P2
gun crime lawyer near me
18.2K
$8.50
9
P2
first offense dui lawyer
33.6K
$5.21
25
P2
homicide lawyer
6.9K
$20.51
8
P2
restraining order lawyer
93.2K
$2.67
52
P2
criminal appeals lawyer
13.1K
$8.31
18
P2
florida expungement lawyer
47.1K
$2.86
40
P2
reckless driving lawyer
14.8K
$6.01
13
P2
robbery lawyer
9.2K
$7.81
12
P3
lawyer for leaving the scene of an accident
3.5K
$18.93
7
P2
resisting arrest lawyer
8.2K
$5.60
5
P2
burglary lawyer
13.5K
$2.62
16
P3
lawyer for early termination of probation
2.9K
$3.09
5
P2
florida stand your ground lawyer
2.5K
$0.04
31
P3
drug trafficking lawyer
5K
—
18
P2
stalking charges lawyer
890
—
8
P3
lawyer for child sexual abuse charges
110
—
0
Merge
florida sentencing guidelines scoresheet
160
—
7
P3
federal target letter lawyer
500
—
2
P2
college student defense lawyer
520
—
3
P3
bui lawyer orlando florida
120
—
0
P3
Volume is monthly U.S. searches across all of the page's keywords. CPC is weighted by volume across keywords with ad data; a dash means Semrush has no CPC for it. KD is average keyword difficulty (0-100): EasyMediumHardVery hardP1 build first P2 next P3 later
691 keywords, grouped by page
Thepractice-areakeywordexplorer
Every practice area with its target keywords, sub-pages, the questions to answer on the page, and the guides that support it.
Criminal defense (hub)
/criminal-defense/
P1
“criminal defense lawyer” has very high demand (vol 673,000; CPC $19.96; KD 30) with strong commercial variants and “near me” terms (up to 27,100). A dedicated hub is essential to capture broad transactional intent and route users to high-value subpages.
Structure and internal linking in one view. Guides link up to their practice area, and practice areas link up to the hub. Open any practice area to see its pages.
Criminal Defense/criminal-defense/1M/moP1
DUI Defense/criminal-defense/dui/4 pages389.7K/moP1
What Is a DUI?Guide/criminal-defense/dui/what-is-a-dui/6.6K/moP2
DUI Lawyer CostGuide/criminal-defense/dui/dui-lawyer-cost/1.3K/moP2
First Offense, Refusal, DUI With Injury/criminal-defense/dui/first-offense-refusal-injury/320/moP2
DUI With Injury/criminal-defense/dui/dui-with-injury/11.7K/moP2
DUI Refusal/criminal-defense/dui/dui-refusal/6.3K/moP2
Boating Under the Influence (BUI)/criminal-defense/dui/bui/120/moP3
Does a BUI Affect Your Driver’s License in Florida?Guide/criminal-defense/dui/bui/bui-license-florida/20/moP3
Record sealing and expungement /criminal-defense/expungement-sealing/
‘expungement lawyer’ 5,400/mo plus Florida intent; large FAQ pool; TOFU terms (‘expunged meaning’ 8,100/mo) funnel to consults.
14
Federal investigations and target letters /criminal-defense/federal-crimes/federal-target-letters/
While small direct volume (20/mo), the cluster (‘what is a target letter’ 110/mo; ‘how is a target letter delivered’ 140/mo; KD ~0–2) ranks easily and converts early in investigations.
15
Theft /criminal-defense/theft/
‘theft lawyer’ 3,600/mo; KD ~8; high‑CPC subtopics (grand theft, shoplifting) and new ‘theft by deception’ page expand conversions.
Fewer, stronger pages
Pagestomergeinsteadofbuild
Two pages chasing the same intent split their authority and compete with each other. These belong together.
Child abuse and neglect chargesSex crimes
Commercial demand is minimal and overlaps heavily with sex‑offense defense searches. Consolidating preserves relevance and avoids thin, low‑value content.
Found in the data
Newpageopportunities
Low-difficulty local terms the original plan didn't include. Small volume, but often fast to win and high intent.
Internet Sex Crimes Defense
260/mo0
Distinct, high‑intent niche within sex crimes that isn’t in the plan. Low competition and clear hire intent make it an efficient sub‑pillar to capture searches involving online solicitation, child pornography, and related federal/state charges.
Probation Revocation Defense
390/mo1$8.01 CPC
Searchers use revocation terminology in addition to ‘violation.’ A focused sub‑page captures this 390/mo, low‑KD intent and aligns with hearings where counsel is often urgently retained.
Theft by Deception Defense
320/mo0$4.14 CPC
A discrete charge with separate elements from general theft/fraud; adding a targeted page under Theft picks up this unclaimed 320/mo term with minimal cannibalization and strong conversion potential.
Expunged Meaning (Definition & Eligibility)
8,100/mo56$0.54 CPC
High‑volume definitional intent (8,100/mo) feeds top‑of‑funnel seekers into the expungement/sealing service, where FAQs convert well after education.
How to Expunge a Criminal Record
1,600/mo45$1.66 CPC
Evergreen, mid‑funnel query (1,600/mo) that complements Florida‑specific content and captures non‑brand informational traffic primed to convert after learning process/eligibility.
Turn the map into a strategy
Howtousethiscriminaldefensekeywordmap
01
Build the P1 pages first
The hub, DUI, domestic violence, traffic, drug possession, federal crimes, white collar, probation violation, sex crimes and violent crimes carry most of the demand. Get those live and strong before anything else.
02
One charge, one page
Each charge page owns its whole keyword cluster: 'lawyer,' 'attorney,' 'near me' and 'defense' variants together. Split pages only when the charge is legally different, like DUI refusal or DUI with injury.
03
Answer the questions on the page, then go deeper in guides
Put the FAQ questions for each charge on that page. Where a question has real volume on its own, like 'what is a DUI' at 6,600 a month, give it a guide that links back to the charge page.
04
Link in the same shape as the sitemap
Guides link up to their charge page, charge pages link up to their category and the hub, and the hub links down to every category. The sitemap below is the internal linking plan.
05
Win the small, urgent pages early
Leaving the scene of an accident ($46 CPC for its primary term, KD 3), reckless driving (KD 13) and federal target letters (KD near 0) are small but fast to rank, and the people searching them need help now.
Avoid these traps
4commonmistakeswithcriminaldefensekeywords
Only building one big 'criminal defense' page
Someone charged with a DUI searches for a DUI lawyer, not a criminal defense lawyer. A single page that lists every charge loses to firms with a dedicated page for each one.
Writing informational pages that never convert
'Can you get a DUI on a horse' gets 9,900 searches a month, but most of those people aren't facing charges. Answer curious questions inside a guide, and keep the money pages focused on people who need a lawyer.
Ignoring state-specific terms
Searches like 'Florida expungement lawyer' and 'Florida vehicular homicide' are local by nature. Criminal law is state law, so your pages should name your state's statutes, penalties and process.
Splitting one charge across pages
Child abuse and neglect charges barely have their own search demand and overlap with sex crimes. Two thin pages compete with each other; one strong page wins.
Law firm marketing partner
A 127-page plan is a lot to build between arraignments
Criminal defense clients hire fast, often the same day they search. Turning this map into ranking pages means writing charge pages that explain what's at stake in plain English, building guides that actually answer the question, linking it all together, and keeping your Google Business Profile and reviews in step.
That's the work we do for criminal defense firms, tracked to real calls and form leads rather than traffic. If you'd rather be in court than building pages, we can take it from here.
Every keyword, volume, difficulty score and CPC comes from Semrush's U.S. database, pulled in September 2026 from 50 seed keywords across 33 planned practice-area pages. AI was used only to group keywords into pages and suggest structure; any keyword it suggested that wasn't in the Semrush data was thrown out.
This map lands on 127: one criminal defense hub, 72 charge and sub-charge pages, and 54 supporting guides. You don't need all of them on day one. Start with the P1 pages, like the hub, DUI, domestic violence, traffic and drug possession, then add the rest in the build order.
Look for low average difficulty with real hiring intent. Drug possession (KD 5), probation violation (KD 6), theft (KD 6), resisting arrest (KD 5) and leaving the scene of an accident (KD 7) are far more winnable than 'criminal defense lawyer.' Local versions of these terms are easier still.
Criminal cases are usually paid by the client rather than out of a settlement, so each case is worth less to the firm and advertisers bid less. That makes organic rankings even more valuable: you get the same urgent callers without paying $20 to $40 a click.
The structure does. Charge categories, question-style guides and the build order apply in any state. Some keywords here are Florida-specific, like expungement, stand your ground and the sentencing scoresheet, so swap in your own state's terms and statutes.
For competitive terms like 'DUI lawyer,' expect 6 to 12 months or more of consistent work. Low-difficulty charge pages and question-style guides can move in a few months. Nobody honest can promise a specific ranking or date.
Keyword data is from Semrush's U.S. database as of September 2026. Volume, difficulty and CPC are directional and shift over time. Check them again before building a campaign around any single term.
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