Most defense firm websites grow by accident. After two years the site has forty pages nobody planned and a handful that bring in calls. A content calendar fixes that, but only if it starts from the cases you want to take.
This plan covers twelve months. It assumes your site already has its basic pages. The question is what to build next, in what order, and when to stop adding pages and start improving the ones you have.
Before you write anything, list the charges your firm actually defends and rank them using your intake records and fee history. A firm that wants more felony drug cases and fewer traffic tickets should not spend its first quarter writing about speeding.
Then add a second column for where you appear. Write down the courthouses you go to every week and the counties you will travel to for the right case. That list becomes your geographic boundary. A page for a county you never appear in invites calls you will have to decline.
Charge pages are the core of a defense site because they match what a person types right after an arrest. Someone charged with DUI, domestic battery or possession with intent searches for that charge, often with a city name attached. Each priority offense deserves its own page.
A useful charge page explains the offense in plain language, names the statute, describes the possible penalties under your state's law and walks through the defenses that commonly come up. Write it so a frightened person can understand it at midnight. Have a lawyer in the firm review every penalty range and statute number, because these change and an outdated sentence on a charge page is worse than no page at all.
Order these by the case ranking from your first step. If one charge type produces your best fees, it gets the first slot in month one. Lower priority charges fill months three through six.
Once your main charge pages exist, build pages for the courts you appear in most. A good court page covers the courthouse address, parking, security screening, which case types are heard there and what a first appearance usually looks like in that building.
Process pages answer the question of what happens next. "What happens at arraignment" is the classic example. In most courts, arraignment is where the defendant hears the formal charges and enters a plea, and release conditions or bail may be addressed, but the timing and details vary by state and by court. Your page should describe how it works where you practice. Pretrial diversion, discovery and sentencing hearings are also worth a page each.
Link each process page to the charge pages it relates to, and back again. A person reading about a felony theft charge should be one click from the page on what happens at the first court date.
If you want a wider view of how these pieces fit into a firm's search strategy, this guide to criminal defense SEO and legal marketing for defense firms covers the broader picture.
Many firms try to reach nearby towns by copying one page and swapping the city name. Google's spam policies describe doorway pages, and one of the examples it lists is a set of pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. A dozen near-identical "DUI lawyer in [town]" pages fits that description closely.
A location page earns its place when it contains something specific to that place. That might be the court that hears cases from that town, the local police agency that makes most arrests there, how arraignment scheduling works in that county or the fact that you appear there regularly. If you cannot write a few paragraphs that would be wrong on any other city's page, the page probably should not exist.
If you already have a pile of duplicate city pages, consolidate them. Merge the useful content into a single county or court page, redirect the old URLs and check that the new page gets crawled. This walkthrough on finding and fixing indexing problems on a defense firm website explains how to spot pages Google is ignoring and why.
By the second half of the year, the best use of your time is often improving what you already published. Look at which pages bring in calls and which ones get traffic without contact. A charge page that draws visitors but no consultations may need clearer next steps.
Set a review schedule. Charge pages should be checked whenever your state legislature changes a statute or sentencing range, and at least once a year otherwise. Court pages need a look whenever a courthouse moves departments, changes its hours or adds a new security procedure.
Make real changes when you update. Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether a site changes page dates to make content seem fresh when nothing substantial has changed.
A workable rhythm for months seven through twelve is one or two new pages a month alongside a scheduled review of existing ones. Log what changed on each page and when.
Every page you publish is a communication about your services. The ABA Model Rules prohibit false or misleading communications about a lawyer's services, and most states have adopted some version of that rule, often with their own additions. Many states add specific limits, such as restrictions on claiming to be a specialist or rules about describing past results.
Before you publish charge pages or location pages, check your state bar's advertising rules. Pay attention to words like "expert" or "specialist" and to any language that suggests a guaranteed outcome.
There is no correct number. Start with a page for each priority charge, each home court and the main steps of a criminal case. After that, publish only what you can keep accurate.
Only for towns where you can say something specific and true about local courts or procedure. A single detailed county page is usually safer and more useful than many near-identical town pages.
It can be, if the posts answer real questions your clients ask and link back to your charge and process pages. Posts written only to fill a calendar rarely bring in cases.
SBD Marketing works only with criminal defense law firms, one firm per city. It helps defense firms with website design, SEO for the charges they defend, visibility in AI search tools and SEO audits.