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Drunk driving defense is a narrow specialty of criminal defense, requiring significant training and expertise in technical matters such as breath test machines, and strong trial skills to win cases.

Finding good DUI clients can be challenging. DUI leads are much more valuable then most other criminal cases, since a high percentage of those arrested are middle class, and able to afford quality legal representation. That's why in many markets, attorney's are willing to pay $20 or more per click on Pay Per Click ads for top DUI keywords (such as New York DUI Lawyer).

Regarding web sites & SEO, everything I said about criminal defense websites absolutely applies to dedicated DUI sites also. But here are a few of my top tips for drunk driving lawyer / DUI websites.

Specific Tips for Your DUI Defense Lawyer Website

As with any search engine optimization marketing project, the critical elements are content, and links.

Content & Keywords

Don't worry about what you want to say as much as what the potential client is trying to find out. For DUI searches, most people want to know:

• What is going to happen to me, what are the penalties?

• What should I do? Should I plead guilty or fight it?

• How do I find a good lawyer?

• How much will a lawyer cost?

Your site copy must be informative, compelling, and trustworthy. Hiring a good copywriter is a smart investment. Your DUI site does more than just generate leads. It builds trust in you, and if done effectively, pre-sells people who look at your site that you are the person to help them.

A key element of content is the keywords you choose. Many people will just slap DUI / DWI around their site's pages without a plan.

Good keyword combo modifiers are "arrest" and "penalties". "Drunk Driving law/laws" has lots of traffic but I believe it does not convert as well as narrower keyword combos. "Law" searchers may be browsers or researchers, but those who use arrest and penalty are more likely to be the accused, aka your clients.

While, drunk driving, DUI and DWI are typically the best phrases since they are commonly used, but some specific local legal acronyms like OUI laws in Massachusetts, OVI in Ohio and OWI penalties in Michigan.  Typically they have 1/3 fewer searches as the more commonly used DUI, but they are not as competitive, and may be better targeted to those who've been arrested.

You are usually using state or city modifiers in your keywords, but don't neglect state abbreviations either, like WA DUI penalties.

Links

Links are critically important. Good, authoritative links that are topical to drunk driving are hard to get, but they are also hard for your competitors to get, so a few good links can make a huge difference.

Here are a couple of semi-serious suggestions:

Start a PR war with MADD. Put something on your site that is outrageous (but not too outrageous so that it would be ignored) and put out a press release about it that makes them respond to your completely irresponsible statements by linking to you.

Make friends with Lawrence Taylor or Bubba Head and get them to link to your site. Directly from the front page of their sites, preferably!

Other tips

Measure everything you can. Track the number of DUI leads that you get, and the sources. Try to determine what changes generate a higher conversion rate. If you have a web form submission on each page of your site, have the form submission tell you what page it came from. This will help you figure out what pages are more likely to get someone to take action and contact you.

Please contact us for more information.

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Commonly used terms and abbreviations for drunk driving laws and charges

Driving Under the Influence (DUI)

DUI is the most common generic abbreviation, and is the actual legal term in many states, including Virginia, Florida and California.

Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)

DWI is the second most common drunk driving law abbreviation. It is the legal definition in New York state, New Jersey, Missouri, and Texas.

Driving After Imbibing (DAI)

Driving after imbibing alcohol (DAI) is the legal statue term for drunk driving in Pennsylvania. Most people commonly refer to it as a DUI.

(Imbibing, huh?)

Driving Under The Influence of Intoxicants (DUII)

The charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants is known as a DUII in Oregon.

Operating Under the Influence (OUI)

The legal term of OUI, or "operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor", is the legal statutory phrase for drunk driving in Maine and Massachusetts.

Operating a Vehicle Under the Influence (OVI)

Ohio calls their drunk driving law abbreviation an OVI.

Operating While Intoxicated (OWI)

Operating While Intoxicated, or OWI is the legal term used in Michigan drunk driving statues.

Related Impairment/Intoxication Legal Terms

Some states make a legal statutory distinction between impairment by alcohol or other drugs.

Generally, this means they don't need to rely on a blood or breathalyzer test that scientifically establishes a high alcohol content in your bloodstream to find you guilty or driving while impaired.

Typically, legal offenses like a DWAI or OWVI have lesser penalties then the more common drunk driving charges, although not always. But it may be an option for a drunk driving defense lawyer to negotiate down to one of these lesser charges.

Driving While Ability Impaired (DWAI)

For example, a DWAI in New York indicates impairment by drugs, or a combination of drugs and alcohol.

Operating While Visibly Impaired (OWVI)

Michigan's generic impairment law is called an OWVI. It can apply to impairment by alcohol or drugs, or a combination.

"Wet Reckless"

A lesser drunk driving charge in California. It specifically implies that you drove recklessly, and had consumed some alcohol, but isn't strictly speaking, a DUI. However, since most states don't have an equivalent to this, if you get arrested in another state, it is possible that they will count a California wet reckless as a prior DUI offense in a new case.