The Client

Based in St. Catherines, Ontario, 10(B) Criminal Law Center (10bclaw.com), is a criminal defence practice
headed by Sidney Zabari. The legal firm handles bail hearings, youth criminal justice, and trials. While their
quality of work was top-notch, they suffered in terms of visibility. Prospective clients were not finding them
despite high-stakes terms like ‘youth court lawyer’ and ‘bail lawyer’.

The Challenge

When people are looking for a criminal lawyer, they always need help instantly. It is not an instance where
they will scroll away the first few results to ‘decide later’. Knowing this 10(B) Criminal Law Center was
nowhere near visible to users in the region. Even if they were an established practice, they had several
challenges:
Limited or no visibility on Google
Inconsistent local rankings
Low organic traffic
Limited presence for high-intent keywords and searches

Objective

The idea was to increase visibility where prospective clients look for their practice first. This involved
optimization across Google Maps and Google Search. In the Google Map Pack, we had to put the firm in
front of that intent and at the exact moment that users were searching.

The Strategy

Focusing on high-intent search terms rather than broad legal keywords, we implemented a comprehensive
SEO strategy that focused on conversion-oriented criminal law searches. Strengthening the firm’s organic
visibility and local search presence, we optimized their GBP and built location and practice-area relevance.
This meant the company’s profile would surface for specific services that users search for. Strategies also
focused on non-going on-site SEO to grow organic search visibility and tracking was implemented through
Google Analytics and Google Search Console to measure real impact.

The Results

Top Map Pack rankings for high-intent searches

10(B) Criminal Law Centre now rank as follows:  

Search Term	Google Maps Ranking
Bail hearing lawyer St. Catharines	#1
Bail lawyer St. Catharines	#2
Criminal defence lawyer St. Catharines	#2
Youth court lawyer St. Catharines	#3

The rankings were tracked directly in Google Maps for search terms that real prospective clients use. 

The searches are exactly what someone would enter when they are facing a criminal charge or bail hearing and need representation quickly. Now 10(B) shows up where these queries are being made.

Organic search growth (Google Search Console, 6-month comparison)

Metric	Previous 6 Months	Last 6 Months	Change
Total clicks	289	550	90%
Total impressions	3,980	29,400	638%
Average position	13.3	12.8	Improved

CTR: 7.3% → 1.9% (lower because impressions increased dramatically due to broader keyword visibility). A CTR dip alongside a huge impressions jump is normal (more impressions for broader/less-targeted queries dilutes CTR)

The leap in impressions means that the site is now being displayed for a wider set of relevant searches. This is the kind of top-of-funnel visibility that compounds into more inquiries over time.

Website traffic growth (Google Analytics, Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026)

Metric	Result	Increase
Active Users	1.8k	+171.8%
New Users	1.8k	+170.3%
Event Count	15k	+270.3%

With the new growth in users and nearly triple the site engagement, the campaign is genuinely expanding the firm’s reach. 

This is extremely important especially for a criminal defence firm because users search only once due to urgency. This means the growth of first-time visitors indicates more people are finding the firm just when they need it the most. 

The Takeaway

Ranking #1 for ‘bail hearing lawyer’ is not a vanity metric. The client is finding representation in time now instead of not finding any at all. In about six months, the firm went from a no-visibility or low-visibility profile to rank in the top 3 or top 1. It is backed by a 638% increase in search impressions and 3x growth in site engagement. 

Results shown are based on Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and live Google Maps ranking data for 10bclaw.com.