Separating Branded From Unbranded Searches in Search Console

When a defense lawyer opens Google Search Console and sees clicks going up, the first question should be where those clicks came from. For many law firms, a good part of search traffic comes from people who already know the firm's name. They heard about you from a former client, saw your name on paperwork or looked you up after a referral. Those visits matter, but they say little about whether your SEO is working.

The searches that tell you about SEO progress are the unbranded ones, like "assault lawyer near me", "DUI attorney Fresno" or "what happens at an arraignment". Splitting the two apart in Search Console takes a few minutes and changes how you read every report after that.

Why the split matters

Branded searches tend to have high click-through rates and strong positions, because your own site is the obvious answer. When they're mixed in with everything else, they can make your average position look better than it is and hide a drop in the searches that bring in new clients who have never heard of you.

The reverse happens too. A firm that gets press coverage or a busy month of referrals sees branded searches jump, and the overall chart looks like SEO improved when rankings didn't change at all.

Building the filter

In the Performance report, add a query filter and choose the custom regex option. Enter a pattern that matches your firm name and its common variations, including misspellings and the names of the lawyers. For a firm called Smith Rivera Law, the pattern might look like this:

smith|rivera|smithrivera

Choose "Matches regex" to see branded queries, then switch to "Doesn't match regex" to see everything else. Test the pattern by scrolling through the queries it catches. A surname like Smith will also match unrelated searches, so you may need to tighten it to combinations like "smith rivera" or "smith law".

Reading unbranded data by charge

Once branded queries are set aside, group what's left by the charges you defend. Run separate regex filters for terms like "dui|dwi|drunk driving", "assault|battery" or "possession|drug". Compare each group's clicks and impressions over three-month periods.

This shows you which practice areas are gaining visibility and which are stuck. A firm might find that its DUI page earns steady impressions while its domestic violence content barely appears, which points to where the next round of work should go.

Look at impressions before clicks. A charge group with rising impressions and flat clicks often means your pages are appearing on page two or below the map pack, where few people scroll. That group is usually closer to producing calls than one with no impressions at all, and a stronger page or better internal links may be enough to move it.

Using annotations to explain changes

Google added custom annotations to the Search Console Performance report in late 2025. They let you mark a date on the chart with a short note. Use them for anything that could move your numbers: a new practice page, a site redesign, a Google core update or a burst of local news coverage about a case you handled. When you compare branded and unbranded trends months later, those notes explain spikes you would otherwise have forgotten.

Pairing this with map pack data

Search Console only covers your website. Plenty of people who find a defense lawyer through Google never visit the site; they call straight from the Business Profile. That profile has its own performance data, including how many people saw your listing and which searches showed it. This walkthrough on reading Google Business Profile data as a defense firm owner explains where to find those numbers and how to read them next to Search Console.

Mistakes to avoid

Update your regex when a lawyer joins or leaves the firm. Don't treat every unbranded query as a potential client, since some will come from students or people researching a case they saw in the news. And avoid comparing one week against another. Criminal defense searches swing with weekends, holidays and court calendars, so longer ranges give a truer picture.

There is more on reading search data for law firms at a site dedicated to legal marketing analytics for criminal defense firms.

Questions about branded search data

What if my firm name is a common word?

Add enough context to the pattern that it only matches searches about you, such as the name plus "law" or "attorney". Then check the matched queries by hand.

Should branded traffic grow over time?

Usually, as the firm grows and more people hear about it. It reflects reputation and referrals more than SEO, which is the reason to track it separately.

How often should I look at this?

Once a month is enough for most firms. Look at three-month and twelve-month comparisons rather than reacting to short swings.

SBD Marketing is a marketing company that works only with criminal defense law firms, one firm per city. It builds websites, runs SEO for the charges a firm defends, carries out SEO audits and helps firms get named in AI search tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini.