How I write case studies
Three rules:
- Numbers over adjectives. "Local pack visibility within five months" beats "rapid growth in local visibility".
- Methodology over outcome alone. Anyone can post a graph. Useful case studies show the decisions that produced the graph.
- Honest about limitations. Some of these results are early. Some have other variables (paid ads, referrals, seasonality) running alongside. I'll say where.
Featured case study — Aatma Aesthetics
The brief
Aatma Aesthetics is a UK aesthetics clinic — Botox, dermal fillers, skin treatments. The owner came in with a working WordPress site that looked dated, but the real complaint was that despite genuine local search demand for the services, the clinic wasn't visibly ranking or generating enquiries from organic search.
The site itself wasn't broken. It was just under-built. Service pages were thin (under 400 words each), schema was default Yoast Article on every post type, no service area architecture, weak Google Business Profile, no internal linking strategy beyond the WordPress menu.
The diagnosis
Free thirty-minute diagnostic call. What I found:
- Search Console: impressions present but clicks low. Average position around 30 for the main treatment queries. Mostly long-tail informational queries — none of the high-commercial-intent ones.
- Site: Core Web Vitals red on mobile (LCP 4+ seconds, hero image 2.3MB unoptimised). Schema generic. Treatment pages thin. No local SEO architecture.
- GBP: present but under-optimised. No service description, sparse photography, no posts.
- Mobile UX: phone number buried in the contact page, no click-to-call, no WhatsApp.
The recommendation: full redesign at the Standard package level (£2,000 at the time), with the budget weighted toward content depth and SEO architecture rather than visual flair.
The redesign approach
What changed:
- Information architecture: rebuilt as treatment-led navigation. Each main treatment got its own page (Botox, fillers, skin treatments, anti-wrinkle, lip enhancement) with proper depth — what the treatment is, who it's for, what to expect, recovery, FAQs, pricing from.
- Schema graph: MedicalBusiness, MedicalProcedure per treatment, Physician for the practitioner, FAQPage on every treatment page, BreadcrumbList everywhere.
- Local SEO: GBP rebuilt — full service description, weekly posts in the first three months, real treatment photography, primary category corrected. Citations submitted to top 20 UK directories. Service area specified properly.
- Mobile UX: phone in header with click-to-call, WhatsApp button, contact form trimmed to three fields.
- Core Web Vitals: images compressed and served WebP, WP Rocket configured with critical CSS, fonts preloaded, hero image swapped for a smaller properly-sized version. LCP dropped to 1.8s.
- Internal linking: treatment pages linked to each other in "related treatments" blocks, all linked back to a treatments hub, all linked to the booking page.
- Content: treatment pages rebuilt to 800-1,200 words each with real depth. Owner-led tone, personal voice, not generic clinic copy.
The outcome
Within five months of launch:
- Local pack visibility for the main treatment queries within the clinic's catchment area.
- Core Web Vitals green in field data on the Search Console report after 28 days.
- Organic traffic up year-on-year.
- Enquiry volume up — measurable through the contact form, with phone enquiries up anecdotally according to the owner.
The clinic continues on a maintenance bundle for plugin updates and small content tweaks; SEO retainer is not running, so subsequent growth is the result of the original build holding up rather than ongoing optimisation.
What worked
- The local SEO architecture. GBP + LocalBusiness schema + service area page combined drove most of the local pack visibility within five months.
- The depth-first content approach. Going from 400-word treatment pages to 1,000-word treatment pages is the single biggest ranking lever for healthcare and professional services.
- The mobile UX changes. Aatma's audience is 70%+ mobile; the conversion path improvements likely contributed materially to enquiry volume.
What I'd do differently now
- I'd invest more in original treatment photography earlier. We launched with stock — the owner replaced it with real photography over the following six months. Doing it before launch would have lifted conversion sooner.
- The blog wasn't part of the original scope. In hindsight, a small blog with two or three FAQ-style posts per treatment would have widened the keyword surface meaningfully.
The owner's testimonial
"The SEO work delivered real results — I'm seeing more clicks compared to this time last year in Google Analytics, without having to spend loads on advertising. Super impressed." — Dr Shaan Patel, Founder, Aatma Aesthetics
What this cost
- Standard package redesign at the time of project: £2,000 (current Standard pricing is the same, see packages)
- No copywriting add-on — the owner provided source material and I tightened
- No SEO retainer — single-project engagement
- Total project cost: £2,000 + VAT
Other case studies
Additional case studies will be added here as I get permission from clients to publish numbers. Most of my retainer SEO work isn't published as case studies because the engagements are confidential. Where I can publish, the methodology and outcomes go here in the same depth as the Aatma write-up.
If you want to see specific examples I can't publish, I'll share them on the discovery call where context makes sense.
What I'm willing to publish vs what stays under NDA
Published openly with client permission:
- Build methodology
- Schema and technical decisions
- Search Console rankings (with anonymisation if requested)
- Owner testimonials in their own words
Stays under NDA:
- Specific revenue figures
- Backlink strategy details for active engagements
- Internal commercial information
- Active retainer client identities
Want yours to be next?
If the methodology above is what you need, get in touch. Message me at Hello@SunnyPatel.co.uk or call 073055 23333. Free thirty-minute diagnostic call.