What a Good Local SEO Case Study Should Show (and What Should Make You Suspicious)

Someone has sent you a PDF. There’s “+312%” in huge type and a line heading up and to the right. The number might be real and still tell you nothing about whether this agency can get your phone ringing.

What a good local SEO case study should show isn’t a big number. It’s the context: what was measured, over which dates, compared with what, from which tool, and what else was going on.

We’re an agency with a case study of our own. The last section holds it to the same checklist, including where it falls short.

This goes deeper than the quick proof check in Step 5 of how to choose a local SEO agency.

Start With What Was Measured: Enquiries Before Rankings

Would you rather have 100 more website visitors or 10 more phone calls? Case studies often show the visitors, because it’s the bigger number.

Metrics have a pecking order. As UK agency Fresh Egg puts it, measure “as close as you can to your organisation’s bottom line”.

Tier 3 helps explain a result. It isn’t the result.

Two tier 1 details matter. Google defines a Business Profile call as the number of times someone “clicked on the call button”, not an answered call or a booked job. And GA4 only counts an enquiry as a key event if someone set that up, so ask when tracking started. To set this up for your own business, see how to track local SEO leads and rankings.

No enquiry-level number at all? Ask why. The answer may be fair (the client never tracked them), but it’s still a gap.

Check the Dates and the Comparison Window

A roofer’s enquiries in November, compared with August, will look like brilliant SEO. It’s the weather.

Local demand is seasonal: wasps for pest control, fireworks for vets, storms for roofers. So the comparison window can make or break a result. Look for three things:

• A start date and an end date. No dates, no verdict.
• What it’s compared with. Year-on-year (the same months, a year apart) is the fair default for a local business. Month-on-month mostly measures the season.
• Where the window starts. A window that begins in your quietest month flatters whatever follows.

Search Console keeps 16 months of performance data, so a same-month, year-on-year comparison can always be checked there. A full 12 months against the previous 12 needs 24 months, so someone must have exported it earlier. Ask which you’re looking at.

Fresh Egg suggests one more check: set the result against market demand, for example in Google Trends. If searches for your trade rose across the region, some of the growth belongs to the market.

If your trade is seasonal, ask for the same months last year.

Separate Brand Searches From New Customers

Who searched? That question changes what a traffic graph means.

A brand search contains the business name: “Smith Plumbing Widnes”. A non-brand search doesn’t: “emergency plumber Widnes”. The first person already knows you. The second is a potential new customer, the person SEO is meant to reach.

Search Console’s branded queries filter, announced on 20 November 2025 and open to all eligible sites since 11 March 2026, makes this split for you. In Google’s words, non-branded queries “show how new users find your content without any initial intent to go to your site”.

Two caveats. Google says the classification is “AI-assisted” and some queries “may occasionally be misidentified”. And it needs enough search volume, so a small local site may not have it. The fallback is a query filter that excludes the business name.

Ask for the non-brand line on its own, over the same window. Total traffic up with non-brand flat means the business got better known, not easier to find.

Watch for Big Percentages From Small Starting Points

A percentage without the starting number is half a fact.

Here’s a made-up example. Say one business goes from 2 enquiries a month to 6. That’s +200%. Another goes from 200 to 260: +30%. The first gained four enquiries a month; the second gained 60. The smaller percentage is the far bigger result.

Local businesses often start small, so percentages inflate fast and can’t be compared between agencies.

A common pattern on agency proof pages: a column of traffic increases in percentages, with no starting figure, no dates and no screenshot. Each might be true. None can be checked.

Ask for the before and after figures, with the percentage alongside. A result that only ever appears as a percentage has usually been presented that way for a reason.

Ask What Else Changed in the Same Window

SEO rarely happens on its own. Other things can produce the same graph, and a trustworthy case study names them.

• Google Ads. Google says Business Profile “performance data includes views, searches and actions from both organic search results and Google Ads”. If the client ran ads, rising calls aren’t pure SEO.
• A new website. A rebuild in the same window can lift enquiries by itself.
• Tracking switched on part-way through. GA4 only counts enquiries once they’re marked as key events. “From zero” can mean “from not measured”.
• A seasonal peak. See the dates section above.
• Google updates. Google’s Search Status Dashboard lists dated core updates, including December 2025, March 2026 and May 2026. Any 12-month window crosses several, so check the dashboard against the case study’s dates.
• Local changes. A competitor closing or moving can hand over its calls overnight.

None of these make a result fake. A case study that never mentions any of them is the worry.

So ask: “What else changed for this client in that period?” A good agency has an answer ready.

Screenshots From the Source Tool, Not a Designed Chart

A designed chart is the agency retelling its data. A screenshot or export from the tool is the data.

Guides written for agencies treat “charts, graphs, infographics and screenshots” as interchangeable. For a buyer, they aren’t.

A useful screenshot shows the tool’s own interface, the date range, the comparison period and the property or profile (blurred if needed). Match the tool to the claim:

• Search Console for organic clicks and the brand versus non-brand split.
• Business Profile performance for calls, direction requests and website clicks. Owners can download this as a spreadsheet, so a raw export is a fair ask.
• GA4 for enquiries.

AI claims need extra care. Search Console’s generative AI performance report was introduced in June 2026 and reached all websites on 31 August 2026. Any AI Overview figure from before then came from a third-party tracker, so ask which tool and how it counts.

No source screen, even with the client’s name blurred? Treat the chart as an illustration.

One Anonymised Example: What It Can and Can’t Prove

Should you distrust a case study with no client name? Not automatically.

Clients often have sensible reasons to stay anonymous. They may not want local competitors seeing what worked, or knowing their figures.

But anonymity changes what the case study can prove. A single anonymised example shows the agency has done this at least once. It can’t show that it does it consistently, or that it will work in your trade and your town.

The fix is a conversation. Ask to speak to a past client, ideally in a business like yours. Step 5 of how to choose a local SEO agency covers what to ask on that call.

Anonymous is fine. Anonymous and unverifiable by any route isn’t.

What UK Advertising Rules Say About an Agency’s Claims

Asking for proof can feel awkward. It shouldn’t: the agency is meant to have it already.

An agency’s case study page is advertising. The CAP Code, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), covers marketing on a company’s own website and counts as a consumer “anyone who is likely to see a given marketing communication, whether in the course of business or not”. That includes you.

Rule 3.7 says marketers “must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective” before publishing. Rule 3.3 bars omitting material information; rule 3.47 covers evidence that testimonials are genuine. For advertising aimed at businesses, the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 add: “Advertising which is misleading is prohibited.”

So “can I see the evidence behind that number?” isn’t rude. If a claim crosses the line, you can complain to the ASA.

How Our Own Case Study Measures Up

A checklist is easy to write and harder to pass. Here’s our one published case study, an anonymised veterinary clinic, held to it.

What it shows:

• A dated, year-on-year comparison: August 2026 against August 2025.
• A keyword measure split out as non-brand (top 3 non-brand rankings).
• The tool behind its AI Overview figure: Semrush.
• That the client asked to stay unnamed, and that it’s the only case study we’ve published so far.

What it doesn’t show:

• Starting numbers behind the organic and direct traffic percentages.
• Any enquiry, call or booking figure.
• Screenshots from Search Console, the Business Profile or GA4.
• More than one client, so no pattern.
• What else changed in the year between, which crossed three Google core updates.

Three more honest notes. Direct traffic growth suggests the practice got better known; by the brand test above, that isn’t proof search found it new customers. The AI Overview figure is a third-party tracker’s count, from a baseline that predates Google’s own report. And the ChatGPT “#1 recommended” line is a point-in-time check you can’t repeat; we keep the record of it on file.

So ask us what you’d ask anyone: the source screens and the starting numbers. Read it on our case studies page.

FAQ

What are the biggest SEO case study red flags?

No dates. Percentages with no starting number. Rankings or traffic but no enquiries. Designed charts instead of source screenshots. No mention of anything else that changed, such as ads, a new website or a seasonal peak. One of these is a question to ask. Several together is a reason to look elsewhere.

Are rankings good proof that SEO worked?

Not on their own. Rankings help explain a result, but they aren’t the result. Rank trackers are volatile, and local results vary with where the searcher is standing. Ask for enquiries, calls or bookings over the same dates.

Why won’t agencies name their clients?

Usually because the client asked not to be named, often so competitors can’t see what worked. That’s fair, but it means you can’t check the result yourself. Ask for source screenshots with the name blurred and a reference call with a past client instead.

What should a monthly SEO report show compared with a case study?

The same pecking order: enquiries first, then traffic, then rankings, over consistent dates with a fair comparison period. The same checks apply. For what a retainer should cover, see how much local SEO costs in the UK.

Want to put our case study through these checks? Ask us for the source screens, or tell us what you do and where via our local SEO page. We’ll give you a straight answer, including if we can’t help.