A Should question

Should I choose an SEO company based on case studies?

3 min read

Case studies belong in your decision, but they should not make it. A case study is a company telling its own story about its best work, which makes it useful for one thing and weak for another. It is useful for screening: it shows whether the company has handled a problem like yours and can explain what it did. It is weak as proof, because it cannot show that the same result will happen for you. Use case studies, and the portfolio they sit in, to decide which companies deserve a closer look, then decide between them on the plan they propose for your site.

What a case study can show

The most dependable thing a case study shows is relevance: whether the company has worked on a site like yours. A local service business, an online store with thousands of product pages, and a software company selling to other businesses have different SEO problems. If nothing in a company’s published work resembles your situation, it may still be capable, but you might be among the first of your kind for it, and it is fair to ask whether it has unpublished work closer to your case.

A case study also shows how the company thinks. One that explains the starting problem, what was done, and how the result connected to the client’s business goal tells you the team understands its own work. One built on phrases such as “implemented a comprehensive strategy” tells you very little.

What a case study cannot show

It cannot show that the result will repeat. Each project starts from a different site, in a different market, with a different budget and timeline, and with search changes outside anyone’s control.

It cannot show what the company does on an average project. A company chooses which projects to publish, so you are seeing its selection, not its average. That is normal rather than dishonest, but it means a stalled project or a client who left is not something a portfolio will show you.

How to read one

Work through these questions for each case study you are shown. When the answer is missing, the question is the one to ask the company.

  1. How similar is the client to you, in industry, size, type of site, and competition?
  2. Where did the numbers start? A percentage increase means little without the starting figure.
  3. Over what period did the change happen?
  4. What else changed during that time, such as a new website, an advertising campaign, or press coverage?
  5. Did the result reach the business, as inquiries, sales, or revenue, or stop at rankings and traffic?
  6. When was the work done, and would the company take the same approach today?
  7. Did the result last, or was it a peak that faded?

Two questions that tell you more than the chart

Pick one case study and ask the company to walk you through it: what the situation was, what it decided to do first and why, and what it would do differently now. Then ask about a project that did not go as planned and what it learned. A company that answers both questions plainly is showing you how it handles your project when things are not going well, which no published case study can show.

How much weight to give them

Let case studies decide who makes your shortlist. Let the plan for your site, the references you speak to, and the clarity of the company’s reporting decide who you hire. If two companies show similar case studies, choose the one whose proposal shows it understood your situation rather than the one with the more impressive chart.

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