/case-studies
Case studies
Five pieces of work for Oxford and Oxfordshire organisations: a spin-out, a hotel, a retailer, an engineering firm and a clinic. We do not name clients, and we describe outcomes in plain terms rather than quoting percentages out of context, because a percentage without the starting point tells you very little.
Each case follows the same method we use with every client. We start with a baseline from the client's own Search Console, analytics and Google Business Profile. We find the one or two problems doing most of the damage, fix those first, then build the pages and signals the business was missing. Progress is reported monthly against that baseline.
What changes from case to case is where the effort goes. For the spin-out it was turning science locked in PDFs into pages buyers could find. For the hotel it was seasonal planning and booking tracking. For the retailer it was filters and categories. For the engineering firm it was capability pages for trade buyers. For the clinic it was the map pack and treatment pages. Read the one closest to your situation, then ask us for a baseline review of your own site.
01 · Life sciences
A diagnostics spin-out on a science park
The situation. A university diagnostics spin-out had a site built for its funding round: a striking home page, team photos and a contact form. Its technical content lived in PDFs. Laboratory buyers searching for the problem its assay solved found competitors and review papers instead.
What we did. We worked with the scientific team to list the methods, sample types and applications buyers search for. We turned the most useful application notes into readable web pages, added a comparison page setting out fairly how the method differs from established approaches, and moved the company off an old project subdomain with full redirects.
The outcome. The company began appearing for specific application searches it had been invisible for, and the sales team started receiving enquiries that referred to those pages. The investor and careers sections also gave the founders something useful to send people.
02 · Hospitality
An independent hotel near the city centre
The situation. An independent hotel within walking distance of the centre found that booking platforms outranked its own site when people searched for it by name. Its website was slow on mobile, the booking engine sat on another domain with no tracking, and the Google Business Profile had outdated photos and the wrong category.
What we did. We sped up the site, connected tracking across the website and booking engine, corrected the profile, and wrote pages that answered visitors' practical questions: getting there from the station, parking, distances to the colleges and museums. Seasonal pages for graduations and Christmas were scheduled months ahead of each peak.
The outcome. The hotel's own site moved back above the platforms for its name, and the share of bookings made directly grew over the following seasons. The owners now have clear data on which searches lead to bookings.
03 · Retail and ecommerce
A north Oxfordshire homeware retailer
The situation. A homeware retailer with a shop in north Oxfordshire and a Shopify store had thousands of near-duplicate filter URLs in Google, while its main category pages had a line of text and a grid of products. Store-related searches went to the wrong page.
What we did. We restructured categories around how customers search, controlled which filter pages could be indexed, wrote useful introductions and buying guidance for key categories, and set up a proper store page with opening hours, directions and local stock information.
The outcome. Google indexed far fewer low-value pages and the main categories began ranking for broader product searches. Local searches now land on the store page, and staff report more customers saying they found the shop online.
04 · Industrial B2B
An engineering supplier in Cowley
The situation. A precision engineering firm supplying automotive and scientific customers relied on word of mouth. Its website had an About page, a list of machines and a contact form. Procurement teams searching for specific processes and materials never found it.
What we did. We interviewed the engineers to understand which processes, tolerances, materials and certifications buyers ask about. We wrote a capability page for each, with plain explanations and photos of real work (with customer permission and no customer names), and fixed the site's technical issues.
The outcome. The firm started appearing for process-specific searches and receiving enquiries from outside its existing network. The new pages also helped recruitment, as candidates could see the kind of work the firm does.
05 · Healthcare
A physiotherapy clinic in Headington
The situation. A physiotherapy practice showed up in the map pack only when people searched from very close by. Its profile used a general category, it had a duplicate listing from a previous address, and its website had a single page covering every treatment.
What we did. We merged the duplicate listing, corrected categories, wrote a page for each main treatment and condition, set up a simple way for patients to leave reviews after their final session, and tracked rankings on a grid across east and north Oxford.
The outcome. The clinic became visible in the map across a much wider part of the city, and more new patients said they had found it through Google. The practice now runs the review process itself.
next step
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