IN THIS ARTICLE · 7 PARTS
Most small business websites show their work on one page: a grid of photos with a line of text under each. It looks tidy, but it wastes one of the most useful things you have for search engines and for new customers: proof.
A case study page is a page about one project. It says who the client was, what they needed, what you did and how it turned out. Here is why giving every project its own page is worth the effort.
One page can only rank for so much
Google ranks pages, not websites. A single portfolio page has one title, one main topic and one address. It might show up when someone searches for your company name, but it will rarely show up for "bathroom renovation in Lozenets" or "website for a dental clinic". Google's own description of how Search works is about pages: it crawls, indexes and ranks individual pages [1].
A separate page for each project can. A case study about a kitchen you fitted in a specific neighbourhood naturally contains the words people search for: the type of job, the place, the materials, the problem you solved. Every case study is one more door into your website.
Real proof converts better than claims
Anyone can write "high quality work" on their homepage. A case study shows it. When a visitor reads about a business like theirs, with a similar problem, the decision becomes much easier. Nielsen Norman Group lists comprehensive content that shows the actual service process among the four factors that make a website trustworthy [2].
This is also why we show our own projects with a note about each client and what we did for them, and why we tell every client to do the same on their site. If you want to see what else turns visitors into enquiries, read what a small business website needs to bring in enquiries.
What a good case study page includes
Keep the structure the same for every project, so they are quick to write and easy to read:
- The client. Who they are, what they do, where they are.
- The problem. What they needed, in their words if possible.
- What you did. The main steps, without jargon.
- The result. Photos, a short quote, numbers if the client is happy to share them.
- A next step. A clear way to contact you about a similar job.
Give each page a clear title, such as "Kitchen renovation in Mladost: from bare walls to finished in three weeks", and a short description. Those two lines are what people see in Google.
Link everything together
Case studies work best when they are part of a web of links, not islands. Link each case study to the service it belongs to, link the service page back to its best case studies, and link related projects to each other. This helps visitors find more proof, and it helps Google understand what your business does. We explain the basics of this in SEO for a business website: where to start. Google's link guidelines also ask for descriptive link text [3].
Do not copy and paste
Ten case studies with the same text and only a different photo will not help. Each page needs its own story. It does not have to be long: a few honest paragraphs and good photos are enough.
Every finished project is a page waiting to be written. It is proof for customers and a new way for Google to find you.
Start with your best three
You do not need to document everything at once. Pick your three best or most typical projects, write them up and publish them. Add one each month after that. If your current website makes this hard, that is something a modern site should make easy, and something we set up as part of our monthly plan.
References
- Google Search Central. "In-depth guide to how Google Search works." developers.google.com
- Nielsen Norman Group. "Trustworthiness in Web Design: 4 Credibility Factors." nngroup.com
- Google Search Central. "Link best practices for Google." developers.google.com
