EVIDENCE / 03

Evidence first. Unmanipulated data. Honest attribution.

Every case study is evaluated across comparable duration windows, unwarped axes, and client anonymisation. We separate observed data, implemented actions, diagnostics, attributed outcomes, and unverified hypotheses.

Evidence Standards & Client Anonymisation Protocol

Confidentiality Protocol

Client Anonymisation

Proprietary domain names, client accounts, and confidential URLs are masked with neutral labels (e.g. Website A). Raw metric relationships and time periods remain intact.

Comparable Timeframes

Before-and-after evaluations maintain strict 1:1 duration parity (e.g. 90 days pre vs 90 days post) to prevent seasonal distortion or window manipulation.

Unmanipulated Data

Charts display daily data including natural weekend dips and volatility. Axis baselines are unwarped to avoid exaggerating performance fluctuations.

Clear Attribution

Outcomes are rigorously divided into observed evidence, implemented actions, verified attributions, and unverified external hypotheses.

INDEXED INVESTIGATIONS

Technical Case Studies (3)

Commercial Services & Lead Generation·Anonymised Commercial Services Website (Website A)Anonymised Case Study

Crawl Architecture & Canonical Consolidation

Remediating faceted crawl traps, duplicate indexation, and crawl budget dilution across a multi-location commercial service portal.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Website A operated an extensive multi-location directory where dynamic faceted filters generated over 14,000 indexable parameter permutations. Search engine bots were spending more than 40% of crawl activity on duplicate combinations rather than high-value local service hubs. By establishing strict canonical rules, refining robots crawl directives, and restructuring XML sitemaps, redundant URL indexation was eliminated while search visibility for primary regional landing pages strengthened.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE EXPORTDaily Granularity

Organic Visibility Trajectory: Anonymised Commercial Services Website (Website A)

Unmanipulated daily time series capturing baseline, deployment, and post-intervention recovery.

Organic Clicks

Search Impressions

Phase Threshold

Zero smoothing applied. Data demonstrates authentic weekly cyclic dips and natural variance.

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION

Strict 1:1 Duration Comparison

90 days pre-intervention vs 90 days post-intervention.

Equal Window ParityDuration bias eliminated

Baseline Window01 Jun 2025 to 29 Aug 2025 (90 Days)

Execution Window30 Aug 2025 to 12 Sep 2025 (14 Days)

Comparison Window13 Sep 2025 to 11 Dec 2025 (90 Days)

Google Search Console

Indexed Duplicate URLs

Pre14,240

Post312

-97.8% redundant pages

Duplicate parameter combinations de-indexed via canonicalisation and robots directives.

Google Search Console

Daily Organic Clicks

Pre420

Post590

+40.5% organic clicks

Direct comparison between identical 90-day windows. Reflects consolidated ranking equity.

Google Search Console

Daily Organic Impressions

Pre18,500

Post24,200

+30.8% search impressions

Measured across verified commercial service query clusters.

Google Search Console

Average Ranking Position

Pre14.8

Post11.2

+3.6 positions improved

Unweighted average across all ranking target queries in GSC.

DIAGNOSTIC EVIDENCE

Diagnostic Exports & Audit Tables

Raw tool exports and segmentation matrices with client domains concealed for confidentiality.

Identifiers masked under NDA

https://[anonymised-domain-redacted]/...

Diagnostic Report Export

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog Crawl Distribution Report

Internal URL depth and status code distribution demonstrating eradication of parameter traps and consolidation of crawl budget onto canonical hubs.

Dimension / Parameter	Baseline	Post	Delta
Faceted Filter URLs Crawled	14,240	0	-100%
Canonical Status Code 200 Hubs	1,420	1,580	+11.3%
Crawl Depth > 4 Clicks	4,120	84	-98.0%
Duplicate Page Titles Detected	6,890	12	-99.8%

Target: Website A (Commercial Services)

https://[anonymised-domain-redacted]/...

Search Console Export

Google Search Console

Google Search Console Index Coverage Report

GSC Page indexing breakdown showing resolution of 'Duplicate without user-selected canonical' and 'Alternate page with proper canonical tag' statuses.

Dimension / Parameter	Baseline	Post	Delta
Indexed Valid Pages	15,820	1,650	-89.6%
Duplicate Canonical Issues	9,420	42	-99.6%
Crawl Stat: Avg Response Time	620ms	310ms	-50.0%

Target: Website A (Commercial Services)

EDITORIAL RIGOUR

Five-Dimension Honest Analysis

To ensure strict intellectual honesty, every case study separates what was directly observed, what was executed, what can reasonably be attributed, and what remains an unverified external factor.

1. Observed Changes

DATA EVIDENCE

Measured performance shifts recorded directly in Search Console, crawl tools, and analytics.

01Google Search Console Index Coverage report showed a reduction from 14,240 parameter URLs in the valid index down to 312 within 8 weeks of deployment.
02Daily organic search clicks increased from a pre-intervention baseline average of 420 to a post-intervention average of 590 over matching 90-day periods.
03Total search impressions grew from 18,500/day to 24,200/day across location service categories.
04Server log analysis recorded a 64% reduction in Googlebot requests directed at query string parameters.

B2B & Professional Advisory·Anonymised B2B Advisory Website (Website B)Anonymised Case Study

Investigating Click Divergence & SERP Volatility

Diagnosing why organic impressions and average rankings remained steady while click-through rates declined following SERP layout changes.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Website B observed a puzzling trend: overall organic impressions grew by 27% and average rankings improved slightly, yet total organic search clicks declined by 9%. Rather than assuming algorithmic penalty, a granular query cluster investigation revealed that Google had rolled out AI Overviews and multi-unit video carousels across 40% of top informational queries. This case study demonstrates how restructuring content for commercial decision-makers and targeting zero-click answer blocks stabilised high-intent conversions.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE EXPORTDaily Granularity

Organic Visibility Trajectory: Anonymised B2B Advisory Website (Website B)

Unmanipulated daily time series capturing baseline, deployment, and post-intervention recovery.

Organic Clicks

Search Impressions

Phase Threshold

Zero smoothing applied. Data demonstrates authentic weekly cyclic dips and natural variance.

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION

Strict 1:1 Duration Comparison

60 days pre-intervention vs 60 days post-intervention.

Equal Window ParityDuration bias eliminated

Baseline Window01 Jul 2025 to 29 Aug 2025 (60 Days)

Execution Window30 Aug 2025 to 12 Sep 2025 (14 Days)

Comparison Window13 Sep 2025 to 11 Nov 2025 (60 Days)

Google Search Console

Average Ranking Position

Pre6.4

Post5.9

+0.5 position improved

Rankings remained robust in top 6 positions throughout the period.

Google Search Console

Search Impressions

Pre21,000

Post26,800

+27.6% impressions

Impression expansion driven by broad informational queries.

Google Search Console

Organic Search Clicks

Pre710

Post645

-9.2% overall clicks

Direct click reduction on informational queries; commercial high-intent clicks grew.

Google Search Console

High-Intent Commercial CTR

Pre4.8%

Post6.2%

+1.4% CTR lift

Measured specifically on non-AI-Overview commercial consultative queries.

DIAGNOSTIC EVIDENCE

Diagnostic Exports & Audit Tables

Raw tool exports and segmentation matrices with client domains concealed for confidentiality.

Identifiers masked under NDA

https://[anonymised-domain-redacted]/...

Query Segmentation Export

Google Search Console

Query Intent Segmentation & CTR Breakdown

Granular segmentation revealing intent divergence: broad informational terms suffered CTR drops from AI Overviews while commercial terms gained traffic.

Dimension / Parameter	Baseline	Post	Delta
Commercial Head Terms CTR	4.8%	6.2%	+29.2%
Informational Definitions CTR	3.2%	1.4%	-56.3%
Branded Query CTR	28.4%	30.1%	+6.0%

Target: Website B (B2B Advisory)

EDITORIAL RIGOUR

Five-Dimension Honest Analysis

To ensure strict intellectual honesty, every case study separates what was directly observed, what was executed, what can reasonably be attributed, and what remains an unverified external factor.

1. Observed Changes

DATA EVIDENCE

Measured performance shifts recorded directly in Search Console, crawl tools, and analytics.

01Aggregate organic impressions increased by 27.6% while overall clicks dropped by 9.2%, creating an artificial click-through rate decline from 3.38% to 2.41%.
02Average ranking position remained virtually unchanged (6.4 vs 5.9), demonstrating that visibility loss was not caused by ranking degradation.
03Segmented analysis confirmed that 100% of the click drop occurred on broad informational head terms, while bottom-of-funnel commercial keywords increased click count by 18%.

Property & Real Estate·Anonymised Property Investment Portal (Website C)Anonymised Case Study

Content Consolidation & Cannibalisation Remediation

Resolving keyword cannibalisation and index bloat by auditing 84 competing property investment articles and uniting equity into 14 pillar guides.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Website C had amassed over 400 blog posts and property investment guides over 5 years. A comprehensive search audit revealed that multiple overlapping articles were ranking interchangeably for identical search queries on pages 2 and 3 of Google, splitting internal link equity and confusing search engines. By pruning obsolete content, consolidating 84 fragmented pieces into 14 authoritative pillars, and implementing 301 redirects, primary target terms achieved unified Page 1 rankings.

AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE EXPORTDaily Granularity

Organic Visibility Trajectory: Anonymised Property Investment Portal (Website C)

Unmanipulated daily time series capturing baseline, deployment, and post-intervention recovery.

Organic Clicks

Search Impressions

Phase Threshold

Zero smoothing applied. Data demonstrates authentic weekly cyclic dips and natural variance.

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION

Strict 1:1 Duration Comparison

90 days pre-intervention vs 90 days post-intervention.

Equal Window ParityDuration bias eliminated

Baseline Window15 May 2025 to 12 Aug 2025 (90 Days)

Execution Window13 Aug 2025 to 02 Sep 2025 (21 Days)

Comparison Window03 Sep 2025 to 01 Dec 2025 (90 Days)

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Total Active Articles

Pre420

Post185

-56.0% pruned / redirected

Thin and overlapping content consolidated into comprehensive hubs.

Semrush

Cannibalised Keyword Clusters

Pre28 clusters

Post0 clusters

100% conflicts resolved

Zero instances of multiple internal URLs alternating for identical search queries.

Google Search Console

Target Query Average Position

Pre18.6

Post8.4

+10.2 positions gained

Unweighted position across the 14 consolidated core query clusters.

Google Search Console

Daily Organic Clicks to Pillars

Pre310

Post460

+48.4% organic clicks

Traffic consolidated directly onto high-converting investment guides.

DIAGNOSTIC EVIDENCE

Diagnostic Exports & Audit Tables

Raw tool exports and segmentation matrices with client domains concealed for confidentiality.

Identifiers masked under NDA

https://[anonymised-domain-redacted]/...

Audit Matrix Export

Semrush

Keyword Cannibalisation Mapping Matrix

Semrush Cannibalisation report illustrating the elimination of URL fragmentation across core property investment query clusters.

Dimension / Parameter	Baseline	Post	Delta
URLs Ranking for 'Property Tax Guide'	5 URLs	1 URL	-80%
Weekly Rank Fluctuation StDev	7.8 pos	1.1 pos	-85.9%
Pillar Average Word Count	850 words	2,450 words	+188%

Target: Website C (Property Investment)

EDITORIAL RIGOUR

Five-Dimension Honest Analysis

To ensure strict intellectual honesty, every case study separates what was directly observed, what was executed, what can reasonably be attributed, and what remains an unverified external factor.

1. Observed Changes

DATA EVIDENCE

Measured performance shifts recorded directly in Search Console, crawl tools, and analytics.

01Total published editorial URLs reduced from 420 to 185 without any loss of aggregate non-brand organic search visibility.
02Daily organic search clicks to the consolidated property investment pillars rose from 310 to 460 across identical 90-day comparison windows.
03Average ranking position for target query groups shifted from position 18.6 (page 2) to position 8.4 (page 1).
04Rank volatility dropped significantly: daily ranking fluctuations on target terms decreased by 74%.

DATA INTEGRITY STANDARDS

Interested in reviewing verified performance exports?

Full Google Search Console API datasets, Screaming Frog crawl configuration files, and Looker Studio dashboards can be walked through during private technical discussions, with client identities anonymised in accordance with commercial agreements.

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