Case brief: Home services local SEO
Best for: Week 3 (SEO) · Week 1 journey mapping · Week 8 organic vs paid balance
Source of truth: /case-studies/kathmandu-home-services-local-seo/ · Narrative: /blog/kathmandu-local-seo-case-study/
Situation
Home repair & maintenance (plumbing, electrical, HVAC). Site “visible but invisible”: avg position ~34, thin GBP, most work from referrals. Distinct from the 90-day Ads CPA case.
Numbers (as published, 6 months)
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Organic visits/mo | ~450 | 2,847 (+533%) |
| Qualified leads/mo | 12–15 | 42–48 (~3×) |
| Inquiry → booking | 18% | 37% |
| GBP calls/mo | 12 | 147 |
| CPL | NPR 3,800 | NPR 1,240 |
| Revenue/mo (published) | NPR 4.2 lakh | NPR 11.8 lakh |
Keyword examples on source: “plumber Kathmandu” 34 → 3; local pack #1 for 12 of 15 targets.
What they did
- GBP as storefront (photos, Q&A, Posts, review system)
- Locality landing pages + NAP consistency
- Mobile click-to-call / form friction fixes
- GA4 for calls and forms
MBA discussion
- For a lead-gen sandbox, is your primary keyword transactional + local?
- How does GBP change the customer journey vs a brochure homepage?
- Compare time-to-impact: SEO (months) vs Ads (days) — how would you sequence budget?
Concepts in Play
- Google Business Profile (GBP): the free listing that appears in Maps and the local pack; often the first “storefront” a local customer sees.
- Local pack: the map with three business listings shown above organic results for local searches.
- NAP consistency: identical business Name, Address and Phone across the website, GBP and directories.
- Inquiry-to-booking rate: the share of enquiries that become paid jobs; it measures lead quality and sales follow-up.
Reading the Numbers
Work these from the published figures only; do not add new KPIs.
- Multiply leads by inquiry-to-booking rate, before (12–15 × 18%) and after (42–48 × 37%). Roughly how many booked jobs a month is that in each case? Which change (more leads or better conversion) contributed more?
- GBP calls rose from 12 to 147 a month, yet qualified leads are 42–48. What might explain the gap between calls and qualified leads?
- “Plumber Kathmandu” moved from position 34 to 3. Why is position 34 effectively invisible?
Limits of the Evidence
- Six months of SEO work overlaps with any other changes in the business (staff, pricing, referrals), so not all the revenue growth can be credited to SEO.
- Local rankings vary by where the searcher is standing. A rank of 3 in one part of the Valley may not hold in another.
- The published revenue figures are the business’s own; use them as reported and cite the source.
Apply It to Your Sandbox
- Search your sandbox’s main service plus your city on a phone, and note who appears in the local pack and why (reviews, photos, categories).
- Audit your (or a model) GBP against the case: categories, photos, Q&A, posts and review replies.
- List three locality pages you would create, and check that the name, address and phone are identical everywhere.
- Define how you will count calls and forms from GBP separately from website traffic.
Cite in pitches
“Published local SEO home-services case: qualified leads ~3× in six months; organic 450 → 2,847/mo (source).”
