How to Create a Case Study Blog Post (w/ SEO)

“If you’ve got a blog post that’s optimized with SEO to basically raise your virtual hand FOR YOU, then your client success story can show up whenever, wherever, for whoever is looking for it!”

That is the power of an SEO optimized case study!

Which is surprisingly easy to create—you’ve just got to know what to include, how to organize it, & why SEO is a critical component to a high-converting case study.

And that just so happens to be exactly what I’m walking you through in this episode!

Tune in to discover:

• What case studies are & where they fit in your funnel
• Why case studies are SO much more powerful when they have SEO incorporated
• How long case studies should be & how frequently you should aim to create them
• What it actually looks like to create a case study with SEO—I’ll share my process & favorite tools
• I’m even going to share a few examples with you!

🔗 Get the full show notes here!

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Podcast brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.

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Transcript

Brittany Herzberg:

Hello and welcome to the Basic B podcast. I'm your host and favorite SEO coach, Brittany Herzberg, and I am hunkered down for this insane snowstorm that's supposed to be heading to New England like any minute now. They're currently predicting about 17 inches of snow in Connecticut, so before we have any technical issues, I'm getting this episode recorded. Speaking of today's topic is something that I've kind of talked about before, but it's been a minute and I want to share more than I previously have. Something that came up a lot in call number one of Shine with SEO was case studies. And if you haven't heard me talk about it, Shine with SEO is my two part blogging workshop. We had call one on January 23rd and we have call two on January 30th. And yes, there is still time to join us.

Brittany Herzberg:

I think the day that this episode is being released should be January 30th. And this is your very last chance to join us live. January 31st is your very last chance to get this workshop for $47. I'll be turning this into an evergreen guide about blogging for business owners and it'll be priced at $97. And I'm doing this over the weekend, so don't say I didn't warn ya. Now, if you're newer to my world. Hi. I'm not only the SEO queen, I'm also a bit of a case study whiz.

Brittany Herzberg:

Specifically case studies with SEO. In this episode, I'm going to be sharing with what case studies are and where they fit into your funnel. Why case studies are so much more powerful when they have SEO incorporated, how long case studies should be and how frequently you want to aim to create them. What it actually looks like to create a case study with SEO, I'm going to be sharing my process and even my favorite tools. And I'm also going to be sharing a few examples with you, specifically Leah and Colley's case studies. Are you ready? All right, let's get into it. So what are case studies and where do they fit in your funnel? Case studies are also known as client success stories and they are just that, the story of where your client or student is. Now that they've worked with you, they're content pieces that can take any shape, podcast, interview, video interview on YouTube, a blog post on your site, or even a carousel or reel on Instagram.

Brittany Herzberg:

The reason they work so well is when they're done correctly is that they speed up that know like trust, process and Give someone an opportunity to almost try before they buy, especially with something like a program or service, and they actually work pretty well in a few different spots of the funnel. If you're not familiar with this whole funnel idea, we've got three sections called Tofu, mofu and bofu. Oh, it gets funnier and it goes like this. You've got an upside down triangle where the point is at the bottom and the top of the funnel is the widest part and it's known as tofu. This is where people have the least awareness of things. They're just kind of getting familiar with things, with services, with programs, offers, and people. They're not always looking or even ready to buy. But this is where they might stumble across a person or a thing that they like and they'll start following or they'll join an email list, or they'll even follow your podcast.

Brittany Herzberg:

And having someone stumble on a case study at this point can be really powerful. They're introduced to you because of your wisdom and proven process and social proof. Sharing a case study and having someone find you at the top of the funnel works wonders to build your brand awareness quickly and in a deeply memorable way. The middle part of the funnel is your mofu. This is often where people are starting to consider solutions. They've got a problem or a desire that they're actively looking for help with and they're whittling down their options. And case studies can help them do that really fast. Most marketing experts lump case studies as a piece of content that's most effective in this part of the funnel.

Brittany Herzberg:

And while that's true, I've seen it work at other ends of the funnel as well. The reason case studies land here most often is because of the fact people are in that comparison consideration mode of finding the right person and the perfect solution for their needs. They'll often find you in the middle of the funnel, start following you, not maybe come to some of your free things or DM you to do a vibe check before going all in on whatever paid service or product you have. Sharing a case study and having someone find you in the middle of the funnel works wonders to nurture your leads and build trust fast again, in a really sticky, memorable way. And the bottom of the funnel is where bofu lives. This is where you've got those folks who are searching Google with one hand and holding their credit card in the other. We love the space. And case studies are still super effective here.

Brittany Herzberg:

People are definitely in a vibe check mode and they're looking at those fine details before they make a purchase. They're looking at what deliverables are included, the price point, as well as what the actual experience was like for real people. And case studies help bring all of that to life. Serving it up on a silver platter, Sharing a case study and having someone find you at the bottom of the funnel works wonders to convert leads to super fast because these are your people who are already searching for help with the intent to buy. SEO makes case studies that much more powerful because they can go market for you. They're able to show up when all these people are searching for these various reasons. Think about it. If you have your case studies hidden in a PDF lead magnet that someone has to come to you for, enter their email and then make the time to actually read or listen to it.

Brittany Herzberg:

That's a lot of effort on your part to keep promoting things and on their part to actually get the thing. But if you've got your blog post that's optimized with SEO to basically raise your virtual hand for you, then your client success story can show up whenever, wherever for whoever is looking for it. When you're thinking about optimizing a case study for SEO, you want to ensure you've got the an SEO title and meta description that make it clear to people what the transformation or win was or what the support was, or what the emotional win was. Things like Leah got 10 leads from Google in six weeks from SEO or Google became Latisha's number one referral source in just one month or SEO coaching made Cecily feel like a savvier business owner. You also want your H1 to do this win justice. You could have it be the same as your SEO title, or you could do a little bit more storytelling with it. You could also feature any of the things I just mentioned, or you could call out the problem or the solution or the desire. You want to add in any podcast, audio or YouTube videos you have, and you want to do this by embedding them in the blog post.

Brittany Herzberg:

You really don't want to have them have to click a link and go away from your website. You also want to optimize any images you use for the blog post. Make sure the titles are keyword rich and and aligned with the target keyword you chose to build your SEO title, meta description and H1 headline on. And you of course want to make sure you've got a call to action that points people in the direction of the same thing you're highlighting in the case study. So if you're featuring a digital product, that's your cta. If you're talking about a done for you service, that's your cta. In the Blogging Workshop workbook, I share more about how to find the best keywords and how to use them to create an SEO strategy for your case study Blog post. Now, how long should these case studies be and how frequently should you aim to create them? As with all things, it depends.

Brittany Herzberg:

But what I can say is that you want to have your case study blogs be at least 500 words. And again, be so clear with here's the story, here are the wins, here's how you can experience this too. When I write case studies, they tend to be in that 1500-2000 word range with many landing right around 1700 words. I don't know why, but it's what the data says, so I wanted to share that with you. You also want to publish, I'd say at least one case study per quarter. So for a year you could even only feature case studies on your blog and make them your monthly blog posts. It's totally up to you. So what does it actually look like to create a case study with SEO? This is my process and how I like to structure case studies.

Brittany Herzberg:

And I'm also featuring my favorite tools. The process. You can create a case study in a number of ways, but it always follows the same base. Gathering the social proof from or about the person you want to feature. You're selecting the one big overarching transformation to highlight. This clear focus really helps you with finding keywords and creating the SEO strategy. You can create an SEO strategy for the case study either before or after outlining or writing the case study. I'm going to slot in outlining the case study next.

Brittany Herzberg:

I'm going to share a bit more about that in just a second. You then draft the case study, publish the case study, and promote the case study. When you're gathering things to help you figure out the storyline, you could do any of these. You could either interview the person for your podcast or YouTube channel, or you could interview them with the agreement that the video will never see the light of day. Or you could just pull up any client communication that you've had, whether that's emails, calls, screenshots, any of those. And from any of those materials, you can find the storyline and outline a really solid case study. Here's a note on anonymity. As a former massage therapist, I completely understand that sometimes you'll need to keep your client's name out of the case study.

Brittany Herzberg:

And yes, you can still create a wickedly effective case study without naming the people. What I've seen work best is giving the client an alias and saying somewhere early on something like this story is real, but the name has been changed to protect confidentiality for the case study structure, which helps with outlining the story. I have my pet framework and it goes like this. P stands for problem. These are some questions you could think about too. Where were they before they were working with you or buying your thing? How? How did they find you? Was it a referral? Was it your podcast? Was it? Google really set the stage here for how you and your offer were the perfect answer for their needs. E stands for experience. Some things to think about would be what was it like to work with you? Was this a one to one thing, or a group thing? Or a digital or physical product? Did they have a favorite part of the process? In this section you can also add in a feature about part of your framework or an experience that you have had.

Brittany Herzberg:

T stands for transformation. And some things to think about or include would be what do they have now that they've worked with you? What did what they got or learned from you give them? How has their life or business been impacted? And please know that internal or what I call emotional wins are sometimes more impactful than numerical ones. Big giant pro tip here to make a case study really impactful, you want to weave in quotes and or screenshots from whoever you're featuring in the case study and if possible, images, video or audio. This really brings this to life. It gives the reader a way to experience the experience as well. All right, onto my favorite tools. So KeySearch is my go to for keyword research. You've probably heard me mention it before.

Brittany Herzberg:

It has a really great suggestion feature on the right hand side where it gives you other keywords that may be a fit for your project. And lots of times I find excellent supportive keywords or even better target keywords than I had in mind just from that little section on the right. Buzzsprout is another wonderful tool and it's where I like hosting my podcasts. If you're going to have guests on your show for case study interviews, you're easily able to optimize that episode description for SEO so that even that helps you get found. Castmagic is something you'll want to consider for transcripts of that podcast audio. You can easily grab the transcript and find some amazing quotes to pull out and feature in your case study blog post. And there's styled stock society. This is a company I love recommending for stock photos that are much more aligned to your branding and vibe.

Brittany Herzberg:

They're not like the stuffy stock photos. I have so many of their images on my site and as I create and share more of my case studies for myself, I'll definitely be pulling from their collections to make my case studies pop. They have really great templates as well that you could use, for example to create carousel case studies for Instagram. If you do get the blogging workshop, know that in the workbook I have all of these things linked and you also get a template specifically to use for a case study blog post. Time to share those case study examples. First up, Leah Bryant, the one responsible for making me sound good in your ear holes, and I have worked on a series of case studies. I'm going to link the ones below that are live and then I'll try to remember to come back and link future ones as well. Leah is a podcast producer and coach for podcast hosts, so we've been able to show a bunch of different things with her case studies.

Brittany Herzberg:

We've also been able to show different results for her clients like increased downloads, more inquiries, and even, yes, more money. We've also been able to highlight those different services she offers, from podcast launch packages to coaching programs to done for you podcast production services. And I'm sharing all of this because if your business is similar to hers in that way, those are some different angles that you can use in your own case studies. Next up, we have Colley James, systems strategist and client experience queen. We actually collaborated on a case study about my experience as a client of Coley's. She's the very first person who got me to really trust technology. You'll notice in this case study that there's podcast audio embedded in the actual page. Here's why that could be such a helpful thing to do.

Brittany Herzberg:

The robots like to see that people not only click to your site, but that they also stick around. One way to keep people on your site a little bit longer is to have that audio or video embedded. Anything that's relevant to the blog that you're blogging about. So for this case study, I made sure to mention to Col Lee that embedding the audio of our podcast case study interview would be really helpful. For that reason, I also want you to notice in the case study, this one in particular, that I didn't have any flashy numbers to share yet, because I'm pretty sure that we recorded this just about a month or so after Coley got me set up on Honeybook, and that didn't make the case study any less powerful. Even if you don't have any big number wins, you've got those internal or emotional wins. For me, in this case study, it was about trust. I had had technology royally screw me over in the past with my massage practice and I was really scared to try automating things with technology again.

Brittany Herzberg:

Do not discount those emotional wins. Case study blog posts sound like a monster of a piece of content to create, but when you realize that they can help bring in new leads and nurture your audience and even convert people into paying clients for months and years to come, it makes all that hard work really feel worth it. Over the years, you've even heard me share how case studies have impacted my business. Like that one time I had a client who heard part of a case study podcast episode. She then submitted an inquiry form, asked me one question, and booked her project and paid in full, all in under 36 hours. Leah has also shared with me that her case studies are consistently some of her most visited pages and they lead to inquiries as well. Do not sleep on case studies. It's very doable to aim for one case study blog post per quarter.

Brittany Herzberg:

That's what I'll be doing in 2026 so you can follow along. And if you want, we could be accountability buddies. Remember that Shine with SEO my two part blogging workshop has the final live call today, January 30th. You can still get the workshop and workbook for $47 until January 31st and then the evergreen version will be released which you can get for $97. This includes everything, I mean everything that you need to dream up, draft and optimize those case study blog posts that will attract aligned leads and continue to market for you well into the future. I would love to hear your biggest takeaway from today's episode. DM me. I'm BrittanyHerzberg on Instagram.

Brittany Herzberg:

Or use the text button in the episode description or leave a comment in the blog post. Until next time, know that I'm cheering you on on your SEO journey.