Local SEO Case Study
Local SEO Case Study: 163% More Calls From Google Maps for Quillbrook Opticians
Scale Oxford grew calls from Google Maps by 163% for Quillbrook Opticians. Its Google Business Profile had been claimed years earlier and then forgotten, and the directories listing it disagreed about its phone number and address. We made those details match everywhere before finishing the profile, so Google had one version of the practice to trust.
- Quillbrook Opticians
- Opticians and eye care
- Oxford and Oxfordshire
- February–September 2026 (8 months)
01THE CLIENT
The Client: A Busy Practice Missing From the Map
Quillbrook Opticians has a loyal list of patients and a perfectly decent website. The map was the problem. People searching for an eye test or a contact lens fitting nearby were being shown other practices first.
The practice manager asked us to get them into the map results for the services they actually offer. We agreed to judge the work on calls and booking requests, because those are what fill the diary, and to treat rankings as a means to that.
Worked inGoogle Business ProfileSearch ConsoleGA4
02THE PROBLEM
The Problem: A Profile Claimed and Then Forgotten
Most of local SEO happens away from the website, on the Google Business Profile and the directories that list a business. Here, almost none of it had been looked at for years.
An Unfinished Google Profile
The main category was out of date and no services were listed, not even eye tests. There were very few photos, and nobody had answered a review in a long time.
Details That Didn’t Match
Several directories still showed an old phone number and the address was spelled two different ways, so Google had conflicting information about where the practice was.
No Pages for the Areas It Serves
The website had a single contact page and said nothing about the parts of Oxford its patients come from.
What the Wider Data SaysPublished numbers from outside Scale Oxford that explain why the work was done in this order.
- Relevance, distance, prominence
are the three things Google says decide who appears in local results. Reviews and an up-to-date profile feed the third.
SourceGoogle Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking” - 27.6%
of clicks go to the first organic result on Google, and the top three results take 54.4% between them.
SourceBacklinko, analysis of 4 million Google search results
03OUR WORK
What We Did: The Listings First, Then the Profile
We began with a citation clean-up, listing every directory that mentioned the practice and noting where the name, address or phone number differed from the sign above the door. The large healthcare directories were corrected first, because they are the listings people and search engines see most. We held off adding any new listings until the old ones agreed, since more citations with the wrong number would only have spread the confusion further.
With the details settled, we rebuilt the Google Business Profile against Google’s guidelines. The primary category now matches what the practice is, with secondary categories for contact lenses and the rest of its services, and every service is described in the words patients use. New photos of the shop and the testing rooms went up, and the profile now carries regular posts.
Reviews needed the practice’s help. Reception sends every patient a short link to the review form after their appointment, and we draft a reply to each review, good or bad, for the manager to approve. Last came the website, where our web designers added a page for each part of Oxford the practice genuinely serves, saying what it offers there and how to get to it.
04RESULTS
The Results: What Changed on the Map
Results for Quillbrook Opticians, February–September 2026 (8 months): 163% more calls from Google Maps, 121% more direction requests and 96 → 287 Google reviews.
These numbers come from the practice’s own Google Business Profile for the period shown, and calls lead because they are closest to a booked appointment. We now check where the practice appears on the map from points across the city every month, because the businesses Google shows can change from one street to the next.
- 163%More calls from Google MapsCalls made from the Google Business Profile
- 121%More direction requestsRequests for directions to the practice from Google Maps
- 287Google reviewsBefore96After287At the start and the end of the period
- Client
- Quillbrook Opticians
- Sector
- Opticians and eye care
- Market
- Oxford and Oxfordshire
- Period
- February–September 2026 (8 months)
05MORE CASE STUDIES
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06QUESTIONS
Local SEO Case Study: Frequently Asked Questions
- How long does local SEO take to work for an opticians?
Changes to a Google Business Profile often show within a few weeks. Climbing the map results for busy searches in central Oxford usually takes several months, because reviews, citations and links build up over time. Scale Oxford reports calls and direction requests from the start, so you can see progress before the rankings settle.
- How much does local SEO cost in Oxford?
Scale Oxford charges a fixed monthly fee for local SEO, with one package for businesses new to local search and another for those already on the map. Both are priced on our local SEO page, and there is no minimum term. A business with several branches gets one custom price that covers them all.
- What does Scale Oxford need from a practice to start local SEO?
Scale Oxford needs manager access to your Google Business Profile, access to your website, and every phone number and address the practice has used in the past. That history is how we find the old listings that still disagree. We also need someone at the practice who can send patients the review link after their appointments.
- Who looks after our Google Business Profile day to day?
Scale Oxford’s local SEO team handles the profile, the posts and the review replies, and a co-founder reviews the plan before work starts and the results every month. You approve replies to sensitive reviews before they go out. A bad review or a suspended profile can be raised with us on Slack straight away.
- How do you measure local SEO results?
Scale Oxford reports the calls, direction requests and website visits your Google Business Profile brings in before anything else. We also check where you appear on the map from points across Oxford, because the businesses Google shows change from one street to the next.
- Can Scale Oxford do the same for a practice outside the city?
Yes. For businesses elsewhere in Oxfordshire we plan the work town by town, because Google gives real weight to how far a business is from the person searching. Our page on SEO across Oxfordshire explains how that works.
- Do you buy reviews, or only ask happy patients?
No. Google doesn’t allow reviews that are paid for or rewarded, or asking only the customers you expect to be happy, and breaking those rules can get reviews removed. Scale Oxford sets up a routine that asks every patient and helps the practice reply to every review.
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