Google Search clicks up 248% while paid media spend fell 46%.
Caldrin began SEO/AEO work with 603 Basement Solutions on June 1, 2026. Across matched June and August Search windows, Google Search clicks rose from 113 to 393. Over the three-month campaign period, monthly paid media spend fell from $34.7K in June to $18.7K through August 28.
Search growth and paid-spend reduction are separate measurements. This case study does not claim that SEO caused every budget change.
June 1-26, 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026
June 2026 vs August 1-28, 2026
June 1-26, 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026
A basement and foundation contractor working three states.
603 Basement Solutions sells basement waterproofing, crawl-space work and structural foundation repair to homeowners across New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. It is a local-service business: the work is sold by inspection, the demand is seasonal, and the buying decision starts with a problem a homeowner can see.
Caldrin started on June 1, 2026. June is therefore the baseline, and every figure on this page compares against it. There is no earlier measurement, so this page does not describe what the site did before the engagement began.
Baseline windows match the comparison windows exactly. Where a window is partial, it says so.
| Observable at the start | June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Google Search clicks | 113 |
| Google Search impressions | 16,881 |
| Average Search position | 18.24 |
| Local URLs surfacing | 69 |
| Foundation parent average position | 31.83 |
| Q&A Search impressions | No rows surfaced |
113 to 393
Google Search Console · manual exportJune 1-26, 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026
$34,673.41 to $18,670.49
Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and Meta platform totals supplied by the operatorJune 2026 vs August 1-28, 2026
101 to 149
PostHog · lead_submitted eventsJune 1-26, 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026
| Supporting evidence | Before | After | Change | Source / window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search impressions | 16,881 | 55,133 | +226.6% | Google Search Console · manual export · June 1-26, 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026 |
| Average Search position | 18.24 | 13.50 | 4.74 positions better | Google Search Console · impression-weighted average · June 1-26, 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026 |
| Q&A Search impressions | No rows surfaced | 4,662 | New visibility | Google Search Console · Search Appearance export · June 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026 |
| Local URLs surfacing | 69 | 120 | +51 | Protected local-inventory Search Console analysis · June 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026 |
| Weighted local position | 25.97 | 18.25 | 7.72 positions better | Protected local-inventory Search Console analysis · June 2026 vs August 1-26, 2026 |
Eligible inventory also grew, from 178 URLs to 228. A percentage across a changed denominator would compare two different things, so the absolute move is shown instead.
Google Search clicks grew 248%
| Period | Clicks | Impressions | Average position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1-26 | 113 | 16,881 | 18.24 |
| Jul 1-26 | 247 | 40,418 | 15.21 |
| Aug 1-26 | 393 | 55,133 | 13.50 |
Full-month clicks before and at campaign start were 167 in March, 137 in April, 143 in May and 134 in June. The matched-period rise was not the continuation of an established monthly growth trend.
Paid media spend fell 46%
| Period | Google Ads | Microsoft Ads | Meta | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June | $22,600 | $6,310 | $5,763.41 | $34,673.41 |
| July | $15,800 | $4,978 | $8,341.04 | $29,119.04 |
| Aug 1-28 | $11,500 | $3,564 | $3,606.49 | $18,670.49 |
The reduction happened across Google, Microsoft and Meta. August is measured through August 28, not a completed month.
Paid spend fell during the engagement. We are showing it because it is true and dated, not because we can show it followed from the Search work. August is a partial month. This is context, not an outcome: the evidence does not show that SEO work caused the budget to fall, and the source analysis lists paid substitution as unknown. The source analysis lists paid substitution among the things it cannot answer, and this page does not answer it either.
Website form submissions rose 48%
These are PostHog `lead_submitted` events. They are not CRM-qualified leads, booked jobs or revenue.
Growth came from a wider Search system, not one page.
Visibility expanded across commercial decision content, Answer-style results, local pages and structural/Foundation topics. The evidence shows the combined movement. It does not assign sitewide growth to one release or tactic.
Google Answer visibility and AI recommendations are different proof types.
Search Console records Answer and Q&A presentation inside Google Search. AI recommendation captures document individual model responses. We do not merge the two.
Answer-style impressions reached 4,662
This is Google Search presentation evidence. It does not establish ChatGPT visibility.
- Mentions not published
- No repeated, comparable mention rate has been published for this account. Historical runs exist but are not like-for-like.
- Citations not published
- Caul is the only source permitted for a citation figure, and no comparable June baseline exists for the current prompt set.
- Recommendations dated examples only
- Individual model responses that named 603 can be shown as dated captures, each with its exact prompt and capture date. One response is not a rank and does not generalise.
Only 17 of the August 55-prompt set overlap June, and provider modes and grounded denominators differ. The data supports dated snapshots, not a June-to-August AI trend, so none is shown.
More local pages began surfacing
Eligible inventory expanded from 178 pages in June and July to 228 in August. The larger footprint did not produce proportional click growth.
We don’t manufacture a blended “lead” number.
Search Console measures Search acquisition. Paid platforms measure spend. PostHog measures website form-submission events. CallRail measures calls. 603 does not have reliable CRM pipeline logging, so Caldrin does not invent booked-job or revenue attribution.
- Search
- Google Search Console clicks, impressions and Search presentation.
- Paid
- Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and Meta platform spend.
- Forms
- PostHog `lead_submitted` events, not qualified opportunities.
- Calls
- CallRail calls, reported separately from forms.
- Unknown
- Booked jobs, close rate, revenue and gross profit.
What this page does not show.
- Search growth and the paid-spend reduction are separate measurements from separate systems. The evidence does not show that one caused the other.
- This does not show that total lead flow held steady. Website form events rose; phone handling moved separately and is not presented here as a demand signal.
- Form submissions are website events, not qualified leads, booked jobs or revenue. 603 has no reliable CRM pipeline logging, so none of those are claimed.
- August is a partial month in every window that says so. It is not presented as a full-month comparison.
- No single release or tactic is assigned sitewide causation. Several changes shipped in the same period, and one, the August 24 Service Areas redesign, is a named confound.
The work behind the numbers, dated.
Several changes ran in the same window. That is why no single item below is credited with sitewide growth, and why one of them is marked as a confound rather than a win.
- June 1, 2026
- SEO/AEO engagement began.
- June 23-24
- 20 local service pages published.
- July
- No precise intervention can be reconstructed.Repository history begins July 31.
- August 4
- Seven waterproofing town pages published.
- August 14
- 43-city and service-page cohort published.
- August 18
- Protected helical-cost page wording and FAQ updated.
- August 19
- 20 pages across four towns published.
- August 20
- 95 URLs submitted for discovery and recrawl.
- August 23
- LocalBusiness schema enrichment.
- August 24
- Service Areas redesign.Named confound: it changed the local surface mid-measurement.
- August 26
- Four unsupported services retired with 410.
- August 28
- Five Foundation Repair town pages completed as drafts only.
Foundation Repair is the next deliberate growth lane.
The broad Foundation parent moved from 234 to 971 impressions and average position 31.83 to 18.90. It is becoming more eligible, while specific structural problem, method and cost content still carries much of the click demand.
| Period | Clicks | Impressions | Average position |
|---|---|---|---|
| June | 0 | 234 | 31.83 |
| July | 1 | 551 | 27.90 |
| Aug 1-26 | 2 | 971 | 18.90 |
The next sprint
- Broad Foundation Repair city pages
- City pages for bowing walls, settlement and cracks
- Local project proof and stronger internal topic ownership
- Source and citation expansion
- Repeated AI recommendation testing
What transfers, and what does not.
This is one contractor, in one region, over three months. The numbers are theirs. What generalises is the shape of the problem and the way it was measured, not the size of the movement, and any firm telling you otherwise is selling you an average.
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