WebFX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing and sales coordinator of Well Built Equipment. We’re a family-owned and -operated company specializing in the rental sale and service of aerial lift equipment, specifically things that’d be considered access equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

Our main challenge was that up until the last year and a half, we didn’t have any kind of web presence at all. When people would search for aerial lifts or rentals, our name wouldn’t pop up on Google. We had a website but it wasn’t optimized for SEO. We brought on WebFX to help increase our web presence so people could find us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built an entirely new website from scratch. We wanted to invest in a website that was meeting our needs in our industry and not just a template. In the first initial months of the projects, our teams sat down and planned the site, focusing on company goals. They built that site from the ground up. In the second phase, we’re adding more content to the site as we see fit to increase our footprint and SEO.

What is the team composition?

Bryce (Internet Marketing Specialist) is my main point of contact but I also occasionally correspond with Heather (Happiness Manager). Sam (Sales & Marketing Specialist) is the one who reached out to me.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We found them through doing online research and decided to engage with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $23,000 for the website and to get the SEO off the ground. Now, we invest $750 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Over the last year, we’ve seen impressive growth. The website has generated a lot of new traffic and leads tell us they found us on the internet. In the amount of time I’ve been here, that’s never happened before. We can visually see that our investment is paying off. We’re constantly seeing an improvement in traffic, highest-ranking pages, and lead generation.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great. We don’t work with hard deadlines. It’s a continual working process to get to where we want. If there have been deadlines, they’re excellent at meeting them but most of the time it’s pretty open-ended.

Every month I meet with Bryce to discuss how the site’s doing and how the traffic is performing. We strategize and plan our direction for the next month. They’re great at communicating with us when things need to happen. Their team gives us metrics for the analytics of our website.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team members who work on our website really took the time to get to know our business and industry. It’s been pleasant to talk with an account manager about logistics but we also have in-depth industry conversations about what’s currently happening in our space. WebFX isn’t just building our website, they’re building us something that’s specific to our company and industry so it’s above anything that anyone else can offer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. Our relationship and results have been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can go to anybody or find a company that’ll build your website for cheaper. However, with WebFX you’re going to get a team that goes in-depth to understand your business and the goals you’re trying to accomplish.

This sets them apart from other companies because they’re able to talk to you intelligently about your business and industry so you can make smart decisions together. They go above and beyond to do research outside of just building a website for you. They’ll understand what you specifically want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the digital communications manager of the Gateway Region YMCA. We’re a nonprofit organization in the St. Louis area and have 23 branches in our association. We’re focused on strengthening our communities not just through our fitness facilities but also through community outreach and youth programs. We have a longstanding history in the St. Louis community. In my role, I work with the marketing team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

Our most recent challenge deals with the pandemic and how it has thrown all types of businesses through a loop. In 2020 our struggle was attracting people back, specifically through our membership base. We wanted to attract new members and regrow our membership, particularly through virtual programming. In the past year, we started a number of different virtual membership efforts and fitness opportunities.

We brought WebFX on to leverage our website, digital ads, PPC, and local SEO efforts. Our organization wanted to find a new niche in the virtual world to help drive engagement again and bring members to our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX works on our meta descriptions and keywords. They’re content contributors and have strategists who write our blogs. The blogs are in efforts to boost our pages and local efforts. WebFX works with us to develop our digital strategy and website layout. Our website is on the open wide platform so we use Drupal 8.

They have local SEO strategists who do a lot of updates and manage our Google Business pages. Our account representative handles our ad campaign management. Their team also helps with our ongoing management of Google Ads. They’ve helped place a lot of our digital ads when it comes to PPC efforts, search campaigns, and video campaigns. WebFX supports us on multiple levels.

What is the team composition?

We have an account representative that we work directly with. We also work with a team member who does our local SEO efforts and there’s a large team of content strategists who work on our account as well.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

They’ve been with our organization for the past two years, and I’ve only been in this role since September 2020. I believe WebFX was referred to us from a different YMCA association.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $50,000 for this specific project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We saw some of our best results we’ve ever seen this past January, which is absolutely outstanding considering we’re coming out of a pandemic. We saw a 68% increase in new users to the website. Our blog page is performing very well and helping drive a lot of great organic traffic to our website.

Additionally, we saw a 25% increase in users and sessions on our social channels. Our click-through rate has gone up exponentially as well. Our organization surveyed our membership base and has gotten a lot of great feedback from them about if they’re using our virtual content and how they like it.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is one of their strong suits. I’ve had lots of questions, and they’re always available to answer my questions or hop on a quick call. Our account representative is amazing. She’s a wealth of knowledge and has taught me a lot in this new role. She’s been very understanding and has helped me through the learning curve. She is really personable and easy to work with.

WebFX recently rolled out a custom communication platform. We communicate with them through this platform. I enjoy their platform much more than Slack, which is what we used to utilize. Their platform is easy to navigate as well as gives great access to documents and attachments. There’s a tagging system that allows us to tag the individual we’re speaking to. It’s easier to use this platform rather than going back and forth in an email or other platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their overall knowledge. They have a huge team with a lot of experience and expertise. Additionally, they have great professionalism. If our account representative doesn’t know an answer to my question, she’s more than happy to talk to someone else on their team who may have a larger area of expertise in that particular area. She gets an answer for us no matter what the question is. WebFX has a robust knowledge base because they have so many key players on their team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One way they could improve is by letting us know who else works on our account. I know we have multiple representatives that solely work on our account but we mainly just have contact with one. It’d help us get a better sense of who else is working on our account for a personal touch.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d absolutely recommend WebFX to anyone who’s looking to utilize them. Head into the relationship knowing what your current benchmarks are and knowing the analytics of all the facets of your organization. That’ll help you have a clear understanding and starting point. Additionally, it’ll help you realize your growth as a reflection of working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development at a commercial property maintenance company. We specialize in snow removal, turf mowing, fertilizer, irrigation, and other areas like that. I’m responsible for everything from marketing and sales to HR, recruiting, and hiring.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We were initially looking for somebody to do SEO and PPC for us. Then, we wanted them to get our website up and running with a design that we felt was acceptable. Our website was outdated and didn’t work very well. The site was super slow, and the design was bad.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX manages our SEO and PPC. They track a lot of data points and send those to us, which we appreciate. 

The other part of the engagement was website design. They redesigned our WordPress website and brought it up-to-date. We really wanted to target a commercial customer, as opposed to a residential one, so they geared the content toward that audience.

What is the team composition?

We work with Ann (Project Manager). She took the lead on the initial part of the project, which was the website design. She worked with a bunch of other team members, such as developers and content writers.

We also work with Amy (Internet Marketing Specialist), who does most of the SEO, PPC, and content. In the future, I’ll probably be working with Amy more and Ann less.  

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We did a quick Google search and read reviews and testimonials. There are a lot of websites that rank these types of companies, so we tried to see which ones were consistently at the top of those lists. It seemed like WebFX was always in the top three, which is why we decided to go with them. 

Their pitch is what really sold us. They portrayed an image of really wanting to learn our business so that they could speak to our customers more effectively, and they’ve proven true to their word. We didn’t want to work with a company that thought they knew how to push out a message but wasn’t going to take the time to learn our business and objectives.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent about $30,000–$35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in August 2020, and our SEO and PPC campaigns are ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our website just went live 15 days ago, so we can’t provide concrete numbers. My team didn’t do a great job of tracking results before bringing on WebFX, either, so it’s hard to say whether we’ve returned our investment. However, we expect a return within two years, and we’ve been seeing a lot of people come in through the website.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done well with project management. WebFX really sold us on the idea of transparency, and they have definitely followed through on it. Transparency is something we look for with a lot of our vendors. They haven’t missed any deadlines, unless it was my team’s fault. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicate really well — they’ve very transparent. Also, their ability to learn their client’s business sets them apart from most other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. I always try to find an area for improvement, but I can’t with WebFX. I don’t have any constructive criticism for them. Everything has been handled very professionally, and everyone is easy to work with — they don’t make excuses. The process is very straightforward and easy to follow. They’re what you would look for in a company when you’re going to spend a decent amount of money. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Try to dive into all of the tools that they have to offer. Explore and learn those tools, and learn how you can optimize them for your business. WebFX offers a bunch of services, a lot of which are included in what you pay for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of digital and marketing technology for a large network of privately-owned campgrounds.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We hired WebFX to help us grow our SEO tactics and strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX provides SEO services to help us gain new guests and visitors that ultimately transact on our website. They help us activate our yearly marketing campaigns for SEO and content creation, and they provide ongoing SEO strategy. The team does a little bit of PPC with various business units for us.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 6–8 different people, most of whom are internet marketing strategists and consultants. Our main point of contact is Cheyenne (Internet Marketing Specialist). We’ve also worked with Devin (Internet Marketing Analyst).

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We found WebFX through internet research, and we chose to work with them over other competitors because they seemed to have a better understanding of digital marketing strategy. Also, the processes and people they put in place were better than the other companies we evaluated.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent about $800,000–$900,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with WebFX since November 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our organic traffic has increased by 150%, new users from organic traffic by 160%, organic transactions by 198%, and organic revenue by 260%. Our organic conversion rate has increased by 15%. We’re also ranking in the top 100 for over 420,000 keywords.  

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very prompt at meeting deadlines. They leverage technology to make everything very transparent and easily accessible so that they can assess what they’re doing and keep track of everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

WebFX’s commitment to understanding our business has been impressive. They’re committed to taking our feedback and evolving. They’re a really good partner in your success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I work with a lot of agencies, and WebFX is probably my favorite. They’re the most put together. I can’t think of anything that I could be too critical of right now. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Be clear in communicating what your business needs are. Also, be open-minded to feedback — they have a lot of experience, so their ideas can help a business if you’re willing to try them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of EverBrands, the parent company of EverSmile. EverSmile produces oral care appliance cleaners for things like clear aligners, dentures, and braces. We make a pre-treatment rinse for doctors’ offices. As the CTO, my job is to handle the technology side of the business. I also oversee some marketing and design aspects of our business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We were initially looking to replace our existing digital marketing company. They were focused almost solely on social media; they did some backlink building and blog writing, but overall, their style didn’t fit with what we were looking for.

We started looking for other digital marketing agencies to replace the social media side of the business. When we found WebFX, we discovered that they also did other things. We ended up bringing them on for social as well as SEO and PPC.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In terms of SEO, WebFX initially made our website more efficient, such as by putting in metatags. The team also created content and reworded things in ways that would rank us higher on Google and other search engines. They investigated what our competitors were doing to see what they did, what worked, and how they could apply that to our website.

They have started building out backlinks to increase our SEO ranking. The team produces several blogposts each month that educate our customers but are primarily focused on increasing our keyword search results.

What is the team composition?

We work with Alicia (Lead Content Marketing & Social Media Consultant) on social media and Michaela (Internet Marketing Specialist) on SEO and PPC. Each of them has their own teams behind them.

Michaela has direct contact with Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. In the middle of the COVID pandemic, we were trying to get our product on the Google Store, but we were having issues because they weren’t allowing many new products on at the time. Michaela worked with her contact at Google in order to help us get on the store. She and her team determine the best course of action for our account. 

Alicia takes a similar approach with her design team, which put together materials based on a posting schedule. We look through the list of posts and approve, deny, or edit things.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

One of our employees was looking for a digital marketing agency to replace our other one. She found WebFX and told me that they also do SEO, which was something I wanted. My team had an initial call with the onboarding people at WebFX, and then I followed up.

Overall, we really thought that WebFX was an impressive company. When you look at their website, you can tell that their employees are very happy to be there. They struck us as a company that really cares about their accounts, and they seemed to be really tied into everything out there. WebFX just seemed like a good fit, so we went for it.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent about $25,000 on WebFX’s services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with WebFX a little over a year ago, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re in the process of increasing our marketing spend; we just doubled down on our account with them. Before we increased our spend, Michaela provided us with a bell curve based on our ROI of roughly how much money we could spend, what we could expect to see with the return, and where the returns would start to diminish. That was incredibly helpful to us in determining what our spend should be.

Michaela has been very clear in letting us know exactly how much Google Ads will cost, how long Google needs to learn how to advertise to our general audience, how long it will take for us to start seeing returns, and what those returns will look like. So far, everything she’s said has been correct.

Michaela is incredibly nice, helpful, and easy to work with. Alicia is also very nice, thorough, and professional. She’s clear about what’s happening and always has an answer for things that are going on. She’s helped us build out a cohesive look on our Instagram page, and she always communicates with her designers as well as ours very well. Both Michaela and Alicia have served us well, and we’re very happy with their performance. I definitely don’t see us leaving WebFX anytime soon.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve always been great — I’ve never had any issues or needed to follow up. If anything, they’ve delivered early. Michaela has been amazing at communicating anything that needs to be relayed. We have monthly calls with her to recap the previous month. Whenever we’ve had questions, she’s had strong answers, and if she doesn't have the answer, she finds out and gets right back to us. She is incredibly prompt. If you ever need anything from her, she always finds time to help you.

At times, we’ve invited other people onto our marketing call, and they have jumped in with suggestions or questions as to why things are the way they are. Michaela is incredibly patient in answering those questions, and she very clearly explains the situation. Additionally, if she thinks that something we’re suggesting is incorrect, she will tell us that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with several other agencies for things beyond digital marketing, and when you find a company that knows what they’re doing, it’s very clear. WebFX has always been on top of their side of the deal. They’re clear about what they need from us and what they believe they can deliver. They’ve never overpromised — what they say is what we get. 

They’re a very strong team. They’ve always been able to step up and help us figure out how to make anything we need happen. Michaela and Alicia both have massive teams behind them with lots of people who want to help, and they are all professional and good at their jobs. I think they’re a strong agency, and I’d definitely recommend them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. It would be nice to have more options for content creation on the social media side. They have designers who can make materials for posts, but a lot of Instagram accounts make their posts look more organic, rather than like a company made it. A more basic and organic style could benefit their content creation. 

Any advice for potential customers?

WebFX handles things for you. Just be very clear about what you want, what you need, and what you’re expecting. When you see successes from the work you’re doing with WebFX, act on those — don’t necessarily just stick with the plan you have. Don’t be afraid to jump in to grow or increase your efforts.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Nxtbook Media, a digital publishing platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We were looking for a partner to build a more robust SEO strategy and be more hands-on with our PPC management.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did an audit of our website and determined where we could improve. From there, we worked together to create a content strategy. They helped us improve existing pages, consolidated some pages, and built new content. Now they continue to develop new content for our site.

They also manage our Google Ads account. They’ve established a strategy and make adjustments as needed.

What is the team composition?

We have one point of contact who is like a project manager, but he’s also very hands-on.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

I found them when I was working at another company. They’re local to our area and I liked that we could have face-to-face meetings. I really loved what they did in that initial engagement, so I’ve continued to work with them everywhere I’ve worked since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the project in June 2020 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The project has increased impressions and traffic to our site, which has increased the number of leads we’ve received. After just a few months, our organic traffic increased 47% month-over-month and there was a 40% increase year-over-year.

Before the project, our PPC campaigns were only bringing in $1,800–$3,600 a month, but in September 2020, the PPC campaigns were responsible for $61,000 in expected revenue.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been very satisfied with how they manage the project. We meet weekly for about half an hour. They get us up to speed on major developments from the previous week and update us on how other projects are progressing. Then they provide a formal monthly report. They’ve met every deadline.

I can go to our project manager with any questions I have. He goes over the results of each month and outlines his plan going into the next month.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve managed our relationship very well. I really trust them. If I ask a question, they provide recommendations even if it’s outside the scope of what we’re working on. They’re an extension of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We needed to set more specific goals for leads every month. I’d like to forecast what leads we can expect based on the traffic we see every month.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The key to a successful project is to be as responsive as you would expect them to be. They send stuff that clients need to review, and if they don’t get to it quickly, the project will come to a grinding halt.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business manager for a hydraulics design, build, test, and manufacture company. We serve commercial and US defense customers, and the common denominator is critical need. We work to several very rigorous standards. Quality is central to our culture. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

The requirement on the marketing side is to target our key audiences who are going to order custom precision complex parts for critical needs. That typically includes people who design and manufacture hydraulic systems. WebFX helps us target this audience, which is spread across many industries. 

We knew there was a challenge around this assignment for WebFX; we’re not a new company, but another company owned us for a while. Then, we were brought back to local ownership and its core strengths in January 2018. We had some catch-up work to do in terms of making ourselves visible to the right audiences.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX primarily does SEO for us. They’ve also done some PPC work. They provided Google Ads support for a conference we attended. 

What is the team composition?

Based on my understanding, WebFX assigns one account representative to each customer, and then they have a team behind them. We work with Michael (Account Manager), and we’ve spoken to two other team members: a content aggregator and a more senior account rep. 

How did you come to work with WebFX?

A senior executive of our company chose WebFX, and it’s proven to be a good decision. I’ve had experience with various SEO providers in other settings. A lot of people talk a good game, but they just can’t deliver. WebFX and our account manager Michael were very respectful in listening to us and adjusting when the strategy didn’t work out. Over time, they’ve demonstrated the ability to reach the audience that we need to reach.

How much have you invested with them?

Over eighteen months, I’d estimate we’ve spent about $18,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started working together in June or July 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The KPI we track monthly and annually is qualified leads, and the trend is positive. We’re getting a consistent level of qualified leads.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. Occasionally, the lead time for creative services has seemed somewhat long; however, we sometimes take our time, too. We recently made a content request with a very tight turnaround, and they accommodated us. 

Communication has been good. We appreciate the fact that they listen well. If we don’t accept concept that they provide and give them constructive feedback, there’s never a sense of pushback or pride of authorship; rather, they listen to us, pivot, and are able to improve.

We have monthly meetings. We have a team of three individuals that joins the monthly call with Michael and his team. If things come up in the interim, we can also call or email Michael.

What did you find most impressive about them?

WebFX knows their stuff. They understand Google and know when the algorithms change, so they’re able to continue making us visible. We’re a small company with a specialty product, so the fact that we show up as high as we do in the search terms that we prioritize is significant.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They continue to improve in terms of their ability to write about our products and services with deep knowledge and in a way that makes sense to engineers and other technical folks who are looking for that type of product or service. They can’t use template language. On our end, we’ve worked to make sure that they have background.

Also, I think their pricing on creative services tends to be high. However, they’re our go-to for SEO and related services. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m head of marketing for a company that builds custom natural stone quartz products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

As we started the engagement 8–10 years ago, I’m unsure how we initially started our relationship.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX handles all of our website maintenance, website development, and SEO requirements. They also direct internet advertising, such as Google Ads initiatives. About two years ago, their team completely rebuilt our website too.  

What is the team composition?

We work with an account manager.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We chose them because we wanted to work with a local agency that we could meet in person.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $1,000 a month on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them 8–10 years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They send us an online booklet every month with website metrics such as the amount of traffic and the number of leads received. As we don’t do too much advertising with them, their metrics mostly focus on site traffic.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a monthly meeting with our account manager by phone. Their team usually picks up issues with the website before us. If we notice any issue, they fix it as quickly as possible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

WebFX is great about tailoring their solutions to meet our business’s needs. We’re a small, local company, and their team works their services to be affordable to us. They’re great at coming up with creative strategies that work for our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more that they know about your business the better they can meet your goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing coordinator for a tractor company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

In one of our smaller divisions, we didn’t focus on digital marketing. The goal was to have WebFX help us with our SEO initiatives for that division.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX helped us with everything. While we had keywords, we didn’t rank for any of them. Their team started our PPC and display ad campaign, which we ran for about eight months.

Their team now manages our keywords, SEO, and link building initiatives. Their team also started a blog for us, and we now have five blog posts. They write long-form content for us as well.

What is the team composition?

We work with one project manager. I’m in touch with him about every other week. He has a team that supports our account.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We originally found WebFX about four years ago and hired them for other projects. We decided to re-engage them for this project because their team did great work with other divisions within our company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $11,000 on their services this year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together on this project in January 2020 when we signed a year-long contract. However, we’re going to continue to work with them next year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

When we started this engagement, we had zero keywords ranking. About 51 of our 72 keywords now rank within the top 10 search results on Google. The overall number of our website users increases month over month. Every month, we’ve had an increase, ranging from 10%–100%.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a call every other week with our project manager who helps take everything to the next level. I also receive a detailed report every month. Anytime I need anything, our project manager responds the same day. He works with every one of our divisions, and he keeps everything organized

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their clear communication is key to our success. I can use their platform and know exactly what their team’s working on at any moment. I know when to expect certain results. If I need to approve an initiative, I receive a comprehensive email about it. They make everything easy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we work well together.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s helpful to provide them with detailed goals at the start of the engagement. Their team can then build on them. I came to them with details for what I wanted to accomplish, and they’ve exceeded my expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at McCormick & Company, a CPG (consumer packaged goods) flavor company. As the e-commerce manager, Amazon is my biggest customer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We use WebFX for Amazon SEO. We have a content team internally, but they don’t necessarily do the due diligence of looking at retailer platforms for search analysis and trends. We needed to figure out the best keywords or content copy that we should be using on our PAPS (pre-arrival processing system) to drive an increase in our organic search rank.

We already had copy on Amazon, but it was very basic. Based on WebFX’s recommendation, we wanted to use the full character count on Amazon — we’d only been taking advantage of a fraction of that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We tasked WebFX with testing 30 of our products. They essentially revamped our copy to be optimized for Amazon SEO with regard to our titles, selling points, product descriptions, and backend keywords.

At the start of the project, we gave them all of our brand guidelines and our brand book. We also provided any background information on our products that would help them write the copy. We gave them access to our Amazon Vendor Central account, and they did all of the research themselves. They researched search frequency rank and what keywords they should be putting into the content, and they sent over a full analysis of keywords and competitors.

The team also made other recommendations on what we could do to boost our organic search rank as well. That was outside of what we were requesting them to work on, so it was really nice that they provided additional recommendations to us. 

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Kelley (Internet Marketing Specialist – Account Manager). I don’t know how many people from their side are working on this.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

I did my own research and talked to other people in the company for agency recommendations. I compiled a list, and then we interviewed about four other companies. We had those companies do a product sample of what they would do for one of our ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Number). WebFX’s presentation and recommendation for that one ASIN just blew all of the others out of the water.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in April 2020, and it’s ongoing. We signed a contract with them to do the initial work to get all of this content prepared for these 30 test ASINs. In addition, we signed up for two months’ worth of optimization, and we just got all of the content live at the beginning of December. We would’ve gotten it live a lot sooner, but we were running into issues with Amazon rejecting content for various purposes, whether it was formatting or coding issues. That was a hold up on our end.

Our contract will expire at the end of January 2021. However, my hope is that we’ll see the results we want to see from this test, and then we would sign on with them to continue this work for the remainder of our portfolio.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Since we just launched the content, we don’t have results yet. Prior to the launch of the content, they ran an analysis to show us what our organic rank was for the key terms we were hoping to boost for each of these ASINs. They will run a report toward the end of December and then January as they make optimizations. That will allow us to see where we’ve improved. Our ultimate goal is to be on the first page of search results for these key terms.

I was really impressed with the work that they did for the first test ASIN. Then, when they came back with the content for 30 ASINs, I could tell how much effort and analysis that they put into the work. My team was also really impressed with the content.

I misunderstood one of the contracts and thought they were supposed to write the product description, which is the longest copy and is around 2,000 characters. They were only supposed to do it for 10 of the 30 ASINs. I was disappointed that I misread it. What stood out to me was that they came back to me and agreed to do all 30 ASINs, because that was what we’d thought we were getting. That just showed that they’re a really good partner to work with. 

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Basecamp, and they have it set up to be very organized and easy for me to access. I can go in and find any of the research they have done for us or communication that we had with them. Overall, they’re extremely organized with their project management.

I email with Kelley a lot. She often sends communication through Basecamp, but I can respond via email, which makes things easy. We communicate 1–2 times a week. Kelley stays in touch. For example, when I was trying to work with our internal team to syndicate content, she checked in on a regular basis. They always offer their help. We have scheduled meetings, but we don’t schedule too far out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say that their flexibility, responsiveness, and communication are the best that I’ve ever had working with an agency. Then, their knowledge and expertise for what we are using them for are impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly can’t think of anything. Hopefully, I won’t think of anything after I see the results of our tests, either. They’ve been so great to work with, and I’ve sung their praises to my manager. I’ve told Kelley how awesome she is to work with. Overall, it’s been a great relationship. 

Any advice for potential customers?

It really depends on what you’re working with them for, but for me, I needed to provide all of the necessary information in order to set them up for success. For example, I sent them all of the product information so that they could utilize it when developing the SEO copy.