WebFX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of VibraScreener, which designs and produces industrial vibrating screeners and sifters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

I was looking to build a presence online. We had been using pay-per-click and tried a firm for SEO [search engine optimization], but it didn’t work out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an existing website for which WebpageFX helped with SEO. They’ve focused on links and content, creating new, high-quality backlinks every 2 months. In the beginning of our campaign, they did a lot of work on title tags for the website.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

I read a lot about how a website can be grown organically and found a white paper that they’d written. I spoke to one of their contacts on the phone, possibly an account manager, and asked a lot of questions about the process. It took me three months to make a decision since I didn’t want to make another mistake. I’d spent a lot of money in the past and didn’t get any results, so I wanted to choose the right firm for our business. WebpageFX had the right combination of price, knowledge, and expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $1,000 per month during the first 6 months. Currently, I’m paying $750 per month for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with WebpageFX 2–2 ½ years ago, and I plan to expand the scope of their work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen increases in organic searches almost every quarter, and we’ve been ranking higher for some of our keywords, sitting in the 2nd or 3rd position. Our site traffic has gone up by 10%–15%, with around 2,600 visits per month. We’ve also gotten a lot of leads. Since things can always be better, there’s a lot more work to do.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Their first account manager was very responsive and always willing to help. We’ve had a change in managers this week, and the new person is good as well. They’ve provided a customer management system where I can review the schedule and tasks. I also receive a report from them every month.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re good at creating the right content and identifying the best keywords. They’ve analyzed which terms were easier to rank for and which ones would bring the best results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I want to have more backlinks, but they’ve told me I need to pay more money for this. I can understand this, from a business perspective. Doing more pruning on the website’s title tags and other elements would be another improvement. WebpageFX did this in the beginning, but they haven’t made any changes in a while. Tweaking things a bit would help.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the advertising and marketing manager of Drayer Physical Therapy, an outpatient physical therapy provider. We have outpatient centers in 15 states on the East Coast. We promote these services through online searches, or directly to patients. In our department, we have printed supplies that go out to our regional marketing places, as well as online digital marketing components.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

WebpageFX assists us with our online visibility.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a redesign for our website on WordPress. We had another third-party company that redesigned a very basic website, and the functionality wasn’t there. They make individual location pages for each of our centers, work on optimization for local search, and provide SEO for organic search terms. They do monthly maintenance and make suggestions on different ways to make the website more interactive for the patient’s experience.

The SEO work that we’ve done with WebpageFX also helps us with link building. They add keywords to the backend of our websites, and also set up how and what we should include. They have a couple of image sliders and different plugins that they’ve put on our website as well.

We had a listing of our centers before, but they never had their own landing page, so we weren’t able to market individual centers. Everything WebpageFX offered has helped organically. We’ve set up some Google Plus pages for every single center, and WebpageFX helped make that happen. They’re also continuously adding testimonials, pictures, and directional sentences, which have been of the most help to us.

What is the team composition?

We have a general rep and an SEO rep.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

Our previous CIO started using WebpageFX for some changes, and he informed me that they’d been named Technology Company of the Year. That’s when internally IT was maintaining our website, before we switched it over to our marketing department. We likely found them through local search or familiarity with their work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve been on a retainer that runs just under $1,000 per month for the past 2 years. This cost covers our SEO and regular website maintenance. We’ve also had separate payments for projects. The WordPress redesign cost around $5,000, and we’ve also spent around $2,000 for various projects, including migration of existing websites into our CMS.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of SEO, each time we look at our traffic, it’s usually doubled [year over year]. We’re definitely growing, and we can attribute it all to our website optimization. We were in a really bad place in the beginning, but WebpageFX helped us grow by adding so much more to our presence. Their last report shows our average session duration as over 1 minute, with 2 pages per session, which we try to keep on the higher side. Our total website traffic in December increased by 94% compared to last year, with the sessions increasing from 12,000 to 23,000.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Our SEO rep is great. She meets with us monthly and goes over the reports regarding our site visits in a year-to-date or month-over-month comparison to see how traffic has changed and what patterns are being formed. Her communication style is good, and she always lets us know what she’s doing and what we’re responsible for.

We use Basecamp for project management. The work isn’t as consistent because we’re not continuously giving them updates. Sometimes, we don’t really know where our monthly maintenance is going, but for the most part, they accomplish tasks which we assign to them.

Currently, the website is finished and running. We just recently sent some changes, and the SEO rep has been good about giving us a timeline and letting us know how things are going. Their project management is good, and they provide transparency to their progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is great. They have a team where everybody is an expert in an individual area. When we’re speaking about SEO, our rep can go back to the developers, ask for changes, and find out if the changes coordinate with SEO efforts. Having an expert in each area is nice, because we can get everything we need in one place.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I suggest clients be more proactive in regards to staying up to date with technology. Sometimes, we’re catching up with what’s already going on. We knew local search was already happening, so we had to involve ourselves quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We fabricate countertops, and I’m involved with outside sales and marketing. We do digital templating of the area where the customer wants a countertop, then we create and install them. We’re heavily involved with social media.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

WebpageFX’s owner spoke to our owner about SEO and the benefits of the backend helping the frontend of our website. We started out with a basic package from them, and saw immediate results.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They first assessed the backend performance of our website, starting with keyword research and optimization. They guaranteed us that 10 of those keywords would be in the top 3 results within a certain amount of time. They also wrote copy for us, and we began to see results in terms of how people were discovering our business. We knew that while we didn’t understand everything they were doing, that their services were starting to work in our favor.

They realized that I was doing the blog and that it would be better to incorporate it into our website. They moved it for me, and also created some awesome content. One that really stands out was Will’s [President and Founder, WebpageFX] idea regarding homemade granite and stone cleaner. He did research to see if people were searching for that topic, then used it to bring people to our website. The more people that land on our page, the more Google will recognize as a value to the industry.

After he wrote the content, we actually started making our own granite and stone cleaner based on the article. We’re now off the charts in terms of the amount of volume for those keywords. We now use it for marketing, and we also give the cleaner out to customers during our kitchen tours. It helped us stand out from competitors, because they only talk about industry prices.

WebpageFX also managed our PPC ads this year, but we’re not currently very active because we switched gears. Right now, Will’s working on a piece for us involving white countertops because it’s in high demand right now. People have a lot of questions regarding what material to use in their kitchen and how those products behave differently, so it will bring a lot of traffic to our site. WebpageFX is going to do the research and writing with our input, then they’ll go back through and make edits and put it on the website. I’m positive that we’ll see positive results from that.

What is the team dynamic?

Will always explains everything to me. If I have a question, or if I’m confused about something, he always walks me through whatever I need to know.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

Our owner was approached by WebpageFX’s owner. In the beginning, we were thinking about if we needed to use SEO, and if we did, how we could get the most benefit from it. Before hiring WebpageFX, we investigated within the market so we had something to compare. In my opinion, the work they do is intangible, so it’s not something that is easily understandable. We researched and interviewed different companies, but we had an immediate connection with WebpageFX. There was a certain trust in the engagement, and they shed light on their process and what they would do for us, ultimately making it more tangible and measurable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re paying $800 per month. Our budget is very flexible because if something isn’t working the way we want it to, or if we want to increase our activity, Will is very accommodating. He does try to work within our agreed budget, though.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2013, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website ranks in the top 4 results. They show us organic versus paid on the reports they provide. The reports also go into detail regarding keyword increases and decreases. There are also metrics for the blog regarding which posts are garnering positive results. We track everything, then they crunch the numbers and show us what is or isn’t working.

The internet marketing report is available to me every month, and it goes over traffic via unbranded organic search and gives me the monthly and yearly trends. It also gives me the goal conversion rate. The year over year conversion rate is up 35.76%, and our new users have increased to 35.99%. Our sessions have increased from 2,200 to 3,000 in the last year, and new users have increased from 1,717 to 2,335. I’m pretty pleased with the outcome so far.

We have a free repair estimation page, so we’re also able to measure how many people fill that out. We’re also doing call tracking and organic calls on our contact page. If a new user comes to our website and they’ve never used Gmail before, the website will show a different type of phone number. This allows the call to be recorded when they contact us.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They are excellent with project management. In the very beginning of our relationship, they asked us how we wanted to receive information and who to send it to. From there, I’ve been the primary contact who receives all that information, then I consolidate it and give it to our owner and business manager. WebpageFX always asks how they can do a better job.

We use Excel and Google Drive to share all of the reports, which allows us to have easy-to-use file folders that work better within our overall system. They also have something called Marketing Cloud that I’m able to go in and look at.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re good listeners, which speaks volumes to me. Will is always open for new ideas and input. If I don’t understand something, they’re willing to accommodate my needs and change what they’re doing. They always find a solution, and there are never any problems working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I ever faced with them was needing more simplified and shareable reports. They took care of the problem, and continue to address whatever I need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for PlayPower, an outdoor recreation play company that also provides outdoor commercial shade structures and indoor play. I manage the Eloqua marketing automation, the Salesforce CRM [customer relationship management], and the PPC [pay-per-click] and remarketing through AdWords.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

We needed an SEO [search engine optimization] and PPC provider for our newly acquired brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Primarily, I work with them on the PPC and remarketing side of things. They also do our SEO.

I don’t have to really manage them. They know our brand. When PlayWorld was acquired by PlayPower, they then became very knowledgeable on all of those brands. We expanded the scope and opened our contract to include all the brands, and allowed them to take on all the work.

What is the team dynamic?

We’re occupying most of their web development team. There are multiple players involved now, as far as our team members, and they understand all the politics between the brands and they work with that. It’s like they’re a part of our team.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

When I came on board, we were already working with them. I was a little hesitant because I come from an agency background and am very critical of other agencies. However, I really found out that they are tremendously good. They got on board with our other brands so quickly, even with all the other clients they have.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $100,000 to $125,000 on brand management. For AdWords, we’ve allotted between $75,000 and $100,000 for the year. The whole PPC remarketing spend for 2018 will be around $250,000. That doesn’t include SEO, which we’ve also tried to ramp up.

In total, it comes to under $800,000, not including ad spend. We’re one of their larger clients.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together for the PlayWorld brand in 2013. We’ve had them working on the other PlayPower brands since 2016. The work is ongoing and we hope to expand it further.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything on our AdWords account has climbed positively and all our SEO has been positive too. I can’t cite anything that hasn’t improved since we brought them on board. It’s been a significant improvement. They know the business almost as well as we do. 

They’re very good at juggling their workload. You wouldn’t even know that we’re just one of many as they’re good at keeping that personal feel. 

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They are incredibly proactive. I don’t have to ask them to check in about brand performance or hold their hand on anything. As long as we pay our invoices, we get a solid performance from them. I feel very confident to let them run with it, especially as we haven't been as perfect as we could have been on our side, which made it a little more challenging for them.

We have bi-weekly meetings. If I ever say we need to meet weekly or we can just cancel this meeting, they’re very responsive and flexible with all of that. We’ve gone to visit their office and they were very hospitable. They have come to visit our office as well. Any meeting that we’ve had with them, whether it’s on the phone or in person is very productive. They’re approachable.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have an incredibly happy team. When we say we need to have more meetings or contribute a little more time to this, they don’t immediately ask for more money. They’re flexible in that sense as well. There’s some loyalty with them. We truly have a strategic partner with WebpageFX. 

They’re also understanding and their relationship with us is fantastic. We have thrown so much at them with the acquisition and they took it all in their stride. They worked with us and went out of their way to get things in front of us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of their disadvantages is location. You wouldn’t think that such a powerhouse of a company would be located in central Pennsylvania. They are comparable, if not better than the big hitter advertising agencies that I’ve worked for in New York. Everything from the work that they do to the environment that they have and their overall business model. I have no complaints, which is incredible. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the owners of North American Auto Equipment, and we sell automotive and heavy duty shop equipment such as lifts, tire changers, wheel balancers, rim straighteners, and frame machines. We sell on a national level, and also provide service and installation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

We wanted to enhance our website SEO. Our previous vendor was performing poorly, which caused us to have low visibility.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started out by interviewing me via phone regarding what my current SEO manager was or wasn’t doing. They really helped me understand what SEO was, and asked me basic questions about my company’s products, current status, and future goals. They checked my website to see how it was functioning across Google and other various search engines, and identified how my competitors were ranking in comparison.

They offered many different packages depending on what direction I wanted to go in, and also made suggestions as to what they thought would bring more activity to my website. They informed me on what bigger companies were doing in the same area, but I chose to stay on middle ground.

They meet with me every month to go over their calendar and show me that they’ve successfully fulfilled the prior month’s duties. I haven’t seen the results on the internet, but I’m seeing them on our webpage. They’ve added more content in appropriate areas, and have taken out content where it’s not needed. Alec [Web Marketing Specialist, WebpageFX] has a team of writers who provide long and short form content, including blogs and captions for images or videos. This allows my audience to spend less time reading, and more time looking through my website as a whole.

WebpageFX identified our target audience as being visually receptive, so they suggested we add more pictures and videos, make the pictures larger, and adjust our content appropriately. Their advice has been substantial and has helped enhance our website on the backend. Alec constantly adds information to increase our visibility and to keep our SEO proactive.

They put a contact form on our website that automatically gets sent to finance companies for approval, which ultimately streamlined the entire process. Now, I’m only contacted to close the deal after a customer has been approved or denied.

In the future, we plan on looking at our competitors to see what we could be capturing more effectively on our site.

What is the team dynamic?

I work with Alec, and although he does a lot of the work himself, he always refers back to his team. I find this impressive because it shows there’s a dedicated group of people on many different levels working on my website. They provide a comforting and collaborative relationship.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

I had no prior SEO knowledge, so I searched for some information on Google. I found WebpageFX’s website, and saw that they were ranked as one of the best in the industry for the type of work I needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000 total, and we currently pay a $1,200 maintenance fee. I was able to pick and choose what services I needed, and if I ever need additional resources, I can add those without issue.

When we were wrapping up the project, the website landing pages weren’t directing to the appropriate places, so we had to make some updates in the backend. It took WebpageFX about a week to figure out the problem, and I was charged some one-time upfront fees so they could assign additional resources to fix the issue.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We receive a monthly report, but we get more involved during the quarterly report because the metrics are more telling of our progress. When we look at the results together, Alec tells us where we stand and what the added value on the website has done for us. We’ve almost doubled our organic leads and our CTRs [click through rates] because of WebpageFX’s efforts.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They have an open calendar that allows me to see their monthly progress, and if there’s anything I need to add, I’m able to email Alec so he can plan for it. They provide a transparent relationship, and always make sure I’m up to date on their work. I feel like I’m an employee of WebpageFX. They are also very responsive, which is really refreshing.

Alec makes sure to give me every detail of what they’re working on. It’s amazing the amount of conversations I have with him, and he’s great at quickly responding to emails. There’s no second-guessing because he makes sure to inform me before I even have to ask.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our previous SEO specialist was a horrible communicator, and would wait days before responding to me. I was very frustrated with that relationship, but with WebpageFX, I receive an almost instantaneous response. Their ability to communicate with me is extremely impressive, as well as being able to see exactly what they’re working on at all times. They check in with me so regularly that I never have to worry about reaching out to them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they could do better. They’re so good at their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the marketing director for a Four Diamond hotel and full-service casino.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

Most recently, we desperately needed a website redesign but couldn't afford one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebpageFX has done multiple site redesigns for us over the years. We did a website refresh with them this past year. We shared our budget concerns with them, hashed through some ideas, and they suggested doing a reskin of the website to make it look new and fresh.

They worked with our creative team in Vegas to align the new look with our branding and keep our creative material consistent across all platforms.

They have also customized our website and programmed it according to our needs. They worked with a relatively old design because a whole redesign hasn’t been an option. We don't have a full WordPress site, though we’d like to in the future, but they made use of what we have.

They fully integrated a CMS [content management system] that we use to update our entire site. They've been able to tweak and expand it as our company and demand have changed. They also custom-coded an important My Account section for our customers. It's not real-time, but we update it on a daily basis. Users can see details of their play in the casino from the previous day.

They do long-form content and other extensive SEO [search engine optimization] projects for us, as well as PPC [pay-per-click] and online marketing. We use them for every service they offer.

What is the team dynamic?

Bill [President/Co-Founder, WebpageFX] and Karie [COO/Co-Founder, WebpageFX] came down and met with us. We mostly work with them, as well as a couple of other team members. Xander [Senior Internet Marketing Strategist, WebpageFX] is our project manager.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

I did an extensive interview and bidding process with 10 companies. WebpageFX stood out from the others because they aren’t characterized by the typical dishonesty in their industry. I get daily sales calls for SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and web design, but they all want to resell me a software package they already created. WebpageFX was able to custom make what no one else could.

They went through with us exactly what we wanted and offered a much more cost-effective approach than their competitors.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2007 and continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before we started using them, our website visits weren’t even 100,000 per month. Now we're well above that. They make recommendations each year on how we can improve those.

Their reskin was just what we wanted and needed. We've also had a lot of growth in our new accounts section. Our customers are using it, and it's been extremely helpful for us; it's given us an edge over our local competition.

What I like about them is that they're always proposing new ideas, but they're not married to them. They don't get upset or refuse to do something we’ve requested. If we try something and it doesn’t work, they don't waste my time or money. They take pride in their work while remaining flexible, which is refreshing.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Our last big website redesign, in 2010, was the easiest project I’ve been involved with in my lifetime. It was so simple. I was expecting to have to manage everything and be in charge of all follow-up, but they handled it all. They made it simple and took responsibility for making sure everybody did what they were assigned. It was wonderful.

They've never had a problem working with our Vegas team, which is nice.

For normal, day-to-day project management, we have weekly meetings with Xander. He does a very good job at keeping me up-to-date on what's going on and where we are at.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency and honesty, especially compared to other vendors I've worked with. I don’t feel like I'm being sold a bill of goods with no results to show.

When they give me the budget for the year, they break down how much I’ll spend in total, what I’ll pay them, and what I’ll be paying a third party. I’ve also asked for a break down at other times, and Xander’s told me clearly and succinctly, without misrepresenting anything. I’ve worked with a lot of agencies, and no one has ever done that.

They’ve never told us they couldn’t do something we asked for, with one exception, and in that case they referred us to someone who could.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve had conversations with them about the timeliness of their responses. A few times I’ve needed a response on a project a lot sooner than they provided it. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I call them, they address it, and they fix it. It’s usually been because they were inundated with projects all at once.

I appreciate that they’ve always acknowledged the issue and made changes accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a marketing specialist for a Caterpillar dealership in Los Angeles. My job is to maintain all of the website edits.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

Our site had gone 11 years with no changes. We hadn’t corrected typos or changed contact information as employees left. We were looking for a complete redesign.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came up with a couple of mockups for our team to look at. Once our management decided which one to go with, it was a pretty seamless process. We’re a unique industry, so I worked with the different departments at Quinn Company, getting pictures and content we needed laid out in Word and we sent it off to WebpageFX.

Their team prettied it up and filled in missing pictures we didn't have or couldn't source. There was a lot of back and forth at this point. They did everything we asked for. A few times they jumped in and said what they would or wouldn’t recommend and why. Those suggestions were very helpful in guiding us without making us feel that they hijacked the project. We were pretty adamant that we go with Wordpress. I had worked previously with Drupal and knew that it had some restrictions. They walked us through WordPress and gave us a cheat sheet with instructions. They showed us different features we could use on Wordpress. 

What is the team dynamic?

We worked mostly with Brianna [Project Manager, WebpageFX] on the web design.  I've heard them throw out some other names, so other people were working on it, but I didn’t work directly with them.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

We worked with them previously to become an approved CAT web vendor. We interviewed a couple of other CAT vendors and decided to go with WebpageFX. We’ve done a few projects with them now and their responsiveness was always great. The output from their end was good, and so we stuck with them for the website redesign.

How much have you invested with them?

The redesign was around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We launched it in November 2016. We started the redesign in September of 2015. We have full control of it. Every once in a while, I have questions about how something works or if I want to try something new, so I go back to WebpageFX. It's fully launched and live, and our management loves the new look. We're currently retaining them for maintenance and SEO services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It hasn't encouraged our employees to go look at the site more, but we have a long list of subscribers to our site’s newsletter. Our visits are up and our bounce rates are down. We're selling more of the used equipment that we feature, so I think it's doing well.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great. Brianna was our point of contact during the redesign, so when I had questions for different departments at WebpageFX, she filtered them for us, got the information, and came back to us. We didn’t have to contact several different people. We used Basecamp and Google Docs. Google Docs was awesome. Now that they are doing SEO for us, our point of contact has changed.

First and foremost, they are very responsive. They are quick to respond to phone calls or emails and get back to us on any questions. They don’t mind explaining things at our level of understanding when we have questions or need to explain something to our management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their response time. They don't leave you wondering if they got your message. They're good at responding quickly to any questions we have, even if it's to say they’ll to get back to us. We had a great experience with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO for Book Haven Press LLC. We're a diversified publishing company that’s both print and web-based.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

We needed help keeping up with all the changes that Google implemented with the Hummingbird updates. The updates have the potential to change your position in the search results and we were noticing a drop in our search results. One of our sites has been online since 1994. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We mostly use them for SEO, but over the scope of work, they’ve become more of a partner in the sense that they do a lot more than just SEO. They optimized the design on our pages that attract more traffic and made the site more appealing for visitors. Anytime we have an issue with our WordPress blogs, they assist us. They do a lot of meta tagging for us on our new articles that our many writers produce. They check every one and make sure the meta tags match up to the content and are compatible with Google and Bing searches and all the others.

They make recommendations on changes that might be relevant and suggestions for other updates. They do the unification of the domains. They go into our various web-based accounts and optimize various them to make it more seamless. They work on the .htaccess files, and the sitemap XML. We now can’t do without them as they maintain our positioning and our results.

They also do a lot with analytics for us. That involves deep studies in Google Analytics and even in Google AdSense. They compare the two and they’ll work out inconsistencies. We had problems previously with erroneous sites coming in on our reports and they resolved that.

What is the team dynamic? 

I started with one person and after he got promoted, I was passed to Joe [WebpageFX] who I’ve worked with for the last two years or more. They were both excellent, exceptional, and very dedicated. They have a great work ethic. If I have a problem, even on his day off, Joe will email me if I have an issue. He keeps track and makes sure things are done timely. If it’s urgent, like we’re losing a feed, they get up and get involved and are very helpful with resolving the problem. 

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

I contacted them based on a referral from another business associate, Career Pro Global, who is an integral partner with us as well. They were very satisfied with the results they had received. 

How much have you invested with them?

Since our initial contract, maybe $25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together four or five years ago and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been instrumental in maintaining our placement on the web and on keeping the sites clean, presentable, and mobile compatible. They’ve helped improve the search results with meta tags and their recommendations on how to configure. They determine what content is the most searched in our genre on the internet, primarily Google and Bing and others. Then they come back and tell us what content needs to be brought in or where we need to refocus or consolidate. From that perspective, they keep us focused on the best way to keep our traffic up and going. Without the traffic and site visits, our CPM [cost per thousand] would drop.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good. We talk about things that they could improve, whether its traffic or performance or site visitor experience and then they set up a tentative plan. We work together on it. We do the design in-house, but we usually format it based on their outline. 

They have a project every month that focuses on a mutually agreed upon performance outcome. That helps us to focus our attention on where we think we’ll get the biggest bang for the buck, the most improvement, and the best experience for our visitors. 

They have an online tool that gives us a spreadsheet of where they’re at with any given project, with past performance and numerous reports. They also send a monthly report summarizing everything. We have at least one major call a month where we talk about what’s been accomplished, new things that come up, and what’s projected for the next one to three-month period. We have longer-term targets too, for example, we’re looking at changing everything to https, which they’ll help us with. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their contact and interaction are impressive. It’s a great service. They provide timely input. They help keep our revenue stream growing even amongst the very different genre websites we have. We’re very satisfied with them.

They are willing to go above and beyond what we originally agreed to do. If something is causing a problem in any of our web properties, they’ll step in to help if it’s affecting overall performance. They look for ways to improve efficiency in our operation. If one of the sites is decreasing in site visits and revenue and another one is increasing, they evaluate why and they talk to us about it. They’re intuitive and they work with us to improve efficiency. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their cost structure is reasonable. It is expensive, and we’re a small company, but I can’t fault them for their fee structure. The first-year contract was a lot more than what we pay on a monthly non-contract basis now. 

I can’t think of anything else they can improve. They pretty much do everything we want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the practice administrator of a solo plastic surgery practice. We do both cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

They helped us design our initial website, about 10 to 12 years ago. Since then, they've maintained our SEO on a monthly basis. They’ve worked on Google AdWords campaigns for us for a while. We meet with Xander Becket [Internet Marketer, WebpageFX] a couple of times a year to discuss optimization and the website’s progress. They've also managed email blasts for us. Around June, we started developing a new website. Since then we've been working closely on getting that up.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our old website was overdone; it was not current. The development was old, even the programming that they used was outdated. We had added things to the website, and it just got unwieldy and ugly. It was hard to navigate and needed an update.

Our goal was to design something more modern and easier to navigate. We chose to add quite a few more pre- and post-op pictures and testimonials. In our business, photographs of pre- and post-op surgical procedures, testimonials, and reviews are the most important things when people are making decisions about which practice to go to.

Our current launch date is two weeks away. The most difficult process has been getting our designer and project manager at WebpageFX to understand how a plastic surgery site should look because they don't do a lot of them. It's pretty specific. No other site has the same amount of pre- and post-op photos we have.

You also have to be delicate with the photos because people are naked. You have to make sure the photos don’t show too much face or identifying tattoos. There's a lot of cropping to be done. They've taken a while to do it, and what they've done so far has been good. However, we did have to sit down with the project manager and go through every single photo, because it was hard for them to wrap their brain around how we expected it to look.

As far as new technology goes, I can't really speak too much about the design process of it. I do know that the design itself is much easier to look at. It's going to be a lot more attractive for our patients when they get there. It just looks more professional and cleaner. I think it's a Wordpress website, but I'm 100% sure. I believe that it is.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

I honestly don't remember. I think it was a recommendation because I don't remember specifically looking for someone and meeting with different people. Utilizing a local business was a big part of what we were looking for. There are a lot of developers who would love to make a plastic surgery website, but we wanted to support what was then a new, local business. We stayed with them for that, but we also stayed with them because their service was just so good.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent a lot with them over the years. The new web design will end up being about $10,000. I'm guessing we've probably spent $25,000 total with them over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them in 2008 and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new site isn’t live yet, so there are no concrete results yet. People still see the old website when they go online. What I do is I track my ROI from the email inquiries we get from their SEO work. We get a lead and then WebpageFX generates an email for me. I track the lead and they charge $500 a month on SEO for that. I'm probably getting between $5,000-8,000 in monthly business out of the SEO. It's a little hard to track in because some people inquire about a procedure and then might wait six months to 15 months to come back.

Although I analyze the ROI every couple of months, it changes every time. I go back about a year so I can see the trends, because even if patients inquired last October, they might only be coming in now. But I do keep track of that. I'm going to say we probably get $5,000-7,000 worth of business. A lot of people find us on Google. We track that as well, but it's harder for us to quantify the people that end up calling.

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

For the most part, their project management has been good. Some of their responsiveness has slowed down recently. I would say in the last month, the responsiveness has slowed down quite a bit and I've had to reach and ask for updates. As far as I know, there's been no change in designer and we have the same project manager.

I have a beta site I'm working on, and there is a Google Doc on which I can put in edits or changes that I want to make. Once that system began, I feel like the communication broke down. They were supposed to answer me on that document, stating the date that they completed my edits, which hasn’t been done.

The only way I've known that it's been completed is to go back and look at the new site to see what progress they've made. I found that it's broken down since the beta site came up, and it's a little sporadic in terms of what kind of feedback I'm getting. There's probably close to 200 edits I've put in. I don't know what’s been done because they haven't been marked on the Google document that we share.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take the time to understand what we need as a business. They always have. They've always been very interested in understanding not just what a plastic surgery practice is, but what our plastic surgery practice is. That is very valuable to us because we do that with our patients. We get to know them. We want to make sure that they're being treated really well. I've gotten that from WebpageFX. That's why we went back to them for the redesign.

I did get other quotes for the redesign, and WebpageFX was not the cheapest. They were in the middle, but we knew the service that they offer and we knew the level of quality that was going to come out of the new website, so we went with them again.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Just the last month, the responsiveness now that the site is almost done. I don't feel like I should have to email and ask where we are in the project. I do get a weekly email stating what’s being worked on and completion dates, but it's very general. I don't know how far along they are. For example, when I look at the photographs, I don't know which ones they've fixed and which ones they haven't. I would like more specificity at this stage when we're getting so close to launch.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of WebpageFX?

They're responsive, professional, and reasonably priced. They're not the cheapest, but they are certainly competitive price-wise. The value that we get is definitely worth the money. I have recommended them to other people. I recommended someone that they actually turned away because they said they had done a competitor's site and they didn't want to do two sites.

I hadn't delved very deep into it because it was a business contact, but I thought that was odd. That's their prerogative, but I have recommended them to a number of business contacts.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Kampgrounds of America is a collection of more than 500 franchise campgrounds across North America. I am the director of digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebpageFX?

We needed help with an SEO audit and pre-redesign for a website launch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They completed an SEO audit for us, which involved looking at our site both on-page and off-page, and from a technical SEO standpoint. They found a lot of issues that we could fix as we were redesigning and relaunching the site. After we got our pieces in place and launched some content, they did a post-audit sweep to see what we might have missed on the site and what areas we could fix.

We then hired them to help us redesign our landing pages, aid our overarching strategy, and improve pages that talk about some of our products like our cabin and RV products. They redesigned those pages and helped them to rank higher and be more visible for the keywords that we’re trying to attack. This project is more of a retainer. 

They’ve also done some conversion rate optimization as part of the package. For earned media, they created a lot of shareable infographics, micrographics, and content marketing pieces that we’ve shared out and used for link building. 

What is the team dynamic? 

I mainly communicate with Cheyenne [Internet Marketing Analyst, WebpageFX], but there’re a few others that I’ve also interacted with.

How did you come to work with WebpageFX?

I did a lot of research online and read different forums, blogs, and reviews. I called a few different companies. Their company structure and how transparent they were with what they were doing is what drew me to them. 

How much have you invested with them?

$200,000 in total. The first standalone project was around $60,000 to $70,000, while the newer one is around $70,000 to $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015 and the work is ongoing. The SEO audit project wrapped up around spring 2016 and the redesign began in January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we rewrote the site, they found a lot of technical SEO issues that required attention, such as domain unification, some redirects, and using schema on some of our reviews. We had set some benchmarks and some metrics pre-launch, and then after implementing the updates based on their recommendations, we took measurements again and saw a big increase in website traffic. Their work really helped Google understand our site a lot better. Our domain is old and has a lot of page rank. Their tips helped us to experience the full benefit of that. 

With the new landing pages, the goal was to increase time spent on pages and help users to flow through to reservations a lot quicker. We increased time on spent on pages from about 40 seconds to about 80 to 100 seconds, depending on the page. It was great to see that increased engagement and people interacting with those pages not long after we launched them. 

Our number of sessions increased by 11% this year. Regarding organic, we’re up about 16%. WebpageFX is one of the main reasons that organic traffic is up 16% this year. It now reaches, 11.3 million — an increase from 9.7 million last year. Our revenue and reservation numbers benefit from the fact that website traffic has increased. Those figures are up more than 23%. 

How did WebpageFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve all been great; super friendly and knowledgeable. They turn projects around quickly. They operate in a similar way to me and don’t hold a lot of scheduled meetings. We only meet when we need to, and otherwise, use Basecamp to communicate and keep things flowing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve got their business model down well with their pricing, what they do, and their workflow. They seem to have a very happy workforce comprising people that want to work hard for them. They’re knowledgeable and have a very regimented way of getting things out the door. Their workflow is impressive. Their ability to look at our business and recommend new ways on how we can improve it and help us strategize is something that they do really well. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

With some of the regimented, down the line stuff, comes a little bit of a distance between graphic design or copywriters. Maybe they could get to know a brand a little bit better in the beginning, but that’s a two-way street as well. 

Do you have any recommendations for someone who is considering WebpageFX?

I would absolutely hire them and work with them. Be transparent as possible with what your goals are and be very clear on what you’re looking to execute when working with them.