Bruce Jones SEO Consultant

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CMO and marketing lead for a small local music school in the Chicago Suburbs. I manage all of our marketing efforts to support our sales team.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bruce Jones SEO Consultant, and what were your goals?

We are working on building our online presence and SEO/google lead gen efforts, and Bruce has been instrumental in helping us garner new lead opportunities through his expertise in build and improving our SEO.

How did you select Bruce Jones SEO Consultant and what were the deciding factors?

We met Bruce through a local business owner's group and were impressed by his professionalism and how knowledgeable he is on his subject matter.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Bruce walked us through great tools we can use to improve our SEO, explained the process, and continually helps us to find solutions and ways to improve.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One person, Bruce, who is the owner.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our lead gen through google has increased!

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Bruce is always available to assist us as needed, and is well organized using google docs and file sharing.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Bruce's professionalism, knowledge level, and willingness to go above and beyond for us between our regularly scheduled meetings is outstanding.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We are completely satisfied with Bruce's work!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Bethesda Project is a nonprofit in Philadelphia that provides emergency shelter, permanent housing, and case management support services to people experiencing homelessness. I work in the development department and I do all of the organization’s marketing, PR, events, and grant writing.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

As an organization, we’re about 40 years old and we’ve never done any kind of digital marketing beyond social media and having a website. I don’t know anything about SEO and I didn’t really have training about it. I’ve written web content, but not to the point of optimizing it. I also don’t know much about websites other than putting things on that my boss told me to put out.

However, since the quarantine, I’ve been doing more research into it. It’s something that I’ve already been interested in, but I never had the time to go out and really learn how to do it. As a result, I posted on Catchfire that I was looking for someone who can teach me about SEO. Catchfire is a platform where people post projects and potential candidates can apply for the job. It's a skill-based volunteering site. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

50% of the people who come to our site use Bethesda Project as their keywords — that means the only people who come to us are the people who already know us. That proved to me that we needed to do more work in SEO and in optimizing our website. We don't have benchmarks and deliverables because he's literally just teaching me how to do SEO.  However, he goes through and sets an agenda every Monday, and on Tuesdays, we talk about it.

Bruce (Owner) has been showing me to do basic things in SEO and each session typically takes an hour  — it's an SEO 101. He conducts lessons every week. Basically, he’s been serving as a teacher and mentor for me which I very much appreciate. He taught me about Google My Business and he showed me how to reclaim sites for us until the day I learned how to do it. He also introduced Keyword Hero and Ahrefs, and even on how to set up reports I can do monthly. In addition, Bruce showed me data audits and I even learned how to set up a redirect on my webpage. 

Currently, I’m well-versed with the SEO’s basics, so I’m now figuring out questions I really want to ask and things I’m really interested in, such as optimizing our website and learning how to continue to read our analytics better. That way I can make recommendations better during different circumstances and decide how the board can help us. I’m at the point where I can figure out what the demographics are and what needs to happen and not only delegate that out. 

What is the team composition?

I only work with Bruce. 

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

He was the best fit because he decided that he was going to teach me despite it being a volunteer project. We also talked to a few people about this and I got the sense they were only trying to sell me services. However, Bruce’s mindset was that he was not just going to do things for me, instead, he was going to teach me how to do SEO.  

How much have you invested with them?

He’s done everything pro bono for us. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020, and our collaboration is ongoing. We first got in touch with them in September 2020.

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

Bruce's work has helped me in my work and I even got a job promotion for it. I'm very thankful for Bruce Jones SEO Consultant's work. They've been really helpful for our organization. With their valuable contributions, we've received increased traffic, mainly because of the things that he showed me.

They've helped me get the skills that will be able to help me market myself and do my work. Our page views increased and along with that our unique visitors almost double with a metric of 45%. Furthermore, our site visits also soared by 50% and our homepage views jumped thousands. Besides all of that, our impressions doubled while our bounced rate improved.  

Perhaps, it was also because it was 'Hungry and Homelessness Awareness Week' last month and people searched for that. In addition, I think we had a really high page view because we also had a lot more press last month than we have had in a while. With the SEO, our social audit (done by another company), and our Google Ads — the combination of all three made it possible to optimize our pages more including our volunteer page. Overall, talking to Bruce has helped me clean up our page and that’s also contributed to our increased average session duration. 

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

I can’t really say anything about meeting deadlines because they provided more of an education to me. However, his communication style is super direct and organized. He’s effectively on time and has good communication skills. He’s also very patient.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He’s competent and he knows what he’s doing because he has over 20 years of experience. In addition, he’s very patient in how he talks to me as I’m trying to understand SEO. Most importantly, he always tries to explain what’s happening to me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't think there are any areas they could improve. I think he’s great. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come in with specific questions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Ocean Blue Project. Our mission to remove plastic out of the ocean through restoration and repair work.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

They help us with keyword research and optimization.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bruce (SEO Consultant) is involved in a little bit of everything, addressing what needs to be addressed. They help with our Google My Business, backlinking, and our website’s performance, along with offsite SEO services. He ensures that everything complies with Google if setbacks occur.

What is the team composition?

We’ve only worked with Bruce.

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

We met Bruce through Catchafire, a volunteer service that partnered with a well-known clothing brand.

How much have you invested with them?

He volunteers his services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant started six months ago.

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

I’ve worked with other people, and he is pretty much the only guy that truly understands. We saw positive and drastic improvements through the SEO work. We use Google Analytics to view metrics. We’ve enjoyed working with them.

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

Bruce does an excellent job with project management. We meet every Monday through Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their honest work ethic. A lot of people just say that they went on your website and fixed the problem. Bruce sits down and takes the time to explain his process. He shows me how to do it myself.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would be careful working with anyone besides Bruce.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a roofing company in Northern Colorado. I run our business development, Digital Marketing, and web design.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bruce Jones SEO Consultant, and what were your goals?

I would say I know SEO quite well. But there are still things I don't know that are very valuable. So I hired Bruce to teach me what I know so I can confidently we're doing everything possible to get our business ranking on google maps with the keywords that matter most.

How did you select Bruce Jones SEO Consultant and what were the deciding factors?

I connected with through a referral source from a Local SEO forum.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Weekly 1 hour SEO training sessions. I come to Bruce with issues and SEO questions I am having. He provides answers and solutions. Then we track all of our conversations and resources so I can follow up with the information learned.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

His sessions are significantly better than the degree I spent a $100,000 on at a university. All for an easy monthly payment.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

User word, zoom meeting, and provides multiple google chrome extensions I wouldn't have known without his expertise. We meet on a weekly basis.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Does a great job explaining everything that needs to be done to a website to make it fully optimized and give it the best chance to rank on Google for the keywords that matter most for our business.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

n/a

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a transportation services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

I wanted to climb up the rankings on Google for many keywords in order to attract new clients, especially during the COVID-19 era.

What was the scope of their involvement?

He showed me how to do the on-site SEO and he does the offsite SEO, submissions to business directors, etc. I write my content and fix my own pages on the website, and then I tell him it's ready and he develops links and backlinks. He also writes some pages that require more fluent English and things like that.

We worked on keyword research together. I have access to a lot of his tools so do the keywords and then he checks the article. We made some changes to my interface but they were minor. He also helps me with email marketing for the holidays.

What is the team composition?

I work with Bruce (SEO Consultant).

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

I had another guy who hadn’t done anything for a couple of years. When COVID-19 hit, I decided it was important to step harder into SEO so I started searching online for somebody new. Bruce was local, and my other guy wasn’t so I decided to go with a local person. I tried him for 2-3 months and saw that things were moving forward.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020 and the work is ongoing.

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

I already have about 100 keywords on page one already. He’s very transparent and gave me access to the results and progress myself, and whether I’m going up or down for the number of backlinks and referral domains pointing back to my website. He doesn’t send me monthly reports because I actually see the tracking of my website progress.

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s easy to work with. We have weekly meetings on whichever days I’m free because my schedule changes. I can easily schedule an appointment with him. He uses Zoom and email. I text with him almost every day as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have a website tracker so I know who is coming in and when. I notice Bruce comes in around 6:00-6:30 AM and he works until 10:00-11:00 PM. He works hard and tries to earn the money he’s getting from me. So far, I’m happy. We plan to increase the target for a few more websites but I want to start getting money back from this one so I can fill up my buckets again. I’m going to trust him with a second budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have him improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s really hard to decide in the beginning whether to hire him or not. I got burned by two guys before. You’ll see results if you work with Bruce, though.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of Cars of Hope. Cars of Hope is one of the few organizations in Chicago that takes donated cars, repairs them, and gives them to people who have fallen into hard times. We are a community service, 501(c)(3) organization. We give people tax receipts for the vehicles that they donate to us.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

We wanted to increase Cars of Hope’s online presence and let people know that we are a unique organization that is actually helping people with car needs. Many other organizations ask for cars so that they can sell them and fund their projects. This doesn't necessarily help the community. That’s what differentiates us from other donation organizations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bruce Jones SEO Consultant is primarily providing SEO services. Bruce (SEO Consultant) is helping us make our online presence known in the Chicago-land area. He is reorganizing the way we do our whole media platform. Phase one of the SEO work is focused on our web presence. We already have a social media presence, but he’s taking us to the next level. Bruce is doing keyword research as well as on- and offsite SEO.

Phase two of the project will involve strategic structural changes to our website. There is a serious need to restructure the website in order to include key search words on our webpages. Bruce is also helping us to link with other websites. When anyone searches for our keywords, there will be all kinds of reasons for our website to come up because of all the backlinks that are out there.

Bruce is also coaching us on what verbiage we should be using, what words will or won’t work. For example, if we're set up in a certain business location, he cautions against using too many other locations in the same location, as this may confuse the Google search options for us. He has an insight in that area.

Bruce also helps us with our social media platform. He does CRR media, so he sees what we get. He has been able to coach us with the types of words and photos that we use, as well as the length of our postings. He has been very knowledgeable in helping us in that area. In terms of posting content, Bruce has stepped in a couple of times because he saw some gaps in our resource area. However, we're now able to continue operating on our own.

What is the team composition?

Bruce is the key person that we work with. I’m not aware of any other team members.

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

We found Bruce through business organization networking. The reason we chose him is because of his knowledge and work experience. He also knows what he’s talking about. We had an idea of what language we should use, but we wanted someone to help us. Bruce has mastered the language. We tested some of his suggestions, and all of them worked phenomenally. We almost instantaneously saw results.

He is working with a lot of organizations in this area and they’ve been very successful as they’re coming up on the first page with almost every search. Bruce has been very successful in helping a limo company break into the limo field, which is very large.

How much have you invested with them?

It is all pro bono. Bruce thought he could help us expand what we're doing, and he was right. I think he typically charges around $3,000–$5,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bruce in March 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We used to receive 1–2 car donations a month. Since we started working with Bruce, we are getting at least one car donation every week. That trend is still going up. We have a line of sight to go to 2–3 vehicles a week based on the direction that Bruce has taken us.

When someone types in key search words that pertain to our organization, we come up on the first page. Bruce was fantastic in helping us get up there almost immediately after we started working with him. He is doing a fantastic job. He has a great skill set, which has helped us to make some serious improvements to the way we get the word out.

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

Bruce has set up a communication document on our Google Drive. When we have meetings with him, our action plans are recorded on the Drive. He has also included information that we can use to make sure that we’re connecting with the right people on our end. He’s been very good at written communication and documentation.

We started out with biweekly meetings and then reduced those to every other week because we still have a lot of work to do on our end. We usually initiate the meeting because Bruce works on our schedule, so we communicate when we're ready. Bruce is always ready — when I email him, I usually have an answer within a couple of hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are multiple things. I used to be a manager at a large corporation, so I have experience evaluating people and how they perform. I have found Bruce to be really good in many areas. Bruce is very thorough, and he always does what he says he's going to do. He is courteous and understanding, and he does a great job of explaining things that we don't understand.

He's just exceptional and a real joy to work with. He has great people skills and is a great listener. He has a great skill set that has helped us to make some serious improvements in the way that we get the word out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any weak areas to point out for him. The key thing is that he has the experience and professionalism to do a great job. There are really no issues or weakness areas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I consider Bruce a walking encyclopedia when it comes to SEO. Listen to what he has to say and take it to heart. If you don’t understand what he’s saying, feel free to ask him questions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a transportation services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

I wanted to climb the rankings on Google for several keywords in order to attract new clients, especially because of COVID-19.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bruce Jones SEO Consultant provides SEO services for me, including showing me how to do onsite SEO. He also does offsite SEO, submissions to business directors, and other tasks. 

I write the content for pages on my website, tell him it’s ready, and he takes it from there to develop the links and backlinks. For pages that require more fluency in English, he’ll write those. We also made some changes to the interface but they were minor.

We work on keyword research together since I have access to a lot of his tools. I do things related to my job with keywords, and then he’ll check the article. He also helps me with email marketing for the holidays.

What is the team composition?

I work with Bruce (SEO Consultant).

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

I had another provider who hadn’t done anything for a couple of years. When COVID-19 hit in March, I then decided it was important to work harder on SEO. Bruce was a local person, and my previous provider was out of town, so I gave Bruce a try. I tried him for 2–3 months and saw that things were moving forward, so we continued working together. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

I already have about 100 keywords on the first page already. I hope that when the travel resumes, it will pay off. 

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s easy to work with. We have weekly meetings whenever I’m free because my schedule can change. I can easily schedule an appointment with him. He uses Zoom and email, but I text with him almost every day, as well.

He’s very transparent and gives me access to see the results and progress myself. Whether I’m going up or down for backlinks and the referral domains that point back to my website, I have access. He doesn’t send me monthly reports because I actually see the tracking of my website progress. I check it twice a day because I’m a little paranoid and like to check things, so I have access to do that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have a website tracker so I know who is coming to the site. Sometimes, I’ll notice Bruce come in around 6:30 AM and work until 11:00 PM — he works hard and tries to earn the money I'm paying him. So far, I’m happy. We plan to increase the target for a few more websites but I want to start getting money back from this one first. I’m going to trust him with a second budget, too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have him improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s really hard to decide in the beginning whether someone or not — I got burnt from two people before, but you’ll see the results come in if you work with Bruce.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of The Paradise Dream, an e-commerce company for adult products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

I needed support with SEO. My goal was to rank better on search engines.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bruce (SEO Consultant) helped me with keyword research. He guided me through the process of finding the right keywords to rank on the first page. He also assisted with backlinks to my site. 

What is the team composition?

I only work with Bruce.

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

Bruce gave an SEO presentation for a WordPress community I’m a member of. I got his information and reached out for a partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent about $1,500 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2020, and the work is ongoing.

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

I saw immediate results. As soon as we started working together, my numbers began to rise on organic search. Also, the clicks through my website doubled.

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

His project management style is excellent. We communicate via email and live chat. Often, we share screens to make sure we’re totally aligned, which is helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bruce is professional and very knowledgeable about what he does. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of that he can improve. I’ve been very happy with our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Reach out to him.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Platinum Minds, a nonprofit leadership development organization for boys. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

We hired them to update a few pages on our website and increase our overall traffic. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, an audit of our website was performed. From there, they made changes to our site, including providing slides for our event page. 

Outside of the site, they help with our Google Business page, set up a YouTube account, and run our Google Ads. For the SEO efforts, they ran us through their approach, but the in-depth work hasn’t started in that area. 

What is the team composition?

Bruce (SEO Consultant) is our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

We found him on Catchafire, a platform that matches volunteers with nonprofits, and developed a business relationship that works with both of our schedules. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1,500. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020 and we’re still working together. 

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

He’s been phenomenal. Because of working with Bruce we better understand different internet functions and how they relate to our business. Though it’s too soon to see any traffic impact, Bruce will be working with us to demonstrate any progress. 

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

Bruce is very easy to work with—he’s cooperative and helpful. He always comes with additional suggestions and ideas to help move the project forward. We mostly communicate via email, Zoom, e-calendar, and phone calls. Communication is easy for us and he’s willing and flexible to do whatever is easiest for us. He’s always available and helpful. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bruce’s great communication skills are impressive—he’s very conscientious about ensuring he’s helping us. We know he wants us to be at the top of search results and be successful. He has a genuine interest in making us more visible online and wants to take every measure to help us get there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

He’s a great person to work with—you’ll get a lot out of the experience and everything will run smoothly. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of Media Burn Archive, a nonprofit arts organization that preserves and distributes documentary videos produced by artists, activists, and community groups. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

Since we serve our audience members primarily through online videos, we engaged Bruce (SEO Consultant) to do an SEO audit of our website to see what we could do to increase the number of site visitors, their retention, and the length of time they spend on the website. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

During our first meeting, Bruce conducted a comprehensive analysis of our site using Google Analytics, to which we gave him access, along with other tools that he had. He then presented an overview and analysis of what he thought, followed by training us to ensure that we’d eventually be able to do the work ourselves. Additionally, he provided links to resources that would enable us to continue working without him. 

What is the team composition?

Bruce was our main point of contact, but he may have had another teammate working with him.

How did you come to work with Bruce Jones SEO Consultant?

This is our first project that is part of Catchafire, an app that connects nonprofits with volunteers with specialized skills such as web development and SEO — tasks that can be completed remotely. Grantees of the Chicago Community Trust were given free access so we decided to try it out. 

The app has about 50 pre-scoped projects that you can sign up for, detailing the parameters of the project and required skills. You can then request a volunteer and interview them through the app, which is what we did with Bruce. We interviewed other individuals too, but Bruce seemed like the best candidate and he was also in the Chicagoland area, which is where we are too.

How much have you invested with them?

Since Bruce was a volunteer, we didn’t invest anything in the project. However, Catchafire valued the project at $5,767.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with him from January–February 2020.

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

The impact will continue to grow. It hasn’t been very long since we started implementing changes but I was able to see that in the last 30 days, the number of users on our website was 23% higher than it was over the same period last year. Working with Bruce was valuable because instead of charging us money to do the work himself, he showed us how we could do it. 

How did Bruce Jones SEO Consultant perform from a project management standpoint?

Bruce was very organized. For all of January and February, we did hour-long weekly calls where he would just walk us through a different tool, how to optimize our usage through Google My Business, and blog writing for our website. We had a shared Google document where he would summarize what we talked about on each call and map out the next steps to take before our next call. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The fact that they do both SEO implementation and training sets them apart from other vendors. From the way the project was scoped, we expected to just receive an audit of our site. But, Bruce took the time to show us how to do everything and strategize. He was really patient, thorough, and willing to walk through every tool available to us and every analysis to make sure that we understood it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of. The project was a little more open-ended than we expected but both Bruce and our team were new to the Catchafire app, so we were just trying to figure out how we wanted to conduct the project. He went above and beyond what he needed to provide per the project parameters and was happy to assist us as much as we needed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just do it. He provides great value given the number of resources he has and his ability to provide training.