CanIRank

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder/owner of a technology company that makes software for scientists and labs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CanIRank, and what were your goals?

We hired them to manage our SEO and improve our page rank for key search terms in order to increase our marketing reach via native Google search results.

SOLUTION

How did you select CanIRank and what were the deciding factors?

Someone referred them to us. We then interviewed a few other consultants and choose CanIRank based on value for money, the referral, and their track record.

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

We began with a discovery, in which they analyzed our existing paid ad campaigns, existing website content, and corporate website structure. They then recommended technical changes to our website to improve it for SEO.

Now, we work with them on a monthly basis to generate new content in the form of blog posts and amplify that content. They are also helping us get PR placements.

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

We have one primary project manager that we interact with on a weekly basis. There are several other technical resources who work behind the scenes such as PR, website architecture, and online marketing specialists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started using them, our keyword rankings have greatly improved from page 4 or 5 to now pages 1 or 2. We are extremely happy with the results.

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

They use the project management tool Asana, which allows us to keep track of task assignments and action items across their staff and ours. In terms of communications, we use Slack to chat daily and we have a monthly project management meeting.

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

They are definitely experts in SEO and seem to always be one step ahead of the Google SEO algorithm. They helped us understand that this is a long game, and that we will see improvements over time, which we have.

They seem to have a very experienced team of people who are experts in all the various online marketing domains, so it seems that all of our digital marketing needs can be met by them without us having to go to another vendor.

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

Nothing comes to mind. Our key goal is to see our keyword rankings improve, and based on that, the project has been a success.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

AdBlock creates software to help users block ads, pop-ups, and other distractions across the web. I am the CEO at AdBlock.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CanIRank, and what were your goals?

We hired Can I Rank to help us build out our SEO profile and and find more strategic ways to attract an audience to AdBlock's products and services.

SOLUTION

How did you select CanIRank and what were the deciding factors?

We spoke to the CEO and the team at Can I Rank and we appreciated the ideas they had to help us approach SEO strategically, and we also appreciated that we could scale up, or down, our engagement at any time, without triggering any upfront costs.

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

Our engagement began with a technical SEO audit and an overview of the content we were already creating. And then we worked together to identify a more coherent approach towards our content plans, categories, and publishing schedule.

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

2-4 at any given point, including content writers, PPC consultant, and SEO strategist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen our number of 1st page listings increase nicely since we started working with Can I Rank.

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

We've worked well together, using a combination of bi-weekly strategy sessions, Trello and Asana boards, and email. The team has always been on time with its deliverables, including the occasional short-term, urgent project undertaken with little notice.

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

We appreciate their consultative approach and their ability to help us think about our SEO strategy.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The CareSide is a homecare organization, we send out nurses and care people to clients’ homes as an alternative to nursing homes. We have a staff of about 200 and I’m the CEO of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CanIRank?

We wanted CanIRank’s help with our organic search on Google.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CanIRank is our consultant for SEO and website improvements. For the SEO part, the team’s main tasks are improving the copywriting, images, and graphics on our pages and entering the correct keywords and metadata. They’re also covering other multiple aspects of SEO including outreach, link building, article writing, and guest blogging in order to optimize our pages. They also help us with Facebook PPC campaigns.

Our site is built on Webflow and we plan to use CanIRank for development as well. We expect them to ensure that the technical elements on our web pages are all correct.  

What is the team composition?

We have a 7–8 person team on their end but Henry (Director of Promotions) is our main contact point. He acts as an account or project director and coordinates everyone on the CanIRank side. I’ve talked to the other team members as well.

How did you come to work with CanIRank?

I remember reading about their software on another SEO writer’s blog so I checked out CanIRank’s solution and found that it was very good and different from other software on the market. After that, I had a conversation with CanIRank to see how the software could improve our website and I found their approach to be innovative, covering multiple SEO domains that we couldn’t have handled ourselves.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’re on their F1 (or Formula 1) program which gives us 70–80 hours for around $5,000 AUD (approximately $3,500 USD) per month. The total so far is $20,000 AUD – $25,000  AUD (approximately $14,000–$17,500 USD)  . 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with CanIRank in June 2020 and we’ll continue to use them as long as we get good results.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From what I understand, SEO has a slow start but it gets better and better from there. We’ve seen good results so far since we’ve built a solid foundation and we’re accelerating our results. Overall, we’ve seen a 65% increase in organic website traffic since starting the engagement five months ago. We’ve gotten some very good results quickly.

Ideally, we’d like to be number one for all our keywords. When we started, we were ranking in the 15th–16th places for our core keywords and now we’re at the 9th–10th place for those. We’ve moved up 5–6 places in the last five months. We’re ranking first for a couple of core keywords. 

How did CanIRank perform from a project management standpoint?

CanIRank performs well but it’s been more difficult than I expected, given how many specialists are involved. Our link building was quite weak in the beginning while technical SEO was good so we focused on link building instead. CanIRank brought in a lot of people I didn’t know existed in the initial piece and there’s been a lot of coordination.

There are no missed deadlines so far. We use Asana for project management and we work on around 15 cards at a time. We just knock them off continuously. Henry gets back to me within the same day by email and we have half-hour phone catchups once a fortnight.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing is the fast communication. As a CEO, marketing is just one of my concerns so if I have an idea, I want to address it straight away. CanIRank is also flexible. I’ll change my mind about priorities every once in a while so I might upset the set plan they have but they’ve been very accommodating in this respect.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no real weaknesses at all to mention right now. There’s quite a big time zone difference but that’s not their fault. The collaboration is still very workable even though we’re international. To CanIRank’s credit, they do communicate quickly and effectively. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s really important to know what we want when hiring any professional service provider, whether they’re consultants, lawyers, or accountants. If we’re not clear about what we want, they might go down the wrong path. We may have meandered around if I didn’t tell CanIRank exactly what I was looking for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a travel blog that also sells NYC photo tours and online blogging courses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CanIRank?

I enlisted their help to assist with strengthing my SEO efforts and helping me to grow my traffic.

What were your goals for this project?

To get more posts and pages to be ranking on Page #1 and to fix any technical issues.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I reached out to a few SEO agencies for phone calls, and I felt CanIRank were the most down-to-earth, reasonably-priced, and results-driven. They were able to show a number of case studies, as well.

Describe the project in detail.

I'm a content creator, and I hate getting bogged down with technical and backend tasks, even though I know they're important. Luckily, CanIRank takes care of that. When I signed on with them we had a meeting to introduce me to the team and get to know my goals. From there I have one point person, who I meet with once per month via video chat to discuss the previous month's progress and create an action plan for the following 1-3 months.

What was the team composition?

While I have a number of people working on my site, I have one point person who will then delegate to the rest of the team when necessary.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Along with helping to keep me organized, their team has helped me fix a number of backend issues, helped me to increase my site speed, and have helped me get a number of posts and pages onto the first page of Google.

Right now we're working through a COVID-19 action plan. I'm a travel company, so the pandemic hit my site pretty hard. We've come up with content that is relevant now but will be evergreen later, and are also working to keep the rest of the site healthy for when people begin traveling again.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Amazing! I'm very impressed, and I love the way they set up their Asana workflows. Very logical and intuitive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are on top of everything! I don't need to followup with my point person ever. He is always one step ahead.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Right now I have no complaints!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing director at Audio Den, a home theatre installation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CanIRank?

Our online presence hadn’t been given much attention to over the last few years, and we noticed our competitors were doing a little bit better than us. We were looking for someone to come in and help us resolve that

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CanIRank helped us improve our online presence through SEO, website optimization, and digital marketing efforts. First, they looked at our ideal clients and figured out how we could best connect with them. Their team would conduct outreach and on-page SEO.

They also produced content for us. CanIRank was responsible for making suggestions for and creating new content. Additionally, their team optimized the content we already had produced. 

What is the team composition?

We were assigned a team of 4–5 people that we worked with on an ongoing basis. They all had their own specializations, including an account manager, a content producer, a technical lead, and an outreach lead. 

How did you come to work with CanIRank?

I found CanIRank after searching online and speaking with a variety of agencies. With SEO firms, there can be some ambiguity, but the CEO of CanIRank gave us a presentation that got into the nitty-gritty of how they do things. He went into their techniques and strategies and understood that this would be a long, labor-intensive process rather than a quick fix. They were willing to commit, so I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested close to $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with CanIRank ran from January 2018–July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results were very impressive. Our traffic grew 210% in 18 months and we are ranking in the top three slots for all our primary keywords with high-quality content. It’s gone so well that we’re beginning to target secondary and tertiary keywords. 

How did CanIRank perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams communicated using Trello, which worked great because I could both passively and actively collaborate. If anyone from CanIRank had any questions, they would let me know and I could hop on and answer them. The platform allowed me to have visibility of how they were progressing but also allowed me to collaborate where necessary. I could also shoot them an email or give them a call for more general campaign updates.

CanIRank’s in-house practices are well defined and standardized which we appreciated. I knew exactly what they were doing and why, which made me into an educated consumer. Being able to see how all of the pieces of SEO come together was enlightening. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They definitely care about your project and get to know your industry. We’re in a very niche industry and they were able to dig in and figure it out without a ton of handholding. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a bit of a snag in the way they track the hours the team was putting in, but that was more a misunderstanding of the system on my part. The work was still getting done so it wasn’t an issue, but they were very receptive to feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a really good process and there are no specific land mines to watch out for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Director of healthcare company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CanIRank?

PPC audit and support

What were your goals for this project?

Increased awareness of our practice

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Recommendation from colleague, along with positive reviews from credible reviewers informed our choice

Describe the project in detail.

CiR quickly got to know our practice, and supplied extremely hepful PPC analysis and development which had a positive and cost effective impact on our levels of awareness of our practice

What was the team composition?

We are a small practice, so all comunication was direct between PPC consultant and director

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

CanIRank set up lead generation tracking on my website that allows me to track form submissions, emails and calls from potential clients. CanIRank developed automated weekly performance reporting that I can continue using for my website after the campaigns ended. In two months, the Google Ads campaign generated a positive ROI for my business.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great communication, very responsive to requests for clarification and further input

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very efficient, great communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None