Cartoozo

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of Kinetic Massage Works, a company specializing in deep tissue sports massage. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cartoozo?

I was looking for a company with expertise in SEO and digital marketing to help me become the top-rated deep tissue sports massage expert in North Houston.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They doubled the number of my keywords – from 10 to 20 – and built a new website for me from scratch. I had a very old website based on a template, but the new site is code-based, looks beautiful, and is well-written. They update it regularly and make sure there are no issues with functionality. 

In addition, they publish 4–5 articles a month for me and make YouTube and Vimeo videos. 

What is the team dynamic? 

I mostly work with the project manager, who delegates tasks to different members of his team, and one more person who handles my billing matters and customer satisfaction. 

How did you come to work with them?

One of my clients recommended them to me. I liked the fact that they didn't require me to sign a contract because to me it was an indicator of high quality of their work - people come back to them with or without a contact. We started with a 3–month trial period and it went very well. 

How much have you invested with them?

I have spent under $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

I started working with them in June 2015, and it's an ongoing project. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I'm now the leading expert in deep tissue sports massage in all of Houston (not just North Houston). They generated more business for me: 3 months after they started, I was turning away 5–10 appointments a day and had to hire more people. I also plan to purchase a building 4–5 times the size of the building I have.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually use email to communicate. Our time zones are different (they're in the UK and I'm in the United States), but that hasn't been an issue, and there has never been an emergency on the website. They send me a 10–page update every month, informing me of the steps they plan to take, and give me 48 hours to approve it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They didn't make promises they couldn't keep, and there was no contract. They're easy to work with. I trust them completely at this point and will use them for a new business I'm planning to start.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're starting a business, let them build and manage your website from the very beginning. My biggest mistake was not to hire them during the first month I started my company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a small financial trading information and trading signal service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cartoozo?

I’d previously worked with an SEO firm whose failure to use best practice resulted in a manual penalty from Google. My website was removed from the index, and rankings were totally erased. I needed the penalty to be removed, and for the site to be completely rebuilt and optimized.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I was impressed with their ability to successfully remove the manual penalty from Google, and hired them for ongoing SEO maintenance. They completely rebuilt the website from scratch, carefully adding links to quality content and avoiding spam. Precise link building was critical, because Google continuously monitors sites that have been marked as reviewed.

After our rankings disappeared, their work focused on SEO and fixing critical issues. A collaborative keyword strategy utilized both our market knowledge and their technical expertise. Less-obvious (and easier to rank for) search terms supplemented the most relevant and competitive ones on our ongoing target list.

With both search engines and users in mind, they’ve improved page structure and tags. In addition to writing new copy, they post content to relevant, quality sites that’s linked back to our page. They continue to manage necessary coding and updates and assist with our social media accounts on a monthly basis.

How did you come to work with Cartoozo?

After finding Cartoozo via a Google search, I hired them based on their unique ability to remove the penalty. Few companies seemed able to perform this service.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been about $30,000. The monthly SEO package is $1070, and additional work usually totals about $1,334 monthly plus VAT.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2014, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most importantly, they completed our main objective of successfully removing the manual penalty from Google. This incident removed us from all site rankings, and their efforts ultimately moved our site to the top of page rankings for several very relevant keywords. Significantly improved traffic shows the SEO has definitely worked. Their work revamping the site and building new landing pages has also generated higher conversion rates. The results of their work have justified our investment, and we’ve hired them for additional tasks since.

How did Cartoozo perform from a project management standpoint?

Our dedicated account manager was consistently available and responsive via email. He oversaw the entire project, and delegated tasks outside his area of specialization to the relevant team. Liaising with different experts improved the workflow. He provided consistent updates on facets of the work. Having one point of contact provided clear and relevant communication. Managing communications with multiple developers can obfuscate individual responsibilities and hinder project organization.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cartoozo not only remedied the damage caused by a prior company, but was also the first contractor to significantly improve SEO. Their quality service provided the promised results, with which I’m quite happy. They've been very easy to work with, and we haven’t encountered any issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open while discussing your goals, and combine your knowledge with their industry expertise. In addition to giving input, take their feedback into consideration, because you're ultimately hiring them for their specialization.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a sales director for a travel company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cartoozo?

We didn’t have a good online presence. We needed to get everything up to date and more traffic coming online.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially wanted them to make our website more attractive and redesign it. We’re part of a franchise, it’s a bit of a complicated set up for us. They did the website from the beginning, integrating two websites together and the franchise with us. They made the site look more appealing to the outside world.

They also set up the whole platform of the website and the content to make it more SEO ready. Moving forward, we did campaigns with them to give us more presence. They’re also doing Google AdWords and help us do blogs.

What is the team dynamic?

I normally speak to Mark [Account Manager, Cartoozo]. He guides me through because he knows that I’m not very technical. Michael [Senior Manager, Cartoozo] is the senior sales manager. They are the 2 people I keep in touch with.

How did you come to work with Cartoozo?

I was recommended to them by a friend. I spoke to Mark and they put me at ease. They helped me understand, in layman’s terms, how we can get where we want to be.

How much have you invested with them?

The website cost 10,000 pounds and the SEO is about 1500 pounds per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May 2014 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our rankings are improving. We started with 1 or 2 inquires, but now we’re getting 6-7 inquiries per day and more engagement online. It’s definitely working for us.

How did Cartoozo perform from a project management standpoint?

I would highly recommend them. Both Mark and Michael have been great in communicating. Initially, I was giving them a lot of headaches because I didn’t understand what was going on. I was spending money with them and wanted to get my money’s worth. They were very helpful and patient with me. We communicate mainly by phone, but also by email and Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The people behind the scenes are friendly and approachable. They took the time to explain and break down what’s happening. The results have been great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything negative about them. The travel industry is a very competitive industry and the inquiries are coming in. The convergent rate has also increased.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you don’t like what you’re doing online, you can end up spending so much or trying to cut corners and get it cheap and not get the results you want. If you go with someone professional that knows what they’re doing, it works. I would definitely go with someone who knows what they’re doing and leave it to them. They can direct you on how to move forward.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

London Institute of Photography is a private photography school based in London. We have positioned ourselves in the market to offer an alternative to university degrees. I’m the director and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cartoozo?

We get most of our traffic through Google. Our first project with them was SEO. That’s how we became aware of them. We’ve got a few important keywords and we were looking for a good company to get us on the first page. We had worked with another SEO provider and had switched again a year ago, but we didn’t seem to be getting the results we wanted. I was spending a lot of money but not seeing much improvement. I wanted to try out something new.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They first started a technical optimization of the webpage. What I really appreciate about Cartoozo is they offer so many different services. For example, our webpage was lagging in speed. It’s not as if our former web programmer has done anything wrong, but it needs some optimization. Before this, I also had to refer back to the former SEO company to the new SEO company, which took up a lot of time. Then I learned that Cartoozo also does web programming, so we’ve moved everything to them, and we now have a super-fast webpage. 

As for SEO, we had 3 main keywords: ‘photography,’ ‘courses,‘ and ‘London.’ They probably contribute to about 90% of the traffic to our webpage, apart from things like people Googling 'London Institute of Photography.' We are not really interested in expanding our keywords because the other keyword combinations are niches in the market. We made it very clear from the beginning that we wanted to get on the first page for those 3 keywords. They have expanded some and we can see our ranking going up, but in general, that’s not the most important result for us.

I knew that they did pay-per-click [PPC], but when we contacted them at the beginning we felt we were not quite ready for it and, honestly, we also didn’t have the budget. Based on their traditional SEO, we had a few pretty good months so we felt that we could invest some of the money and we did that through pay-per-click. We started this with them just recently.

We also talked a lot about target groups including how old our typical student is and what their ambitions are. Very often when you sell a product, you realize after a while that people don’t actually purchase this product because they want to have this product, and sometimes there are other reasons why they do this. For example, very often students who come to do the photography course are not necessarily so incredibly interested in photography. They might be looking for an alternative path in their lives, maybe a career change. Initially, we talked a lot about that with Cartoozo, and from there, they pretty much took over.

What is the team dynamic?

We are in communication with 4 resources. Ben is looking after the programming, SEO, and the PPC. I communicate with him a lot, just to discuss general progress. There is one person who is particularly responsible for the SEO, another person who is responsible for PPC, and then I’m also in touch with the web programmer directly.

How did you come to work with Cartoozo?

We had a look at their webpage. I Googled “best SEO companies in UK” or something and they were ranked at the top. We were completely new to the market. I had no clue about SEO before. We contacted a few companies. The first one we had worked with was a very small company which I thought would suit us better. It didn’t work that well, so I thought we should go for the market leader to see what they have to offer. What really attracted me was I could tell at the beginning that their base was much broader than our former company. They offered things like web programming. You almost get some sort of all-in-one deal, and you really have the feeling that one company is looking after the whole thing. I have got the impression that digital marketing is so interlinked these days, and it’s very difficult to dissect this or take it apart.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $19,729 so far. We started much lower than that with just SEO, but then they built a new webpage, and they’re now doing all of the maintenance and PPC. What is the status of this engagement? We started working together in May of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our goals for those 3 keyword are very ambitious. For a very young company like us, it’s quite a big challenge. Ultimately, we have established ourselves in the middle of the first page for those keywords. It’s a decent improvement, but we are not where we want to be. We’re trying to get into the absolute top range, but it’s a difficult task, because we’ve got a lot of competition—businesses that have been in the market for 10, 15 years.

Additionally, we are currently on the first page in place number 9, which is certainly a huge improvement in comparison to where we started. If you look at the average of all the keywords that we are tracking and working on, we made a much larger improvement there. In terms of real live impact, what is much important is the 3 keywords, and we’ve seen a huge step forward there.

How did Cartoozo perform from a project management standpoint?

We get everything all from one company and I can tell that they’re communicating with each other. For example, I know that the person who is responsible for our PPC campaign also talks to the person responsible for our SEO. They are super responsive, and have been incredibly patient. They take the time to explain everything and we really have fantastic contact, which I have been very happy about.

The day-to-day communication is all via email for SEO and PPC. Sometimes, particularly like when we’re starting a new project, we usually have relatively long phone conversations. They always invite me to talk things over the phone, but I usually prefer email because it’s just easier for me. With the web programming department, because it’s very particular and technical, I usually communicate a lot via Skype on those projects to go over the details.

What did you find most impressive about them?

With such a big company, they seem to offer everything we need. Before that I needed to do SEO with one company, and the web programming was done by another. In contrast, Cartoozo does everything. The only thing that we do supply externally are design references that are produced by our web designer. He supplies InDesign files and then the web programmer from Cartoozo does the coding and the technical implementations. What I particularly like with Cartoozo is that you’re working with a team who takes care of your entire business and they all seem to communicate with each other. They always know what the other side is doing at the moment, which I think is pretty amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

So far, I am very happy with the huge leap we have made. We’ve only been working with them now for 5 months and we’re still not exactly where we want to be, which is the top position. I’m aware it’s pretty tough to get there. As for our PPC campaign, it is relatively new, so I can’t speak to the results there. The first 2 months have been really amazing, but they also said that this time is primarily about gathering data, and learning what is working and what is not. Overall, I’m happy with the way they handle things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a business that markets wedding cars for hire throughout the U.K. The company is made up of me and my colleague.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cartoozo?

It was a matter of online ranking with Google, achieving a better organic position. We had worked with a few providers in the past, but it never led to what we wanted, until we found Cartoozo.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cartoozo has provided SEO [search engine optimization] services. There were a few Google keywords for which we wanted to rank higher than our competitors. I gave them a list, they did research and asked me to make a couple of changes, backed up with reasoning.

In the beginning, my website was brand new, so there was no need to make amendments to its design. Cartoozo has made some design changes since then, after I moved away from my designer. They have also made some backend changes—things which aren’t visible to myself or clients—optimizing it for Google. In all, they are optimizing 21 keywords for me, and I fall in the number one for all of them. Since I have a high organic ranking, I haven’t used them for paid search. 

What is the team dynamic?

I have a contact for their side, with whom I can talk over email or phone.

How did you come to work with Cartoozo?

I had been spending a lot of money with another company, without seeing results, so I went onto Google, and searched for the best SEO company in the U.K. Their name came up in a comparison website, in the number 1 position. I contacted Cartoozo and had an initial chat. Their rep (the same person who has worked with me since) had a much better approach, asking questions which other agencies didn’t bother asking. He tried to get a grip on what I was trying to achieve, before giving me a quote.

Cartoozo was more expensive than the other options, but the results have been there, so I don’t mind spending the money. They described the services they could provide, and had a more genuine and knowledgeable image. The minimum contract is on a monthly basis, so I couldn’t lose much by engaging myself with the company, so I gave them a shot. They were confident about being able to achieve results, so they weren’t so concerned with drawing me into a yearly contract.

How much have you invested with them?

The SEO package is $1,550 per month. I may have spent an additional $4,000 to $5,000 on web design and other small services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Cartoozo in April 2016, and have an ongoing relationship. I plan on staying with them, given that they’ve done something others couldn’t do.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the 2-3-month onboarding period, my site ranked higher and higher on Google. It became stronger every month, and they’ve continued to give me updates on new keywords we could focus on.

Googling for “wedding cars London” will show our site in the number 1 organic position, which was not an easy to achieve. This happened within 2-3 months, which was very impressive, and Cartoozo continues to make my website stronger. Anytime a competitor tries to attack our position, they will get it back quickly. I’ve seen approximately a 30% increase in sales.

How did Cartoozo perform from a project management standpoint?

Even if they don’t have an immediate answer to my questions, they will consult with the team and get back to me. I was always informed about how long this will take, and I’ve always received replies within 24 hours to my emails.

I receive analytics on a monthly basis, featuring submitted articles and keyword rankings. If I want additional information, I can give them a call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve gone through 6 SEO companies before them, and gave each one a fair shot, waiting for 6 months to see an improvement. It never worked before, but, with Cartoozo, it did. Cartoozo is a knowledgeable team, and I haven’t had any regrets since starting the collaboration, unlike with the other SEO agencies I’ve tried.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. If it’s not broken, don’t change it.