What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The challenge was getting us to the first page of Google results, and the results after six months were fairly effective, in my judgment. IndeedSEO was able to get us on the first page for about 50% of the targeted keywords.
We look at metrics by phases. In the first phase, we specified what our keywords were and who our competitors were, wanting to know what it would take us to get to the first page. We wanted at least 20% of our keywords to get to the first page by the end of the first phase, which we set at 3–4 months. Along with that, we wanted to make sure that our websites were optimized for on-page SEO as well.
For the next phase, which was three months, the metric was not only increasing keyword rankings from 20% to 30%, but we also started monitoring the traffic that was created after we started doing this work. We definitely saw a good uptick on the traffic.
The third phase is taking 3–6 months. We were trying to add to our line of services, in terms of colleges and ministries in the US. We were trying to go after the educational market a bit more, because there are a lot of young kids competing in the medical device space. We spent some time analyzing the market. The third phase is focused on increasing traffic and figuring out how our top 10 keywords connect to our traffic.
How did IndeedSEO perform from a project management standpoint?
They were thorough in sharing with us. We had weekly meetings, where they walked us through the 20-or-so areas they were looking into, including video traffic, text traffic, and different areas where they were helping us develop backlinks.
It’s been a collaborative effort. We have a call every Friday, looking at all the results they produce week by week. It’s not easy to get results every week, but I definitely want to make sure they’re making progress.
It’s been around nine months, and we’re very pleased with them. They seem to be low-key and practical people. There’s a lot of people in the digital marketing space that do high-level talking, but, when it comes to real work, it’s like finding a needle in the haystack.
I find them to be fair and reasonable people. The other vendors I contacted felt more robotic. These guys are personable.
We insist on a weekly call, and there are around 20 worksheets they send us every week. There’s a lot of visibility to their work. I find them reasonable to deal with from a project management perspective. I’ve been a partner at IBM for 20 years, so I understand the whole concept of performance metrics and what it takes.
I’m pretty hands-on internally, and I think that they deliver what they say. They don’t overpromise. Also, when things need to be fine-tuned and we need to ask questions, they don’t get defensive. I find them to be fairly reasonable people to deal with.
What did you find most impressive about them?
We did our research, and we initially chose a company that was rated higher than IndeedSEO. We worked with them for two months, but we just felt that it wasn’t strategic. They weren’t guiding us in terms of where they were going.
They were doing the work they were supposed to do, but there were no explanations on why they were doing something, what they could do to improve something, and so on. With IndeedSEO, I feel that they’re giving us the service, and they’re willing to get back to us on any question they can’t answer immediately.
They don’t overpromise: they understand what the customer’s looking for, and they work diligently to deliver. We’re based in the US and they’re based in India, and there’s an art of working together. I think there’s a lot of value they can provide to their global customers, in terms of collaboration abilities.
On the technical side, they’ve delivered on the metrics we requested, and I find them reasonable to work with. Their project management skills are reasonable, and they’re able to listen to the customer and explain why something we’re asking for may be unreasonable. They’re easy to deal with. I find them to be very collaborative in their approach to the customer.
Are there any areas they could improve?
One thing that could help us is them adding a more strategic component to the whole thing. Digital marketing platforms and the whole world of SEO are very exciting but very involved. IndeedSEO could provide more strategic guidance to help us align the deliverables with business objectives, in terms of ROI.
This is probably a difficult ask, requiring multiple areas of digital marketing. I believe IndeedSEO’s expertise is mostly on the SEO side. I don’t know if they have other capabilities, but that’s what we’ve been using them for. Customers would welcome that leadership role, especially in the US.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
I’d advise them to be clear on what they’re looking for, and not just rush into what the website says or what they’ll say. They should make sure that IndeedSEO shares with them what’s doable and what’s not, and that they come to a common understanding on what needs to be accomplished. That way, expectations won’t be set unrealistically either way, high or low.
It’s important to have good management practices, and insist on project collaboration. Clients should have weekly calls, stay involved in project management, and be results-driven. That side should be squared away with them, so that expectations are set clearly on both sides
The SEO work and organic traffic driven by IndeedSEO have thoroughly satisfied project metrics and client expectations throughout the project, helping to raise their site to the first spot on around 30% of targeted keywords. Their team has been organized and communicative throughout their work.