Manta

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a Print and WebDesign company, KIARO Computer Solutions (kiarosolutions.com) for 20+ years.

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

I use Boostability for my Search Engine Optimization needs for my client, Clayton Industries (claytonindustries.com) for SEO services and Internet presence.

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

Two years ago, I had the need to replace my previous SEO company. I did a lot of research and settled on five top-rated providers.

After reaching out to all five and interviewing each over the phone, I immediately felt that Boostability was the one for me. In our initial talks, it appeared to me that they outlined the most comprehensive and best plan for my needs, and they did it in a professional manner.

I am always very skeptical when bringing on any service provider, but the demeanor they portrayed put me at ease as I felt they were authentic and knowledgeable. ClaytonIndustries.com is an international web site and demands SEO professionals that really know their business.

My client and I agreed that they were very impressive.

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

I use Boostability for my Search Engine Optimization needs for my client, Clayton Industries (claytonindustries.com). I have used other companies in the past for SEO services, but I never received the outstanding results that I have in the past two years with Boostability. Boostability was hired to increase our Internet presence and visability.

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

I've worked with two Representatives: Ryan Goodwin and Micheal Alamo.

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

After two years working with Boostability, I can whole-heartedly assess that they are number 1 in the SEO industry. The representatives with whom I have worked take a real personal and professional interest in the needs of our company and they are reliable and trustworthy.

They have continually impressed me with their knowledge of SEO and their professional demeanor. This is also reflective of others on the Boostability team with whom I have spoken.

They are very flexible with my client's needs and offer me great technical direction to keep the web site relevant and fresh. In combination with all the tasks they undertake in creating an ever-widening Internet presence, they "Boost" our results every month.

Our search engine results continually improve as our "main" and "halo" keywords keep moving upward towards page one results on Google. From the start, my client had seen an increase in inquiries.

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

They communicate very well. We hold a monthly online meeting to discuss results and map out new strategies.

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

They are professional and knowledgeable, and that leads to results.

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

I am completely satisfied with their service.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Quantum Storage Systems is a manufacturer of plastic bins and containers. I am the director of sales for the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

We were looking for a company which could help us with search engine optimization [SEO]. We needed some direction on the construction of our website so that we could rise higher in Google and other engines. I inherited a team which had worked with the company since that point, but became frustrated with the time difference and language barrier.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When our website was initially constructed, it provided information only, and had not been written with SEO in mind. They helped us restructure the site. They indicated some fixes our website needed and gave us a roadmap on how to appeal to Google, relative to our site and its construction. They conduct monthly scans of the website, and report back to us if there are any further fixes required to adhere to Google’s standards.

They would have made the changes themselves, but our in-house marketing team didn’t want others working on the backend of the website. Instead, they give us direction, tells us what we need to do, and we implement those suggestions and ideas using our marketing team. We collaborate on the searchable terms we wanted to focus on, which they then started to market by writing blog articles and placing exterior content which could pull users to our site.

What is the team dynamic? 

I was assigned a project manager, who evaluated the results of the web scan performed by their team, and started implementing ideas for us to grow our SEO.

How did you come to work with Boostability?

I received an email from them, looking to see if I was interested in meeting them so that they could show me what they do and how they could help us. I took them up on that opportunity, and we went from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $3,000 per month on their services. I am sure that others could promise to provide the same service for a lot less money, but I would rather keep what I’ve got.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2014.

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

They have given us a much higher level of SEO and helped us climb Google's rankings for multiple search terms. I keep an eye on Google Analytics, which tells me about the traffic to my website, and I have a benchmark of the number of visits to our site. This is the high-level metric I look at, but, if I become concerned, I can take a deeper dive into the other signals I can look at. So far, the visits to our website have remained at a level I’m comfortable with.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a collaborative process. I receive a monthly report on the status of our website and, through the process, I’ve developed a sound understanding of our website and some of the key optics which trigger me picking up the phone and calling them, or not having to call them.

My communication at this juncture is really hands-off. I get in touch with the project manager if there’s an issue or question, but I’m relatively low-maintenance for them at the moment. I keep a watchful eye on certain areas and I have nothing to inquire about so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did what they said they would do and got our website to a level which provides more visibility for people looking for our products.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m very happy with the service they provide and with the team doing what they said they would. They alert me and the marketing team if there are issues we need to address, such as backend issues with the website. I have nothing negative to say about them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an LED energy and lighting consulting company, and we work with buildings in New York City. We are a Con Ed market partner. We help New York City buildings comply with the local laws. That's PlaNYC local laws.

There's Local Law 87, Local Law 84, Local Law 88. Local Law 88 has to do with LED lighting compliance. Local Law 84 has to do with benchmarking, and Local Law 87 has to do with audits.

The entire PlaNYC was constructed in 2009, and it's to help large buildings over 25,000 square feet to reduce their carbon footprint. We help the companies to do that by evaluating the building envelope. We have an engineer that works with us that does the inspections of the building. We have a lighting specialist that we go to the buildings, we count the number of lights, and we give them free feasibility studies that show them how much money they can save by switching out the lighting that they have to LED lighting.

We feel that the technology is something that's beneficial for every building owner now. It helps them save thousands of dollars in energy costs. And the ROI on lighting is about a year and a half average. And we also, because we're Con Ed market partners, we are qualified to do all the paperwork to process rebates that are available through Con Ed.

I'm the director of marketing and client services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

We self-generate leads. As the marketing director, I provide direct marketing. I produce all their communications, either print or web. And I made a recommendation to the owner of the company that we needed outside sources to generate leads for the company.

For the past four or five years, we started a campaign where the owner would write articles about lighting to inform potential buyers of our services. Our target market is building developers, building management companies, building managers, and building owners, and we show them how to save on energy costs. We were doing Boostability's work ourselves in the past.

The owner would write an article that was published in the New York Real Estate Journal for owners and building managers in the New York City area. And then we would also send it out through Constant Contact. We would have opt-in lists of these particular sourced targets. And we would get responses, and then we'd send them a free feasibility study.

I also created the website and the website became old. I convinced the owner that we really need to source leads in another way, we need other sources. We decided to look at SEO companies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide SEO services and also have consulted on web development because we've had real problems with our website and lead generation form.

They're the first company we ever hired for SEO, and they send us monthly reports and inform us if there are broken links. We provide the writing content. The owner writes the articles and we have an outside person to update our website monthly. We have constantly evolving website content.

We decided to move our website to Wordpress to improve SEO performance because of Boostability's recommendation. The web developer that Boostability recommended made a lot of mistakes when he migrated our website. 

Boostability told us that certain search criteria didn't match the new Wordpress website. Boostability took care of the website changes for us without extra charge, which we're very pleased with, but we still have a problem with the email linkage.

Somehow the web developer didn't point the email properly, and now we're still having a problem with email. Boostability was unable to resolve it, and they told us they didn't have the capability to do it. So that's the one stickler, and our lead generation form is not working on the website. They said they couldn't handle it so, although I give Boostability 10 stars, the web developer they referred us to, I would have to give 3 because we're still stuck.

How did you come to work with Boostability?

I found Boostability and other firms online. I don't remember what criteria specifically, but I found them through an online source. I start with Google and then I drill down.

So I interviewed Boostability with two other companies and they had the best solution at the best price. So we gave them a shot.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

We spend $800 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the work in January 2017. I recommended to the owner to keep the work going but we need more leads or we can't continue for too long.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We've been very happy with the results. They've moved our search criteria from pages 18 and lower to one of the first 4 pages. And it gets better every month. The owner and I are pleased.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm happy that we hired them. I just advised our CEO to continue with them. They're very responsive. They call every month. They send you a reporting email every month. And I can't always respond right away because I travel but they follow-up. And I have to say I do very much appreciate that. I like the way they run their business and how they really mean what they say and they really help as much as they can to help us achieve our goals.

I like how I call them back, and if I can't get that person that called me, there's always someone available who knows our business, who knows about our account that can help. And the conversations are seamless.

Are there any areas Boostability could improve?

The lead generation aspect is not working and needs to be fixed. Our lead generation form still doesn't work. And when I called them up to see if they could help fix it because the reference for the web developer came from that side, they said they could not fix the form.

The form has not worked since the site was migrated to GoDaddy hosting and WordPress, so that's still an issue that they said they can't help with. Boostability advised me to hire a lead generation expert to fix the problem because they can't do it.

Eventually, the owner will need to see a return on investment to justify continuing with Boostability. Search results are great but we need revenue to be successful.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boostability?

I would tell them to follow our owner's process. Determine what your business goals are, find the budget, be diligent in selecting several companies. Compare them and pick the best one. And in our opinion, Boostability was the correct choice.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide portable satellite communication products and services to individuals and businesses that operate in remote parts of the world. To anybody that's traveling in these types of areas, we provide solutions for satellite phones and portable satellite internet terminals.

I am the Chief Operations Officer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

Trying to gain more leverage online, reach our audience, and essentially bring in more qualified leads online. We had background in SEO internally, but in order to focus on our own business, we really needed to outsource all of our SEO content creation to a company we knew had good reputation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created a new domain and started fresh and then starting fresh, we decided we might as well start fresh with a new SEO agency. We talked to Boostability and found a package that made sense for us. I think we started out with three keywords, and keywords that we were not ranking for on the first page. We were on pages, respectively, three, four, five. We were not getting any leads or generating any business as a result of these new pages that we had put up. That's why we started out with Boostability, they put us on a package and we saw results very, very quickly - within a matter of months. We're confident that it was being done with integrity, and there wasn't any kind of spamming that was going on or black hat stuff.

How did you come to work with Boostability?

I found Boostability by following Neil Patel, somebody that I really respect in the SEO, content creation, and lead generation space. That is why we reached out to Boostability.

We had used another SEO company for about a year and had a good experience with them - it was a couple of years ago now. Right before we started working with Boostability, we checked one day and our websites were not ranking anymore. Our website pages that were ranking before were not ranking anymore. It turns out the SEO company we were working with were doing black hat stuff that got us penalized and put into the Google Sandbox. That was when we realized we needed to go out and look for a more professional organization. We were using more of a small town kind of agency, and it just didn't work out.

We used another company initially for our content creation and found somebody that wrote specifically for our industry. We took those blog posts, pages, and content that was created, and had Boostability run links there or run SEO campaigns based on all the new content.

How much have you invested with them?

It's about $3,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're still working with them. It's an ongoing month-to-month deal. We've gotten great results, so there's no reason to stop working with them. It's a service that I would highly recommend for people so that they may focus on their business. Source it out to a company that knows what they're doing, that has integrity, and that has a good reputation. If people like Neil Patel are endorsing Boostability, you know they're doing something right. We wouldn't change anything right now.

We've been working with Boostability now for more than three years.

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

All the keywords we had in our campaign were on the first page and were all within the first four links on the first page of Google. As a result of that, we have increased our lead generation and the quality of leads we’re getting, and that has translated into quite a bit of business for us. We really stand out in our industry as a result of working with Boostability. Our website was so new that that was something we were initially worried about. To Boostability, it made no difference whatsoever how new the website was. We started getting rankings on the first page very, very quickly within a matter of two or three months. I don't have exact metrics, but I can tell you we're all on the first page right now. We are generating business and leads every day, and that makes everybody in our organization really happy.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

Boostability is very good about following up, making sure we understand what they're doing for us and answering any questions we have. I certainly don't have any complaints about how they're running things or how they manage our campaign. No complaints at all.

Internally they promoted our old account reps, and so we constantly get new reps. Everybody that comes onboard seems to have an understanding of our campaign and was well-briefed and vetted before the last person left. I would say probably four or five new people that we've seen over the last three years.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their reputation and the results. If you're getting the results and it's happening over a consistent time period, and it happens time and time again, then there's really no reason to change. There would be no reason to look elsewhere. Based on what we've experienced in the past, it was such an improvement that I can't tell you how they differ other than that they have integrity and provide results over a long period of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nobody's perfect. I can't say that anything sticks out in my mind about what they could do differently. I think that if some people have a tighter budget and don't have a lot to work with on a budget, maybe Boostability could help. If there was any kind of criticism, they could probably help with communicating how the individual business owner can improve upon what they're already doing. For example, if we need to do more blog posting without using Boostability - if you had a budget issue like we did in the very beginning - Boostability could try to help that company increase leads themselves to bring in more business so they may be able to afford a higher budget to work with them. That's kind of a stretch, but I would say, in the beginning, I had a lot of questions like, "Well, is there anything that we can do internally to sort of work and help your efforts?" They didn't have a ton of feedback on that. They've done everything that they said they can do, and I'm offering some criticism because nobody's perfect.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company owns five car dealerships, and I am the director of business development. I also have the digital marketing strategist for the group with us for the interview.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

Our company's main goal is is to drive more organic traffic to our site. 

We have call to actions everywhere on the site where we're looking for potential customers to, obviously, give us their information so we can email them and call them.

We also have phone numbers all over the site which are dynamic, so that they can contact us directly as well. We have a full call center that calls them back, and we try to schedule appointments to get the customers to visit our retail locations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It's all SEO in the local market. Obviously, I'll sell a car to anybody who wants to buy a car. As far as who I target, I generally tend to target people who are in my marketing area, depending on the brand. That's predetermined for us.

As far as who I'm looking to sell a car to, the beauty of it is is that, obviously, I get people who contact us and they tell us that they are interested in our product. And we obviously call them back, and we try and sell them the vehicle. 

How did you come to work with Boostability?

The process we went through was trying to think outside the box. We met with a lot of automotive company, SEO-based automotive companies in the past, and we found they were just using the same tactics. So thinking differently, going with Boostability allowed us to get out of our industry and use other industry's tactics to boost our SEO instead of going through the same automotive loopholes.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

We range between 25 hours and 100 hours of work per month from them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been with them for, on one of our stores, about a year, and the rest of our stores, anywhere from six months to just a few months.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are definitely happy with their performance. Like I said, we tried to think outside of the box, and they've presented some angles that other companies haven't or data points that we weren't focused on before. They've definitely given us valuable insight, and we've been able to look at things from a different angle.

They've definitely moved us up from where we were. So definitely going forward and always growing is what we're trying to do. 

Definitely, traffic has gone up, but I'd have to really dive into the numbers to see the exact leads from organic that come in. But we've definitely seen improvement on our Google ranking content.

Definitely, things have gone up, but not any hard data. I can say that keywords have improved a lot. We were on page 7 on Google. Now, we're on page 1. For other searches where we were on page 100 or further down, we're on page 2 or 3. The ranking has improved, so our website's visibility has improved.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

I can speak for their more premium side of things. It's very in-depth how they have their one-on-one service, how they go in, the type of PowerPoint presentations they put together to go over data was very in depth, so that's always a plus when someone can show you as much transparency as you're looking for.

Are there any areas Boostability could improve?

Well, we can always improve. Off the top of my head, there's nothing that really sticks out, except for, obviously, not knowing the market as well as other sites that focus only on automotive.

We kind of bump heads on what can be done, but it's not really their fault. They're just picking out the issues they see but sometimes they don't understand our inventory management.

So it's nothing really on their end that can be improved but they will learn our business over time. Overall, we really love their service and are satisfied so it's just minor things.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boostability?

I would say pick the package correctly. Obviously, they do it based on hours, and it's hard to know how much hours you're going to need. I think that would be the key point. Knowing the right amount of money you're spending will improve results and accountability.

We started off with two stores, and we just added another three. However, those three stores didn't need the premium services. They only needed maintenance services. So they didn't require as many hours.

Our sales representative allowed us to combine packages so we wouldn't pay for services that weren't needed and we haven't seen any issues. They've assured us that everybody at Boostability understands the arrangement.

We have the exact same message that we want to get across from each of our stores, and so we always want to make sure that everyone is consistent. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a software development company. We're primarily focused on training simulations and professional business platforms for other businesses. We focus on business-to-business software. We work with fire and rescue and the drone training industry, primarily. My position with the company is CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

We really wanted to get more exposure through online advertising. We're a small business, and we didn't get a lot of traction right off the bat when we launched our products. So we reached out about the possibility of having Boostability manage our SEO and improving that so that we get more people finding us on Google and online. The internet is the best lead generation tool for us. 

Individual users will go to our online store and buy a single user's seat, but our primary business and primary target market is selling to businesses. Business clients usually call us or email us through the website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The only service that we've used is SEO. We don't focus much on local SEO and have clients around the country and the world. It really is an international SEO campaign. 

How did you come to work with Boostability?

We did a little bit of searching after we learned what SEO was. At first, we weren't really familiar with it, and one of our employees had done a little bit of optimization on the website, but then we figured having somebody who actually was an expert would be helpful. So we dug around. I think they actually called us by happenstance around the same time that we were looking, and then talked to us about what their goals were, what they do, how they help, and then made sure that we were comfortable with everything.

After their call, we did some research online to do due diligence on the company, and there were actually a few concerns raised with some of the reviews we saw. But honestly, through working with them, all of those bad reviews from several years ago were discredited. We didn't have the same issues other people had in the past.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

I think we probably spent about $6,000 in the past year. Boostability has a lot more intensive or invested plans that are bigger than ours. We did a really small plan to try it out and see how things went.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started at the beginning of 2017 and have no plans to stop because it's working.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

All of the keywords that we wanted them to focus on have improved and moved up in the Google search results. We wound up being on the first page pretty quickly after starting many pages lower. Boostability's SEO work was definitely a beneficial thing for us because now people are finding us when they wouldn't have before.

I don't have hard metrics that I can share but it's been a success. This campaign has worked much better than past marketing efforts. We are seeing more leads coming in and more sales. 

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

Boostability is really great to work with. They answered questions whenever we had them and even offered to do some extra things to make sure that we were on track, and that we weren't hurting our SEO by putting certain language on the website, and those kinds of things. We redid our whole website and they voluntarily took a look at it and gave us new feedback as part of our SEO plan. We have had a great experience.

Are there any areas Boostability could improve?

There was a keyword that I told them that really isn't something that people focus on in our target market. The keyword just didn't really have relevance. We didn't need that keyword but they kept telling us to put that on our website. That is the only instance that I can think of for improvement.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boostability?

I would just say trust their judgement and you will see results. If customers can have their team ready to make the website changes right away, they're going to start seeing the effects of it faster. It is going to take a few months for you to start really noticing the big SEO improvements.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the photographer and owner of a photography studio that does portrait and corporate photography. My target market is portrait work, so high school seniors, couples (engagements), or business people (professional headshots).

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

Boostability’s focus is on helping us generate leads in the local area through our website. It’s a marketing engagement. The photography is more of a side business for me. I also have a primary business that uses Boostability for SEO and social media promotion.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Boostability does my SEO and social media. Our website is hosted by another company. Boostability just promotes it.

How did you come to work with Boostability?

I found Boostability through an Internet search and by reading reviews. I then called and spoke with them.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

For each company, I spend $400 a month with Boostability.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Boostability in August 2016.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I’m satisfied with Boostability to a certain degree, but I'm disappointed in how they work in a lot of areas. People are liking us on Facebook or whatever, but the conversion rate has been poor. It seems like we’re seeing more leads coming through, but they’re not generally high-quality, so we’re not necessarily growing our business because of them.

Are there any areas Boostability could improve?

I think they could increase how much they interact with their customers, because I get updates once a month, but it should be on their part to make sure the customer is satisfied, and tell them, “This is what we’re doing, this is what took place, these are the changes that we’re seeing, these are the growths, these are the target areas.” They should make it more understandable for the person that is on the outside looking in. They need to be more transparent with what’s taking place and what they’re doing.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boostability?

I have a friend who owns a limousine business, and I recommended Boostability to him. So now three businesses I'm connected with are working with Boostability. At no point did I get a “thank you for referring us” or anything of that nature from Boostability.

Word of mouth says a lot, and when someone recommends a business or a company to another person … If I get a referral from someone in my photography business, I make it a point to call them and thank them and say, “If there’s anything you need, let me know. If you want some extra prints, I'll be more than happy to provide them,” as a gesture, because it goes a long way. I have never received that from Boostability.

Then, on top of that, the friend who owns the limousine business has Boostability promoting and designing his website, and doing his SEO and social media. I want to say it took Boostability three months for them to get that website up. He was very disappointed with it, and that’s a reflection on me, because I told him Boostability is top notch and great. I spoke with him yesterday, and he told me, “You know what? I’m really pissed off at Boostability for how they’re handling everything.” He almost wants to get his money back. He’s just not satisfied. And then all of a sudden, Boostability came up with, “We’re going to have to charge you a $25 monthly service fee for hosting the website,” and that was never talked about. I go back to the transparency. With transparency, it should be, “This is what we’re doing, this is what we’re going to do, this is what we’re shooting for, this is the price.” Not, “Oh, by the way, you're now going to be charged $25, and the only way you're going to get that is through a credit card statement.” It’s after the fact, and it puts a negative taste in your mouth. It makes me think: If this is what’s going on, what else is going on that I don't know about?
 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company does surety bonding. It’s a specialized form of insurance. My title is surety executive. I take on a few different hats within the company, doing marketing, sales, and underwriting work. We’re a small business so you have to wear a lot of hats.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

Our goal is to improve our SEO so that we’re ranking higher and getting more leads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

So far, they’ve done a pretty good job bumping us up the ranks for the past couple months we worked with them. We’re just doing SEO work with them. Somebody else built the website; Boostability just optimized it for us.

How did you come to work with Boostability?

We had a previous marketing person whom we work with on the side. She recommended them.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

It’s under $50,000 per year. I don’t know the exact number offhand.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been with them for a little over two months now.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We’re definitely ranking higher for certain keywords, which is good. We know it’s a long-term process. We’re getting a few more inquiries here and there among some of the keywords. I’d say it’s been pretty effective so far. It’s tough to really have an exact number because we don’t always know what’s coming in through there, through a referral, or other ways that we market (emails and whatnot), but I know that it’s definitely doing something.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

I really like their online dashboard. Overall, it really makes the user interface pretty friendly, and it allows me to check in and see how our ranks are doing overall, which is good.

Are there any areas Boostability could improve?

Nothing that I can think of offhand.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Boostability?

Really have a good conversation with them upfront about your expectations and what you want to achieve. I think we had a really good conversation. We have two different websites that we’re using Boostability for. Each website targets slightly different keywords, so I think we made that distinction up front, and we’ve seen pretty good results because of that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Action Donation Services is a for-profit company that contracts with non-profits, charities, foundations and religious organizations to process their car, boat, RV, and yacht donations. It’s an exclusive contract. When we contract with them, we become their legal representative and they can’t use anybody else. Our contract can be canceled at any time. I’m the director of client charity development.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

We needed to update our website. We were working with a company from New York that we weren't happy with.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first phase was the website update, and then they also do site optimization for us. The website was on an old platform and Boostability moved it to WordPress. They optimized the site to bring more clients to the site. We do our own social media in-house. Boostability only does SEO for organic search.

How did you come to work with Boostability?

I went online and searched for companies to help us. I saw a lot of great articles in Fortune Magazine and Wall Street Journal saying how great Boostability was and that they were oriented to small businesses. Their offices are about 30 minutes from where I live so that made it easy for me to find people who knew them and who told me how great they were. I went to their website and called them to talk about the project.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

I don’t remember how much the website cost. We spend $250 per month for them to maintain the site. The SEO program is $1,600 per month.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them a year and a half ago, and the work is ongoing. The website update took longer than I thought.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When we went through the website phase, there were some hiccups. They were going through some turnover and there were things I wanted they didn’t do. However, they were real good about fixing it. Some things had to be done twice. When everything was completed, I was happy. The SEO has been great. Organic search results are dramatically improving each month. We’ve had two different SEO account managers over the course of our relationship, and both of them have been great.

Our clients love the website. We’re not like other donations places. They advertise that they’ll pick up your car whether it’s running or not. We do that but that’s not our specialty. We specialize in high-value. We’ll take cars if they’re worth picking up. We take motorhomes, boats, and yachts. We have unique expertise in that area. The bulk of our clientele is 55 and older in a high-income bracket. We needed our site to look upscale, and we achieved that.

Fortunately, we cater to the upscale donations. It’s difficult to measure conversion success at this point. For most of our keyword phrases and page rankings, we keep moving up. Most of them are on the first, second, or third page. I’ve put up new pages recently and when they first got put up, they were ranked on the sixth page. It’s been six weeks, and now those are on the first or second page. I can’t ask for more than that when it comes to organic search.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

If I need to talk to someone, I can always get them quickly.

What did you find most impressive about Boostability?

I would recommend them to anybody, especially a small business, that is looking for a good SEO company. Their service is personalized. They attempt to do anything reasonable I ask for. I don’t feel like we’re a small company that’s not getting much attention from them. They give me plenty of attention.

Are there any areas Boostability could improve?

Nobody’s perfect, but I can’t think of anything. I would tell them to keep doing what they’re doing. They’re doing a good job for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am co-owner and co-founder of a women’s retail line. We do B2C and B2B, and we sell women’s tuxedos.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boostability?

We wanted to gain more accessibility to customers and generate more sales. The people searching for our product generally don’t come across us when just shopping around. They’re actually searching for women’s tuxedos. Boostability is helping us get our name out there and become more of a brand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use them mainly for SEO, and they’ve definitely helped us with meta-titles and meta-descriptions so we seem more credible on keywords. They also help us get linked to different blogs, which also increases our credibility with search engines.

Our subscription with them doesn’t include pay-per-click. It is something they offer, but we allocated our funds more toward the back-engine blogs. They target different publications, whether it’s commenting on their sites or redirecting. They’ve helped us to gauge what the good keywords would be for our product.  

How did you come to work with Boostability?

I did a lot of research online, and they had good reviews. After speaking with a couple agencies, I think they were the most affordable for what they provide.

How much have you invested with Boostability?

We started at $1,000 per month, but we cut back to $600 about three months ago. We got on the first page for many keywords, so we thought we could reduce the spend. Our traction actually went down this month, so I guess that’s something I need to review.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November of 2016, and we have no plans to stop. We like working with them.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They’ve been great. I highly enjoy their follow-up and monthly reporting. We’ve seen progression since we started with them. Before using Boostability, we were a mess. Now, we’re on the first page for all the keywords they suggested. So, we’ve definitely gained traction due to their work. Traffic has increased exponentially. I feel that we’re actually growing as a result of the SEO. We really thank them for where we are. I think they did a lot. I don’t know what they do, but it’s definitely working.

How did Boostability perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re prompt in responding to any questions or concerns we have. They make changes when they say they will, which is pretty prompt. We’ve been very happy with them.

What did you find most impressive about Boostability?

They’re very detail-oriented and thorough. I don’t know much about SEO, and they’re really patient with me. They break down the process in a way I can understand. They’re also more competitively priced than a lot of other companies. They were very honest from the beginning. I found that other companies make guarantees that sound unrealistic, but Boostability explained the risks of that and showed how they would increase our visibility in a credible way. We appreciate their honesty, thoroughness, and their price.