NextLeft

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Executive and Coordinator of Pricing I/O

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Pricing I/O helps B2B SaaS companies ($10M to $1B ARR) optimize pricing strategies to address key pain points: ineffective pricing models and lost revenue opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire NextLeft to accomplish?

• Update website
• Configure & maximize SEO

SOLUTION

How did you find NextLeft?

Online Search

Why did you select NextLeft over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from NextLeft were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Scope of work included: SEO and content services.

• Keyword Research: Identifying relevant keywords to target in order to drive traffic and improve search rankings.
• On-Page Optimization: Ensuring that all web pages are optimized for selected keywords, including meta tags, headers, and content structure.
• Technical SEO Audits: Conducting audits to identify and fix technical issues that could hinder search engine performance.
• Link Building: Developing strategies to acquire high-quality backlinks to improve the domain authority and search rankings.
• Content Strategy: Creating a strategy for content that aligns with SEO goals, focusing on generating content that will attract organic traffic.keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO audits, link building and a 6 month content strategy. It also included content creations (blogs, articles, etc.), content optimization and performance tracking. 
• Content Creation: Producing blog posts, articles, and other forms of content designed to engage the target audience and align with SEO strategy.
• Content Optimization: Updating existing content to ensure it is optimized for SEO and provides value to the audience.
• Performance Tracking: Monitoring the performance of content through various metrics, adjusting strategies as necessary.

Key Deliverables have included regular SEO audit reports, an ongoing keywork strategy document, a content clanedar as well as link-building reports.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

First, having an updated, functional, and eye-catching website. Second, having increased and efficient technical SEO. Web traffic has increased exponentially and our content is tracking higher on Google. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The bi-monthly virtual meetings have been helpful to keep timelines going and to make sure nothing is missing. Email responses have been consistent and attentive. 

What was your primary form of communication with NextLeft?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

It's a small business but with a large business mindset. Meetings feel like you're talking to co-workers but the output is what I would expect from a large-scale company. 

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

For what our project requests were, no. We've been thrilled with their work. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications and Outreach Director of San Diego Coastkeeper

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our mission is to protect and restore fishable, swimmable, and drinkable waters in San Diego County.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire NextLeft to accomplish?

• Improve website accessibility and navigation
• Increase website traffic
• Boost our search engines rankings

SOLUTION

How did you find NextLeft?

Other

Why did you select NextLeft over others?

Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Company values aligned

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We have a pro-bono year-long contract with NextLeft, valued at $40,000, to provide digital marketing services, including technical SEO, local SEO, content marketing, and reporting and account management.

They're providing:

• technical audits
• site keyword research
• SERP analysis
• citation management recommendations
• category content briefs
• existing content audits
• article content keyword research
• article content briefs
• Google Analytics audits
• an SEO reporting dashboard, and so much more.

We also worked on a $10,000 project to re-platform our website to a new version of WordPress and Elementor Pro. We began working with them in July 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Increased search traffic
• Increased time spent on website

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

One of the best aspects of working with NextLeft was their exceptional customer service. They were responsive, professional, extremely communicative, and wonderful to work with. They provided a customized approach tailored to our unique business needs as an environmental nonprofit focused on water issues. They worked within our budget and time constraints and truly understood the challenges we were facing.

What was your primary form of communication with NextLeft?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

I really enjoyed working with Anne and John from NextLeft. They approach projects and problem-solving in a collaborative manner, valuing my input as both a client and team member.

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

No, I would not change a thing about our partnership.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Social Media and Technology Manager at Helen Woodward Animal Center and Helen Woodward Animal Center is a unique, private, non-profit organization in San Diego County that, for more than 40 years, has been committed to the philosophy of people helping animals and animals helping people. Located on 12 acres in Rancho Santa Fe, our nationally recognized Center provides a variety of services that benefit the community through educational and therapeutic programs for people, and humane care and adoption for animals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

They assisted us with a variety of content strategy, SEO and Google Ads needs that helped us boost our online presence for potential adopters, donors and event attendees.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They were aligned with our values and really saw the importance of advocating for rescue pets. They understood the importance of storytelling and how our online presence shapes our perception to the public.

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

Next Left provided the following services to Helen Woodward Animal Center:

• Google Organic Acquisition
  • Monthly Analysis
• Keyword research
• Content/Page Optimization
• Conversion Tracking
• Link Building
• Google Ads support:
  • Google Grant Ads support
  • Ads Management
  • Sitelinks Management
  • Display Ad analysis and opportunities

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

There were about 4 - 5 team members assigned to our project at a time and they would either tackle paid social , SEO or content strategy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• On a high level the support and input we received from NextLeft resulted in an increase in public response to our web site. Our development team recorded an increase in the amount of calls that came in as a result to our partnership forming last May.
• The changes implemented by NextLeft clearly had an impact on our keyword rankings, as demonstrated in our SEO Dashboard reports
• Our Sessions and Revenue reports reflected an increase based on reporting from 2019, as 2020 was a year full of anomalies:
  • Jackie felt that NextLeft was proactive, communicative, strategic and responsive throughout the year. o We stayed on schedule with our monthly meetings that proved to be informative, insightful and important for us in terms of keeping up with the status of our SEO efforts.
  • When there were errors or issues that needed to be resolved, the team was attentive and acted efficiently to bring our site/campaigns back up to speed.
  • They helped us setup new conversion campaigns to help us more accurately track interest in dog and cat adoptions.
• As a result of NextLeft keeping our Google organization score at a high level, our Google ad spend was increased. The team at NextLeft was attentive to our Google Ads account and when we noticed a dip in our ad spend, they made the effort to rework the campaigns in our account to meet the needs of the new Google Ads algorithm and to keep our optimization score high
  • April 2022 saw ad spend of $30.4K compared to April of 2021, where we saw $17.7K ad spend
• NextLeft assisted us in eliminating dated web pages which helped improve our Google standing further. This housekeeping work was necessary in helping the overall optimization of the site and was not previously recommended to us by other partners.
  • By learning the benefits of removing indexing for old press releases and archiving old blogs that were no longer relevant, we were able to focus on the content that mattered and the pages that performed higher than the rest
• Migrating our blog from Word Press to our animalcenter.org site resulted in keeping visitors on our main site versus being channeled to another WordPress site
  • This project has been years in the making but the team at NextLeft made this migration achievable and seamless, given their experience in such projects
• Monthly content brief created a framework for items that would bring traffic to the web site.
  • We utilized these briefs to assign content pieces to our interns that would help us further optimize our website visits and boost our blog views. These briefs were well balanced and the topics were relevant and focused to our industry

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

They were extremely professional, communicative, helpful and always there when we needed their advice. We value their strong work ethic during this project.

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

Their expertise and ability to make substantial improvements to our web analytics in such a short amount of time. They taught us a lot about the capabilities of our website and our Google Ads account.

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

Not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of marketing for a window and for franchise in Las Vegas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a new SEO team. We had been through 3 other companies in 3 years. We were looking for results with transparency and that’s what Next Left has given us. We’ve seen consistent growth in our SEO and online marketing since joining with NextLeft.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were introduced by NextLeft through our marketing agency. They had seen us go through at least 2 other SEO companies and asked us to give NextLeft a shot. After seeing their presentation we were glad to try them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

We shared what we had been doing previously via SEO. They did an audit of our online presence and provided steps for how we could improve our performance overall. They also provided additional opportunities for social media advertising. When our corporate office redesigned and relaunched our website, NextLeft was tasked with checking the metadata and troubleshooting the entire website to ensure we would be launching with an SEO optimized, properly working website. They initially provided monthly reports on our organic and paid SEO stats. We review those numbers quarterly now that we feel we’ve reached a solid place.

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

We work with an account manager, a paid SEO manager, and an organic SEO manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We initially saw dramatic improvement in our online visits, number of referrals, overall search rankings, and website traffic. I don’t recall specific numbers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We originally had once a month phone calls when things were new and we were trying different things, seeing what worked and didn’t. Note that we’ve found a stable place, we’ve moved to quarterly phone calls.

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

They're responsive, transparent (other companies refused to share our keywords), knowledgeable, and forward thinking. I’ve worked with close to 10 marketing agencies across the country in my career and they have been made their way to my number 1.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Manager of Global Content at Widen, a software company specializing in digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We worked with NextLeft to help with our SEO management. Both overall website SEO and blog content. Our goal was to optimize our existing content and determine any content gaps.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

NextLeft was referred to us by a mutual, local customer/client. The team presented their plan to help with our determined goals and we appreciated their realistic approach. The team was attentive, honest, collaborative, and able to provide examples of success that helped confirm they'd be able to help us reach our goals.

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

The NL team provided regular audits of our website and made recommendations to improve SEO. While I was involved in this, the majority of my work with NL was focused on cleaning up our blog articles to better represent our current offerings and to drive organic traffic to our site through the blog. Originally, we started with reviewing the blog articles to determine content gaps and opportunities. We also updated some articles at that point, but the majority of our focus was on creating new content.

NL then provided a content audit of all of our blog articles in Oct 2019 that, as with most companies, continued to get pushed back on our end due to bandwidth...until COVID hit. Having more time at home, I started digging into this audit. With NL's guidance, we redirected over 1300 articles and began updating the remaining articles. Prior to beginning this cleanup, our blog had been seeing a decline in traffic. Organic traffic to the blog was down -12% to LY at the end of April 2020.

However, with our redirect and update efforts, we ended the year up almost +8% to LY. Including increases in the number of keywords on the first page of the search results and more keyword placements in the answer box. This effort is still in the works and will take around two years to complete but the wins we're seeing are steady and encouraging since as any content marketer knows, these efforts require a lot of dedication and attention. They were always attentive, helpful, and responsive throughout the project, just as they were at the beginning.

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

I mostly work with an account manager and SEO strategist. Our full marketing team also worked with a PPC strategist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I included some results in the project scope, but the biggest win was culling our blog articles to ensure we're only presenting our audience with relevant, helpful content. As well as redirecting over 1300 articles and recovering from the YoY declines to end up +8% to LY at the end of 2020. This has put us in a much better position for content maintenance and growth. Allowing us to move into a more proactive approach with our content and able to more regularly identify new content opportunities.

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

The NL team is always great to work with! They're attentive, detailed, receptive, and helpful. They provided monthly reports for all of our ongoing projects and were quick to dig into anything that we want to explore.

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

NL is just a great team to work with. Their SEO knowledge has helped us take our content to another level. I truly looked at them as part of our team.

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

The only thing we could have used more help with was optimizing SEO for Europe as we continue expanding in this region. But I also recognize there are multiple factors that go into it that make this effort challenging. Other than that, our SEO efforts were on point and always done at the pace our team could keep up with — which wasn't always fast. But NL was always patient with us. If anything, I'd recommend that teams looking to work on their SEO make sure they have time and resources dedicated to the project in order to get the most out of their work with the NL team because I'm sure they have a lot of other creative ideas that we weren't always able to take advantage of as part of our cleanup efforts.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager of a golf swing trainer manufacturer. I also handle operations management for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NextLeft?

We needed someone to manage our SEO efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handle keyword research and make keyword-related recommendations for our blogs. Their team ensures our site is working correctly as well, making sure our pages and links are set up properly. They also occasionally advise us on PPC-related matters.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Brian (Director of Client Services) and Rob (Director of SEO).

How did you come to work with NextLeft?

We had worked with other companies in the same capacity before them, but we weren’t happy with what we were getting. NextLeft was recommended to us by a third-party logistics provider we were using for fulfillment services. We’ve been working with them ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $30,000–$35,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since September 2019. They’re our most reliable partner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re mostly concerned with site health and making sure our other efforts are being recognized in our online presence. They’ve driven significant increases in organic traffic, with 50% of our sales coming from this traffic last month. Their team has definitely delivered. We’ve been happy with them.

How did NextLeft perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been really accommodating of the difficulties in our schedules. They always meet deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been very helpful and remain flexible in order to meet our needs.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be engaged in your work with them. They’re great at giving recommendations, but you have to follow up on what they tell you to do for everything to truly work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m co-founder, president, and CEO of ShipCalm. We’re an e-commerce facilities and logistics provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NextLeft?

We partnered with NextLeft to drive more traffic and leads to our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NextLeft began with an assessment and recommendations phase. They analyzed our status, the competitive landscape, and achievable goals for SEO campaigns. Their team then put together recommendations, which included budget recommendations.

They then began putting together the technical aspects of SEO in our WordPress website. Their team put tracking and reporting measures in place. That was the first phase. During the second phase, they updated our website. Their efforts primarily focused on backend optimization.

Our engineers now manage the code while NextLeft makes technical SEO recommendations. They’re writing content for our website and managing our link building strategy.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 5–6 different people from NextLeft. On a regular basis, I’m on a call with at least three people from their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $60,000 in 2019 and committed $220,000 to the partnership in 2021. So far, we’ve spent $120,000 this year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the engagement around January 2019 and paused it during 2020 for internal budgetary reasons. As soon as possible, I brought them back on board in January 2021 and doubled our monthly commitment to the campaigns.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We ran campaigns with NextLeft for all of 2019 and saw great results. We, unfortunately, had to pause the partnership for all of 2020 due to budget constraints but their team’s work carried us through the year. We probably quadrupled our organic traffic without lifting a finger because of NextLeft’s work.

Since we started working with them, our organic monthly visitors have grown from about 400 to at least 6,000. Their SEO work continues to yield the best return on our marketing dollars.

How did NextLeft perform from a project management standpoint?

NextLeft’s extremely communicative and timely. Their team presents data in tools where I can easily access it. Our monthly calls, however, are most valuable to me. During the calls, we review the previous month and the analytics NextLeft pulls together. By reviewing the analytics, their team gathers valuable insights and ideas for what influenced the results.

They’re phenomenal with project management, so their team’s efficient and productive. Compared to any past service provider, NextLeft has done the best job reporting, tracking, and giving answers to questions. They do a fantastic job presenting the data and requesting information from me. Their team doesn’t create a burden on me to be constantly providing them with materials.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their hiring distinguishes them from other vendors. They spend more time than other agencies hiring the right teammates. I'm working with the same team members who worked on our account in 2019. That consistency isn't common with agencies. NextLeft hires and retains talent. They’re also good at telling us when their team doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on another initiative. NextLeft will say no in the interest of ensuring they have the best people on board.

NextLeft also has a laser focus on SEO services. They’re not a jack-of-all-trades agency. Instead, their team has a core discipline.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, other marketing companies should act more like NextLeft.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust NextLeft and the process. If you have patience, you’ll be rewarded.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Midigator is a SaaS company dedicated to removing the complexity of chargebacks for merchants. At the time of our engagement with NextLeft, I was the current VP of Design and acting Director of Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

NextLeft was hired to help audit, standardize, consult and manage our ongoing SEO efforts for the Midigator website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

When researching NextLeft we were looking for an agency which specialized in SEO for medium-sized companies and could provide the hand-on strategic and execution for all of our SEO efforts. We were introduced to NextLeft via professional connection.

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

Our engagement with NextLeft started at the discovery phase. We met with the team to describe our business, industry, key competitors, goals and overall scope of the project.

NextLeft then provided a detailed plan for execution of our SEO strategy. This plan included competitive analysis, keyword research, comprehensive SEO audit, and technical recommendations. We executed the SEO plan over the next months of our engagement.

We worked collaboratively on plans for content recommendations, and the technical execution keyword optimizations. The NextLeft team provides monthly dedicated reporting for ongoing SEO efforts. We meet to discuss progress, goals, and strategy on a bi-weekly basis.

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

We worked directly with 2 individuals from the NextLeft team. Rob Tindula - Senior SEO & Content Marketing Specialist Brian Oddo - Senior Account Manager, Client Services

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

NextLeft has been able to increase our total organic traffic 153% YoY in just 6 months. Our organic demo request conversions have increased 32% YoY. Our page 1 keyword rankings have increased by 48% in the first 5 months of our engagement. 

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

The NextLeft team provideds detailed monthly reporting on all relevant KPIs for our ogranization. They utilize GA, DataStudio, and other reporting tools to make sure our team is updated on all SEO metrics every month. 

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

NextLeft is great and making our SEO strategy simplier to understand and executable for the entire team. They work in a collaborative, supportive menner which allows our team to be efficient, informed, and effective in executing all our SEO efforts. 

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

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager of Klover. It’s a new dispensary in San Diego, California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NextLeft?

We wanted to resolve the mistakes that our previous SEO service provider created. We not only needed to create a content marketing strategy but also give us more of a presence with certain keywords and directories.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NextLeft reevaluated and reconfigured our keyword strategy. Their team focused our SEO efforts on the most accurate and strong keywords. Their team gave me an understanding of the importance of keywords. They gave us a list of keywords that I approved. Then, NextLeft placed them on our website. They made a lot of structural changes to the site and helped with Google Ads.

What is the team composition?

I worked with four people from NextLeft. 

How did you come to work with NextLeft?

A colleague recommended John (CEO and Technology Director) and his team at NextLeft. We had at least three meetings together before I made my decision. He performed an SEO audit, which was clear, concise, and accurate. From there, I felt like their team was confident in their ability to take care of us. As we’re local, I also felt that we’d get the attention that we needed.

They provided these services to companies on a national scale. We wanted a company with a broad mindset because the majority of our clientele is based on the tourism industry. We want to be known internationally and that’s what made my decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $4,000 on everything, which included a lot of services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019. Unfortunately, we paused the engagement due to external circumstances. We reduced our overall funds but haven’t dropped them as a service provider because we love their service and performance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In a matter of one month, we went from page seven to page two with NextLeft’s guidance.

How did NextLeft perform from a project management standpoint?

We had biweekly video chats that included a presentation with slides, metrics, and graphs. In addition to that, we emailed back and forth or texted daily. The communication was prompt. Their team was amazing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

NextLeft cares about what they do. That’s a corny answer, but when you feel safe, that solidifies a long-term friendship. Their team was always honest. We had a horrible experience with our previous SEO provider to the point where they held our accounts. Before we signed on, John made sure that we acquired all of our accounts at no additional cost. That included backing up our entire website for the safety of our company. It was a game-changer how much John cared about getting the ownership right.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve. I’d like them to feel like that they could come on-site anytime, which NextLeft did their best to do. It’s important to us that a service provider makes their presence known and feels like a part of the team. I want our partners to know our staff on a first-name basis.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re unhappy with your current service provider, have everything prepared before you drop them. Have your numbers ready because NextLeft knows what they’re doing with data. It saves them time and work on their end if you’re prepared.