SEO Ninja

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Maxwell CPA Review LLC, a digital content educational company for the CPA exams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SEO Ninja?

I reached out to them to improve the SEO performance of my website. Our primary goal was to get more traffic, keyword hits, and a higher score in terms of organic Google search results. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started the project with a phone call and talked about my needs and industry. After that, the SEO Ninja team researched the accounting industry and figured out what they could do with our SEO campaigns. They then sent me recommendations on the areas that we should work on, such as blog posting and video submissions, and created an outline of how they would optimize our online performance.

From there, the engagement has been a matter of following their template. Every week, they update our shared Excel Spreadsheet to show me the progress they’ve made. For instance, if they’ve created a new profile somewhere online, they put that information on the spreadsheet. Overall, they do plenty of reports and updates on the progress that they’ve done. 

What is the team composition?

I work with only one person from their team. 

How did you come to work with SEO Ninja?

I made a post on UpWork for digital marketing freelancers. SEO Ninja responded to that post, saying they could help me with the SEO side of things. At first, SEO wasn’t on my priority list. However, after they reached out to me and did a 30-minute free phone call, I realized that I wanted to work with them. That was how we initiated our collaboration. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $800. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in June 2021, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with them, I’ve been on the second page of Google’s organic search results. That’s a big change — my company previously didn’t even show up anywhere near the search results. 

On top of that, our website traffic is slightly higher; we’ve seen an increase of around 30% in traffic. The average number of viewers on the website has also increased. 

How did SEO Ninja perform from a project management standpoint?

SEO Ninja finishes their tasks on time. They wait for me more than I wait for them, so they’re truly proactive. Moreover, it’s taken me a few weeks to get accustomed to the reports and numbers they’ve presented, but they’ve explained those reports to me. As a result, I now see that they’re highly organized, and it’s easy to track what they’ve done during a specific week. To communicate, we make phone calls to catch up and ask questions about different documents, though we mostly talk via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SEO Ninja pays us great attention, and they create well-formatted reports. Apart from that, they’re proactive when coming up with ideas; I don’t have to come up with everything we need to do. Finally, they have truly consistent communication. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Giving me more clarity at the beginning of the contract would have been more helpful. They could’ve walked me through the reports and terms they used with regard to SEO. In addition, they could’ve helped me understand their responsibilities compared to mine from the start. This kind of introduction would’ve been helpful from the beginning. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

SEO Ninja will take liberties to get the job done, so if you don’t like the direction they’re taking, be clear about it and communicate. They’re open to feedback. On top of that, guide the process as the project manager. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Gladeo, an inclusive career navigation platform for the future of work. We received a grant from Upwork because our work has helped the workforce development in the US, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SEO Ninja?

We were looking for on-site and off-site SEO services to increase our organic search rankings.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our focus was on-site SEO for the first few weeks. SEO Ninja started by analyzing our site, which was quite a task — we have hundreds of pages because we're a content site. I gave them a list of keywords to focus on, which they utilized. They then looked at our several templates, like the one we use for career profiles, and showed us how to change meta tags. After explaining how those changes would automatically help our rankings on specific keywords, we made the changes. 

Their off-site efforts were focused on increasing our backlinks to increase our organic ranking. The team identified many sites with backlink opportunities and then pitched our articles to them. Most of them are on forums, but some blogs also link to our site.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with one teammate.

How did you come to work with SEO Ninja?

We found SEO Ninja on Upwork. I looked at their reviews, Job Success Score, and some of their past projects. They had the relevant experience when it came to backlinking and content sites, so I hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our monthly spend was $1,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October–December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I'm not very knowledgeable about SEO, so I'm not sure what the benchmark of success is. However, there was definitely an increase in our rankings and traffic after SEO Ninja helped us out. He gave us a good foundation with on-site SEO, which helped set us up for success. In terms of off-site SEO, he considerably increased our backlinks by five times. Unfortunately, we've since paused our backlinking efforts due to shifting priorities. They disclosed that we wouldn’t see as big of a result as we would've had they worked for a few months more, but we just couldn't focus our funds on that at this stage of our company.

How did SEO Ninja perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was the best we’ve seen — SEO Ninja came into the project with an excellent plan that specified what they were going to do each month. It was broken into actionable tasks, so it wasn’t overwhelming for us. We had access to some detailed spreadsheets with five high-level strategies that they constantly updated. It was really easy to track their progress because they helped us understand what each deliverable was. The team was just highly transparent. 

In terms of communication, the team was very amenable to my preferences. For example, I didn’t want to be notified constantly, so we had biweekly check-ins where they updated me on how many backlinks they’ve acquired. The team also gave us monthly progress reports. They were just very accommodating to what was comfortable for us. For example, I like working through Slack, so I invited him into our workspace. 

Whenever there was any confusion around the significance of each strategy, I'd go to them, and they were very readily available. It wasn't that difficult to communicate with SEO Ninja — even though they're in a different time zone, they were very responsive. Sometimes I think they even reply too fast when it's very late for them, and I have to ask if they're still sleeping normally. Overall, working with them was straightforward, which is rare when working with overseas firms.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The reason why I liked working with SEO Ninja was they were extremely thorough. They explained everything specifically for someone who isn't very adept at SEO and search engine marketing. We asked a lot of basic questions, but they remained patient with us. Aside from giving me the hand-holding I needed, they’re also very well-priced.

I wish we could have kept them longer, but increasing our traffic isn't necessarily our priority right now. Our main driver is active sales, which is enough for us at this time. When we have more funds, we’ll definitely hire SEO Ninja again — working with them was a delightful experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not sure about the industry standard for backlinking, but I wish he had delivered more backlinks from blogs rather than forums. I would’ve preferred that the backlinks were from higher-ranked sites, but I understand that it probably wasn’t easy. I didn’t know what to look for in terms of success, which was an issue on our end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask more questions upfront. If you’re more adept at SEO, set clear expectations. If you don’t know a lot about it, ask them to set aside some time to explain their strategy.