Dream big. Grow your revenue with expert SEO.
At Sure Oak, we’re on a mission to empower people to reach their full potential and live their wildest dreams. We make it happen through SEO.
Our full-service SEO firm offers unparalleled expertise along with proprietary growth strategies to get businesses ranking higher and growing faster. Our highly specialized services — everything from content optimization to premium link building, to CRO and PPC — generate real results by helping to increase online visibility and traffic.
Algorithm changes will come and go, but our holistic approach to SEO is a sure thing. We constantly improve, explore, adapt, and expand to earn our clients the visibility it takes to increase their conversions. That’s why big and small brands alike trust us to help them achieve what every business wants: sustainable growth.
Sure Oak believes in bold dreamers and the power of a connected world to make big ideas a reality. For us, every day is an opportunity to empower people to lead fulfilling lives with our proven strategies. Get excited. It’s time to dream big.
Focus
Portfolio
Mercedes-Benz, American Red Cross, Mayflower, United Van Lines, Milk Bar, Bivvy, Earnest, The Doe, The Gap, Advance Auto Parts, Shoe Carnival, Exact Data, Noodle — and a lot of smaller clients that we appreciate just as much.
202% Increase in Revenue in Two Months
The Client: Milk Bar
The Problem: Milk Bar’s engagement with Sure Oak coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, which was a devastating blow to the economy, particularly the service industry. And while you could say it was unfortunate timing, it also offered a unique opportunity to focus on improving Milk Bar’s overall organic search visibility, especially for its eCommerce capabilities.
The Solution: In order to identify the biggest opportunities for Milk Bar, Sure Oak conducted an SEO Game Plan, a proprietary methodology used to lay out exactly how to build a sustainable foundation for long-term growth and success in organic search.
Through the Game Plan, Sure Oak identified the biggest opportunities were to optimize the existing content on the website and create new content targeted at high-value keyword phrases, including phrases related to specific holidays, like Mother’s Day.
The majority of the existing content optimization revolved around targeting phrases that included the word, “delivery.” There were already several pages on the website that were ideal for retargeting those types of phrases. They were a great starting point.
The Results: The strategy Sure Oak laid out in the original Game Plan was exactly what Milk Bar needed. Focusing on optimizing existing pages spurred a 202 percent increase in revenue on targeted pages. The demand for online orders due to so many people staying at home in April and May also contributed to the increase.
773% Increase in Traffic and 29X the Number of Referring Domains for Bivvy
The Client: Bivvy
The Problem: Bivvy, a growing pet insurance provider, had just recently launched when they began work with Sure Oak. Bivvy was looking to rank for several keywords in order to help pet owners find them on Google. Bivvy focused on improving its on-page SEO and Sure Oak provided support with its link building services.
The Solution:
Bivvy did what we would recommend for any business with a new website: invest early. From a link building perspective, this was an ideal situation.
Sometimes websites will write a blog post that ends up generating the bulk of the website’s traffic. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a healthy link profile means a well-rounded link profile, and that means links to the homepage and other important pages on the website, not just a single blog post.
But, with Bivvy, we were able to build a comprehensive, high-quality backlink profile from the beginning.
Initially, we focused on building links first to the pages that carry the most authority. For Bivvy, it was the homepage and a page explaining how they were different from their competitors.
After generating backlinks to those pages, we shifted our focus to gaining links for several blog posts on Bivvy’s website. These posts included topics like, “How To Go Social: Group Activities for Your Pet,” “Dogs: the Ultimate Discount Gym Membership” and “How to Pamper Your Pet on a Budget.”
The Results: In only a few months, Bivvy’s organic traffic grew 773.58% from August 1 to March 1.
“Since our backlink work started with Sure Oak, we’ve seen a jump in many branded and non-branded keywords and a lift in our Ahrefs ranking. We value the work that Sure Oak has done, and continues to do, on our behalf!” - Bivvy
How Sure Oak SEO Got AdvancePoint Capital More Than 4X the Number of Leads From Organic Search
The Client: AdvancePoint Capital
The Problem: AdvancePoint Capital, a loan alternative company, struggled to find the right SEO agency while also investing heavily in PPC. Wanting to focus on achieving organic results and compete with industry titans, AdvancePoint Capital turned to Sure Oak for SEO.
The Solution: Due to the competitiveness of the business loan industry, a comprehensive SEO strategy was the primary way to increase AdvancePoint Capital’s visibility in search engines. Existing pages on the site needed to be re-optimized, new pages targeted at previously unexplored high-volume, low-competition keywords needed to be created and the site needed more high-quality authoritative backlinks pointing to it. Although increasing the number of leads from organic search was one of our biggest goals, it wasn’t the only one. The other goal was to increase the website’s authority. We accomplished that too, by implementing a comprehensive link-building strategy comprised of both contextual and scholarship links. Our link-building campaign helped increase the domain authority of their website from 20 to 28.
The Results: In four months of working with Sure Oak, lead volume for AdvancePoint Capital quadrupled and organic keyword rankings grew by 200%.
How we achieved a 51% increase in software demo signups with our Game Plan
The Client: Maptive
The Problem: After an algorithm update, Maptive had suffered a major loss in traffic. Not only this, but the traffic they were getting was less qualified than it had been historically. As a B2B SAAS company, most of their conversions came from free trials of their software, so this foreshadowed a calamity.
The Solution: With 1,000 different factors all influencing the site's rankings, we needed a holistic approach to really understand and address what was going on. For this, we turned to our proprietary SEO Game Plan for insights. This showed our team and Maptive the overall opportunity of different optimizations, how wide of a scope our project would require, the projected length of the project and many other important insights.
First, a website audit was performed to better understand current roadblocks for indexation and user performance. Once these items were fixed and updated, an advanced SEO strategy began that included the following:
- Advanced Keyword Research
- Research, Opportunities, Intent, Mapping
- Optimizations Development
- In-depth on-page development for users, and in turn, search engines
- Content Planning and Updating
- Current high-value page updates and new page development
The Results: Stemming from our efforts, we saw an increase of 51% in software trial sign up conversions from year one to year two. Trial sign up purchase conversions increased by 55% during this period as well. During the months of active SEO, we saw an organic conversion rate increase of 15% sitewide with organic traffic doubling year over year.
243% Growth in Organic Traffic
The Client: Mattress Nerd
The Problem: Mattress Nerd hired Sure Oak to improve their domain authority (DA) and overall keyword performance. They were lagging behind their competitors in both areas of their website and wanted to take action. When Mattress Nerd partnered with Sure Oak, they had a DA of 41 and ranked for an estimated 35,000 keywords.
The Solution: For Mattress Nerd, Sure Oak rolled out a comprehensive link building strategy that included building both scholarship links, which primarily help boost domain authority (DA), and contextual links, which we used to increase traffic to specific, high-priority pages on the website.
The combined approach proved to be very fruitful for the domain and target pages. In just two months, we noticed a ~124% increase in organic traffic and a 28% increase in organic keywords.
A diverse and strong backlink profile, coupled with an on-page strategy Mattress Nerd executed in-house, helped the website reach its true potential in only a few short months.
The Results: Organic traffic to the site grew 243% from November 1 to April 1.
133% Growth in Organic Traffic
The Client: QuizGriz
Problem: One of the most important ways to make sure Google understands your website when it does a crawl is to only add content that’s related to your business. But for QuizGriz, that’s a bit difficult. Because they’re a quiz generator, their website includes information about an incredibly wide range of topics, from the pyramids to classic cars. However, the wide range of information also posed an opportunity.
Solution: While optimizing a website with content related to so many different topics has its challenges, it also has its advantages. The fact that QuizGriz’s website had URLs and content related to so many topics meant there were a lot of potential keywords to target, many of which competitors weren’t capitalizing on.
Identifying those keywords was step 1.
The next step was integrating them into QuizGriz’s existing content — it turns out, when you have a quiz creation website, you already have content related to nearly any and every keyword.
In addition to developing a content strategy centered around existing content, Sure Oak performed a technical audit of the QuizGriz website, providing ways to improve its overall performance. We also executed a link-building campaign that more than doubled the number of referring domains.
Results: Organic traffic to the site grew 133.5% from January – June.
More Than 100% Increase in Organic Keyword Rankings
The Client: We Mount TVs
Problem: We Mount TVs was spending a disproportionate percentage of their marketing budget on PPC and wanted to reduce their reliance on paid ads to generate leads. They contacted Sure Oak to help them develop an effective SEO strategy that would generate inbound leads from local organic search traffic.
Solution: In order to help We Mount TVs reduce their monthly ad spend and drive more leads from organic search, we developed a comprehensive SEO strategy that involved revamping existing pages, creating long-form guides for new pages, and generating high-quality backlinks to targeted pages.
For a company like We Mount TVs, which services several specific areas spread across the southeastern U.S., location is everything. That’s why a large part of our content strategy centered around improving existing service pages for the specific areas that We Mount TVs operates. We also identified service pages that were not location-specific that were already driving leads, and improved those, too.
The other part of our content strategy was to create unique, long-form content that provided users with a ton of value, at no cost.
In order to increase the value of the improved and new content on We Mount TVs’ website, we implemented a link-building strategy targeted at high-quality links from authoritative domains.
Our link-building campaign not only generated several hundred backlinks; it increased We Mount TVs overall domain authority significantly, a huge step forward for the site and the company.
Results: By partnering with Sure Oak, We Mount TVs significantly boosted its visibility on Google and other search engines and saw real results, which you can see below, from their investment. Organic keyword rankings grew by 115% from March – November.
67% Increase in Ranked Keyword Phrases
The Client: RnA ReSet
The Problem: RnA ReSet came to Sure Oak for two reasons:
1. They felt they had hit a wall with their organic search traffic
2. They believed they had been hit by a Google penalty for violating Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) or Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) guidelines
The Solution: In order to help RnA ReSet rebuild the organic traffic they lost due to the suspected Google penalty and continue to grow their business during the coronavirus pandemic, Sure Oak laid out a comprehensive SEO strategy from the beginning. It involved several components:
- Retargeting general keyword phrases, like “magnesium supplement,” on product pages
- Creating new content that proved to Google and users they were a credible source of information related to dietary supplements and building out pages to help users learn everything they need to know before buying dietary supplements
- Developing high-quality backlinks to relevant top-of-funnel pages to not only increase the website’s domain authority but also increase its referral traffic from reputable sites
Impressions and clicks increased across the board, and several pages secured spots on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant and valuable keyword phrases.
The Results: Focusing heavily on improving existing pages and creating new pages paid off. In less than one year, the number of keyword phrases Rna ReSet’s website ranked for increased 67 percent.
810% Increase in Monthly Organic Users with Link Building and On-Site Optimization
The Client: Responsify
The Problem: Responsify, a team of inbound marketing specialists, was concerned about the low DA of their site. However, their client book was full and they did not have the time or expertise to invest in their SEO. They called Sure Oak for help.
The Solution: Before any link building could begin, Sure Oak SEO completed a technical audit of their website and its existing content along with extensive keyword research. We found new keyword opportunities and optimized keyword density to drive more incoming traffic. To increase brand awareness and domain authority, we executed a variety of link-building strategies including guest posting on high authority sites and editorial insertions targeting the highest opportunity pages.
The Results: Since working with Sure Oak, in just six months Responsify’s domain authority reached 30 as they hoped for, increasing by 87.5% with over 345 linking domains. Organic monthly users compared to the previous year increased by 810%.
“That helped all of the pages across our site to rank higher and because of that we are getting a considerably higher amount of leads coming through our website,” Responsify founder and CEO Edmund says. Thanks to this targeted SEO strategy, along with revamping and expanding their content, Responsify is seeing drastic increases in traffic through organic search with ranking keywords increasing nearly tenfold with over 1,500 keywords and a 582% increase in organic monthly traffic over the previous year.
Reviews
the project
SEO Services for Online Bathroom Partitions Distributor
"They just seem to be more experienced about the technical aspect of SEO than other companies."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
We’re a distributor of toilet partitions. I’m the VP and part owner of the company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Sure Oak?
We wanted help with SEO.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We started off with Sure Oak reviewing our website content and making technical adjustments. We had keywords already established, but we went through those with their team just to confirm which ones were extremely important to the business.
They’ve helped change some of the content that was on the site and worked on creating backlinks. Also, they have a road map of what they do every month.
What is the team composition?
We have three main people working with us — a lead technician, a project manager, and a content specialist. We work with other people, but they just review some of the road map accomplishments every month.
How did you come to work with Sure Oak?
It was a referral from another reputable company.
How much have you invested with them?
So far, we’ve spent $76,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began working together in September 2020, and our partnership is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We look at the organic visits to our website and the calls-to-action that they completed. Not only did we see a rise in organic searches and visits, but those visitors also converted and went through the different channels that we wanted them to go to.
How did Sure Oak perform from a project management standpoint?
They’ve been great. They’re a small team, and it seems like they’ve been working with each other for quite some time. Some of the upper-level people are pretty well-experienced, so they have it together.
For project management, we just use shared Google documents. We communicate through email or phone calls.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They just seem to be more experienced about the technical aspect of SEO than other companies. At the beginning, they came out without sugarcoating it and told us what we needed to do to get higher rankings.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Sure Oak’s proposal is pretty well defined, but I would shop around and compare — maybe even talk to some other customers about their experience.
the project
SEO & Web Migration Service for Energy Holding Company
"The team is incredibly knowledgeable, and they are professional but also fun and personable."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the Lead UX Designer for a large renewable energy company.
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak, and what were your goals?
We were merging three old websites into one new website as part of a rebranding effort. We hired Sure Oak to help us optimize all the new website content and to help us manage the migration so we didn't lose our existing search positioning.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
We were referred to Sure Oak by our previous agency, which they had recently acquired. Their professionalism and detailed proposal for our project, along with the strong recommendation from the owner of the previous agency, helped us decide to move forward with their services.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.
We began with a few deep-dive meetings to help them understand our business and our target market, which is a little bit unique from other industries. Sure Oak performed audits on all three of our existing websites to make sure that all content was accounted for, and created an in-depth migration map for us. As we determined what content would be carried over and what new content needed to be created, Sure Oak performed the keyword research for every page to help us optimize all the new web pages before launch. They also helped us with organizing all of our redirects after migration and performed a post-launch audit to help us clean up our pages and improve our page rankings.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
We primarily worked with the Director of SEO Strategy and the Senior SEO Strategist.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
We had a truly seamless brand launch, thanks in large part to the Sure Oak team. They were with us every step of the way to make sure our content was optimized, that our redirects were in place, and that nothing got left behind. We have only had the new site live for about a month but are already seeing excellent traffic - much higher than I would have anticipated for a site migration or new website, and I have no doubt that it's because of Sure Oak's guidance.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
Sure Oak is very organized and very communicative. Every call we had was followed by an email with relevant action items, and their team was very timely on all deliverables. I didn't see any detail slip through the cracks with them! Any bottlenecks that did occur were on our side, not theirs. The team is incredibly knowledgeable, and they are professional but also fun and personable. I enjoyed all of our meetings with the Sure Oak team.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
Their expertise in SEO and specifically in backlink strategy makes them a stand-out in their industry. They had a solid strategy for every component of our brand launch and were able to articulate both the strategy and the reasons for the strategy to our team. I was so impressed by how well their work to prep for our migration played out during the actual launch, and with what we've seen already in post-launch traffic.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
Unfortunately due to our company's internal requirements, we had to shift to an existing vendor for ongoing SEO so we didn't give Sure Oak the opportunity to run with our long-term strategy or to get creative. When we worked with them, we were 100% focused on site migration and brand launch, and they did an exemplary job with that! I don't have any areas for improvement in our experience with them, and I am sure they would have continued to impress us over the long term as well.
the project
SEO for Open Innovation Platform
"They were able to help us achieve things we couldn't on our own."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
We are an open innovation platform that allows you to innovate faster by detecting and contacting the best experts or the most relevant companies. I am in charge of digital marketing
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak?
We wanted to increase our domain authority in order to be more competitive in seo. We found several solutions that didn't suit us enough. SureOak allowed us to have real quality links to sites that are interesting for us.
What were your goals for this project?
We wanted to increase our AD and thus bring more seo traffic to our site
How did you select Sure Oak?
We first looked for a solution in our country (France) but none clearly answered our problem. We then searched for an English-speaking company on Google and came across Sure Oak. We set up a meeting so that they fully understand our issues and objectives. After a period of reflection and comparison with other offers we decided to work with them.
Describe the scope of their work in detail.
We first had an interview so that they could get to know our expectations and we could get to know their skills. Once the need was well established, SureOak offered us to do a test at a reduced price over 1 month.
At the end of this period we continued with one of their classic formulas. We had access to a detailed report that they agreed to provide us every week. Our exchanges went well with the whole team and they were always reactive and attentive to our requests.
What was the team composition?
Our first contact was with the Growth director. We then had a project manager who followed us closely. We also met other members of the team through a kickoff.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
We have not been able to carry out our project for a very long time so we have not been able to perceive any significant improvement in our domain authority. On the other hand the links provided were always related to our domain and lexical field.
The domain authority of the acquired links was always above ours. We had also asked to acquire links on a certain type of site related to our field of activity and our request was respected.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
The project manager was always listening to us and explained things well. They answered all our questions and accepted some of our requests (such as having a weekly report). They were very responsive to our emails.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
I didn't think they could make us gain so many links with such high domain authorities and on sites we were interested in, but they seemed very difficult to acquire if we would have had to do this campaign on our own. They were able to help us achieve things we couldn't on our own.
Are there any areas for improvement?
We would have liked to see our domain authority increase even if our had to be conducted over a short period of time.
the project
Link Building for Car Dealership
"They’ve handled the account well in terms of quality and quantity of links."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the general manager of a car dealership.
What challenge were you trying to address with Sure Oak?
They were our link building partner.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We had a new website for a special finance department that we created for a very narrow niche. They were responsible for providing link building services for that site.
What is the team composition?
I work directly with an account representative.
How did you come to work with Sure Oak?
I found them online searching for link building agencies. Reaching out to those with impressive websites, we decided to interview several of the providers through a proposal process. They seemed like the best fit for the work and were professional.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent between $10,000–$20,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been working with them since February 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They delivered the link quantity and quality that we agreed on at the start of the project. Our industry is pretty unique, without tons of potential sites that could link to u. However, they landed good-quality leads with relevant resources. That allowed us to show up higher in organic rankings.
How did Sure Oak perform from a project management standpoint?
They respond right away to my questions and concerns. Their reports are also structured well.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’ve handled the account well in terms of quality and quantity of links.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They follow through on promises and met our objectives, so I can’t think of anything.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Give clear expectations upfront to get the most out of working with them.
the project
Onpage Optimization & Link Building for Dietary Supplements
"The service in general is very satisfying."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Dietary supplements eCommerce website since 1992.
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak, and what were your goals?
First of all, it was only about a general SEO audit of our website, but it's ended to work together for more than a year now! Adding link building and on-page optimization every month. We are looking to build a strong organic ranking.
How did you select Sure Oak and what were the deciding factors?
It was about their founder reputation on Semrush! They always provide a professional service in a timely manner.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.
The goal is to build a strong and long term reputation for my eCommerce website.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
I am currently with one account manager who is the same person from the beginning and two specialists. One in content writing and the other one in SEO. They all did a really good job.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
I am very satisfied with their service. I would say it is maybe a little bit expensive, but the quality has a price I guess!
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.
We are mainly communicating through emails and I feel it efficient regarding our projects.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
The service in general is very satisfying.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
I would say regarding our recurring projects through the months, maybe to be more flexible on outside project tasks. It gives a VIP felling to the client.
the project
Link Building for Company
"The very personal approach towards their customer impressed us."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the general manager of this company and responsible for the websites which we run.
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak?
We hired Sure Oak to do a review on our backlinks and after that build new backlinks for our websites.
What were your goals for this project?
The goal for this project was to maintain a healthy backlink profile whilst adding new backlinks for our websites.
How did you select Sure Oak?
After doing quite some research and checking online reviews for several companies I saw that Sure Oak was the company with the best reviews and decided to contact them along with 2 other companies. In the end after having a first contact through a personal call I definitely had the best feeling with Sure Oak.
Describe the scope of their work in detail.
We hired Sure Oak to do a review on our backlinks and after that build new backlinks for our websites.
What was the team composition?
I've had contact with several employees and all were very nice and helpfull.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
At this moment we're still working with Sure Oak and they send me monthly reports which are detailed. I also can explain exactly what I'd like them to do different and they are always open to guide me the right way.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
Very effective. Reaction time on my emails is short and in case I'd like to have a personal call then they can also always schedule this on short notice.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
The very personal approach towards their customer impressed us.
Are there any areas for improvement?
If I would have to find a point to describe here then I'd hope they could make things a bit cheaper. But that's just nitpicking.
the project
SEO for Senior Living Community Portal
"Sure Oak was very professional and committed to the project."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Simply Senior Living is an online referral provider that helps seniors and their families connect to the best senior living communities.
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak, and what were your goals?
As a new website, we were looking to grow our organic search traffic and domain authority.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
We chose Sure Oak due to their experience with other clients in our industry and due to their comprehensive analysis of our site's SEO.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.
Sure Oak created an initial report that detailed the current status of our SEO, then scheduled monthly calls and requirements for completion of the campaign. These objectives were based around site architecture, content, on-page/off-page SEO, and link building.
Each month, Sure Oak would provide Content Briefs that described keywords to hit on specific pages on the site, which aspects of on-page or off-page SEO to improve, and other suggestions on how to improve the site. They also provided an update on traffic data over time, where they had obtained backlinks, and what the goals were for the next month.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
3 SEO specialists, 1 project manager, and 1 sales associate worked with us.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
Traffic to our site is more consistent than prior to working with Sure Oak.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
Sure Oak is a remote first company that utilizes largely the Google Docs ecosystem and Google Meet. Most of the deadlines are based around monthly phone calls on Google Meet.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
Sure Oak was very professional and committed to the project. They have a strong knowledge of link building and basic site architecture.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
The cost of services can be expensive, depending on your company's budget.
the project
Scholarship Promotion for Independent Business Marketplace
"I was impressed that they had a strategic view on our content...with the goal of opening up eligibility."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I lead the Growth team at UncommonGoods
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak?
To help us promote our scholarship program to universities.
What were your goals for this project?
We wanted to see Sure Oak get coverage from over 20 schools
How did you select this vendor?
We had heard that they were great at Scholarship content promotion
Describe the scope of their work in detail.
The have great relationships with universities
What was the team composition?
I had a dedicated rep
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
In the time that they worked on this project, we saw an increase in scholarship applications
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
Great
What did you find most impressive about this company?
I was impressed that they had a strategic view on our content, and had us make several edits with the goal of opening up eligibility.
Are there any areas for improvement?
No
the project
SEO Writing for Power Tools Review Site
"Communication and accessibility continue to be excellent."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Pro Tool Reviews started in 2008 and writes about construction industry power tools, hand tools, and accessories. We provide reviews, editorials, and news. I am the owner and editor-in-chief.
For what projects/services did your company hire Sure Oak?
Having written more than 5,000 high-quality articles and reviews, we realized we needed a better sense of direction for our editorial team. We provide a lot of content, but that content didn't target proper keywords and lacked prioritization. We also had some technical website issues that held us back from achieving the best possible SEO for our content.
What were your goals for this project?
Our goals involved increasing traffic to our existing content, gaining insight into proper directions to maximize our core areas of expertise, and maximizing the efforts of our editorial team as a whole.
How did you select this vendor?
We did an extensive online search for domestic SEO companies with excellent results and who worked with companies of similar size and reputation (or better) as Pro Tool Reviews.
Describe the project in detail.
Sure Oak works with us to focus our SEO efforts so we can optimize our editorial team on better keywords and topics. It also works to suggest modifications to existing articles.
What was the team composition?
We worked closely with a small group of team members who specialize in our exact project needs. Eventually, the team honed down into a point person who we work with to generate the recommended SEO directions and modifications for the site. This is desirable because it presents a more specialized client experience with someone who we feel truly understands what we do, how we do it, and the goals we want to achieve.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
In three months, our traffic has grown roughly 125% and our team has dialed in specific directions for optimizing and creating more optimized content that matches our target user-base. We have achieved dozens of targeted high-value search terms that have gone from double-digit results to top 3—including many top 1 positions...and we feel we've just gotten started.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
Communication and accessibility continue to be excellent and includes weekly emails and monthly video calls.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Our results show that Sure Oak delivers on its goals. They are professional, and we've been very pleased with the results.
Are there any areas for improvement?
None that we've experienced.
the project
SEO Services for Media & Presentation Training Company
"Given the moment we’re in with the pandemic, the team has been incredibly flexible, shifting the scope of their work."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the president of Throughline Group, a media and presentation training firm.
What challenge were you trying to address with Sure Oak?
We are in a competitive industry with a lot of companies that offer presentation training. Our company has something different to offer than many of our competitors. Our goal was to be more visible in organic search for search terms related to media or presentation training.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Sure Oak did keyword research, on- and off-page optimization, and backlink work. Additionally, the team gave us feedback that went into business strategy beyond the narrow sleeve of SEO.
What is the team composition?
We work with 4–5 teammates in total, but a core 2–3.
How did you come to work with Sure Oak?
I did an exhaustive online search and found their brand presence to be smart. The way they talked about their own company was similar to how we talk about ours. I interviewed a few different companies, and even in those initial conversations, Sure Oak stood out as different and sharp in their approach.
How much have you invested with them?
We spend about $4,000 per month which comes up to around $50,000 per year.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our engagement began in May 2019 and it’s ongoing. We do a monthly retainer and there’s no specific end date in sight.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
There have been definite improvements in where we rank for some of the more important keywords for our business. Every month, Sure Oak assesses our keyword rankings and how that compares in terms of traffic and conversions, as well as overall Google ratings and positions.
We haven’t achieved everything that we have our eyes set on, but in many ways, we’re on our way there. We can definitely see an upward trend in terms of our visibility and rankings. We’re also starting to see results in terms of our site visits and impressions.
How did Sure Oak perform from a project management standpoint?
Project management is one of their greatest strengths. We have a monthly call which is preceded by a detailed report, allowing us to review it and come to the call with informed questions. Given the moment we’re in with the pandemic, the team has been incredibly flexible, shifting the scope of work to meet the business strategy for us.
This specifically means focusing more on remote or virtual trainings as opposed to in-person trainings. That wasn’t part of the original scope of work, but they didn’t hesitate to make a change to it because it was obvious that that’s what needed to happen in order for us to be okay during this time.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re very responsive. When we email them with questions, we usually hear back from them within 24 hours. They’re also accountable, showing us the areas where they have and haven’t had success through their monthly reports.
I find that transparency really helpful. It also suggests that, rather than trying to make themselves look good, they really are focused on being business partners. If there are areas where they aren’t achieving success, we’re able to work together to come up with a strategy. I really appreciate that partnership. Increasingly, I see them as a partner, not a vendor.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there’s nothing I can think of. We’ve been very happy with their work.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Think about what’s most important to you and come to the conversation with very specific objectives that you’re hoping to achieve or methods of work that are important to you. Each company should figure out what their bullseye is and Sure Oak will be responsive. However, they can’t be responsive to objectives that aren’t clearly articulated.
Since Sure Oak’s involvement, the client not only has seen a rise in organic searches and visits, but also an increase in conversions from those same visitors. Sure Oak’s team stands out for their experience. They work great together and lead an efficient project management process.