Victorious

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as an SEO Strategist at Raken. Raken is a construction management software/app solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Initially, we hired Victorious for backlinking and then progressed to use them for some keyword research, metadata recommendations, technical SEO recommendations, and strategic content recommendations.

SOLUTION

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

Victorious reached out to us in Summer 2019 and we had a bad SEO agency working with us at the time. It was a no brainer. Their presentations, their professionalism, their responsiveness... it was all spot on.

And after beginning the partnership, that didn't stop. They were always on top of it and always delivered on their promises.

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

Backlinking, keyword research, metadata optimizations, technical SEO optimizations, and strategic content optimizations.

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

3-4 members. One was a salesperson and three were account managers/CSM's. Occasionally we had a meeting with their SEO strategy team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to guide us through month-over-month growth in website sessions and keyword ranking improvements.

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

They use their own analytics system which as a client, you have access to. They pull all their data from the best SEO tools including GA, GSC, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and more. We had monthly reporting where they would send us a deck with all of our backlinks for the month, a review on month-over-month traffic metrics, and more.

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

Their communication is the best, they never skip a beat and follow through on everything they say they will do.

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

Nope, I really enjoyed everything about working with Victorious SEO. Keep up the great work guys.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the last 4+ months, Victorious offered to extend the relationship at no additional cost to us in order to deliver a successful project. They were able to do that. For the additional work provided at the end of the project they brought on their SEO Director to provide additional insight and guidance. The additional time and resources were integral in shifting the relationship from negative to positive.

What is the team dynamic?

The team worked very well together. Victorious was focused and knowledgeable. They were happy to share that knowledge with our team and we learned a great deal from them. The working relationship was very productive.

What is the status of this engagement?

It has ended as of December.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

The relationship started off strong and then we went through a period of challenges as our business is more complicated than most and we disagreed on some strategic decisions. Eventually we were able to work through those differences to come up with the best strategy to move forward. Honestly, the additional time working together allowed for our companies to get a better understanding of goals and objectives which resulted in a more productive relationship towards the end.

How did Victorious address the challenges that arose?

They focused on areas we agreed on and made significant improvements in communications. They also added resources, specifically their SEO lead, which was helpful.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

Our traffic has stabilized and we are seeing growth in key areas of our site – most importantly the pages that are the most valuable to us.

How was project management handled?

It was very good.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

They have a very knowledgeable team and they were willing to share their knowledge with us so our team got better along the way. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

We shared some of our ideas for improvement with them and they made them to benefit the relationship and the success of the project.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on November 14, 2020.

President, Expatriate Resource Company

Financial Services

1-10 Employees

Boston, Massachussets

$50,000 to $199,999

Feb. - July 2020

Project summary: 

An expatriate resource company partnered with Victorious to review its SEO rankings and provide guidance on generating traffic and content marketing.

Feedback summary: 

The Victorious team was helpful but there was a disconnect between what the team thought they needed to do and what the company's goals were. The team was very knowledgeable on SEO but they were not fully informed regarding the company's standing or objectives.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President and in charge of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We signed on with them to review SEO and provide guidance on generating additional traffic and general content marketing.

What were your goals for this project?

Traffic increase.

SOLUTION

How did you select Victorious?

We have used other agencies in the past. We reached out to several companies and Victorious provided a nice overall package of services that met our specific needs. They were expensive but offered a range of services that met our needs.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They provided SEO analysis and then we worked with them on a monthly basis to address issues that were found during an SEO audit. They helped with content planning, content marketing, and strategic planning.

What was the team composition?

We worked primarily with a project manager who then brought any needs we identified back to the team behind the scenes to recommend changes or do the work required.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We did not see the progress towards the goals that we had set. In some cases, there was minimal improvement but we saw other areas that we missed on.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was helpful and managed the process well. However, there was a disconnect between what we discussed and the results suggested after our calls.

The team working behind the scenes was not fully informed on our goals and our business. In some cases, the team made suggestions to do things that had already been done or that were not in line with our business objectives.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The company has a great team of very knowledgeable SEO strategist and marketers. The challenge was the disconnect between what they were recommending and our business goals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The agency model is good for companies that have little SEO knowledge or experience. We are an established business and knowledgeable on SEO so the services provided were not as valuable to us.

Ratings

Overall rating: 2.5

Quality: 3

Schedule: 3

Cost: 1.5

Willing to refer: 1.5

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Digital Marketing Manager for KIOSK Information Systems - a self-service solution provider and kiosk manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to improve our digital presence by drawing the right traffic to our website. We needed to know more about out competition, and understand how to move to the top of the list in Google web searches.

SOLUTION

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

We compared a number of different SEO Agencies and were impressed with the customer service Victorious provides as well as the technical tools they use to make meeting our goals more reliable and predictable.

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

Victorious began by sitting down with us to understand our goals at a high level. They provided us with direction about how we can use backlinking to our advantage. Victorious advised us on where to start - giving us clear instruction about how to improve our website content by providing clear page optimization strategies.

Next, based on their expert advice, we proceeded on a monthly basis to discuss our areas of focus and Victorious continually provided relevant and timely keyword research, website recommendations and reporting to show what was working and where we needed to focus our attention.

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

2 - Senior Customer Success Manager & Partnerships Director

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Victorious provides us with 24/7 access to the dashboard where we can get immediate feedback about our efforts. The dashboard shows current rankings and change over time as well as the trend of visitors to our site. We are happy with the insight because we can always get near real-time feedback and see the results of our efforts.

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

They are always great at meeting deadlines and giving us realistic expectations. Our success manager always gets back to us quickly and communicates clearly.

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

We have been very impressed with their ever growing knowledge and keeping up with changing technology so that we can rely on them!

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

For the longer term - it would be nice if they came up with some more new ideas once our improvement started to plateau.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director for an e-discovery software company focusing on the legal market. So, we sell software to lawyers, attorneys, paralegals, and litigation support professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We were optimizing our website, but we were missing some critical skills that were needed to optimizing our position in search. We needed support and expertise to boost our rankings for certain keywords.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They audited at the beginning of the project. They then developed a strategy for the duration of the project. They optimized our content every month and did something called social signals. Then they created three backlinks every month. Over time, they increased the number of backlinks we received.

Mid-year, they conducted another audit to determine how they could improve the site again. They used their own platform and ahrefs an alternative to Google Analytics to track keywords and growth. They shared the info from Surfer with me as well to optimize content. We also experimented a bit when traffic dipped and discovered that backlinks were really important to grow our domain rating.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with about three people. I worked primarily with the customer relations manager, but that shifted throughout the project. The salesperson I worked with originally hopped back on the project the last few months as well. A few times, I was able to work with their technical team directly.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

They emailed me and I happened to be doing research on SEO vendors at the time. I took calls with several different vendors, but I thought Victorious would be the best fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $33,000–$35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from August 2019–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been super helpful the entire team we worked together. We saw growth on the website almost every month during the campaign. The only month we didn’t see growth was when COVID-19 hit, and Victorious provided us with a bunch of extra backlinks that month. Throughout the campaign, they were accommodating and they explained each of the items on their reports. As a result, I was able to implement a few of the strategies myself. Everything they did was pretty successful. When we started, we had almost no presence on search, and now I’m much more comfortable with how we compare to our competitors.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Asana to support project management. I worked closely with the customer success managers. They were very transparent and were always able to deliver by the end of the month. They share everything on a Google Drive, so I could see what they were completing in real-time. It made it very easy to track their progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were more accommodating than almost every other vendor I’ve worked with. I would rank them much higher than any other company. They were extremely helpful and personable. I really enjoyed working with them.

On top of that, their expertise was top notch. I was always able to ask questions, and if my account manager couldn’t explain it, they would pass the question to the development team. They always provided an in-depth response to any of my questions. They were responsive and provided excellent advice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few miscommunications because I worked directly with the customer success manager and not with whoever was working on the project. As a result,  sometimes they would deliver items without explaining it ahead of time. I would just prefer to be able to communicate with them directly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Pay attention when you’re establishing expectations at the beginning. Utilize them and ask as many questions as possible. One of the benefits of working with them is that they’re available to offer their expertise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing at a medical software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

I had just launched a new website, so I hired them to help me with keyword strategy and research.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team initially did keyword research and strategy. They then also moved into doing backlinking work. In the beginning, they worked on some of our webpages.

I wanted to make sure that the blog pages were centered around the right keywords, so Victorious helped me with that. After I created the content for those pages, the team optimized them. We’ve built out 25 pages at this point, and each one has its own keyword theme.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Ben (Senior Customer Success Manager).

How did you come to work with Victorious?

I found them a couple of years ago at my last company when I was searching on the internet, and I saw that they had won several awards. I reached out to three other companies, but I felt that Victorious’ approach was much more customized than the other vendors’ which was much more cookie cutter. 

How much have you invested with them?

We're currently just under $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in January 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with them, we’ve been averaging a 36% monthly increase in organic traffic. Our overall traffic has been averaging a 20% increase every month, which is good. A lot of it has been attributed to creating new pages and content. 

Their on-page optimization is quite spot on. Right now we’re at about 7 backlinks per month, which is great. 

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good. They use Asana, which I use to see upcoming deliverables and progress. It also allows me to look back at January or February and see what we did. I never have to wonder what we’ll get each month.

If I have questions beyond Ben’s scope, he takes it to the team and gets back to me pretty quickly, which is very valuable. I can go to them with any questions and usually get an answer pretty quickly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The number of backlinks Victorious is able to deliver per month is impressive. If you want 50 backlinks per month, they can do that, and I don’t know anyone else who can do that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing major comes to mind. It would always be great to get work and responses quicker and to have higher authority backlinks. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Always set benchmarks in the contract for Victorious to shoot for, and have an option to pull out the contract if they don’t hit them. A lot of the benchmarks also depend on you as the client.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a Canadian based Corporate Housing provider. I am the Marketing Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

Organic rankings for our top keywords - SEO, both technical and content-driven.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve helped us improve our Google rankings for major keywords.  
They executed an entire SEO strategy for our business: technical/structural obstacles, optimization opportunities, backlinking strategy, social signaling, and content delivery.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one assigned customer success manager.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

Google search and Clutch reviews. Extensive research with other SEO companies (Canadian based too). Victorious were very polished, straightforth and everything was seamless from the beginning.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent about $72,000 CAD (approximately $52,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

It was a 1-year contract — ended June 2020. We would have loved to keep working with them, but business and incoming revenue changed drastically due to COVID-19.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Numerous voluminous target keywords made it to page one and two from our 12-month partnership. Keyword position growth was over 1400 and organic traffic increase by 10% resulting in an increase in the number of quality leads captured from the website.
Made it to page one of Google for most important keyword.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re amazing. They were extremely effective, very responsive, engaged, and dedicated to our partnership. Any time I messaged my contact, he was there. They met all of our deliverables, and when our contact needed to, he would go to his tech team and come back with information a day or two later and I almost never had to follow up with them. We had phone calls every two weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We achieved everything we set out to do. I’ve worked with other SEO companies in the past, but they never carried out proper business practices. In contrast, Victorious is up to date with trends and are aware of Google updates. I trust them to facilitate all the changes we need.

Again, they’re very personable, friendly, and focused on making sure we achieve our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a US-based company, and we’re a Canadian-based company, so the exchange rate wasn’t in our favor. The costs are high. We tried to extend the contract and negotiate a shorter-term contract with a lower rate, but despite reducing the price, they weren’t able to meet our budget.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Really understand what your business needs and lay that out at the beginning of the engagement.  Make sure you do your research and compare them to other companies, what they can deliver, and if that will help you meet your goals.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a restaurant company in San Francisco with four locations. I am the director of marketing for the restaurant company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We hired Victorious for SEO to help our websites rank higher in Google search so more guests find us when searching for restaurants.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to rank higher for people looking for restaurants in San Francisco, on PIER 39, in Fishermans Wharf, and specifically for seafood, crab, lobster, clam chowder, and restaurants with a view/waterfront restaurants.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Victorious because they come with a breadth of experience and had great reviews.

Describe the project in detail.

We started with a meeting to talk about our brands, customer base, and what we wanted to increase ranking for and why. We came up with 50 core keywords to rank on Google and Google maps.

We reviewed our progress with our customer success manager every month and he was very thorough and patient explaining the progress, strategies, and how we could take extra action to make our websites rank higher. We also implemented better tracking, such as the ability to track calls on our website, so that we could better measure our success.

What was the team composition?

We usually talk to our customer success manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were targeting 50 core keywords starting with 2 on page 1 and a year later we have 12 on page 1 and 21 on page 2 closing in. We also target the same 50 core keywords on Google maps starting with 1 in the Top 3 and 13 in spots 4-10. After a year, we now have 12 in Top 3 and 12 in 4-10 spots.

Also, we are in the top 3 for several local keywords that we weren’t ranking for at all, each represents over 5,000 searches per month. Organic Traffic to the site increased by 34%. That's an increase of 22k visitors from keywords we know are high intent. We also increased organic phone calls by 343%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between teams has been great. Our monthly calls are helpful in understanding strategy and success, and how much we are making progress in our SEO efforts. They are always patient and helpful if we need support.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The company is professional and responsive, as well as knowing a lot about SEO and tactics that actually work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Since our businesses were closed during COVID-19, we asked that they do part of the SEO work and accept payment later when we have cash flow coming in. They would not grant this request even though every other company we work with did support this request which was disappointing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Director for Lawyer Exchange. We help connect small/solo law firms with freelance lawyers looking for legal projects to work on through our platform. I am responsible for all marketing, content, and advertising efforts for our legal technology start-up.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We hired Victorious to help us audit and fix SEO issues on our website. Victorious also helped with a keyword and content strategy to help us rank for specific, highly targeted keywords. They also helped with backlink strategy and execution.

What were your goals for this project?

We had a few goals. We had multiple, highly targeted keywords we wanted to rank for. We wanted to significantly increase our platform's sign-ups and traffic. And finally, to increase our overall content delivery.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reviewed and spoke to many SEO vendors after an exhaustive search online. What I liked about Victorious was they had a very polished proposal process, they were not very pushy as we discussed pricing, and overall they were pleasant to work with. Hands down their proposal was the best one I received.

Describe the project in detail.

We started off by auditing our website. Victorious found many flaws we were not aware of that was effecting our website's rankings and performance. This part of the process also included going over all of our webpage data/content, finding improvements, and then fixing them. After all changes were put in place, we moved to a phase of blog content and back linking to begin to rank for our targeted keywords. Duties were split between the Victorious team and our internal team on delivering changes, articles, etc, but victorious did do many of the technical changes on our backend.

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with a project manager, but also had communication with others depending on what phase of the process we were in. We did have a project manager switch half way through because our original one received a promotion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We actually saw a big jump in traffic after our first few months because of all the improvements Victorious was able to identify. These unknown issues, in addition to us adding a large amount of keyword specific content and improvements, gave us a noticeable improvement in traffic one the changes went live. We also saw consistent keyword ranking improvements as our project progressed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There was a good workflow. We used asana for project management and also google docs for sharing files. They were very transparent with what their team was doing, and also provided regular, polished updates about our progress/improvement.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They appear to be a well-oiled machine. Everything from proposals to monthly updates were clear and polished. The Victorious team also seems to genuinely care about our company, which is great. They even worked with us as our company went through some tough financial times (being that we were a start-up).

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall the process was good. More resources in blog content creation would have been helpful, especially because we are a lean start-up with very limited resources. I also had some misunderstandings during certain parts of the strategy that we needed to overcome.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager at Imprint.com. We’re a promotional products company, we print on banners, yard signs, and wristbands, and things you’d see at trade shows like T-shirts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Victorious?

We’re doing an SEO project with Victorious, where we’re trying to rebrand and improve our standings for apparel in the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re helping us with two aspects of SEO. 70% of what they work on is the backend programming and technical stuff. The other 30% is content-related, so titles, writing, actual paragraphs, and keywords to help our position on Google.

They pulled up some pages that they thought needed help, and then they would suggest some keywords. Then I would oversee the implementation of actual content.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with John (Project Manager), but he would bring in other team members if needed.

How did you come to work with Victorious?

Our CEO brought them to our attention. He heard of them through word of mouth. They’re known as one of the best SEO companies in our area.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $14,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020 and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We go through our content every couple weeks and they're able to give me updated keywords if there are any changes. And that's obviously helpful to stay up to track on what is and isn’t changing.

How did Victorious perform from a project management standpoint?

The people we work with are very personable. They have a lot of different tools to help keep up organized, like Asana. That helps us track what needs to get done. We can also contact them through phone or email, and they always get back to us very quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been going through a bit of a hard time because of the COVID-19 outbreak and our company runs on tradeshows and events. So, we asked Victorious to pause the project because of our low revenue, and they’ve been very nice and have worked with us. We’ve been able to sit down to go over each aspect of the project to pick what can be paused and what other tasks are still valuable to work on over the next few months. They’ve been super understanding, and it’s a great indicator of the type of people they are.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are experts in the area, and we’re not, so it would be nice if they simplified how they explain things.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to work hard, because they’ll give you a lot to work on. Know that you will also have to do some work to get the results you’re looking for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a Brokerage Firm. We take the headache out of shopping for a PEO. We shop services and costs of a PEO for your company and help you choose which company, if any, is the right fit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Victorious?

We hired Victorious to help with our SEO efforts.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to rank higher on Google organically. We have lots of information to offer people looking for PEOs and we wanted to make sure we were easily accessible to those in need of our information and guidance.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After shopping around and even using another company we reached out to Victorious and were impressed with their team and how they presented to us what they would do differently and why it would be impactful in our SEO efforts.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Victorious came up with a strategy and optimizations of our existing website that our team executed. Once those recommendations were completed they gave feedback to make sure it was implemented correctly. Communicated clearly and efficiently. And will continue to audit the site month to month in order to see how the revisions are preforming and make ongoing changes and recommendations where they see fit.

What was the team composition?

Victorious gave us 1 main contact to communicate back and forth with, but they had a whole team supporting the efforts. Easily communicated back and forth by using Asana.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were able to complete an SEO 7-month performance keyword KPI in just 3 months. We went from a score of 23 to 426 on google. Very happy with the results.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

By using Asana I was able to keep track of tasks very easily. If I missed something or a task was unclear Victorious's team was very responsive to emails and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It was clear what they needed from our team and what they were going to provide. Clear timelines and open to all lines of communication. When we were opposed to any changes they requested the Victorious team was very patient and would explain why it was important to make certain changes and the results reflected in our score on google quickly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Sometimes they were hesitant about our timeline. we wanted to make changes as soon as possible and they were more open to it taking a little longer.

We understand that SEO is a long game, but we still wanted there to be some urgency. When tasks were completed it would have been nice to know they were aware and ready for the next step. our team held the pace for the project.