VisionFriendly.com

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-owner and VP of an inspection firm called Cliff Kapson Consulting. We manage a nationwide network of specialized exterior inspectors for residential and commercial clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with VisionFriendly.com?

When we started our business over 20 years ago, I’d built a website myself, using a site-building platform. But as our business grew into a large, national network, we felt the site had become outdated. We wanted a clean, user-friendly design that users could easily navigate to find relevant information. As a result, we initially needed resources to redesign our site from our previous iteration and manage our SEO. After recently celebrating our 20th anniversary, we engaged them again to redesign our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the years, we’ve completed two site redesigns with them, including a recent 20th-anniversary iteration. When we first contacted them, we showed them our current site, describing our business and discussing our desired changes. From there, his team redesigned the site in WordPress and presented us with numerous content management options. We had the option of letting them handle any site changes or curating the pages ourselves.

The new design was mobile-friendly and featured clearly organized sections. Users could navigate the site by residential or commercial pages and find information by inspection type. The team also included multiple ways for users to contact us while browsing. On our inspector side, they linked our portal to the site.

Aside from redesign work, they also did our SEO. Currently, they continue to monitor our SEO to increase our digital presence. However, because a lot of our work is commissioned through inspection companies, we don’t focus too much on advertising.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with their director of SEO and a developer, but we’ve also worked with other team members.

How did you come to work with VisionFriendly.com?

A handful of my friends had used them for their sites and were happy with the results. Looking at their work, I was impressed that VisionFriendly.com could design sites for such different industries. I liked their portfolio and contacted them.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, I’ve spent around $23,000, which includes the new site, SEO management, and other small projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked on our anniversary redesign from September–December 2016, though we've been working with them for 8–10 years. Their SEO efforts are ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since their involvement, our business has increased, and we always get compliments on our site. In particular, users tell us that our site is professional and informative. Even visitors who’d never heard of us before have been impressed by VisionFriendly.com’s site.

How did VisionFriendly.com perform from a project management standpoint?

In general, they’ve been very organized and are on top of all of our projects. When they did our second redesign, they were responsive and worked quickly. Although the site took longer than we expected, this was due to our own timing issues, and they gently reminded us of what they needed. Once we got back to them, they completed the project in a timely manner. In terms of SEO, we generally meet with them once a month, but we know that we can contact them if anything comes up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Maybe it’s because we’ve known them for so long, but they really understand our business. The team cares about what they do, and they treat us like friends while still being professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If possible, try to meet them in person. But even if you can’t, give the team as much information as you can so that they can design the site how you want it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We sell professional arborist equipment and supplies, including new and used tree equipment. We are based in Lisle, Illinois. I am the office manager of the company. I am responsible for online marketing and the company website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with VisionFriendly.com?

We wanted to revamp the website, making it more user-friendly, easier to navigate, and more SEO-friendly, although we didn't have a clear idea what that meant.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

VisionFriendly designed and developed our website a couple of years ago. We started working on SEO in 2016. VisionFriendly walked us through the process, explaining how we could make our website better through SEO. We've definitely seen an uptick in terms of visitor numbers and interaction.

How did you come to work with VisionFriendly.com?

We called and interviewed several web developers from our area. VisionFriendly invited us to visit their location for an interview and a quotation, and we ultimately chose them.

How much have you invested with VisionFriendly.com?

The cost of VisionFriendly's work was $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with VisionFriendly in 2013 or 2014 and built an initial website within 3 months. The SEO work took a couple of weeks to figure out. Our current project is completed, but we have more ongoing work for the future as we continue to grow. We plan to make the site mobile-friendly in 2017. We're currently using VisionFriendly for hosting and ongoing SEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

VisionFriendly's work is amazing, compared to what we had in the past. It was easy to work with them, and VisionFriendly explained much to us about how things work.

Our customers have liked the website. I haven't heard any negative feedback around it. Our uptime is excellent, and there was only one incident of the site running slowly. It was fixed within a few minutes.

We don't track the sales coming from our website, so I can't provide information of this nature. We do receive SEO reports from VisionFriendly, and we've seen an overall increase in unique visits. Since 2015, traffic has increased by 2,000 unique visitors per month.

How did VisionFriendly.com perform from a project management standpoint?

VisionFriendly's project management is excellent. We were given access to a web portal on which we can view each step of the project. We followed progress along, thus providing feedback on anything we didn't like in real time. VisionFriendly provided weekly updates to us, asking if we were satisfied or if we wanted any other features.

What did you find most impressive about VisionFriendly.com?

VisionFriendly gave us extensive information about the project, setting up a meeting where we could see how they would build the website for us. It was a professional setup overall, and their pricing was amazing. We used to pay 4 times as much for web hosting with our previous company.

Are there any areas VisionFriendly.com could improve?

I wish I'd been given access to simplified information about what SEO is in general. Had we had this, we would have implemented it earlier.

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

Clients should get multiple quotes from other companies. I think that they will be impressed with how professional VisionFriendly is.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We work in the insurance industry and have a staff size within the 250-1000 range. I am the IT manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Visionfriendly?

We've looked to Visionfriendly for recommendations on programming, hosting and anything else related to the internet.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are primarily working on development using Visionfriendly. There are some design elements as well, and we might look for SEO [search engine optimization] help from Visionfriendly in the future. 

How did you come to work with Visionfriendly?

Word-of-mouth was the primary means of finding Visionfriendly. We had a few options which made sense from a financial and trust point-of-view; using Visionfriendly made the most sense.

How much have you invested with Visionfriendly?

We don't necessarily have a defined budget for Visionfriendly's work. There's a constant stream of programming and other services to be done.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our company has had a long relationship with Visionfriendly. A big part of our work was done 3 years ago, starting in November 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am very satisfied with Visionfriendly's work, but I don't have any real statistics.

How did Visionfriendly perform from a project management standpoint?

The job was done well and on time; we've felt we've gotten good value from Visionfriendly.

What did you find most impressive about Visionfriendly?

It's incredibly valuable to have a wide skill set available, for multiple types of projects and technical requirements. Visionfriendly has been able to handle almost all our tasks through a breadth of resources for anything Internet-related.

Are there any areas Visionfriendly could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

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

To work successfully with any company like Visionfriendly, clients have to commit to putting in the required time on their side. Finished projects don't magically come out of the work. Visionfriendly won't know a business as its owners, so people have to be prepared for giving out requirements. If this is done in time, everything will go smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a travel agency specializing in group overseas and domestic travel. I am the group travel manager of the company. I handle bookings, working directly with customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with VisionFriendly.com?

We needed to update our website as well as gain an understanding of how SEO, pay-per-click and social media could be utilized to help us grow. Technology is changing a lot. It's not something we specialize in, so our goal was to leverage VisionFriendly's resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website had been created within the last year [2016]. VisionFriendly analyzed everything around it, determining what needed to be changed in order to gain a better call-to-action from customers. We're using VisionFriendly for SEO and pay-per-click as well as for smaller projects like postcard design. We plan to start a Facebook campaign with VisionFriendly's help.

How did you come to work with VisionFriendly.com?

We looked at several companies in the Chicago area, interviewing them and asking about how the process worked. VisionFriendly talked about what they could do for our company and provided a couple of initial suggestions for the website. VisionFriendly has some of the better ideas we heard, and they seemed much more personable, compared to the other choices. Also, they were a local company.

How much have you invested with VisionFriendly.com?

VisionFriendly's services are project-based, broken down into PPC, SEO, and so on. A rough ballpark cost is between $8,000 and $10,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the search process in March and April of 2016. The travel industry is seasonal, with busy periods between May and September. We started the work with VisionFriendly right at the end of our busy season, during a quieter period. Once things ramped up during the fall, we started kicking up the SEO, PPC, and Facebook marketing. We have no plans to stop the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Even from some of the small changes made to the website, we've seen a huge increase in the number of visitors and calls to our agency. The SEO and PPC have also increased our traffic.

How did VisionFriendlyVisionFriendly.com perform from a project management standpoint?

VisionFriendly is on top of things, so I can email anyone in their group and receive a response within an hour or 2. Overall, I've been impressed with VisionFriendly's speed and quality of work. Because we don't specialize in the field, we've relied on VisionFriendly to see things that we don't. Just within the last 2 months, we've seen a significant increase in business.

What did you find most impressive about VisionFriendly.com?

What struck us from the beginning about VisionFriendly's principal [CEO Rob Wenz] and the team was that they were very excited to work with us – a smaller company. VisionFriendly works with a variety of businesses, but they were able to hone in on what we were specifically looking for in our market and for our customers, identifying what the right terminology should be for PPC and SEO. VisionFriendly did a fair amount of research in order to understand our business and how they could help us.

Are there any areas VisionFriendly.com could improve?

There's hasn't been anything so far. VisionFriendly has been on top of communication and getting things done quickly.

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

VisionFriendlyWe came into the project with no background knowledge of SEO and PPC. I advise other clients to ask VisionFriendly questions. They're open to helping people, especially since it's important for people to understand what they're paying for. We have been able to pick our services as needed. For example, social media was included in our package from the start, but we decided to hold off on it for a year.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an importer of release liner film and paper from Europe. We work with converters which process the product and deliver it to distributors and customers. I am the Director of Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with VisionFriendly.com?

We operate within a technical and hard-to-understand field. Our website was outdated, and I wanted some excellent design and creativity for the new one. The challenge was to find a developer who could understand our work, which VisionFriendly has been able to do.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

VisionFriendly has developed our website on a couple of different iterations. We've just finished a second revamp of the page. The second tier of our collaboration is SEO work. VisionFriendly has developed landing pages for the site, including writing content for them, and we've maintained the work on a monthly basis.

How did you come to work with VisionFriendly.com?

I run a different company and had used VisionFriendly for developing its website at the recommendation of our IT staff. We found VisionFriendly's web design capabilities to be excellent.

I initially received 3 recommendations and contacted all 3 companies. The other 2 ones had automated phone operators, so I immediately eliminated them. Our business has a live person answering the phone, and this aspect is critical to us. I wanted to have an excellent response time, which VisionFriendly has been able to provide.

How much have you invested with VisionFriendly.com?

The yearly cost of our SEO services is $10,000 or more. This does not include our 2 web design projects with VisionFriendly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with VisionFriendly in 2010, and have a completely ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our business is hard to understand and write about, so it needs a lot of direction from my side. VisionFriendly has been responsive to this, and keen to learn more and more about our company. We are very pleased with VisionFriendly.

From our latest report, our SEO exposure on Google and other search engines sits at around 96%.

How did VisionFriendly.com perform from a project management standpoint?

VisionFriendly is extremely responsive, and they've always let us know when we'd receive an answer, even during busy periods.

What did you find most impressive about VisionFriendly.com?

Because VisionFriendly has a tight-knit team, they've been concerned with our issues from the top down. If something is off a bit, the top people from VisionFriendly will become involved and make sure that the problem can be handled. VisionFriendly's team cares about results, contrary to other companies which don't take things very seriously. VisionFriendly is a well-run company, and we like this.

Are there any areas VisionFriendly.com could improve?

In terms of web design, VisionFriendly is incredible, and they've constantly looked at new strategies around SEO. The only improvement point is researching their clients' fields more deeply.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a local fence company in the Chicagoland area.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I was the office manager for almost eight years. I basically just ran the ins and outs of the business, everything including marketing, Internet stuff, scheduling appointments, dealing with customers, everything like that. I'm now just doing a bit of consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Visionfriendly.com?

When the company started in 2006 I wasn't there yet, but I know that the owners reached out to Visionfriendly to build their website. They wanted a professional looking website and someone who was going to do it right, not just skimp on things.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

It started as simply Web design, but then changed to a lot more SEO [search engine optimization] during the course of the engagement. They actually helped to revamp all of our pages, just to add fresh content. Bobby [Fischer, director of search engine optimization] helped me with that and gave me some pointers. I wrote all the content, and he was able to design it in a way to get on there, so it was clear for customers. Then, we were noticing that our organic presence wasn't as good as we wanted it to be. I again called Bobby, and he came up with a plan for us to implement landing pages, which I wrote. Then, he put in all the cities and ZIP codes that I requested, and maximized it for us.

Our landing pages have been working perfectly for the last two or three years. We always tried to stay ahead of the game, so we were one of the first companies in the area to do landing pages. Within a year, we saw all of our competitors doing landing pages. Obviously, because ours were working so well, they wanted to know what that was all about. Now, he is doing a different service for us. I don't really know what it's called, where he's pushing out more content for us, to help with our organic placement. It has changed the way that we come up online.

What was your process for selecting Visionfriendly.com?

I know that one of our former owners knew Rob [Wenz], the owner of Visionfriendly. I think that he felt comfortable with him, because he has known him and had seen his previous work. I'm sure they looked at other website companies because the other owner would always want two or three estimates for everything. Obviously, Visionfriendly had the best package deal. What's nice about Visionfriendly is, they do everything aboveboard. I think that they just felt comfortable with them for that.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

For all the SEO work, the total was around $1,000 quarterly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

With the landing pages, I wanted to know if we were going to get in trouble with Google. Bobby showed me examples of some of our competitors. He would show me what they were doing wrong, and explain why we were doing it differently. I know Visionfriendly knows what they're doing, which is nice.

I also want to tell you, I would get so many compliments from customers on our actual website – how it looks, the colors, how easy it is to navigate, and everything like that. People would say, "You've got one of the best looking websites out there."

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

When we first did the landing pages, they always say it can take up to eight months to a year for it to work, but literally within six weeks we were already on page one with our organic landing pages, and we remained there, which is great.

Is there anything unique or special about Visionfriendly.com that really makes them stand out?

I feel like Visionfriendly.com does their research with what is allowable content and what is going to send up red flags. They never try to get ahead of the game by doing something halfway. They would rather do things the right way, and have it take a little bit for us to come up on page one or two versus doing things the wrong way to get us on page one immediately, but then it would send up a red flag to the search engines and we could be blacklisted. They do things like that.

Bobby always says to me, "We've got this new thing we're doing, and I want to try it out with you. Let me tell you all about it. This is what the cost is, this is what we're going to be doing, and this is what our goal is." Whenever there was something new, he would call me and we could discuss it and decide if it was something we wanted to do. I've always gone with what he said. Like I said, he knows what he's doing, he does a great job at it, and he does everything honestly.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

It's so funny because I only contact Bobby because he gets back to me quickly, even if it's not anything that has to do with what he does there. Years ago, I don't remember who I had to email, but he didn't get back to me right away, so I emailed Bobby, and then he took care of it. He's on his email all the time. If somebody sends him an email, he wants to get back to them as quickly as possible so they're not waiting around. That's what my experience is mostly with him, quick with things. I appreciate that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a metaphysical store in downtown Geneva, Illinois, which is a destination town for shopping in the Chicago area.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with VisionFriendly.com?

I just needed IT [information technology] work at first, and then they were so good and so nice and receptive that I just gradually expanded to have VisionFriendly do anything that had to do with my website.

My company was one of the earliest retail shops in the area to have a website. My website is a strong part of my social media outreach strategy. I just keep building it. Every time the Internet makes a move, I go to them and ask for their assistance.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They do my SEO [search engine optimization]. They do my website design. They do my IT services work. They made me mobile-friendly for my website. Anything I ask VisionFriendly to do, they do. They do it in a pleasant way, and they do it quickly. They are top notch.

What was your process for selecting VisionFriendly.com?

I used the Small Business Administration in this area. I went to see them about another matter, and I was complaining to them that I couldn't find a decent webmaster. They knew about VisionFriendly, and they highly recommended them.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

It was from $10,000 to $50,000.

When was the work completed?

It's ongoing work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We're an intuitive company. I had problems with webmasters before. My sales, which had been really high, had gone way down. With VisionFriendly, they have reactivated my customer base. I don't have any stats. I've increased my sales on the website maybe 50 percent.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

They're the best webmasters I've ever had. I give them a triple A+. They understand the artistic aspect of it. It's always artistically attractive and functional. They rescued me from the horrible situation I was in.

Is there anything unique or special about VisionFriendly.com that really makes them stand out?

They make things attractive for any industry. I like the work I see on their portfolio they've done for others. I like that they work as a team. I'm not relying on one person. If somebody is not there, I know them. I've met them. Anyone there can help me. They each have a specialty, but they work as a team.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. I just love their whole team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an Executive Assistant for Hi-Fold Door Corporation. We manufacture bi-fold and single-panel doors for airplane hangars, as well as commercial and agricultural buildings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire VisionFriendly.com?

We needed to make our website mobile responsive.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to make our site mobile repsonsive but maintain its current look and feel. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

VisionFriendly took over from another hosting service we were using. They approached us and suggested that we update our website to make us more competitive.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

VisionFriendly presented us with a cost-benefit analysis of moving to a mobile responsive site. They made our current website mobile responsive.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

I don’t have any measurables as we finished the project at the start of our slow-season.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our small teams worked together well, and the project was very informal.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication was excellent.  

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I can’ think of anything.