WebFX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a B2B organization and we provide software that helps businesses connect, manage, and execute their key plans and initiatives. Instead of leveraging disparate systems, spreadsheets, and tools to track their activities, companies can use our system to automate a lot of those processes and, ultimately, have better visibility of how they’re progressing on results.

My role is to facilitate. On one side, I head up our revenue operations, functions, systems, data, and processes. On the other hand, I’m the head of marketing and much of my function is with creating marketing strategies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We engaged WebFX on the marketing side of our organization, needing their help to expand our bandwidth and results on the marketing front.

We wanted to focus on the better management of our paid campaigns as well as on SEO. Our marketing team comprises only three individuals, being a relatively small organization, and we already knew what we were doing in terms of SEO. However, we didn’t have the time or resources to address our bandwidth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our original engagement was meant to focus on two primary elements: paid campaigns and SEO campaigns. For the first, we’ve been leveraging a number of different systems. Google Ads was the main one but we never really put much emphasis on the continual maintenance of it. We also do consistent keyword research and strategy optimization for our ad campaigns to ensure we’re getting the best results.

WebFX has come in to take a look at our market, the types of products that we offer, and our search traffic. They’ve also surveyed our entire SEO landscape to figure out where we were performing well and where the gaps and opportunities to perform better lied. 

They’re tasked with building a strategy that not only optimizes what we’re currently doing well, but also enables us to reach further in terms of our target audience. This is something that we’ve always known we needed to do but haven’t put a true effort into. Now, WebFX is in the execution phase where they’re creating and optimizing new content. 

The most important part of this strategy is the technical SEO aspect. We’ve never fully understood our SEO, though we know what it is, so their team is also helping us improve all its technical elements. 

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact, Angie (Internet Marketing Analyst), who is essentially our account manager. They have a huge team, so it’s up to Angie to manage the project and coordinate with the content team and technical team.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

I originally found them through Clutch about a year ago, when we were looking for somebody who could provide conversion rate optimization (CRO). I did a lot of research to evaluate WebFX, though at the time, we were already engaged with a CRO agency.

When we needed a partner for SEO work, that’s when I re-engaged them along with a couple of other vendors. We ultimately selected WebFX for a variety of reasons:

1. They’ve built a custom solution that could address our project’s different focus areas;
2. They seemed to have a really strong team that specialized in the different faces of the project; and
3. Outside of their services, they also had a software solution that helps us manage everything. It has great analytics, lead management, and web traffic tracking functionalities. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $10,000–$15,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the contract and kicked off in March 2021. We’re still engaged with them now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

WebFX has done a really great market analysis on various keywords and key phrases, which has given us the opportunity to improve our ranking. It’s too early to tell the impact, but the most apparent results are with the Google Ads volume that’s come through. 

I’ve been really happy with the status updates that Angie provides during our calls. She walks us through what they’re doing and how we’re performing. My team and I have learned a lot of information from WebFX that could make us more effective as an organization. We were certain that, in the long run, we would see results in terms of leads and revenue, but we didn’t expect that we would also become a smarter team in the process. 

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

WebFX’s communication is unlike anything I’ve experienced with other agencies. On our first call, they already had an entire project plan built out for the next six months. I think they probably have a template that they upload right away based on the engagement, and this includes all the different action items and their corresponding overseer. 

Their system is really easy to communicate back and forth in. It gives us notifications and allows us to ask questions, receive updates, and store documents. We’re no longer relying on an occasional email or biweekly call, even though we can still conduct those.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about working with WebFX is the learning element. We could’ve worked with other agencies that could guarantee results, but we might not have understood why or how those results were being produced. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only challenge is that their team is so large. It’s helpful that we have one point of contact, but it tends to slow things down because we’re not actually talking directly with the person who’s doing the work. I can’t recommend a way to improve on this, though, because then it will become confusing if I engage with too many people.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

WebFX is going to do a lot from a communication standpoint. They will make decisions and provide recommendations for you. You can put your best foot forward by going into an engagement with a clear idea of what you want and what success looks like to you. The more involved you are throughout the process, the more ideas you’ll have around what decisions to make and the quicker you’ll be able to make progress.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director for Richey May. We’re an accounting and professional services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

About eight months before, we had invested in a new website with a different firm. We really wanted an SEO firm that was also able to help us with some content and earned media.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, WebFX basically did a lot of cleanup on our website. It wasn’t obvious to the frontend user, but more for SEO purposes. Now, we’re getting more into content updates and creating new content for our website. This is great because it’s taking a huge workload off of me.

We have some earned media credits with them, and they have used a couple of those. We already had a lot of good referrals to our website, so we’ve been focusing more on just the content. However, they’ve also helped us out with off-page metrics and a few earned media spots.

They’ve done keyword research; their onboarding process is extremely thorough. We had already done a lot of keyword research, so they took that, ran with it, and added a lot more depth and expertise into it.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Angie (Internet Marketing Specialist). She’s really great to work with. We basically talk once a week, if not more often. When we first started, it was definitely more often, but now that we’re rolling, we’re able to meet with her whenever we need to.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

One of our clients recommended them to us. They had been using them for their mortgage company, and their marketing director just absolutely raved about them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re going for their standard rate, which is between the $10,000–$50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in January 2021, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

WebFX actually provides metrics, and we’ve been double-checking them in our CRM system. Obviously, a lot of it is measured by leads and clicks, so we’re measuring that in Google Analytics. They have some other tools in their WebFX dashboard, so it’s been easy to understand what we’re getting.

We just started, so the numbers are a little low. However, they’re still higher than what we would’ve expected.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a monthly metrics meeting and a weekly touch-base meeting, which we can either use or not. We haven’t used it recently, but during the onboarding phase, we were definitely talking once a week.

We usually use email, and they’re typically really responsive. If we notice anything, we just shoot them over a screenshot and they will update whatever it is. Overall, they’ve been great to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to talk to people of different levels of expertise is great, especially Angie’s. I’m a little bit more advanced in online and digital marketing than other members of my team, and she’s able to talk to me on a technical level without oversimplifying things. Whereas for people who have no understanding of what she’s talking about, she’s able to translate it into plain English really well. In that sense, their communication is really good, which isn't something that you always get from technology service providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t noticed anything. I would say that it might be good if they had resources to help sell themselves to high-level people during the first stage. We had to sell this inside the company to get it going, so maybe it'd be good to help CEOs and other people to understand their services. However, I don’t know how often they encounter that; sometimes our firm and industry are a little behind the times.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go ahead and schedule a demonstration with them. If you try to go based on price without seeing the sort of Google deck that they have, with all the different features they’re going to use, then you’re really missing out.

In our case, we looked at a couple of other companies before we knew about WebFX, and after they were referred to us, we were being courted by a few different providers. There definitely were cheaper services out there, but they didn’t come with the features that we really needed for SEO.

Therefore, I recommend watching their presentation and thinking of it more as investing in someone who’s going to have a partnership role with your marketing and technology team, as opposed to just your SEO company. If you’re already doing fine with content, there are other ways that you can use WebFX. Even doing earned media is something that a lot of marketing teams can’t handle by themselves, so I see them as a huge asset, which kind of offsets some of the cost.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the marketing manager for an agricultural company that sells conventional and organic feed.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

When we went with WebFX, we had a stagnant website developed previously by another company, and we needed something more functional. We were basically starting from the bottom; we had no SEO, backlinks, or anything, so we were looking for a company who could help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebX has created all of our site, three pages of the website, and all the keywords that are needed to optimize the page for Google. They’ve focused on updating them because Google continually changes their algorithms, so they make sure that we’re completely optimized.

We had a blog, and they’ve created good content for it, creating backlinks and getting us more views. They've also changed our number on the website so that we could track and monitor if people were calling from the site or from advertising. We’ve had issues with features not working, such as the map or store locator, and they’ve been able to fix them. They’ve even made pages for us or suggestions about what pages or content we should have.

There’s probably more, but they’ve definitely done a lot for us.

What is the team composition?

Zak (Internet Marketing Analyst) is the main person that we work with. He’s helped us with everything. Brianna (Senior Web Project Manager) has been working on our other website, on some e-commerce things. We’ve had calls with multiple other people about projections and so on, and we’ve participated in training with them as well.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We knew the type of company we needed, so we set out to do research. We were looking at least three different companies, what they offered, how much it cost, and so on. It was a bonus if they were close, had a wide variety of companies that they’d worked on, or had done something related to agriculture. We wanted someone who could throw themselves into our industry, learn, and understand what we needed.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s been over a year since we started working with them. We expect to continue our relationship because we like to see our improvement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Previously, we appeared on page two and now when someone types us in Google, we show up on the first page, or if they type specific keywords, then we come up. We’ve definitely seen progress and a positive impact on our business. We’re continuing to build and grow our presence, and the process has been clear.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Zak has been a great asset to our team. He is one of those people that just goes above and beyond their responsibilities. We have nothing but positive things to say about him, and we’re really fortunate to work with him, for sure.

They give us awesome analytics every month, and we go over them on a call. Some of them are a little hard to understand, and they’ve been really good at dumbing it down to explain what they mean — if we’re making progress, if it’s good or bad, that kind of thing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re experts in what they do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s not necessarily a downfall, but it would be beneficial to our marketing team if they could explain better the analytics we’re receiving. We’ve hit a block trying to explain them in a way that people who don’t understand the website, social media, reach, and all of those things, can get what they mean. It doesn't have an effect on the website, but it’s the hardest thing for us to do.

If they could find a way to bridge the gap on an elementary basis with people who need a solid answer to what the numbers mean, that would be really helpful for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

What you get out of things is what you put in them, so do your homework, be prepared to listen to what they say, and provide them with what they’ve asked for. To effectively work together, try to learn and grow your knowledge about how Google and all of those things work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President/CEO of our non-profit. Our mission is to advance marketplace trust by allowing businesses to regulate themselves in resolving disputes with their customers through our complaint and reviews platform. With this information, our organization publishes reports on the trustworthiness of a business based a variety of factors, including how any customer complaints are resolved. This allows potential customers to make informed purchasing decisions before engaging with the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have two main objectives:

1. Increase awareness about our brand and services
2. Encourage consumers to file complaints through our platform if they have a grievance with a business.

We hired WebFX to create and manage PPC campaigns to target keywords for consumers looking for ways to resolve a complaint against a business. WebFX is also responsible for SEO to raise brand awareness about our organization and the various benefits that we offer to the member businesses that support us.

SOLUTION

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

We had a previous marketing company that unfortunately did not meet our goals. After performing numerous Google searches and having interviews with other marketing firms, we ultimately selected WebFX as our marketing company because they seemed to understand our needs and explained to us in detail on how to achieve those goals.

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

We started with a kick-off meeting to go over each goal and answered questions about our services that were related to our complaint conversion goals. Keyword analysis and competitor research was performed and based on those results, various PPC campaigns were set up which allowed us to test and compare the results of each campaign.

Along the way, keyword optimization and negative keywords were managed to optimize our PPC campaigns so we would get the most ROI for our marketing budget.

For SEO, an audit of our current website was performed and suggested edits were made to optimize key landing pages.

For landing pages that enhanced a member benefit, their team provided copy for us to create those pages, complete with appropriate header tags and keywords to use.

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

We have one dedicated marketing specialist assigned to us and my preference was to meet once a month. During those monthly meetings, we would go over the previous month's performance on PPC and SEO. Suggested changes were made on areas that could use some improvement to keep our PPC campaigns performing at their best.

For SEO, there is a team of copywriters and researchers that would develop the landing pages and copy to use, based on the objectives of the landing page.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our PPC campaigns bring in a steady volume of conversions for us based on our budget. There is constant tweaking each month to keep the conversions at the same level until our monthly budget is met. On the SEO side, organic traffic to our website has increased immensely. This took some time to achieve, we knew going into it because it takes time to grow traffic organically.

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

WebFX has been great at meeting our expectations. I prefer a monthly meeting, but I'm sure they can accommodate other meeting timeframes. They have their own proprietary online platform which documents all email correspondences and shows which party is responsible for the various tasks. There's also an area which shows notes taken by our marketing specialist and key action items to perform on the "To-Do" list.

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

I appreciate their professionalism and attention to detail. With our previous marketing firm, I did not feel they understood our business well. The marketing rep takes time to understand the important aspects of your business and the goals you want to achieve. They are open to suggestions on various campaigns and also have creative ideas on new campaigns as well.

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

I can't think of any areas of improvement thus far. I am happy with the level of service provided.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager at a SaaS company that makes products for higher education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

SEO is a tough, ongoing task. While I have a background in SEO, we needed an expert to guide us on tricky issues and offer support in execution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an ongoing partnership with WebFX for SEO. The team helps with link building outreach to generate quality links to our site. They also do keyword research and SEO writing on our content so we can attract the most amount of quality traffic to each page.

We also do a lot of technical work to make sure pages are optimized for performance. They help us ensure the pages aren’t too slow and that all of the plugins are performing well so Google won’t see us as a site with bad UX.

Lastly, WebFX keeps us informed about new changes Google has and what that means for our website. They help us do everything necessary to stay at the top of search results.

What is the team composition?

We work with Sam (Internet Marketing Specialist). We had one account rep before her.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

They were hired before I came onboard. I really lucked out that we had a relationship with WebFX already.

How much have you invested with them?

We currently spent $3,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

WebFX started working with my company in February 2018. I came onboard in September 2020, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen our organic website sessions go up by 20% per month. They’ve also helped us increase our amount of number one search results for relevant terms.

I appreciate that they’re incredibly responsive and supportive to issues we have coming up. They’re very data and detail-oriented. As tricky as SEO can be, they walk us through all the steps we need to optimize our site well.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

We have regular reporting meetings. Sam is really good. She’s very clear and lays everything that we need to do. On my end, I manage any stakeholders we need to involve. Anytime WebFX needs to be involved with execution, they do a great job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re committed to quality work. There are a million things you could do for SEO but they focus on doing a small number of things well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When they report on data, they could show what’s going well and what’s not. I understand what they’re doing, but how they report the value to the rest of the team could use some improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have some SEO knowledge, you can go deep on it with them. Get to know your rep at WebFX and be really involved. Learn from them and ask questions. If you’re involved, you’ll get better results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

RazorThink is a startup developing software for data scientists. I am the SVP, Marketing responsible for all marketing efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire WebFX?

We engaged WebFX to assist us in the design, implementation and ongoing support for our PPC, SEO and Social Media efforts.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to build demand through lead generation.

SOLUTION

How did you select WebFX?

I reached out to 5 different agencies based on referrals and reviews and ultimately selected WebFX based on their proposal.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The scope of their work included the following: Technical SEO Checklist On-Page SEO Deliverables Analytics Setup SEO Monthly Optimization PPC Monthly Management Ongoing Campaign Optimization Facebook Advertising Management Linkedin Advertising Management

What was the team composition?

The direct client team consisted of 2 individuals to support SEO/PPC and Social.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had multiple starts and stops due to frequent internal changes of strategy which probably caused some frustration but that can be expected in a startup in a relatively new space.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Day to day workflow was effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The direct client team was fantastic. They had deep domain expertise and responded quickly to issues and questions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would be cautious engaging WebFX for your digital marketing efforts. While their client team were rock stars, their leadership team is completely disconnected from reality. We were essentially fired over email from a WebFX employee who introduced himself as a Webfx partner (Trevin Shirley).

He made no attempt to understand our business, had no rationale for terminating the contract and was quite arrogant throughout the process. While we had some starts and stops during the engagement, I had never received feedback at any point in time about our account. The only feedback I had received over the past year was this random email from Trevin who I had never met telling me that we were fired. Here is a direct quote from his email:

"The pace of design and strategy changes have made it challenging for us to establish momentum and drive the results needed for your campaigns. Given your unique needs, I believe you'll find better results with another partner with more expertise in new-to-market tech."

When I asked him about our results or what he met by our unique needs, he couldn't provide any feedback to me. While he did credit us back 1 month of fees (even though we had paused campaigns that month), it's going to slow us down to find another agency and bring them up to speed.

I've worked with dozens of agencies over the years and their arrogance, lack of professionalism from their leadership team should be a red flag if you are considering to engage them to support you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the operations director for PowerGistics, a manufacturer of charging stations. We primarily built stations for the education industry but have also sold them to the business and healthcare industries. Our chargers change everything from cellphones to tablets to laptops.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

As a small US-based manufacturing team, we didn’t have the resources or expertise to dedicate to digital marketing or SEO. We were looking for someone with a lot of experience to help us with these areas.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX provides digital marketing services on an ongoing basis. Their team was responsible for taking a holistic view of our websites and digital footprint to create an SEO strategy.

They handle both the technical and content aspects of our SEO. Additionally, their team handles our PPC and social media campaigns, including LinkedIn and Facebook.

What is the team composition?

Originally, we worked with only two members of their team. Adam (Internet Marketing Specialist) manages our SEO and PPC side and Alyssa (Content Creator & Digital Content Specialist) manages our social media campaigns. Recently, we began working with Stephen (Internet Marketing Specialist), who makes handles all of our data analysis tools.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

I did some research into different digital agencies, taking notes and going to recommended websites. I wanted a highly-ranking company and came across WebFX while looking. 

Their website gave me all the information I needed to know, so I submitted a form. Within a day, they contacted me back. I ended up having calls with 3–4 other companies, but they were by far the front runner from our initial call, setting the bar for every call after that. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $10,000, which includes the initial setup. Our monthly costs will decrease this month as we switch into maintenance mode.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement began in January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’ve only just launched, I don’t have a full view of all of the traffic. However, our production on the marketing side has increased. Our small team is able to dedicate a minimum of 20% of their time to other projects, really lifting a burden off of them. 

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

We are able to communicate any questions we have with them via email or through our shared dashboard. They have a section on their team’s dashboard that breaks down the project’s timeline and another that allows us to approve any of their written content.

We also have monthly calls with their team and schedule additional calls where needed. Meetings with them are a joy, I learn something every time I hop on a call with their team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

WebFX is phenomenal. They are the most engaging third-party company I’ve ever worked with. They treat you like a team player and invest in the performance of our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything has been excellent. There are no communication lags and they answer our questions thoroughly. They are very patient and personable.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set up a call with WebFX. I have been so impressed with the company, their software, and their team. I haven’t even explored all of the marketing services they offer, but it’s something we are looking into. 

If you’re looking for a digital agency that can help in multiple areas, call WebFX.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a manufacturing company that provides waterproofing solutions for electronics. I’m the director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

We needed help with SEO. We wanted to become relevant in the digital space as people are searching for solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX does on-site and off-site SEO for us with backlinks to our site. They started by assessing where we were as far as ranking and analytics. They continue to optimize our content for specific keywords and increase our load times so we can be found more easily.

What is the team composition?

We have one account manager.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

One of my employees worked with the company previously and recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $35,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been very successful. We’ve seen significant percentile growth in our organic search results. A lot of that growth is hundreds and sometimes thousands better than in previous years.  

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really good. I’m able to send requests and they’re very efficient in executing. They’re really helpful, which I appreciate. We have a monthly call to see how we did in the previous month. We also email and call as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with multiple SEO firms in the past. Their communication, price, and results are all great. SEO takes time and they work with us until we see results. The team offers good value for money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve been happy so far. If we have any requests, they’re able to fulfill them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure it’s clear what you’re looking to accomplish. Listen to their advice and they’ll help you achieve your objective.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing and sales coordinator of Well Built Equipment. We’re a family-owned and -operated company specializing in the rental sale and service of aerial lift equipment, specifically things that’d be considered access equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

Our main challenge was that up until the last year and a half, we didn’t have any kind of web presence at all. When people would search for aerial lifts or rentals, our name wouldn’t pop up on Google. We had a website but it wasn’t optimized for SEO. We brought on WebFX to help increase our web presence so people could find us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built an entirely new website from scratch. We wanted to invest in a website that was meeting our needs in our industry and not just a template. In the first initial months of the projects, our teams sat down and planned the site, focusing on company goals. They built that site from the ground up. In the second phase, we’re adding more content to the site as we see fit to increase our footprint and SEO.

What is the team composition?

Bryce (Internet Marketing Specialist) is my main point of contact but I also occasionally correspond with Heather (Happiness Manager). Sam (Sales & Marketing Specialist) is the one who reached out to me.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

We found them through doing online research and decided to engage with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $23,000 for the website and to get the SEO off the ground. Now, we invest $750 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Over the last year, we’ve seen impressive growth. The website has generated a lot of new traffic and leads tell us they found us on the internet. In the amount of time I’ve been here, that’s never happened before. We can visually see that our investment is paying off. We’re constantly seeing an improvement in traffic, highest-ranking pages, and lead generation.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great. We don’t work with hard deadlines. It’s a continual working process to get to where we want. If there have been deadlines, they’re excellent at meeting them but most of the time it’s pretty open-ended.

Every month I meet with Bryce to discuss how the site’s doing and how the traffic is performing. We strategize and plan our direction for the next month. They’re great at communicating with us when things need to happen. Their team gives us metrics for the analytics of our website.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team members who work on our website really took the time to get to know our business and industry. It’s been pleasant to talk with an account manager about logistics but we also have in-depth industry conversations about what’s currently happening in our space. WebFX isn’t just building our website, they’re building us something that’s specific to our company and industry so it’s above anything that anyone else can offer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. Our relationship and results have been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can go to anybody or find a company that’ll build your website for cheaper. However, with WebFX you’re going to get a team that goes in-depth to understand your business and the goals you’re trying to accomplish.

This sets them apart from other companies because they’re able to talk to you intelligently about your business and industry so you can make smart decisions together. They go above and beyond to do research outside of just building a website for you. They’ll understand what you specifically want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the digital communications manager of the Gateway Region YMCA. We’re a nonprofit organization in the St. Louis area and have 23 branches in our association. We’re focused on strengthening our communities not just through our fitness facilities but also through community outreach and youth programs. We have a longstanding history in the St. Louis community. In my role, I work with the marketing team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WebFX?

Our most recent challenge deals with the pandemic and how it has thrown all types of businesses through a loop. In 2020 our struggle was attracting people back, specifically through our membership base. We wanted to attract new members and regrow our membership, particularly through virtual programming. In the past year, we started a number of different virtual membership efforts and fitness opportunities.

We brought WebFX on to leverage our website, digital ads, PPC, and local SEO efforts. Our organization wanted to find a new niche in the virtual world to help drive engagement again and bring members to our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WebFX works on our meta descriptions and keywords. They’re content contributors and have strategists who write our blogs. The blogs are in efforts to boost our pages and local efforts. WebFX works with us to develop our digital strategy and website layout. Our website is on the open wide platform so we use Drupal 8.

They have local SEO strategists who do a lot of updates and manage our Google Business pages. Our account representative handles our ad campaign management. Their team also helps with our ongoing management of Google Ads. They’ve helped place a lot of our digital ads when it comes to PPC efforts, search campaigns, and video campaigns. WebFX supports us on multiple levels.

What is the team composition?

We have an account representative that we work directly with. We also work with a team member who does our local SEO efforts and there’s a large team of content strategists who work on our account as well.

How did you come to work with WebFX?

They’ve been with our organization for the past two years, and I’ve only been in this role since September 2020. I believe WebFX was referred to us from a different YMCA association.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $50,000 for this specific project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw some of our best results we’ve ever seen this past January, which is absolutely outstanding considering we’re coming out of a pandemic. We saw a 68% increase in new users to the website. Our blog page is performing very well and helping drive a lot of great organic traffic to our website.

Additionally, we saw a 25% increase in users and sessions on our social channels. Our click-through rate has gone up exponentially as well. Our organization surveyed our membership base and has gotten a lot of great feedback from them about if they’re using our virtual content and how they like it.

How did WebFX perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is one of their strong suits. I’ve had lots of questions, and they’re always available to answer my questions or hop on a quick call. Our account representative is amazing. She’s a wealth of knowledge and has taught me a lot in this new role. She’s been very understanding and has helped me through the learning curve. She is really personable and easy to work with.

WebFX recently rolled out a custom communication platform. We communicate with them through this platform. I enjoy their platform much more than Slack, which is what we used to utilize. Their platform is easy to navigate as well as gives great access to documents and attachments. There’s a tagging system that allows us to tag the individual we’re speaking to. It’s easier to use this platform rather than going back and forth in an email or other platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their overall knowledge. They have a huge team with a lot of experience and expertise. Additionally, they have great professionalism. If our account representative doesn’t know an answer to my question, she’s more than happy to talk to someone else on their team who may have a larger area of expertise in that particular area. She gets an answer for us no matter what the question is. WebFX has a robust knowledge base because they have so many key players on their team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One way they could improve is by letting us know who else works on our account. I know we have multiple representatives that solely work on our account but we mainly just have contact with one. It’d help us get a better sense of who else is working on our account for a personal touch.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d absolutely recommend WebFX to anyone who’s looking to utilize them. Head into the relationship knowing what your current benchmarks are and knowing the analytics of all the facets of your organization. That’ll help you have a clear understanding and starting point. Additionally, it’ll help you realize your growth as a reflection of working with them.