SEO Projects – SEO Strategies
In this case study we will examine the challenges, solutions, timelines and results of three different clients to demonstrate how fast SEO increased their website traffic, leads and sales. I think these three clients whom we will be calling Client’s A, B and C respectively, represent a majority cross section of the general business world. These are real clients, with real data, but we can’t share their names in the case study without permission based on who wants the data. We value and protect our client’s privacy and would not want to show specific data such as this to their competitors without their permission.
Project A
Company A is a large company with a website that is 10 years old. They have experienced significant trouble gaining and sustaining quality traffic over the years without the use of PPC. Company A has a few hundred pages of decent content and a much focused audience. They will not realistically see hundreds of thousands of viewers based on their complicated product line, which is designed for a relatively small number of users, on a global scale. Company A has a fairly large budget and is competing with some of the world’s strongest technology and well resourced companies. Company A has approximately 100 targeted keywords and a good lead can be worth several million dollars in sales. After several months of research Company A hired the best SEO agency they could find in the country. They hired Active Web Group to solve their problem.
SEO Solution – SEO Website Design, Keywords and Linkbuilding Strategies
Active Web Group did a significant re-design on the old dated website and completely re-organized the content on the site. The SEO keyword list is fairly large for a company with only a few hundred pages of content. Because of the significant power of the competition, we knew results would not be instant, but take time. After the site architecture was repaired, we simultaneously overhauled the on-page SEO elements and embarked on an aggressive link building campaign.
SEO Results – Website Traffic Doubled in 1 Year!
Eureka! Keyword driven traffic is rising at a very nice pace. When the client first engaged us in 2010 they were receiving 2,200 organic visitors per month. In July of 2011 the client received 4,261 organic visitors. The highest percentage of growth began after 11 months of work. More than 75% of the growth has taken place in past 6 months. Good things sometimes take time!
Project B
Company B is a fairly small B2B retailer with sales of 5MM-6MM per year. They have had a website up for several years, but were doing very little eCommerce sales on it. The previous 12 month average sales were about $4k per month. They have stiff competition from both small and large companies and a relatively small budget. Their preexisting site had very little SEO done on it and they derived almost no traffic from non-branded organic search. They were concerned that a small budget would not bring enough power to overcome the need for a better site and a marketing effort. They engaged Active Web Group based on the fact that we have had success starting with small budgets and helping clients build their business so they can easily afford a large budget.
SEO Solution – Website Redesign and eCommerce SEO
Active Web Group replaced the poor quality, off the shelf eCommerce solution that Company B was using with the cost effective hosted eCommerce solution we developed and offer. Company B essentially received a $200,000 website for the cost of design and a monthly hosting and maintenance fee. This particular site only cost $7,000 to go live, and the hosting and code management fee is $1,000 per month. They also agreed to invest $1,500 per month in SEO once the site goes live. For a company that was doing only $4k a month in total online sales, they saw this as a risk. We knew this size investment for them was substantial, but we also were very confident in our hosted eCommerce solution and our SEO experts.
SEO Results – Website Revenue Increased More than 9 Times in 3 Months!
Everyone is happy! After a few months of design and pre-SEO work the site re-launched in May of 2011. Traffic has gone from 384 visitors on week 1, to 1,176 visitors after 9 weeks. As a partial month sales were just under $5k for May. This is better than their average month to date and was only a partial month. Sales in June surpassed $15k and July sales surpassed $37k! The client works on a margin of about 35%. Our fees of $2,500 per month are now generating, after only 3 months, $12,950 in margin. That is a huge increase from $1,400 in margin per month from the old site. A net margin increase of over $9,000 in only 3 months! They have already recouped their design fee and are in the black! The client is doubling their SEO budget in September.
Project C
Company C is a relatively small company that previously did not have web site. They are in a competitive market and their products are custom made. There are many other brands that make and sell similar products to fill the consumers need. Company C needed a website designed to create sales leads. The site needed to make them appear large and professional so they could compete. As with most small companies they had a shoe string budget for design and $1,000 per month to spend on SEO. Company C needed Active Web Group.
SEO Solution – On-Page SEO and Linkbuilding Strategies
Active Web Group designed a 20 page scalable web site using professional art work and Web 2.0 fundamentals. After interviewing the client several times to understand their target audience we came up with a keyword list to garner the most bang for the buck. We made sure the Client realized that this was not a short term project. New websites with new URLs take time to gather a following. As we executed on-page SEO techniques we also began a link building campaign. A site with very little traffic can’t grow links to quickly and also they must be of varied quality to create an organic profile. Companies that perform illegal linking campaigns can get their clients bounced from Google’s search engines all together!
SEO Results – The Lead Cost Decreased More than 5 Times in 1.5 Year!
The Client is now on the fast track! As you can see by the graph, it took some time to get rolling. After several months the client was getting a few hundred visitors per month. They had a high conversion rate, but 4% of 400 visitors are still only 16 leads per month. Their lead cost was about $65 per lead, which was still too high. After 19 months they are now getting over 2,100 visitors per month and have maintained their 4% conversion rate! They generate 85 leads per month now and the lead cost has tumbled to about $12 per lead. Their targeted lead cost is $25, so they are thrilled and we are proud of our work with them. They will become a larger client.
