SEO Case Histories

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Published: Friday, 24 October 2008 11:47

I've been providing Search Engine Optimization since 2002. Search Engine Optimization is one of the most intelligent marketing investments you can make because it is what redirects the river of qualified customers into your front door. It is necessary for local, national and international campaigns.

SEO Case History #1
Sgt Poopers Pet Waste Removal

Sgt. Poopers was a start-up in the greater Dallas market launched in February 2008. Their mission was to help stanch a leading cause of soil/water pollution from 1.2 million dogs registered in the greater Dallas area. Well-funded national franchises such as Pet Butler and Dooty Calls along with other well-established local companies monopolized search engine results to the point that prior to SEO, Sgt. Poopers could not be found on any page in any search.

An SEO plan was put together in September 2008 for Sgt. Poopers. Within a month after implementation, Sgt. Poopers had surpassed nearly all their competitors for all key search terms. As of October 2008, Sgt Poopers achieved first page ranking for every key search term on Google which handles the majority of search engine requests.

6 years later, Sgt. Poopers' search engine ranking was still going strong without any further SEO actions since 2008. A single round of SEO from Steve Hall Creative put this company on the map. Sgt. Poopers has obtained 98% of its customers (dozens every year) thanks to its powerful ranking on Google and as a result has remained profitable and expanding every single year to date.

Sgt. Poopers market only extends to the Dallas market but is listed here to show how an activity of any size, be it global, national, foreign or local can all be boosted tremendously by SEO competently performed by Steve Hall Creative.

Sgt. Poopers Today

Today, Sgt. Poopers Pet Waste Removal has grown and evolved into a conservation company headquartered in Dallas, Texas providing dog waste removal, disinfection, deodorizing, and more with prices starting at $11.95 per week. As Park Rangers for the American Backyard™ their maintenance and disinfection protocols are designed to safeguard human and pet health, maintain the balance of nature, and protect land and water resources. A backyard contaminated by dog waste, germs, odors, poison fungi or disease-carrying insects is no walk in the park! Their ecological services protect and conserve the most precious parkland of all — the one you call home. It's like having a park ranger for your own backyard which is why they say, "We treat your yard like a National Park!^®" Today Sgt. Poopers delivers more than 26,000 services per year. Visit their website at https://sgtpoopers.com or call them today at (214) 563-6379.

SEO Case History #2
ACP International, National Campaign

In December 4, 2010 we launched an SEO project for ACP International. ACP is a company with about 40 staff that sells products for utility companies and municipalities like durable signs marking underground pipes and the like. Their products aren’t pretty, but they last forever. Durability is the whole focus, so even if they sit out in the sun for 15 years, get run over by a truck, and possibly struck by lightning they should still be readable.

At the time their product line included 31 different product categories. The only product category where ACP even showed up on the radar was for “fiber splice protection sleeves” — a product for splicing strands of fiber optics. For all remaining product categories, ACP did not show up in any Google search results. Online, the company was virtually unknown. For example, if you searched for "poly dome markers" ACP simply did not show up even if you searched 10 or 12 pages deep into the search results. They simply did not exist even though the company had been in operation since 1984.

ACP International products were researched closely and competitive trends were seen among numerous vendors. The company names that kept coming up repeatedly in search engine results were William Frick & Company and Vulcan Signs. These two companies combined were the primary competition to ACP International: Frick for marking products and Vulcan for signage. We also found that Chinese and Indian manufacturers were making huge strides to break into the U.S. utility marking fields. To stay ahead of the wave, ACP needed to vastly improve their online visibility and search engine rankings.

The following list represents the companies that appeared in Google and Yahoo searches with the most frequency. All of these companies were direct competitors with ACP at some level.

fricknet.com
vulcaninc.com
berntsen.com
rhinomarkers.com
promarksupply.com
presco.com
carsonite.com
quantummarkers.com
dasmanufacturing.com

We studied the top-rankings websites in ACP's industry like Fricknet to learn what techniques were working for them so we could beat them at their own game. Based on our findings, descriptive keyword text was written and embedded into every product page using ACP's own proprietary brand names plus the real-world search terms and industry-specific terms which customers most commonly use to find these products online.

An example was "Poly-Dome markers." Our research revealed that the only people who searched for "poly-dome markers" were ACP's existing customers; the majority of people searched for "domed markers" and "domed utility markers."  Competitors such as Fricknet were using those generic terms, and so we wove those terms into ACP’s product lineup.

To help bolser their search results, I recommended establishing a video library, which was done. The object is not really to get on Page 1 of Google, it is to get on there multiple times.

RESULTS

Extensive efforts were undertaken to optimize the ACP website. As our changes filtered into the search engines, ACP’s presence began to improve rapidly across the board for utility marking product searches and for utility signage product searches. We monitored our feed from Google Analytics to collect insightful data for ACP. The number of unique visitors and search terms being used to reach ACP was consistent with the SEO efforts we made.

ACP started to dominate the common language and industry-specific search rankings.

Taking the above example with “poly dome markers,” “domed markers,” and “domed utility markers” as a starting point, we achieved Page 1 rankings on Google for all three terms even beating out Fricknet.

But that was just the beginning. Here are the results of other search terms which we achieved top Google ranking within 5 weeks from launching our SEO efforts:

As of 1/14/11 that was 24 Google Page #1 rankings plus 3 Page 2 rankings for ACP International products—spectacular rankings across the boards.

UPDATE: And as you can see in the last column, the results were not only permanent, but overall have continued to improve with no further SEO actions. As of 1/14/14 ACP had achieve Page One ranking with Google in every single product category but one. Feel free to check any of these rankings yourself. Google is listed because they power about 69% of all searches, leaving the remaining 31% split up by Bing, Yahoo, Ask and all the others.

Notice, for example that "wrap around signs" has more than 36 million pages on file that have been indexed by Google. Yet ACP now has not one, but two entries on Page 1 including a video.

For info, these kind of results are almost unheard of, yet they are no accident. I have been able to get these kinds of results since 2008 based on my own understanding of SEO which I call the Integrity Theory. That theory is really all about comprehending Google as a business and being able to know what they are looking for. One other thing: I never use false information or "tricks" to get SEO traction. I use integrity and I only work for companies that have integrity to start with. As a result, I have always done exceptionally well with SEO since my actions are marketing based. I won't say more than that because I don't want to reveal my methods. But I do have a unique approach to SEO and the above proves what I am doing works. Your results may vary because every industry is different in the way search engines respond. SEO sometimes takes a few months or more, sometimes up to 18 months to see the full results. However, two things are sure: SEO will improve your rankings and the sooner you start, the better. It is important to start SEO before your competitors do.

Absolute Unique Visitor Report

As a result of our SEO program actions, the ACP website began to receive 20-25 new visitors per day who had never visited ACP before. These people/companies were finding ACP thanks to our search engine optimization efforts over the previous five weeks.

New Customer Sources Report

New customers finding ACP online were coming from the USA (including Alaska) with secondary sources in Canada, Europe, Mexico.

 Keyword (Search Term) Report

This shows a glimpse of what Google visitors were searching for that brought them to ACP. Most were searching for ACP by name, which shows that industry recognition is high. The rest were searching by product and/or brand names. Some are even searching for ACP part numbers and they are finding the ACP website which is amazing.  

The exact methods of our marketing-based SEO approach are confidential. Suffice it to say a lot of work goes into each SEO program we conduct.

SEO Case History #3
Jubilee Company, Local Campaign

Family-owned Jubilee Company was originally named American Marble Supply but changed their name in late 2009. The company had never enjoyed excellent search engine ranking. We launched an SEO campaign in January 2012 which continued over 8 months through August 2012. The company had two divisions: The main division fabricated countertops for kitchens and bathrooms. A new secondary division fabricated glass and mirrors.

After some initial SEO work, the counter top product line started to show glimmers of response. But the glass and mirror side of the company remained invisible with zero online response.

Therefore we advised splitting their website into two sites: one for countertops and the second for bathroom shower enclosures and mirrors, since traditionally these two divisions belonged in distinct and separate industries that did not normally mix. Keeping them together weaken the overall effectiveness by diluting the focus of each.

We also recommended and created a video library for each website covering their product line.

Research showed that competition in both the granite and glass industries was abnormally, almost absurdly, heavy in the Dallas area. SEO-savvy competitors in the Dallas area had already gobbled up virtually every domain bearing long-string combination of key words, even including such mouthfuls as "granitecountertopsfabricator.com." With many of the companies in this industry already using SEO techniques, the fight for a top spot in search engine results was fierce. And worse, Jubilee located in McKinney, Texas, was more than 25 miles outside the city limits of their prime market — Dallas. "Jubilee" was also a new unknown name in the area's long-established countertop industry.

And making matters even worse, our research showed that nearly every person looking for stone countertops used the same search phrases: "granite dallas" or "dallas granite" regardless of what the individual was actually looking for — be it granite, marble, sandstone, brownstone, bluestone, limestone, travertine, engineered quartz, engineered marble or solid surface. This data showed that when people think of countertops, the first word that comes to mind is "granite" — even if what they really want is marble, or engineered quartz. Due to this, "granite dallas" and "dallas granite" were stuffed to the gills with some 16.8 million search results.

That meant, regardless of whatever else we accomplished, our efforts had to hit a bullseye that was contained in the eye of a needle.

Or to put it another way: imagine running a marathon against 16.8 million people. And you need to place in the top ten.

Full SEO was then completed over the course of several months. At first, it seemed there was no response; but a closer look showed relentless glacier-like progress. Slow and steady came the results, as inevitable and unstoppable as the advance of a glacier. Jubilee Company gouged its path through solid bedrock. Here are the search results today (note, we obtained Page One ranking in Google for nearly every relevant search phrase):

 Jubilee Company - Granite Countertop Website

Amazingly, Jubilee also sells acrylic tubs and we even got page one ranking for them... in the huge, highly-contested market of Dallas... by a company that isn't even located in Dallas.

SEO Case History #4
Jubilee Shower Doors

As mentioned, Jubilee's shower door and bathroom mirror business was getting no response as long as it was bundled into a website primarily about granite countertops. The sensible thing was to create a new sister website just for the glass business and so that is what was done.

Unfortunately, Jubilee — a brand new entry in the glass business — was up against strong, mature companies that had dominated the Dallas glass market all the way back to the 1930s! These companies included,

ocmginc.com — since 1932
alamoglassco.com — since 1943
inwoodglass.com — since 1958
fashionglass.com — since 1973
mmmglassco.com — since 1984
showerdoordallas.com — an obvious SEO savvy newcomber since 2010

The domain for the glass division was strategically chosen to be "jubileeshowerdoors.com" since shower doors showed to be the most powerful search term, and it was also the first bathroom glass product consumers tended to think of (and search for) during a renovation project. Other glass products, such as bathroom mirrors and shelves were purchased almost as an afterthought, i.e., "Oh, yeah, we also need mirrors for the bathrooms."

Our market research showed that consumers tended to search for "shower doors" not "shower enclosures." Another choice was "glass and mirrors" but this would have attracted the wrong kind of business, since those terms were heavily associated with commercial store fronts and large glass building installations, whereas Jubilee's focus was on smaller residential applications.

Jubilee's new glass business also included protective glass coatings on shower enclosures, heavy plate glass shelving and glass cabinet inserts (the glass that goes into cabinet doors).

Here are the SEO results for Jubilee's brand new (and completely unknown) shower enclosure / bathroom mirror start-up. As you can see, we won top ranking and forced a dominate presence for Jubilee in their new industry, putting them on the map with authority!

Jubilee Company - Shower Door Website

SEO Case History #5
CR Services PLC — the #1 Credit Bureau in Nigeria

CR Services is Nigeria’s oldest and largest credit bureau. It was started in 2003 under the name “Credit Registry” by an ex Microsoft executive named Taiwo Ayedun. Credit is not easy to come by in Nigeria because retailers lacked the ability to identify people. There were no social security numbers assigned at birth nor government ID records for each individual.

Credit Registry solved that problem with the introduction of biometric technology. In this way retailers could identify consumers based not only on their personal information but also through fingerprint and facial recognition which are unique to every individual.

Since “Credit Registry” is a generic term for credit bureau in Nigeria, the government required them to change their company name, which they did in 2012. The new name was CR Services.

Unfortunately, “Credit Registry” did not have good ranking online and their new name caused what little online recognition they had to completely vanish. The problem was compounded by the fact that their new name “CR Services” was not descriptive and could be anything.

After building their website in 2010, I was hired to conduct full SEO in July 2012. When we started, CR Services did not show up for any search terms.  Meanwhile several completing credit bureau companies had used SEO techniques and they now dominated search engine rankings in the nation.

Research was done and a careful strategy was worked out and implemented starting mid 2012. At the start, CR Services did not rank at all for their most important search phrase, “credit bureau nigeria.”

By August they were on Page 1, Item 9. By December they were Page 1, Item 2. Today, they are dominating their industry online. Note the huge numbers of search results and how highly they are placed out of all that information online. For example, for "retail credit network" they are literally #1 out of 287,000,000 documents on file.

 CR Services PLC - #1 Credit Bureau in Nigeria

Testimonials

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Published: Tuesday, 28 October 2008 20:54

Steve Hall has generated more than $410 MILLION in sales for his clients and organizations to date.

From a Marketing Executive: “I've had the pleasure of working closely with Steve Hall for 16 years. His skill set is so embracive and his sheer production output so great that I would be hard pressed to describe or even list the full gamut of work Steve produced in that period of time. What I can honestly say however is that in all the years Steve worked on marketing campaigns, promotion and literature, as well as visual merchandising and displays for hundreds of products, his work was uniformly phenomenal. As a campaign manager, I experienced huge increases in sales when Steve led the creative team, writing the copy, even directing the design. Steve's creativity and thought processes were always above everyone else’s when it came to producing a return on the advertising dollar. It is a fact that Steve knew who he was marketing for and the various publics to be reached and wrote according to demographics and surveys. I can fully attest that while Steve and I worked together breaking sales records was routine. That's what the game is all about and Steve plays it phenomenally well.” Y.L.

From a Graphic Designer: "Steve is one of the most creative persons I have ever had the pleasure to work with. His talent spans many areas, some of which include: writing, editing, internet knowledge, design & layout, problem solving, clairvoyance, human nature and comedy! There are few people I know that I can turn to for just about anything... and Steve is among that rare handful of beings that walk among us." C.C.

From a Business Owner: “The website has been gold! We just got a representative from the Federal Reserve bank who found our new site online and called. Again, the website has been gold. It looks great and equally important, it is working good. [Regarding new logo:] Steve you nailed it!!! We have our new look. Modern, clean—smart. Honestly." D.C.

From Chief Quality Officer (CQO): “For many years I was the sole authorizing authority for a multinational corporation with thousands of offices in more than 100 countries. Steve was our “go-to” guy for all matters creative. He was the architect for our marketing strategy in countless campaigns involving scores of products and services translated into some 15 languages. From TV spots to collateral, to PR and marketing videos, brochures to trade show booth designs, his talents and expert competence spanned the gamut. His campaigns routinely smashed sales goals and brought highest-ever ROI. His creative abilities never failed to impress and frankly, his merchandising creations were always complete knockouts. Every campaign that Steve created for us was high quality, genuine and above all successful.” M.L.

From a Businessman: "As a broadcasting systems engineer and businessman for over forty years, I have been a heavy user of internet websites since their invention. During office days I’m probably on the web six hours a day (of my twelve hour days) researching design, obtaining reference information, purchasing equipment and the like. Having been referred to one of Mr. Hall's newest sites, I just spent 45 minutes reviewing www.dentistrymanagement.com. I'm speechless. It is the finest and most professional website I've ever seen! What impressed me the most was the clarity of the communication; the viewpoint of the communication; the page layout readability (backgrounds, fonts, color choices) and interest creation; the attention to detail in the disclaimers, privacy, etc. (the boiler plate stuff); the picture selections; and the cross links. It is a better web site than the multi-million dollar companies that I run across or use in the broadcasting business." D.L.

From a Marketing Director: "Steve's broad understanding of life and the human condition imbues his creative work with sly truth and good-natured humor. He is a master at delivering a marketing message with perfect comedic timing." N.H.

 From a CEO: “I started a new business last spring and turned to Steve for all our marketing needs. Steve created a darling logo that gets positive feedback wherever I go. For the website, he again went above and beyond my expectations to research the subject in depth and created not only a marketing website, but an informational and educational masterpiece. Steve launched our website with full search engine optimization (SEO) getting us on PAGE ONE of Google, Yahoo and MSN within a month. Two weeks later we had nearly doubled our number of customers. The beautiful thing is he’s not ‘just’ a designer or ‘just’ a writer. He’s not just ‘part’ of the solution. He does it all. He took the time to study my business then used his expertise as a writer to create rich content. In fact, he went from knowing nothing about the subject, to teaching me things about my own business that even I didn’t know! Today, people who see our website rave about its quality and how much they learned from it, even including my government contacts. I couldn’t be more pleased. Steve’s creative services have delivered a significant return on the investment.” E.E.

From a Copywriter and Author: “Steve and I worked together for years writing copy and working on marketing campaigns. For me, this was brain-breaking work, which I've since given up. But for Steve, it never seemed like work. He seemed to have a limitless supply of ideas that he could pull from some brightly lit, creative recess. Steve would say, here's another. And another. Though I should have, I never dug too deeply into the process Steve employed. In fact, I am hard pressed to recall any conversations at all about actual work. It seems we were always talking about music or mysterious phenomena or the state of the world or another of the endless topics about which he was interested or conversant. Steve is one of those guys with one foot firmly planted on the ground and another foot planted wherever his creative Muse leads him. I know one thing for sure, his ad campaigns and creative strategies always seemed effortless to me. When nobody's looking, he may be wracking his brain, because he is diligent, and the end result carries an air of effortless competence. But he's insouciant enough that you don't hold it against him. Creative people should look forward to the day when they publish the code of Steve's genome.” D.K.

From a Commercial Artist & Writer: “I have known and worked with Steve Hall for over 15 years, and keep working with him for two reasons: he's extremely creative, and he delivers what he promises -- and then some. If you want high-quality work done in a timely fashion, Steve is one of the best in the business.” A.G.

From a Company President: "We have been so pleased with Steve's work. Steve is creative, but always within the boundaries of being practical. He seems to be able to understand our products from our customer's point of view. We are very glad we hired him for our catalog layout." 

J.N.

From a Graphic Designer and Illustrator: "In have had the pleasure of working with Steve on a number of marketing campaigns for over a decade. Our cooperation has spanned quite a variety of campaigns and publications from posters, brochures and newspaper ads to articles in books and magazines, as well as displays. As a graphic designer and illustrator I find it invaluable that Steve has a strong visual sense. Making words and images work together is the crux of any successful campaign. Working with Steve is rewarding for a graphic artist, for he is an idea and image man. Everything he does forwards a single goal: creating just the right image for the product, company or service. It wouldn’t be correct to say he is right in step with the visual side of the product, for he is usually a step ahead of it. More often than not, the selection of photography, images and illustrations has sprung right from his copy which always evokes strong visual imagery. Whether the project has required a serious approach or a humorous one, I can always rest assured it will be witty and creative, catchy and to the point. To me Steve’s writing is a blend of creative association, the unexpected and sometimes even the outrageous – and yet it always, almost magically, hits the right target. I know that whether the product we marketed needed just one word to describe it or a thousand, Steve would find the right ones. And sometimes the right word is worth a thousand pictures." K.K.

From a Company President: "I just wanted to let you know how much I’m pleased with the creative work you’ve accomplished for us this past year. Our logo, website and marketing materials are terrific and have contributed to the success we’ve achieved in launching Concrete Graphics. As we move into introducing our product internationally, I will again turn to you for creative and strategic guidance. Our new partners in Australia have requested a catalog specific for their market but have commented that they really like the logo. It’s rare to work with people who truly care about the success of their customers and you’ve demonstrated this time and again." M.C.

From a graphic designer: "Steve is a witty, creative man and I was very fortunate to find him. He is smart and comes up with well-thought-out, nimble creative solutions that he can implement. He thinks and works quickly and he cares about his clients. Good guy and one I feel lucky to work with." B.P.

From a Board Member: “Steve kindly offered his creative skills on a pro bono project for the Dallas Area Paralegal Association. As a non-profit organization without a large marketing budget we needed artwork to promote our 2007 Career Day, and Steve volunteered his time to our cause. Steve turned around a clever, eye-catching piece of artwork for use on our promotional materials that helped make it our best-attended event ever.” M.D.

From a Business Owner: "Hands down without a doubt, the money I spent to have Steve Hall of Steve Hall Creative build and create my website was the best advertising dollars I have spent in my entire time in business. Steve’s services were specifically unique, because not only did he come up with a design concept that was eye catching and attractive to customers, but he went the extra mile well and beyond what I had expected. He really took the time to understand my business, and specifically what makes my business unique, establishing what set my services apart from the crowd. And he then used that to write copy that was precisely spot on and applicable, while also highlighting my business with an awesome looking website. The website was an investment but was worth every penny. Much to my surprise, it paid for itself and then some within the first 3 months. I have had compliment after compliment from new customers who visit my site. Thanks for a job really well done Steve!" C.H.

Photoshop Demo — Before & After Views

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Published: Sunday, 02 November 2008 21:37

Stare at the star...

...and watch how the image transitions. Notice other parts that do not move, like the poles and message area.

Now notice the parts that do change.

1. The neon sign itself changes from, "Ranch House Cafe" to the ACP logo.
2. A second sign was added with the word, "International"
3. The background changes from urban to rural.
4. One of ACP's products was put into the foreground -- a marking sign.

All these changes were created with Photoshop by modifying the original image.