Looking For An SEO Expert That Will Take Your Web Traffic To The Next Level? Look No Further.
Even among “professionals” and “experts” the landscape surrounding SEO is rife with misconceptions and myths. It’s not uncommon to find SEO agencies and in-house teams utilizing outdated or ineffective techniques and strategies that could completely sabotage results and waste precious marketing dollars. I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve audited and found instances of keyword spamming, links from private blog networks, keyword cannibalization, thin content, and more.
For SEO strategies to work, you need campaigns that outsmart your competition without violating Google’s guidelines. I’ve dedicated my entire career to helping sites drive organic traffic ethically. Interested in learning how I do so? You can read more about SEO and my process below.
Jump To
- SEO Expert Vs. SEO Agency
- David Kranker’s SEO Process
- Focusing On Real Results
- SEO Case Studies
- How SEO Works
- Understanding Local SEO
SEO Expert Vs. SEO Agency
If you’re looking to outsource your SEO work, you have two main options: you can either work with an individual SEO expert or a larger SEO agency. Chances are, you’ve either had a bad experience working with a digital marketing agency or you know someone that has.
The agency model is broken and yields results that are less than desirable. Working with an SEO expert is entirely different. When you work with an expert, you avoid dealing with:
- Gatekeepers that prevent you from talking to the real experts
- Reports filled with vanity metrics or a lack of meaningful results (e.g. keyword ranking reports without indication of search volume or purchase intent)
- Outsourced work sent to other countries to increase profit margins
- Account executive or strategists overburdened with 20+ SEO accounts (a very common issue)
- Missed deadlines and dropped balls
- Lack of time or attention spent learning your business and market
- Unknowingly supporting an agency that is also working with your competitors
I’ve worked for three different digital marketing agencies in the span of my career and I’ve had a peek into the operations of countless other agencies as well. All of the SEO agencies I’ve studied or worked for have left a bad taste in my mouth, which is why I decided to work as a solo SEO expert. I was tired of being so overloaded with accounts that I couldn’t effectively produce results for any of them without working over 60 hours a week.
When you work with me, you’re not just another number or a drop in the bucket. Working with an expert is more like bringing on a new member to your team without the high expenses associated with making a full-time hire. When you work with an SEO expert, you’ll benefit from:
- Having direct access to an expert whenever you call or email
- Receiving regular reports measuring the most important metrics with in-depth insights
- Being able to earn real results at an affordable price point
- Working with someone who will take the time to understand your business and your market
We’ll get to know each other very well. I’ll learn your business inside and out and work within your systems and guidelines while producing the results you deserve. When you work with an SEO expert, you’ll wonder why you had ever even entertained the thought of working with an SEO agency. The support and knowledge you’ll receive will be unrivaled.
DAVID KRANKER’S SEO PROCESS
I approach SEO differently than many of the SEO agencies you may have encountered. First and foremost, I offer exclusivity in my services. Working for both you and your competitor at the same time would be unfair. I won’t work with any other business in your industry providing services or products in your area.
Additionally, I will never lock you into a long-term contract. You pay monthly for my services and if you’d like to stop at any point, you can.
I also go above and beyond what many agencies would consider the “standard”. Many SEO’s will optimize your pages, put up a few local directory listings, and pay for some optimized anchor text links. It’ll work in the short-term in non-competitive markets, but it’s not a good long-term strategy for growth.
The key to consistent growth is creating engaging content and building natural links on high authority sites that are topically relevant. Link building is by far the most difficult aspect of SEO. Many will shy away from it or resort to tactics that violate Google’s guidelines. As you shop for an SEO, one of the most important questions you should be asking is how they plan to build links for you.
I am very transparent about how I optimize my sites. I don’t use “proprietary strategies” or “secret methods” that I can’t share with you. You will know everything that I do and nothing will be done without your approval. Below is a general outline for work included in the first three months.
- Put tracking in place to measure campaign success
- Conduct a local citation audit and fix any NAP inconsistencies (for local businesses)
- Build out profiles on any important directories where profiles don’t exist
- Conduct initial prospecting for link opportunities
- Conduct initial keyword research to start creating a content plan
- Optimize and build out existing pages
- Add schema markup
- Submit the sitemap to Search Console (if this hasn’t already been done)
- Conduct competitor research to find easy link and content wins
- Fix any existing 404 errors
- Set up a reputation management system to earn more positive reviews
- Create content based on a content plan
- Create a linkable asset and conduct outreach for it
- Conduct a site speed audit and begin making site speed improvements
- Suggest and make UX/UI changes (if any appear to be increasing the bounce rate and hurting conversions)
Search engine optimization is a combination of writing, coding, designing, and selling. Luckily, if you decide to work with me, you’ll be working with someone who can do it all. I don’t freelance anything out. I have a high standard of quality and it’s important to me that everything I deliver is consistent and meets that level of quality.
FOCUSING ON REAL RESULTS
I don’t just deliver rankings reports each month, because rankings data alone means nothing. You can rank number one for 20 different searches, but if those searches aren’t driving any traffic or that traffic isn’t qualified, ranking for those keywords means nothing. Instead, I focus on delivering insight into how much organic traffic I’m driving and how many conversions resulted from that traffic. At the end of the day, the number of calls, form fills, and purchases as a result of my work are what actually matter. I care deeply about delivering a positive ROI for your business.
If you’re interested in working with me and generating more clicks and conversions together, please fill out the form below. I offer a free website and marketing analysis. If you’ve been wondering if you’ve been getting your money’s worth from your current SEO strategies, I can take a look. I would be more than happy discuss your current strategies, provide you with free insights, and talk more about how I can help you improve your search engine optimization. I look forward to hearing from you.
SEO Case Studies
Case Study #1 B2B SEO For A Promotional Product Manufacturer
This client was a B2B manufacturer that produced custom logo cups for the food and beverage service industry. They had launched a site in 2019 and spent about six months trying to work on it on their own with little success. I took over optimization for the site at the beginning of 2020. I hit the ground running by building out the product pages to include more content, better optimizing every page on the site to speak to user intent, conducting link outreach, and building a strategic content strategy that would speak to business owners in the food service industry. I ended up building partnerships with some large brands in the food service industry who linked to our content. The site has seen tremendous growth with the work I’ve performed and it continues to grow. In less than a year, organic traffic has increased 338% while organic leads have increased 460%.
Case Study #2 B2C SEO For A Home Improvement Company
This client was a B2C home improvement company that had been working with an SEO agency for two years and while the perceived results weren’t terrible, performance was stagnant without any growth for over a year. I took over the SEO work for the site and found that even basic necessities like lead tracking were never properly set up by the previous agency. I re-optimized all of the service area pages, added new pages for the locations served. I conducted competitor outreach to steal links from competitors and built relationships with local real estate agents to build links from the real estate agents’ sites. The client finally saw improved performance for the first time in over a year. In just five months, organic traffic increased 165% and organic leads increased 116% from the first month we started tracking leads (the growth was likely even larger compared to the prior months where leads weren’t being tracked).
HOW SEO WORKS
Search engines like Google and Bing use over 200 ranking factors to determine how sites are listed in search results. Ultimately the factors and work involved in getting sites to rank can be divided into two main categories: on-page and off-page SEO.
ON-PAGE SEO
On-page SEO encompasses the ranking factors that exist on your actual website. On-page optimizations include:
- Optimizing titles, headers, meta-descriptions and content
- Building and optimizing internal links
- Ensuring there are no duplicate pages
- Adding schema markup
- Securing sites with HTTPS
- Writing content that speaks to important search queries
- Adding alt text to images
- Fixing 404 errors
- Restructuring menus for better site architecture
- Ensuring there are no crawl errors
- Increasing site speed
OFF-PAGE SEO
On the flip side, off-page SEO encompasses the ranking factors that exist beyond your website. Off-page optimizations include:
- Building more external links to your site
- Earning positive social signals (likes, shares, reputation)
An SEO working on your site should be utilizing a strategy that includes a mix of on-page and off-page optimizations. Both categories are vital to ensuring increased organic traffic.
UNDERSTANDING LOCAL SEO
Local SEO works much like any other form of SEO. The difference is the focus on driving traffic within a specific locality. A big component of local SEO for many small businesses is getting their Google My Business profile to rank in what is known as the map pack. The map pack is a snippet from Google Maps that appears in a normal Google search. The map will show three nearby businesses related to the term that is searched.Breaking into the map pack for high-intent search queries can lead to a large uptick in traffic and qualified leads. If you’ve done any searches on increasing your local SEO, you have likely already been flooded with articles preaching the importance of NAP (Business name, Address, Phone Number) consistency among local directory listings. Creating directory listings and ensuring NAP consistency isn’t enough to help you rank though. Other factors for map pack rankings include:
- Your business’s proximity to the searcher
- Your business categories on your GMB profile
- The keywords in your business title
- The number of local links pointing to your site
- The content on your website
- Reviews (both quantity and content)
If you operate a local business, I will work side by side with you to craft a strategy that will increase your local presence. We’ll put together a local content strategy, work on building relevant local links, and implement a system that will have you consistently earning positive reviews for your Google My Business profile.
Short-Term Engagements & SEO Sprints
While I’d love to be your long-term partner for search marketing, I realize there are situations where short-term engagements like SEO sprints might be more beneficial. Many local businesses in non-competitive markets tend to only need some initial help to boost visibility and don’t need ongoing work to remain competitive. I am open to short-term work and performing sprints. I’ve done SEO sprints for small businesses like Raising Wonders in Hamilton, CA.
