Shield Security Solutions
This is a quick case study of what we were able to do for a Security Training Provider Operating across the Province of Ontario. Yes….we are very proud of what we accomplished!
Shield Security Solutions Case Study
Shield Security offers Security Guard Training and Security Guard Services Across Toronto and the GTA. They have been in business from around 2015 (We think). We digress. From what we can see, they have done an excellent job with their product and made the most of our marketing efforts for them.
When we say that we feel responsible for your business…we mean it.
Below is a list of services they wanted ranked on google and hired us to do so:
Security Guard License
They Offer Security Guard Licensing Services across the Province of Ontario.
Security Guard Course
They service businesses and individuals across the Province of Ontario.
Specialty Security Guard Training
They Offer specialized training for clients across Toronto and the GTA>
Shield Security Solutions has turned into an industry leader today thanks to its exceptional products and customer service. However, there was a time when they were just entering this industry and needed immediate help to establish roots. The following case study is to shed light on some of the marketing tactics we used to help them stabilize in the short term (PPC Ads) and establish for the long term (SEO).
This is where they currently stand. You will be seeing this picture over and over again. As you read through the case study, the picture will make more and more sense (we promise).
Website Design
Your Website is the backbone of all digital marketing activity you plan. As one of the best search marketing agencies, we start by updating or upgrading your website. Imagine the best plumber without the proper pipes? Let our Digital Marketing Specialists take care of your website.
Speed…Always Saves.
One of the most overlooked aspects of website design: speed. In our time, patience really is a commodity. As a rule of thumb, pages that load longer than 3 sec often lose 20% of their potential client base.
Robot.txt is a file on your website that usually gives our special instructions to search engine (google/yahoo/bing) about that particular website. Sometimes (unknowingly), SEO’s and freelancers often forget to edit the code that might hinder your marketing progress. Our Digital Marketing consultants ensure optimal progress ia being made on all campaigns.
Content is King.
Ranking for keywords is cool. However…does your website even contain the keywords that you are looking to rank for? How many times? Hopefully you didn’t keyword stuff the site too hard..2.5% is usually the magic number for optimal results.
Overall Branding and Design
USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. What makes your different from your competition? There has to be that one factor that separates you from the competitor next search result.
Trust is Everything.
How established is the business? At the time, Shield Security had around 5 reviews? It’s not bad for that industry at that time. You want to have a few reviews to prove to your potential customer that you exist and are doing well.
What does a quick google search on your business bring up? Does your website even show up? For Shield Security Solutions, the website showed up, local business listings and map listings all showed up. (if not we build it. Don’t worry). Marketing Agencies always cherish building things from the group up.
Google Listings are an underrated asset.
Do you have google listings for maps? Local SEO if often one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO. Several business owners underestimate the power of maps…we take all the help we can get to rank your business.
Backlinks
Did you hire a marketing company before us? No problem. If you are looking for a new one, chances are we have a mess on our hands to clean up. Luckily, Shield Security was a clean slate and we could work freely.
Digital Marketing takes time…
When new clients come to us, one of the first things we check for is the google penalty. There are times when all the work will not pay off due to a simple google penalty. Check first. Get rid of it if there was one. Proceed as usual.
How many backlinks do you have? No it is not a competition and the more is not the merrier. Quality/Quantity. One link from Forbes.com is more valuable than 100,000 backlinks from some freelancer on Fiverr.
If you do have backlinks in the thousands or hundreds even, who is maintaining your campaign? Shield Security Solutions hired us right from the get go.
Step 2: Where are your competitors?
As is the case with all industries, competition is key to ranking for your keywords. What is it they are doing that we need to do? How are they doing it? How much are they spending monthly?
We ask all the questions to try and build a Internet Marketing campaign that is sustainable long term. Here are some of the images of their competitors today. Obviously they have made adjustments to their campaigns but we are going to be using where they were around January 2018 for a fair comparison.
Note: We took out their names because we are not trying to tick them off. Just showcasing what we have done for our client.
Industry Strength
All the competitors have updated websites that state of the art. Nobody in the industry is using outdated techniques or websites to rank for their keywords. That means shield security solutions needs to have a updated, functional website that can get the job done.
Speed Saves.
All their websites clearly were functioning fast enough to rank at the top. It is not coincidence that speed usually correlates to higher rankings and increased customer acquisition rates.
The Robot.txt is something we cannot access for these website but clearly their Digital Marketing Agencies have been taking care of it. All the correct instructions have been placed on there.
Majority of the content on the competitors websites look updated and clean. The keywords they are intending on ranking for are listed on their websites. Our team of digital marketing experts dug out a few more keywords to help our client stand out.
Backlinks
As you can see from the images above, we are going up against a variety of websites with varying link profiles. All of them have really good backlinks in general and we had our work cut out for us. Quality is always better than quantity.
Every Single competitor mentioned above had established reviews on their business. Getting customers for a business that is unproven is obviously a harder task. However, we have ways to increase your business reviews on Google.
Google is King.
A quick Google Search brings up all of their businesses. There are no mistakes or errors on those pages either. Everything looks good.
Plenty of google listings. Lots of reviews. Businesses in the industry have been around for a long time and we have to exceed expectations just to break into the industry.
Backlinks
Every single company in the industry looks like they are hiring someone for their Digtial Marketing. How did we know? The quality of the backlinks, page speed, optimization and several other factors give it away.
Penalties Suck..
The google penalty risk for this industry seems low. There are a lot of companies that doing Digital Marketing the right way. Cheap tactics would not get the job done here (Not that we apply those). We always want to know what we are up against.
Awesome mix of Backlinks. They are all over the place. The more diverse they are, the more work we have to do .
Well Maintained. Super Optimized. All the companies had SEO agencies maintaining their campaigns for them.
Step 3: How good is your Website?
Based on the research and information we had on hand, Shield Security needed help on multiple fronts. At the time, their website was old, outdated and definitely needed an overhaul.
On top of the website overhaul, the SEO Campaign had to be built from scratch as there were no current backlinks and Google did not trust the website very much.
New Website Design
Websites are your Backbone.
As you can see, we made a very responsive website that is still currently servicing them well. When it comes to “Trades and Service” Business(es), you want customers to see what they will be receiving. You may think little factors like this are trivial. However, they can be the difference between a successful campaign and an unsuccessful one.
Strong Branding and CTA’s
Strong Branding is Key.
Black and Red is the color they choose when it came to their equipment. We provided the light white background for contrast. We tried to make the white as prevalent as possible along with a contrast color of light green to make the website eye-popping. The last thing you want is a dull and boring color scheme that subliminally turns the clients interest off. Adding a custom made video was a nice touch and some people like to watch instead of read.
Backlinks Structure
We love situations like this. It was a blank slate with very few to no existing backlinks. It gives us a chance to build a campaign that will be successful for sure without having to correct previous companies mistakes. We built them a blog page with the content to add more credibility in the eyes of Google.
Step 4: How do we do it? What’s the plan?
At the moment, we have all the information we need to start building up our plan. We know the clients background. The scouting of the competition is complete. Lastly, we also have a a functional yet modern website that can be ranked at the top of google for this industry. What now? Time to build a plan an execute it.
Website Metrics
At the turn of the century, ranking on google was fairly simple to do. Many companies were not listed on the search engines/ Hence, companies would put their keyword on their website and rank #1! The days i tell ya….
Today? Google has around 200+ factors that are involved in ranking your company. We have an idea of what the majority are. However, results are not predictable as the algorithm tends to change from time to time.
Ideal Balance: 1-2.5%
Speed Saves.
One of the most overlooked aspects of SEO – Website Speed. The more time it takes your webpages to load, the more customers you lose. Imagine you were trying to buy the course from Shield Security Solutions. . However, their page wont load for 5-10 seconds. What would you do? Leave.
We ensure that speed is always functional and solid.
SEO Marketing
Readability is a metric considered by google. What does it mean? It signals the search engine about the content and how it sounds. Content is meant for the end consumer. Not to rank on google. You want it to sound as natural as possible when it comes to ranking at the top. The more un-natural it sounds, the longer you spend at the bottom of the pages.
Layout is Key.
How is the website designed? How many call to actions are there? Are you actively asking your client to give you a call? email? Attracting people thorough your website is great. However, the end goal is convert them into customers. We made sure the website was filled with plenty of Call-to Actions.
Backlinks
Part of building up a solid PPC Campaign involves intense keyword research. There is no magic formula or process that can bring out all the best keywords for you. The one and only method? trial and error.
Upon launching the campaign, we will tend to have low CTR ratios as the engines are still starting to learn what your business needs.
Always Trend Up.
Once we get some data, we can go about editing the PPC campaign. Maybe there are keywords and phrases that are being show which are of no value? What about being seen for the right location?
Even though we have chose the correct options and the keywords we think will work, we always learn about new words just through the monthly analysis report.
Step 5: Plan Execution. Phase # 1
There are two parts to this digital marketing campaign:
SEO and PPC.
SEO
There is nothing guaranteed about SEO. It is all about trial and error. What works for a certain company will not work for another. We can put together the best possible plan given a certain situation. However, it will make progress but tweaks will be needed to take the next step and end up on top of your rankings.
PPC
It is all about picking up on the correct keywords that can translate to increase CTR and sales. Similar to SEO, there is a lot of trial and error involved and the process takes time. Below is an image of the progress we had made in the first 2 years.
Initial Burst of Traffic
Its always good to see progress. As was expected, the SEO portion of the marketing plan took longer because its a new domain. in the meantime, the adwords campaign we had built was keeping them afloat and alive in the short term.
It took almost 12 months for the business to start breaking even on their SEO campaign. However, once they got past the break even, they ended up making/saving so much money through their SEO investment.
Exponential Growth
if you are shopping for SEO Services, we are positive that you have seen agencies make outlandish claims like this. What does it really mean?
In short. You are track to rank at the top of google. At Sages Marketing, we take honestly and transparency very seriously. It is always in your best interest to hire an SEO Agency that doesn’t try to fool you with these outlandish claims but rather work on improving your search results.
Return on Investment
SEO is an investment for your business. It is a form of marketing that tends to pay itself over and over again. It’s only growing in importance by the day thanks to the digital world we live in today. In dump-squad’s case, they began seeing around 1000 clients within their first 12 months!
They were already in the green. Don’t understand it? No problem. Click on “Math Time”.
Money Talks..
If you see the picture above, it tells the amount of traffic your website is attracting and gives you a numerical value based on how much google values it at.
In our case, Shield Security Solutions is valued at $3,300/Monthly. It attract 1,700 Visitors.
$3,300/1,700 = $1.94
So in first six months, Shield Security Solutions began attracting 600 clients.
600 x $1.94 = $1,164.00
They pay us around $1000/monthly.
In the first 6 months, Shield Security was already making money of their own SEO campaign not to mention their actual business.
SEO is all about Return on Investment.
Their PPC Campaign was certainly profitable for then to operate. If you notice, their SEO avg price per click is $1.94 vs the $2.72 they pay for adwords.
SEO for Shield Security is almost 29% cheaper! Good thing we split the budget for their campaign evenly to start with. Most entrepreneurs are in a hurry and want to start off heavy into adwords. While this is sustainable short term, you will be paying a fortune by doing this.
Backlinks
There are bad apples in every industry. Digital Marketing is not an exception. More often than not, SEO companies try to prove their worth by talking about return on investment. However, their return is not exactly what you are looking for or need. It is important to get your ROI through Keywords that generate you revenue.
Numbers Don’t Lie.
In the case of Shield Security Solutions, we could have easily ranked them for a bunch of keywords that are easy to rank for and told them that they are making money. Do we even think about doing this like other SEO companies will? Absolutely not.
Look at the image above. Under countries, you will see Canada accounting for 99.5% of their traffic. We ranked them for local searches where local people would give them a call for their service..
Not rank them in Idaho, Ohio or Montana…..useless traffic. They do not have any jurisdiction in those states. Hence, even though their raking will be valued, they do not receive any compensation for it and the fine people of those states do not receive their service they are looking for.
Relevant Traffic is key.
Step 6: Review the Progress. Make changes if Needed..
Shield Security Solutions was making amazing progress in their digital marketing campaign. However, as is the case with everything, maintenance and slight tweaking is required to remain at the top. Once the Covid-19 Pandemic hit at the beginning of March 2020, Shield Security was trying to adapt just like any business. Their business had to have adjustments made which meant we have to take down some of the online web pages.
Hence
There was a steep slope down and loss of traffic from it. However, we were able to restore order and bring them back to the top where they currently stand. On top of that, we also rapidly expanded their PPC Management strategy along with SEO.
Pictures talk louder than words.
Back to the Basics
Optimize the Website
Once we take down the web pages that were originally ranking highly, we have to instate them. More often than not, most websites slowly lose their rankings naturally. Not us. We know that covid time was a bad time and went ahead and restored all the web pages with their major changes of course. For example, all the first aid agencies associated with CPR training closed down during the first lockdown. Hence, we were getting customers who weren’t able to sign up for those services. A lot of changes were made.
What are we gonna do?
Honesty is the best policy.
Lets be frank here. We did not see this coming. It happens. It happens to every professional in every industry. Covid 19 has caught so many businesses by surprise and Shield security was one of them. Had to adapt and adapt we did.
Simply put:
1) Update the Website.
2) Add a lot more content
3) Index more pages .
Time to react and respond. Do what we can to put our client at the top.
FYI: At no point has Shield Security Solutions ever lost money from their SEO campaign. Their low point of 600 clients is still valued at $1,164…
Just Saying. When we build campaigns, we built them with a strong foundation. It done so to give us more time to recover and respond.
PPC Adjustments?
Since the campaign for the SEO is going to take longer, the clients decided to work more on PPC. Now we have hit new heights with the SEO taking off and the PPC almost tripling!
Shield Security Solutuions is in good hands going forward.
Step 7: Re-Tool. Re-Grow. Maintain Rankings.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The results below are put on display to show you what can be accomplished for your business as well. We promised you that this picture would make sense at the end. If you have stuck through the entire case study, thank you for taking the time to read it.
Hopefully it makes sense and you are ready to give us a call for your business!
The Final Breakdown: Spend Vs Earned
Spent
As we previously mentioned: Digital Marketing Agency always preach about Return on Investment (ROI). Shield Security has currently been with us for the last 3 years (and counting). Here is the breakdown of the total price they have been billed for:
Initial Payment/Setup Fee: $0
Web Design and Development: $2000
Monthly Payment (SEO and PPC): $1500/Monthly
Time Span (as of right now): 36 months
Total: $1500 * 36 Months = $54,000
+$2000 (Web Design) = $56,000
Earned
They paid $74,000 over 3 years??? What? That’s a lot of money. Yes. We Agree. However, we also need to account for what they received back in terms of production. Its obvious they made their money. Exactly how much?
SEO
First Year Average traffic: 600/Monthly
Second Year Average Traffic: 1700/Monthly
Third Year Average traffic: 1500/Monthly
(700*12) + (1700*12) + (1500*12) = 46,800 Visitors
Average Click Value: $1.94
Total: 46,800 * 1.94 =$90,792
PPC
Average Price Per Click for this Industry: $4.12
Average Price Paid Per Click: $2.72
Difference: $1.40 * 31,500 Clicks = $44,100
Total PPC Value Saved: $44,100
Combined Value: $134,892
*Had Covid not hit and those changes needed to be made, the value would be closer to $180-190K. PPC’s Management value also does not take into considerations such as over click protection and setting up specific keywords to get your optimal return.
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