Complete Set of FAQs
These are the complete set of questions we get asked the most.
Related to SEO and Web Design
You should look at another company for SEO in these situations:
1. You are in the gambling or adult industries. We simply do not take on these industries.
2. You expect ranking changes very fast. SEO takes time and we do not want to set misleading expectations.
3. You do not have revenue coming in and are thinking of spending the only money you have for marketing on SEO expecting new sales to keep your business afloat. We believe that SEO is not the best form of marketing in such a scenario and do not take on such projects.
4. You have a budget of less than $1,000 a month for SEO. You can certainly find companies that will do SEO for such a budget. But for our high-quality, hands-on approach such a budget is not sufficient.
You should work with us for the following reasons:
1. Laser focused Expertise for Exceptional Results
There are a lot of methods of online marketing that work. To be really good at one of these methods you have to focus on it to keep up with the latest techniques and have a nuanced understanding of what works.
We are ‘T’ shaped marketer with specialized expertise in Search Engine Optimization. By ‘T’ shaped what we mean is that we are knowledgeable about all aspects of marketing techniques, but our deep knowledge and expertise is in SEO.
2. Ongoing R&D for The Most Effective SEO Methods
SEO is changing. But most of so called ‘SEO experts’ are still using methods that ‘used to work’.
Figuring out what is working in SEO requires painstaking testing. It is difficult to create environments where only one variable is changed with regards to ranking on search engines and track these changes over a long period of time. You have to be a kind of geek in this area.
We spend a lot of my time and money collaborating with a few true SEO experts in the world that are SEO geeks. We work with these SEO experts to maintain 100s of test sites and conduct 100s of ongoing SEO experiments to be one step ahead of the competition.
3. Built on a Solid Foundation to Accelerate Results
Establishing a proper SEO framework for your site is critical to achieving rankings faster and for more keywords. Most SEOs do not know or spend adequate time at the beginning of a project to set up the right SEO frame for the site.
We make it a critical component of each project to spend adequate time at the start to establish the proper SEO foundation to accelerate results.
4. No Shortcuts
In SEO, some tactics can be fast but only work for a short period. These methods are ‘tricking’ search engines and are known as Black Hat SEO.
However, we focus on SEO techniques that are safe and stick long term. These types of SEO methods are called White Hat SEO. Also, our methods are based on the principles that search engines use to determine which pages to rank.
You should look at another web design company in these cases:
1. Your budget is less than $2,500. You can certainly find a web designer to work within this budget. But our high touch, conversion focused websites require more resources from us and a higher investment from you.
2. You are in the gambling or adult industries. We do not take on projects in these industries.
3. You or someone else on your team does not have a few hours each week to devote on your Web Design project. The way we do websites require some feedback and work on your part. If you want to be totally hands-off your web design project we will not be able to take it on.
If you do not fall into the above criteria, here is why you should work with us:
1. Conversion Focused
The websites we build are focused on getting visitors to take a specific action. This action could be to give you a call, fill out a form or download an e-book to join your mailing list. These actions are called conversions and we make sure that everything on the site is leading towards a conversion.
Most other web designers are more focused on how a website looks. But our philosophy is that every aspect of the website include how it looks should lead to a next step along the path of getting a qualified lead.
2. Foundation to Get Traffic
Out sites are built with a framework to get more relevant traffic. Most other web designers disregard the traffic aspect of a website.
When we build a site, we do basic keyword research and build a frame for the site that is optimized to attract your prospects on search engines.
3. Foundation to Measure Traffic
Our sites are built with a foundation to gather data about web traffic that is coming to the site. Laying this foundation early is important so that you have the data for analysis if you decide to work on getting more traffic to your site in the future.
4. Truly Optimized for Mobile
When it comes to making our sites work well on mobile, we go beyond the standard mobile optimized ‘responsive’ websites. Since more traffic come to a website from mobile devices, we take mobile optimization very seriously.
For example, we make sure that our websites truly look good on screens of all sizes. The norm is to test the site on a set of fixed sizes for desktop, laptop and mobile. But what about the screen sizes in between these fixed sizes? We test our sites on a continuum of sizes so that the sites truly look good on all screen sizes.
To learn more about our web design services and how we are different, please see our web design services page.
Your investment will vary based on the scope of the project. For us to give you an exact budget we will need to do an initial evaluation. In most cases, we can provide you with several options.
We are not the lowest cost provider. If you are purely shopping on price, we will not be a good fit. To give you some ball park numbers, if your budget for a website is less than $1,000, or your monthly budget for SEO is less than $1,000, we are not a good fit. We offer a high-quality service, and this takes resources from us and an appropriate investment from you.
We can give you exact numbers with regards to your investment, if your project is a good fit for us, after an initial consultation. So, if you are looking for an expert that can deliver good value for your money, do reach-out to us.
The specific timeline of a Web design project or SEO project will vary based on the scope. However, here are some broad ballpark estimates.
A typical Web design project will take about 4 weeks from start to finish as long as you provide the content.
Significant results from an SEO project takes about 6 months although some results can be seen faster.
As part of our intake process for new clients, we conduct an initial analysis to see if we can help. If you are a client that we can help, this analysis will include detailed suggestions on what you can implement yourself to improve your SEO that will give you a significant boost.
Our website and Prasanna’s LinkedIn profile has testimonials from real people. Also, please look around our website for work history and case studies.
We have processes based on best practices and our experience for all aspects of our business.
Before working with any client, we want to get to know you and your project to see if we are a good fit. We may do an initial in person meeting, call or ask you to fill an online form. Within three to five business days, we will analyze the information we gathered from you and let you know if it makes sense to discuss more details about a potential engagement or refer you to other resources that may be a better fit for you.
For an SEO project, we often send out the analysis as a video with lots of initial ideas that you can implement yourself.
SEO works the same for any industry. SEO consists of building the relevance and authority with regards to relevant keywords for your site (see SEO services page for more details). There are a few advantages of having done SEO projects in the same industry before such as, a head start in keyword research and known resources for links. But these advantages mean that it will take more of our resources to fulfil your project. And it does not translate into a more successful SEO project for you.
So, we can confidently say that we can take on projects in any SEO industry.
Web sites that convert in any industry follow the same framework of answering the three fundamental questions of a visitor: what do I get? can I trust you? what to do next? (see Web Design services page for more details). With regards to the written content of the site, in most projects we rely on you to provide it. If you want us to write the content, then we work with a professional writer in your industry that we have vetted.
So, we can take on a Web Design project in any industry.
Related to RiseOak
Prasanna Perera is the owner/consultant at RiseOak. He oversees all Search Engine Optimization and Web Design work. A few partners work under Prasanna’s close supervision.
These are the pros and cons of working with a large marketing agency vs working with Prasanna at RiseOak.
Let’s start with the cons.
1) You will probably get more communication with a large agency.
Most large agencies have an account manager that is responsible for communicating with the client and keeping the client happy. Since communicating with you and keeping you happy is the focus on such an account manager you are bound to get more communication from an account manager than from Prasanna.
However, these account managers are not experts in SEO or Web Design. So, they will not know the details of your project and the digital marketing industry to provide you with more nuanced insight.
At RiseOak, we need to streamline the communication so that most of our time is spent on working on your project. However, we make sure that what we communicate is what is really important to the project and relevant for results.
2) A large marketing agency may offer other marketing options in addition to SEO and Web Design
There are marketing options other than SEO and Web Design that work. We do not offer these other services because we want to be the best at what we do, and we simply do not have the resources to be great at all marketing options.
So, if you are serious about other marketing options you should talk to a larger agency. Do be aware of agencies that say that they offer a lot of marketing services, but in fact outsource the fulfillment. Also, keep in mind that these agencies will try to upsell you with the other services they offer.
We believe that SEO is overall one of the best marketing options because of its massive potential Return on Investment and that is our focus.
3) At a large agency if one person is no longer able to work on your project another person can take it over
At a large agency, if an employee leaves the company or is not able to work on the project for an extended period of time, someone else can take on the project.
This is indeed a risk of working with RiseOak. However, we have been in business for over a decade (since 2011) and have clients that have been with us for years.
Also, keep in mind that having one person responsible for the project from the start to end is better. Knowledge transfer to other people can be hard as some of the details and background of the project can be missed.
Pros
1) To work with a true SEO expert, you will have to work with a company like RiseOak.
Most SEO experts do not work for other agencies. It is more satisfying and profitable to provide SEO expertise through your own company.
At RiseOak, Prasanna has been approached by other larger agencies to join their team, but Prasanna has refused. From time to time, Prasanna ‘white labels’ his services to other larger agencies so that these agencies can offer Prasanna’s services to their clients.
Some larger agencies get junior personnel to fulfil the SEO work using templated methods. This is not the case at RiseOak, where Prasanna is fulfilling the SEO projects himself using the latest methods that work today.
To be a true expert you need to focus on it to know all the details and trends. This is what we do at RiseOak, focusing on SEO and Web Design. Larger agencies by contrast tend to work on many different marketing methods. So, it is hard for these agencies to be true experts at what they do.
2) We have incentive to truly care for your project and get results
At a larger agency, your project will be one of a large number of projects. So, there is less incentive to take a special interest in your project.
At RiseOak, we can only work with a few selected clients at a time. Prasanna is closely tied to your project and it is very important to us to make your project a success so that we feel proud and happy with your success and you will have the incentive to refer other people to us.
When we take on a project, your work is not outsourced or delegated. I (Prasanna) will be involved in all aspects of the project.
I get hands on involved in all projects because:
1) I love the work I do, and I get a satisfaction in doing a good project. At heart I am a geek at what I do.
2) I compete on quality of work with other larger agencies. I want to ensure superior quality by doing the work myself or working with a few key personally vetted partners that I closely monitor.
3) I want to be very knowledgeable and at the cutting edge of getting more traffic on the Internet as I think this is a very valuable skill to have.
The downside of this approach is that I can only take on a few selected projects at a time.
All communication will be directly with me (Prasanna).
For an SEO project, we will have an initial call to discuss the project. At the start of the project during the on-page SEO part stage, we will touch base weekly through email. After this initial phase, which will take four to eight weeks, we will touch base monthly via a video review I will be sending on how the project is going. You can also schedule one call a month with me on an as needed basis.
For a web design project, we will have an initial kickoff call to discuss project timeline and deliverables. After this we will usually have a call every two weeks. But this time to touch base can vary based on several factors such as if the content for the website is provided by you and how long you are taking to provide the content.
For SEO, if it is not related to a project we are working on, I do offer consulting hours for $300 for 1hr.
It is not possible to do an entire SEO project based on consulting hours. This would be like asking a heart surgeon to walk you through a surgery, so you can perform it for someone else. It is inefficient, does not produce good results and a waste of your money and my time.