- SEO - Search Engine Optimization - is the method of getting your website listed higher in Google, Yahoo, or MSN in the natural, or left-column listings.
- PPC - Pay Per Click - is the method of paying to be listed in the sponsored listings, or right-hand column results in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other websites.
- Conversions - Conversion Rate - is the percentage of visitors who turn into leads or customers for your business. If 100 visitors come to your site and 2 buy your product then you have a 2% conversion rate. Depending on your business model, a conversion may be a sale, a lead, a phone call, a page view, a sign-up to your newsletter, a download, or some other activity that ultimately will make you money.
- ROI - Return on Investment - is the percentage of profit produced by your campaign. Take Profit minus Investment and divide by Investment. For example, if you invest $10,000 and you profit $15,000 then you have a 50% ROI.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SEO? PPC? Conversions? ROI?
Is SEO or PPC right for me?
SEO and PPC are similar in form but very different in execution and results. SEO is great if you are interested in long-term results and a very low price per visitor. However, it can take 6-12 months before you see a positive ROI. The great thing about SEO is that after you rank well, you don't have to spend very much to stay at the top. Your traffic will continue to be significant, but with minimal investment, so your ROI goes way up after about 12 months.
PPC is the best choice if you need results NOW. With PPC, you pay for each click that comes to your site. How much traffic is based directly on how much money you have to spend. It's perfect if you need sales right away. However, as soon as you stop paying then no more traffic comes to your site. The price per visitor to your site varies by industry but is typically about $1. So, if you spend $100 today and $0 tomorrow then you'll get 100 visitors today and 0 tomorrow.
Typically, startup companies that need sales right away are a better fit for PPC. PPC is a great way to test keywords or even test your product's marketability. SEO, on the other hand, is ideal for established businesses that can afford to invest in an SEO campaign for 8-12 months. It is ideal if you want a long-term return on a relatively small investment.
Many clients do both. For example, you might invest half your budget in PPC and half in SEO and gradually decrease the PPC spend as the leads from SEO start to come in.
Google says that I shouldn't give my FTP access to an SEO company. Do you need FTP access to my site?
While it is true that there are some nefarious SEO firms that will use your FTP access to install their own malicious software on your site, Volacci is not one of them. Some types of SEO require that changes be made to your website on a regular basis. Many of our clients will do the changes themselves and other clients will allow their Volacci team to make the changes for convenience. The choice is up to you. If you do decide to use Volacci to tweak your site, then we will ask for an account that only gives us access to the pages that we need, not a full FTP control of your site.
What is the ROI of SEO?
Volacci executes every SEO campaign with an objective of improving your ROI. With the specific client in mind, we leverage our knowledge, experience, and resources to recommend and implement strategic improvements to a client's website in order to outperform the competition. While results are not guaranteed, our track record speaks for itself: Over 95% of Volacci clients have achieved a monthly positive ROI within 12 months.
What is it like doing business with Volacci?
Volacci is embodied by 15 words:
- Commitment
- Ownership
- Integrity
- Excellence
- Communication
- Success
- Education
- Teamwork
- Balance
- Fun
- Systems
- Intelligence
- Consistency
- Gratitude
- Abundance
You will appreciate our proactive communication, our accountability, and our honesty.
Are you good guys or bad guys?
If this were the Old West, we'd be the sober guys wearing the white cowboy hats. Volacci is adamant about following Google's rules for SEO. Our clients depend on our help to generate sales, and we work very hard within the ethical boundaries of the Internet to make sure their revenues will not be removed by search engine banishment. In fact, no Volacci client has ever been penalized or banned from any search engine for any reason.
Have you worked with other companies in my industry?
The short answer is: most likely. We work with companies of all different sizes, throughout an eclectic mix of industries, including Fortune 500 computer companies, large online suppliers, national publications, local retailers, insurance brokers, affiliate marketers, and bankruptcy lawyers. While every client we have is unique, most of them are looking for assistance in rankings, traffic, sales, leads, brand awareness, and page-views. So no matter if you run a $10 million conglomerate or a 10-person paper company, Volacci has a solution that will fit your specific needs.
Who will be working on my account?
Your SEO team at Volacci consists of the following:
• Internet Marketing Coordinator (IMC) - The Internet Marketing Coordinator is the project leader for all technical and marketing related tasks. Your IMC will schedule a launch meeting with you and your company within a day or two of signing the agreement. Their primary responsibility is to oversee the work performed and ensure the success of the campaign.
• SEO Specialist - The SEO Specialist is responsible for implementing the most current and effective methods and techniques on your campaign.
• Link Building Tech(s) - Located in India, our dedicated team of link building techs generate links to your website. The IMC handles communicates with our India Link Building Team. The team as a whole reports to the IMC for individual projects on a daily basis.
• Writer - Our staff writers create content for your SEO campaign.
• Accounting Specialist - This person is your contact for any billing questions.
• Office Manager - The Office Manager is responsible for any customer service questions, concerns, comments that may arise.
To put a face with the title, visit our team page.
Do you provide the services that my company needs?
We provide SEO, PPC, Link Building, Call Tracking, and Conversions Consulting that range from modest individual accounts to teams of 8-10 people working on a single campaign. We have qualified writers, SEO experts, PPC masters, and conversion scientists at your disposal. We do have a link building ninja somewhere, but no one has seen him for months.
What is the advantage of working with Volacci?
We have experienced 5 significant differences between Volacci and our competition:
1. Working with Volacci pays.
2. We will increase your conversion rate, not just your traffic.
3. We guarantee the number of hours that we will work on your project.
4. We provide comprehensive weekly and monthly SEO reports so you know what's going on with your campaign.
5. We are here for you with purposeful, proactive communication.
What kind of budgets do you work with?
A typical Volacci client spends $3000 - 5000 per month on our services, and sometimes an additional amount for paid ads in the search engines.
We have plans that go as low as $1599 a month for PPC, and our SEO campaigns can run anywhere from $1899 to $20,000 per month.
Our consulting is a very affordable and cost effective way to get our expertise on your project without making a commitment to a monthly spend.
How will our relationship be structured?
As a small business, we understand the value of cash flow. Our contract does not require upfront fees for SEO, and only a modest upfront fee t0 cover the start-up cost for PPC campaigns. We pro-rate the first month and charge you on the first of each month thereafter. Your contracts runs for 12 months and then month-to-month thereafter. However, you can cancel your contract at any time with a 30-day notice. Our only exception is that we do not allow cancellation within the first 90 days.
What are my responsibilities as an SEO client?
By working on your SEO, we are building a relationship with each other. For the campaign to be successful, it's important for you to be aware of your responsibilities as well as ours.
We have found that clients who have never engaged a search marketing firm before can be unaware of how important their own involvement in the process will be. During the launch meeting, you will be given the Volacci Quick Start Guide, customized to fit your campaign. It will include specific tasks, milestones, meetings, and deadlines for both you and your Volacci team.
Your typical time commitment for a Volacci project is about 15-20 hours in the first month, 5-10 hours in the second month, and 2-3 hours per month thereafter.
Is there an upfront fee?
There are no upfront fees for SEO. We do charge a small upfront fee for PPC because of the tremendous amount of time that goes into setting up a campaign.
What are Volacci's payment terms?
We do not usually extend terms. Instead, we ask our clients to provide a credit or debit card to keep on file and run at the beginning of each month. This keeps us focused on making you money instead of invoicing, following up, bounty hunting, etc. We are wildly passionate about spending 100 percent of our time making you successful.
Are you going to take over my website?
Absolutely not. In fact, we are not a web design company. While we will make professional suggestions on how to improve your website, and rely on your webmaster or design agency to make the necessary changes to your site. We will work closely with your team to make sure that each change is done properly and to our exact specifications.
Who will makes the changes to my website?
In most cases, you will have your webmaster make site changes. However, if you do not have a webmaster or expertise then we can refer you to one of our partners who can help you get the work done in a timely and professional manner.
What platforms do you work with?
Do you use software to automate SEO?
No. There are some tools that we use to generate reports and do research; however, all of the work that we do on a project is done manually by a human being. It's the only way to ensure proper, Google-approved results.
How long does it take to get results from SEO?
Typically it will take at least 6 months before you start to see top 10 results from an effective SEO campaign.
How will I know if you are doing a good job?
Transparency is key. Our weekly and monthly reports give you a precise breakdown of the work that was performed on your site each week.
What do I do if I can't get in touch with my Volacci team?
Call the CEO, Ben Finklea, at 512.632.4222.
Do you require that we link to Volacci?
No, we do not require linking to our site. It would certainly be nice if you did, but we currently have tens of thousands of links and one more isn't going to make a huge difference. If an SEO company requires that you link to them, run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.
Has any Volacci client ever been penalized or banned from the search engines?
No. Never. Not even close.
Do you ever buy links?
Absolutely not. Buying links is a very bad decision as you stand a very good chance of being penalized - or even banned - from Google as a result.
Can you give examples of keywords that you've achieved from top 10 results?
Yes. In order to protect the privacy of our clients, we don't make it available on the website. Instead, please email the sales team (sales@volacci.com) and ask for "Fact Sheet #3 - Volacci Results" and they will email it to you right away.
What is your termination policy?
You are "locked" for the first 90 days. After that, you may cancel anytime with a 30-day notice.
Do you ever do work for a percentage of the profits?
Rarely. The main reason that clients ask for this is that they either don't believe fully in our services or they don't have the money to pay our fee. Either way, we focus on strong partners that believe in what we're doing and can afford to pay our service fee. That said, we have occasionally done this if the opportunity was right. Email ben@volacci.com and pitch your idea.
How long have you been in business?
We have been in business since 2001. We started as an online store called Sprysoft. In 2005, we started SpryDev in order to help other businesses build and market websites. In 2008, we stopped all web development work and changed our name to Volacci. We are now exclusively focused on improving our clients' rankings in the search engines.
How do you pronounce "Volacci"?
"voh-LA-chee"
What does "Volacci" mean?
Volacci is a name that was developed from the Latin root "vola", which means "to fly". That is exactly what we help our clients do.
My websites, GeorgetownCustomHomes.com and MarsHillRealty.com, have dominated the front page of the major search engines due to Volacci's efforts.
— Edward Lui
Owner
Georgetown Custom Homes
