Volacci FAQ

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Relationship
Working with Us
Project Related Questions
Other Important Questions

Relationship

Am I in the right place?

If you're looking for a company to help you get more traffic from the search engines and you want more of those visitors to turn into paying customers for your business, then you're in the right place!

What is SEO? PPC? Conversions? ROI?

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.

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.

What's it like doing business with Volacci?

There are 14 words that embody who we are as a company. They are: commitment, ownership, integrity, excellence, communication, success, education, teamwork, balance, fun, systems, consistency, gratitude, and abundance. You'll discover that communication means a lot to us and that we are profit-focused in everything that we do for you, our client. You will appreciate our proactive communication, our willingness to take responsibility for our work, and the fact that we do exactly what we say we are going to do. In fact, these things are so important to us that we wrote them all down and renew our commitment to this standard daily. Read more about our culture.

Are you good guys or bad guys?

If this were the old west, we'd be the guys wearing the white hats. In other words, we follow Google's rules for SEO companies. Our clients build their companies based on the sales that our services produce. We work hard to make sure that those revenues will not be wiped out by a search engine banning our clients' site. In fact, no Volacci client has ever been penalized or banned from any search engine for any reason.

Have you helped other companies like mine?

Probably. Our client list is large and includes Fortune 100 computer companies, large online retailers, and national publications. Our client list also includes local realtors, affiliate marketers, and video distribution websites. Each client is unique, but most of them are looking for sales, leads, sign-ups, branding, awareness, or page-views. So, if you're a $10 Billion company or a 10-person firm, chances are we have a solution that would fit your needs.

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.

Do you guarantee your work? I've heard that SEO guarantees are worthless. Why should I trust yours?

Yes, we build a rock-solid guarantee into our SEO contracts. It says: "Volacci guarantees that by the end of 12 months of service that Client will have enough additional monthly business from Client’s website to pay for Volacci’s monthly service fee or Volacci will work at the same level of service without further remuneration until Client’s reaches this level. This free work will not extend beyond 6 months."(Read our full contract.)

This means that you absolutely, positively will turn a profit on your SEO campaign or we'll work for free for up to 6 additional months.

We agree that most SEO guarantees aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Ours is different. First of all, our guarantee is based on a metric that we cannot fake or obscure: your profits. You track your profits, not us. Secondly, you let us know how we're doing, and whether or not we reached your profit goals. That's right: Our clients tell us if we have fulfilled our guarantee or not. No double-talk or creative explanations from us - just the honest truth from you and we'll work for free.

Finally, a guarantee is only as good as the company that stands behind it. As much as we don't like to admit it, we have had one client who didn’t feel we fulfilled our promise. We had to step up, admit our mistakes, and work for free for several months. It wasn't fun, we learned a lot, and we would absolutely do it again if the need arises.

How can I start a relationship with Volacci?

It's actually quite easy. Just give us a call (512-989-2945) or email us: sales@volacci.com and we'll walk you through it. If you're up to it, you can fill out our quote request form and we'll get back to you within a day to discuss your project and schedule a proposal meeting with you. Whichever way you choose, we'll help you understand all your options.

Working with Us

Who would be working on my account?

Your SEO Team at Volacci consists of the following individuals:

Internet Marketing Coordinator – The Internet Marketing Coordinator is the project lead for all technical and marketing related tasks. Your IMC will schedule a kickoff meeting with you 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. The IMC reports to the VP of Operations.
SEO Specialist – The SEO Specialist is assigned to implement the most current and effective methods and techniques on your campaign. This person reports to the Internet Marketing Coordinator.
Link Building Tech(s) – Located in India, our dedicated team of link building techs work around the clock to generate links to your website. The Internet Marketing Coordinator handles communication with our India team. The Link Building Team as a whole reports to the VP of Operations and to the Internet Marketing Coordinator for individual projects.
Writer – Our staff writers will help create the content that we need for your SEO campaign.
Accounting Specialist – This person is your contact for any billing questions.

You can always meet the team.

How easy is it to get in contact with someone at your company?

Easy. Very easy. In fact, each person at Volacci has their own contact information page. You can find every person that you need to get in touch with on the meet the team page.

Can you provide the services that my company needs?

Yes. We have SEO and PPC plans that range from modest individual account, to teams of 8-10 people working on a single campaign. We have writers, marketers, SEO masters, PPC experts, and conversion scientists at your disposal.

What's the advantage of working with Volacci over its competitors?

We see 5 major differences between Volacci and our competition:

Working with Volacci pays, we guarantee it.
We will increase your conversion rate, not just your traffic.
We guarantee the number of hours that we will work on your project.
We provide comprehensive weekly and monthly SEO reports so you know what’s going on with your campaign.
We are here for you with purposeful, proactive communication.

What kind of budgets do you work with?

A typical Volacci client will spend $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 $1000 per month for PPC, and our SEO campaigns can run anywhere from $1500 to $20,000 per month. Finally, our consulting is very affordable and cost effective way to get our expertise on your project without making a commitment to a monthly spend.

How is my relationship with Volacci structured?

As small business owners, we understand the value of cashflow. Our contract does not require any upfront fees for SEO, and only a modest upfront fee to cover the start-up cost for PPC campaigns. We prorate the first month and charge you on the first of each month thereafter. Your contract runs for 12 months and then month to month thereafter. However, you can cancel your contract at any time with a 30-day notice. The only exception is that we do not allow cancellation within the first 90 days.

What are my responsibilities as your client?

We’re building this relationship together. For it to be successful, it’s important for you to be aware of your responsibilities as well as ours. Clients who have never engaged a search marketing firm before are sometimes unaware of how important their own involvement in the process will be. In the launch meeting, you will be given the Volacci Quick Start Guide which will be customized for your campaign. It includes 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?

No, not 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. It is typically about $1250 for small campaigns and $2500 for large campaigns.

What are Volacci's payment terms?

We do not usually extend terms. Instead, we ask our clients to give us a credit or debit card that we can keep on file and run at the beginning of each month. This keeps us focused on making you money instead of invoicing, following up, etc. We would rather spend 100% of our time on making you successful.

Project Related Questions

Are you going to take over my website?

No. In fact, we are not a web design company. While we will make suggestions on how to improve your website, we rely on your webmaster or design agency to make the necessary changes to your site. We work closely with your team to make sure that each change is done properly and to our exact specifications.

Who will make the change to my website?

Most of the time, you or your webmaster will make the changes to your site. However, if you do not have the expertise or a webmaster then we can refer you to one of our partners who can help you get the work done in a timely and professional manner.

Do you work with any particular platforms?

Yes. We work with Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, WordPress, straight HTML, Flash, .NET, Ubercart, OS Commerce (and it's many derivatives) and many more. Our absolute favorite, however, is Acquia's enhanced Drupal.

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 with SEO?

Typically it will take 6 months before you start to see top 10 results from an SEO campaign.

How will I know if you're really doing a good job?

Transparency is key. Our reports give you an exact breakdown of the work that was performed on your site each week. Read more about our reports and see some samples.

What if I can't get in touch with my team?

Call the CEO, Ben Finklea, at 512-632-4222

Wait, did you just give me the CEO's cell phone number?

Yes.

Cool...but I don't want to bother the CEO with my problems.

If you can't get in touch with your team it means that some disaster has happened and our CEO needs to know about it. Seriously, communication is key, and if you can't get your team on the line, call Ben. We've been giving our CEO's phone number to clients for years, and he has not once gotten a call because a client couldn't get in touch with their IMC, account manager, or someone else on the team.

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