Kateryna Zolotaryova, the founder and head of Site24 Digital agency, explained the role of SEO in business promotion, the criteria and reasons for successful and unsuccessful projects, as well as how Worksection helps to manage the work of SEO specialists.
Tell us about the company and what you do
We are Site24, engaged in SEO promotion and PPC advertising of client projects. Throughout our history, we have increased Google traffic for more than 800 businesses in Ukraine and abroad.
Our clients are Ukrainian and foreign businesses that offer what people google and are ready to develop their sites. We do not focus on a specific niche: among our clients are online hardware stores, medical clinics, IT companies and many projects in other areas.
What is the current role of SEO in business promotion and who is SEO best for?
SEO works great with sites of typical mass-market goods and services with a medium and large assortment. But, unfortunately, there are businesses where SEO will not bring any benefit, if, for example, the site has a very small assortment, or you sell some unique product that people are not yet looking for.
We adjust the websites to user search demand and Google’s requirements, so let’s say, if people are googling “buy a refrigerator”, and you sell refrigerators with a sufficient assortment, we have every chance to get top positions in Google and regular sales from this channel.
The big role of SEO promotion is that if you compare all sales channels on most websites, then most often it is search promotion that gives the lowest cost of attracting a new customer. And if it is done well enough, then even if you don’t work with SEO specialists any longer, the site will retain its position in Google and you will continue to receive customers. But in the beginning you really need to work hard.
What are the specifics and success criteria of your projects?
The main criterion of success for us is the growth of Google traffic and sales from customers, as well as their satisfaction with these successes and our work.
If we talk about the duration of the projects, then things are easy here. The first 2 months are critical for our work, during which we understand whether our changes can be implemented on the website, if we are talking about SEO promotion, and whether the first 2 months of contextual advertising will show an acceptable cost of the lead. If this crisis period is successfully passed, we usually work for quite a long time. Sometimes it takes six months to a year to achieve the maximum possible result, and sometimes it is constant cooperation month after month.
Unsuccessful projects also happen, as in any team that is not ashamed to admit it. The main reason is miscommunication at the start, when we don’t communicate or the client doesn’t want to hear realistic forecasts, risks, or time needed to achieve results. It might be difficult if the client is unwilling to implement the necessary changes on the website.
“Worksection was a match at first sight…”
We implemented work with Worksection literally from the very first month of our work as an agency. I knew that project tasks and finances could not be managed “on the paper scraps”, because this was the basis of healthy teamwork. And while at the freelance stage you can do with self-task management through Google Docs, professional teamwork should be effective. Therefore, we immediately started looking for a convenient task manager for ourselves, and Worksection was a match at first sight.
List of tasks in Worksection
How does Worksection help you at work?
The system makes it possible to manage all project and internal tasks effectively and without losses, as well as to understand the time of completion of specific tasks and calculate the internal profitability of projects.
We implemented Worksection so quickly that the team had no problems with the transition. It’s just that we stopped writing tasks on pieces of paper and began to record them in the system. And every new employee came to a ready-made internal culture of working with projects.
What, in your opinion, is the key to a successful project?
The secret of a successful project is good management, planning, delegation and control of the project as a whole and individual tasks. Mistakes will inevitably happen, and the only way to avoid them is to not work at all. The main thing is to analyze the reasons for deviations of the actual situation from the planned one to make conclusions and adjustments.
Would you recommend Worksection to other business owners?
I have indeed recommended Worksection to colleagues several times and will continue to do so. In my opinion, this is a high-quality, simple and understandable system that helps manage projects and achieve success.