Straight North
Real Estate Services Firm
Best part of the experience?
Straight North used backlink building, content production, and additional enhancements on existing web pages to improve organic keyword performance.
Change about the experience?
No, they're great.
Overall Feedback:
The most competitive keyword is now ranked no. 1 in Google results, while previously poorly performing terms are now on the first two pages. Straight North’s team is thorough, efficient, and responsive, providing valuable feedback when needed. We're very happy with them, especially with the progress of our keyword results. We've had one specific, highly competitive keyword that their team has been able to make #1 in Google search rankings. Other keywords that weren't previously placing well have now moved up to the first couple of pages.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2016
Bri Berte, EFM Events
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provided a variety of marketing consultation services including email strategy, marketing automation, and SEO. They also helped to create a marketing calendar for deployment.
Change about the experience?
Not that I can think of. They did a wonderful job, and we plan to reach out to them for any further adjustments to our marketing strategy as we move forward.
Overall Feedback:
The client had a single point of contact that took a proactive approach to learning about the company and its target audience. Improvements to email subject headings and verbiage according to best practices yielded a 30% increase in open rates. Straight North provided marketing consultation services and helped us to build a marketing calendar to keep track of our deployment schedule. We created new strategies around press releases and emails, including the implementation of a new marketing automation system. They originally suggested going with Campaign Monitor, which we had already been considering prior to the engagement, but we ended up getting a great deal on Pardot through Salesforce. They also walked us through best practices on SEO/email marketing, while helping us to hone in on understanding our target audience and how to reach them more effectively.
- Hired for:
- Digital Marketing
- Hired In: 2017
Carly Lambert
Best part of the experience?
Straight North redesigned a website and created an SEO and PPC strategy to drive traffic and increase leads. They also provide a dashboard to track metrics and allow frequent updating of keyword targets.
Change about the experience?
I don't think so. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with working with them.
Overall Feedback:
The website performs significantly better in Google search rankings for key products, resulting in eight verified leads per month. Superior responsiveness sets them apart from other providers, along with the ability to communicate technical details in an easy to understand manner. Straight North did a total overhaul of our website and built out our blog. They also took over all of our search engine optimization [SEO] and pay-per-click [PPC] efforts. They bid on leads for words within Google and other search engines to help drive more traffic to our site. They targeted our key products and markets, and established a tracking system so that we can see the viable leads that come through each month. They’ll establish a target goal—such as getting X many leads or having Y ad in the top spot on Google—and develop new targets as soon as each goal is reached.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2017
Nikki Strahinic
Best part of the experience?
To combat a lag in the economy, Straight North assisted with SEO and PPC efforts to generate new leads. The team conducted a complete website redesign, and improved the corresponding mobile app.
Change about the experience?
I asked one individual a question four times and never received a response. We wanted to be able to differentiate between phone calls that came from their team, or from Yelp. I recently received an email from a new staff member, who might be handling the account from now on in her stead.
Overall Feedback:
Instating a regular blogging schedule helped drive web traffic to the site. The project lead is enjoyable to work with, consistently available, and offers useful input that improves the project. Recently, the company signed another annual contract with Straight North, and highly recommends them. Straight North initially worked on PPC, and then focused their efforts on SEO. They aimed to increase our traffic using blog posts. Our previous vendor had posted very sporadically, and the team indicated that a consistent posting schedule would yield the best results for Google searches. In 2017, they executed a total redesign of our website. They also improved our app, a mobile version of the website, which hadn’t been working well previously. After describing how it needed to be changed, they executed the necessary steps. Currently, they are continuing to monitor keywords.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2015
Morgan Williams
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provided SEO services for three websites, including content strategy, blogs and webpage content, keyword services, etc. They continue to maintain and monitor site performance.
Change about the experience?
It would be helpful to have a more detailed strategic end goal in mind, but overall there's not too much that I'd change about their approach.
Overall Feedback:
The websites have seen a significant increase in organic traffic since Straight North started. Their detailed analytics reports continue to prove the value of their services. Additionally, their customer attention and support is fantastic, making them a pleasure to work with. At first, Straight North's team assisted with the content for one of our websites, but eventually worked on all three under our umbrella. For one of the sites, for example, they have an account team that works on strategy and a writer who creates blogs and updates content on various pages with our keywords. Across the board, they've helped improve SEO for each site, rewriting content and restructuring the overall layout and navigation of pages as needed. More recently, they've provided SEO services for a website that has more of an international audience.
- Hired for:
- SEO Consulting
- Hired In: 2016
Paul Hadfield
Best part of the experience?
No, I don’t think so.
Change about the experience?
We’d always like to reach our goals faster, but we understand this is a project that requires patience.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North followed project requirements and consistently sought feedback to improve performance. The website is sleek and professional, attracting new clients and expanding the business. The team’s variety of talent means they can work on virtually any project in any stage. We gave Straight North direct access to our website, and they did an entire overhaul and numerous revisions. They also work on SEO and PPC, as well as banner ad displays that we’ll soon launch. They’ve done a variety of tasks, including writing and refining our content and creating customer-facing marketing pieces. Both Mailchimp and Intercom are integrated into the site. The design work is mainly finished, and now Straight North is working on just a few smaller projects.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2017
Dan Coleman
Best part of the experience?
Straight North crafts SEO strategies for different sales campaigns to increase organic traffic to an e-commerce site. They provide diagnostic assessments and offer suggestions to increase visibility.
Change about the experience?
We’d always like to reach our goals faster, but we understand this is a project that requires patience.
Overall Feedback:
The number of unique visitors to the site has risen since the start of Straight North’s involvement, and organic sales have increased, as well. Straight North features an attentive and intelligent team driven toward determining the most successful digital strategies. They coordinated a full diagnostic assessment of our site and immediately provided suggestions, including having all pages receive https certification and changing images to improve site speed. Over time, they addressed our goal of increasing organic traffic.
- Hired for:
- Ecommerce SEO
- Hired In: 2017
Kelsey Magilton
Best part of the experience?
Straight North coordinates SEO and PCC campaigns to increase organic traffic and sales. Straight North conducts research to determine successful markets and develops strategies to influence online visibility.
Change about the experience?
When we first started, our campaigns were more geared toward the consumer market, which is our secondary target audience behind the commercial. That was one thing we had to readjust so that we could better connect with smaller business shippers.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North’s involvement increased online traffic and business opportunities, creating a successful engagement. Straight North features thorough researchers and talented strategists that combine their efforts to craft strong solutions. They are accessible partners that are eager to help. We have certainly addressed certain matters on our end, but Straight North’s efforts have made us a more visible option in the marketplace. Prior to their involvement, in September 2017, we averaged about 68 users a month, and we had no shipments that month. In July 2018, we had 1,200 unique visitors, and in June 2018, we had 69 shipments. We’re still very new, but relative to what we experienced before, we’ve seen a significant increase in our traffic and our business.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2017
Canvas Vows
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provides SEO services, including keyword research, backlinks, and creating website content.
Change about the experience?
Do the work upfront before starting the keyword research. Making sure you understand your target market really well. That will give Straight North a better starting point to do their research, and bring their creativity to the table.
Overall Feedback:
The number of visitors and the search rankings have increased markedly since Straight North was first engaged. Their consistent communication, responsiveness, and ability to work within strict budget parameters justify the investment and make them a valuable partner. We started by giving them a brief overview of the company and our target market. They did their own keyword research, and made a few new suggestions. They also confirmed some of the keywords we were already targeting were correct. Together we agreed on a list of the top 10–15 products to target. The list is based on the strength of the keywords and how much competition there is for each one. They also created backlinks and website content to support the SEO strategy.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2017
Julie Pinkston, Grant Cooper
Best part of the experience?
Straight North organizes SEO campaigns to increase organic traffic and drive leads. Although they briefly provided PPC services, the current focus remains blog and content development and tracking analytics.
Change about the experience?
No. They have been quick to problem-solve when something goes awry. For example, our Google Analytics metrics stopped tracking for a short time as a result of a Google problem. Straight North corrected it and took measures to implement a failsafe to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North’s thorough market research and bright keyword interpretation made for successful organic traffic and paid advertising campaigns. Their inclusive project management approach ensured seamless communication. They are accountable and provide a number of services other firms cannot. We transferred all of our SEO practices from a different vendor over to Straight North and added PPC to our agreement. We relied on them to earn us higher ranks for different keywords. We have nine different areas of expertise, so Straight North researched which keywords tied to those areas. Further, we were attracted to Straight North because of their ability to develop content, which our previous firm didn’t have the capacity for. Straight North created backlinks for our site, and they developed infographics and other content to better optimize our webpages. They also built out a section of our site for blog content, which they will contribute to for the next six months. Another firm in our space utilizes paid advertising, and we realized we were being circumvented by their ads, which spurred our decision to explore that tactic, as well. Our paid campaign featured display ads and PPC ads.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2017