Straight North
Rustam Uktamov
Best part of the experience?
Straight North was contracted to do paid search on Google and Bing. After a two-week delay in setting up the campaigns, they delivered leads outside the targeted audience and disregarded client input. This review includes the vendor's response.
Change about the experience?
For the money I paid them, they didn’t put in enough effort to fix things in the campaign. They just ignored most of the suggestions that I gave them to improve the performance.
Overall Feedback:
Converted leads did not fit the target profile, and Straight North’s openness to suggestions for improvement were not encouraging. Spending more time acclimating themselves to the client’s business realities would have resulted in a more trusting relationship. Their responsiveness was a highlight. They ran my ads for about a month, and for that entire month they set up a few ad groups and campaigns in one account. I had around 1,000 impressions, and 42 clicks. The click-through rate was 3.86%, and the conversion rate was 7%. There were certain types of audiences they had to focus on rather than only driving traffic from people who wanted to sell their properties. All the conversions they brought me were irrelevant. Most of the leads who converted were people who wanted to sell their houses faster, and, in return, they had to sell at a cheaper price so I could sell it, fix it up, and make a profit.
- Hired for:
- PPC
- Hired In: 2019
Liz Rorick
Best part of the experience?
Straight North redesigned a website as part of a digital marketing and SEO partnership. Their services included keyword analysis and PPC campaigns.
Change about the experience?
No, I can’t think of anything.
Overall Feedback:
The website has seen growth in traffic volume, along with a boost in PPC results and keyword searches. Straight North is a dedicated and responsive team with reliable account management. They’re driving traffic to our website and we’re moving ahead in PPC results and keyword searches. They bring a lot more to the table than our previous vendor.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2019
Software Development Company
Best part of the experience?
Straight North created content to build backlinks on external sites. Their aim was to improve an online retailer’s SEO by increasing the site’s domain authority. They used Google Analytics to measure progress. This review includes the vendor's response.
Change about the experience?
With proper leadership, like hiring a new SEO director, they could improve their effectiveness. For now, though, the way they represent themselves is misleading.
Overall Feedback:
Straight North failed to deliver major results and regularly missed deadlines. Additionally, they created low-quality content. Although they have a strong marketing team, they lack the necessary skillset to successfully improve SEO. Without strong leadership, they couldn’t manage quality control. Our key metric was improving domain authority, so Straight North launched a link building campaign. They provided a six-month statement of work and outlined the process. They were supposed to build backlinks from reputable websites by creating contributed content for external blogs. They also had their own dashboard that pulled information from Google Analytics and provided a list of backlinks they’ve created. They also helped develop onsite SEO practices.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2019
Rob Handkammer
Best part of the experience?
Straight North migrated multiple websites to Drupal for an industrial manufacturing company. Working with various platforms, the team continues to develop sites for the client and provides SEO services.
Change about the experience?
One area they could improve is integrating a tracking tool for project management as opposed to tracking changes through paper documents.
Overall Feedback:
The team has successfully migrated two sites, with plans to complete two more within the year. Additionally, the sites have seen an increase in organic search rankings. Straight North actively participates in feedback cycles, adapting accordingly and crafting an enjoyable process for both teams. We have successfully migrated two sites to Drupal and our search ranking is better than our old site by far. We’re looking good for 2020, with two more sites to come. My main point of contact at Straight North has been phenomenal in guiding this process, making it enjoyable and easy to get through. They were able to cross out a lot of things I was specifically looking for,
- Hired for:
- Web Development
- Hired In: 2018
Dental Product Manufacturer
Best part of the experience?
Straight North was hired to deliver SEO & PPC services. This review includes the vendor's response.
Change about the experience?
They could try doing what they put in their SOW and what you pay them for.
Overall Feedback:
It seemed like they did almost no work, at least nothing of value. They did make a lot of changes to our Adwords accounts, but they didn't seem to make any sense nor did they seem to provide any improvements. It seems like they were making random changes that they couldn't explain or rationalize. In one month of SEO all they did was put up 6 links in directories, which are worthless as far as SEO goes. Anyone can do that. That's ALL it seems they did as far as SEO. Not a single link anywhere that would provide real link juice. Not a single link in a good blog or anywhere other than those 6 useless, lowly ranked directories.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2018
Asset Security & Control Company
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provides digital marketing services to an asset control solutions company. The team created and continues to maintain PPC campaigns. They monitor content, search terms, and web forms.
Change about the experience?
I wouldn’t say so at this time. Before, we went through a few different account managers, but our most recent contact made the effort to come out to our facility, look at our equipment, and learn our business. That was something that we felt was lacking for a bit, but they made up for it, and we’re really appreciative of that.
Overall Feedback:
Compared to our previous provider, Straight North has been a big help in increasing our SEO and PPC presence. There are two things that we feel puts them above the rest. First, they have a dedicated portal that we can log into at any time. We can see our results in real time; we don’t have to rely on getting an email with results once a month. That was something we weren’t expecting, but it’s been great to have. Second, for someone such as myself who’s not familiar with the SEO and PPC industry in general, it’s hard to verify what’s actually being done. Straight North does a good job of providing monthly updates and relaying what tasks they accomplished on our website or blog sites. They give us quantifiable information that we can look at and see that they’re actively doing stuff to keep us high up in search engine results.
- Hired for:
- Digital Marketing
- Hired In: 2018
Jose Luis Rodriguez
Best part of the experience?
Straight North delivers SEO and PPC solutions.
Change about the experience?
Their briefing process should be more tailored to keep on customers at the beginning of an engagement.
Overall Feedback:
Internal stakeholders are pleased with the results thus far. Customers can expect a knowledgable and dedicated team. We were able to rely on Straight North’s expertise to optimize our website and deliver superior PPC and SEO campaigns.
- Hired for:
- Digital Marketing
- Hired In: 2019
Dan Dulik
Best part of the experience?
Straight North redesigned and refreshed a website for a lighting manufacturer. The team also provides SEO and paid advertising to direct quality leads to the client’s product pages.
Change about the experience?
Nothing.
Overall Feedback:
The new website is clean and easy to use and the internal team is beginning to see an increase in traffic and quality leads. Straight North is available and responsive, answering our questions and making updates to the site as necessary. The team is hard-working and easy to work with. Straight North refreshed and relaunched our WordPress website. They added fresh content and created a new layout and design for the site. Straight North continues to help us on an ongoing basis to help us make updates and changes to our website. Their team also added a call to action and optimized the site for SEO and is starting to help us with paid media.
- Hired for:
- Web Design
- Hired In: 2018
Manufacturing Equipment Provider
Best part of the experience?
Straight North provided SEO services for a manufacturer’s website. In addition to working on the site’s on-page SEO, they created content and built links to improve the site’s overall performance.
Change about the experience?
There isn’t anything worth mentioning.
Overall Feedback:
The site’s Google rankings have improved for several keywords. They now are on the first page or in the top three results for several keywords. Straight North’s team managed the project effectively by providing monthly reports. They stand out because of their dedication to the project’s success. In conjunction with our inhouse team’s efforts’, we’ve seen a significant improvement in our overall keyword ranking on Google. On average, our site’s rankings have improved by between 5–8 positions. For some keywords, we originally were listed on page two and now we’re on the first result page. For others, we’ve cracked the top three.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2018
Manufacturing Company
Best part of the experience?
Straight North runs SEO efforts to help improve a manufacturing company’s search result ranking. They add and enhance content, improve an existing site, and maintain the campaigns.
Change about the experience?
At the beginning, I was under the impression their web designers would be a part of the SEO efforts, but it’s actually a separate service. However, this isn’t something they need to improve since they’re still focused on providing SEO support.
Overall Feedback:
The ongoing efforts from Straight North have resulted in a substantial boost in leads for the business, satisfying the client. As a partner, they’ve been a valued addition to the company’s existing efforts. Their transparency, expertise, and attention to detail are keys to their success. We’ve seen an increase in leads through the website. For example, between 2017 and 2018, we saw a 20% increase in leads. We’re performing significantly better than we were without them and we’re happy with the results.
- Hired for:
- SEO
- Hired In: 2017