Today I was asked by a client (first time for me in 20 years) to write a letter as requested by their bank about how badly the previous SEO agency f*cked up their rankings to the point of almost putting the company out of business.
When you need to updated your website, please be sure you engage the right partner to help you with SEO friendly web design to preserve your SEO equity.
The copy below exactly what I gave the client to give to help them secure a lifeline LOC that will help bridge them from their dilemma the new cash flow now that we got their phones ringing again:
SEO Letter for Our Client’s Bank
To Whom It May Concern,
[Redacted] contacted us in January of 2023 in distress over a website rebuild from their previous agency.
Per [redacted], their original website was created in Weebly, a simple website builder. The company reported that their original site, while simple and not reflective of their brand and prospective clientele, ranked well organically on Google Search and Google Maps. These rankings helped them generate leads and sales.
[Redacted] hired another agency to redesign their Weebly website. The agency completed the design and moved it to Wix, another basic web builder website platform. While the new site met all of [Redacted’s] needs from a branding and messaging standpoint, the agency failed to preserve the existing search engine optimization (SEO) equity that had accumulated on the original site. More specifically, the branding agency stripped away important content, changed the structure of the website, and failed to apply fundamental on-page SEO elements that would have mitigated the Company’s risk of experiencing the total and utter ranking and traffic collapse it ultimately experienced. In other words, when the new Wix website was launched it disappeared from Google search and the Company’s phone stopped ringing.
We engaged with [Redacted] as an “SEO recovery project”. We converted their Wix website into a highly search engine friendly custom WordPress site. We re-optimized the site from top to bottom, and added new pages targeting the brands, services and locations that are most important to their business. We analyzed their capabilities and business goals, and reverse engineered the website around ideal client search behaviors. We created and published new helpful content to the website in the form of videos with detailed summaries, and optimized the site from top-to-bottom with proper keywords, meta descriptions, internal linking and structured data to name a few.
Within 3 months of relaunching the website, the Company recovered all of its lost rankings. Now, at month 6 of the SEO campaign, the company continues to improve in the quality, scope and volume of its targeted keywords and organic traffic. While gains have been substantial in the first half of 2023, all indications point to even better rankings and traffic over the next 12 month and beyond, as well as a much higher volume of phone calls and web form leads that correlate with a strong and stable organic search engine presence.
SEO Lessons Learned
It boggles my mind that in 2023 business owners and executives still don’t take SEO seriously or understand what impact their website has on their business.
ANY change you make to your site has an impact on your marketing and lead flow.
If your website generates leads, then any website update – rebuild, rebrand, change in marketing partner, change in marketing manager – can have a huge impact on your current sales and future growth trajectory.
New website builds and website re-branding risks are real and can be devastating to your business.
If you need help with SEO or are considering a new web design and have
