Wolfate Update: By Raising Our Prices, We Increased Profitability Over 20%
This is a follow up story for Wolfate. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 3 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m Carlos Castro, SEO Consultant and founder of Wolfate, a boutique SEO consulting agency specializing in web migrations & technical SEO.
The agency's clients are mainly medium-sized e-commerce brands that need to change their platform, reorganize their URL structure, or optimize their crawling & indexing issues on the site.
Since the last interview, the profitability increased by 20% by raising our consulting prices, and new leads increased by 15% (from companies that read the interview).
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
In my original interview, I mentioned that I expanded the service offering to Canada, after working with two medium-sized brands in Canada that could not find specialized agencies.
I was using the .com domain and enabled a subdirectory /en-ca for the Canadian version.
However, the page was struggling to get clicks, and I decided to purchase the .ca domain for my agency, given that a ccTLD (Country-Code Top Level Domain) is the best option to geo-localized a website towards your audience.
The drop you see in late April is when I moved the /en-ca subdirectory to the .ca domain.
It’s still early for the results to be fully reflected. Although, the /en-ca was benefiting from all the link popularity from the .com domain, so starting with a new .ca domain it’s going to take much more effort in terms of authority building.
Given that we couldn't get leads from SEO at the moment, we temporarily invested in a PPC campaign that, alongside referrals, are the two main lead generation channels.
The types of clients that we get the most in Mexico reach out to us for web development and web migrations. In contrast, in Canada, all of our clients come to us for technical SEO audits & optimizations, and web migrations.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
One of the biggest challenges was saying no to clients. Fortunately, the website has been generating at least 2 leads per day, but unfortunately the businesses that wanted SEO services needed a full SEO strategy from scratch with a new domain.
New websites require link-building efforts, from keyword research, to technical optimization, content creation, and optimization. Those are not the type of clients I’m currently working with, so I had to say no.
Finding your passion is just combining what you love doing, and what you’re good at.
I need to have fewer but happy clients that refer me to other companies, than working with several clients when less than half of them can implement my recommendations and see results. Always prioritize quality over quantity.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
I learned to think like a business owner, putting the interest of my agency first. When I created the Canadian version of the site, I created a subdirectory for it because it was the best decision SEO-wise, it can benefit from the authority the domain has, it’s easier to maintain, etc.
However, when looking at the SERPs for some of our target queries, I noted that 99% of the ranking pages were using a .ca domain, it’s clear that most businesses in Canada (at least in my niche) were using a country domain, which inspires more confidence to users than a .com domain.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
I plan to expand to the UK given that I’ve worked with two clients in the UK in the last year, and they have referred me to other companies. Unfortunately, they didn’t pass the SEO filter I have in place for accepting clients, but there are certainly good opportunities for web migrations in the UK.
This SEO filter is a series of questions that potential clients answer that range from technical, content, and financial resources, willingness to make changes, platform flexibility, the scope of the project, etc.
These questions allow us to only sign contracts with clients that meet our "ideal client" criteria.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
I haven’t read much lately, but I did finish reading the book Product-Led SEO by Eli Schwartz, which I recommend to change the typical SEO mindset of fixes, and thinking broader in terms of strategy.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
When you start a business, make sure you feel passionate about the market. If you want to start a clothing business, but you don’t feel the passion for the industry, and the product, that’s an important red flag that you should consider before investing any more time and money.
Finding your passion is just combining what you love doing, and what you’re good at. In my case, I love to work on the technical side of websites, whether it’s building them or optimizing their technical SEO, and I’m good at coding and identifying technical issues on sites, hence my boutique approach to web migrations & technical SEO.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Not currently, but we’re always looking for freelance designers we can refer some work too, or work with us in some design gigs.
You can reach out via our social media channels, or fill out a service proposal form and put in the comments section that you’d like us to consider you as our go-to freelance designer.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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