SEO / SEM Success Stories

**theandystratton** · 10-30-2007, 12:12 AM

So, two years ago, SEO was a new buzz word to me, and a pipe dream. Number one on Google meant learning some kind of black art.

Luckily, a previous employer who was eager to get great rankings, sent me to an SEO conference. Unfortunately for them, my success story lies with my current employer.

COMPASS Information systems (compassinfo.net), a government IT contractor and my employer, has begun to offer training in the form of prepaid courseware (or computer-based training) and real life classes.

I developed a new website specifically for the new training division, which actually has it's own separate office space: training.compassinfo.net

By doing some tricks of the trade with regards to keyword research, content development, some well planned information architecture, and a moderate amount of inbound and internal link building (all non-paid, mind you), I was able to transform the training site into a Google page 1 position 1 monster for our target terms.

Currently, you find our company within the first 5 links on the Google search results page for the term "prepaid courseware," our target. This primary targeted term is also earning:

Page 1, positions 1-4 in Live.com search
Page 1, positions 1 and 2 on Yahoo! search
Page 1, position 3 on Ask.com search (position 1 and 2 are the training-classes.com profile for COMPASS, which still point potential customers to us!)

We're also ranking great for terms like "prepaid excel training", "prepaid oracle courseware"... we're usually Page 1 on Google for almost anything "prepaid (software|it product|os) (courseware|training)."

Aside from this, we've had a BOOM in traffic, from almost nothing on our website to over 300 unique visitors (1300+ pageviews) a month. This increased traffic has led to a massive increase in both online and telephone leads from across the nation, not just local!

At one point, some link building led a user to us for customized training for SEO in Maryland. From this cold lead alone we generated $1000 in revenue.

The SEO with this site has been a great success, and I'm eager to continue learning and growing more sites.

Thanks!

Andy Stratton, COMPASS Information Systems

P.S. I haven't posted 15 posts yet, so URLs are all text-only. Sorry!

**LeeD** · 10-31-2007, 12:20 PM

Very nice work and congrats on the success story!

**robtencer** · 11-01-2007, 04:34 AM

how many sites do you currently have?

rob

**theandystratton** · 11-02-2007, 11:28 AM

At work we have 3 that we run for our company (all on the same domain, just different subdomains: www, blog, training). and a couple we do for clients.

I personally also maintain 2 other sites with SEO focus, one is just starting, and I have a load of other sites I manage as a freelance developer.

**jhmoneymaking** · 03-23-2008, 04:24 AM

mmm very inspiring. ice story man

**farishussain** · 07-20-2008, 05:29 PM

Nice story man .

**francis84** · 08-14-2008, 11:16 PM

Its good to see that you became successful in this field (SEO).
I love SEO world, and im stilll continue to prove that i'm really belong here!

**diverg** · 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theandystratton

Aside from this, we've had a BOOM in traffic, from almost nothing on our website to over 300 unique visitors (1300+ pageviews) a month.

300 unique visitors a month for a website in first 5 Google results is very low.. Maybe, your keywords are not as good, or you can try more effective ones. Anyway, keep up the good work!

**Providence** · 09-07-2008, 08:39 AM

I agree that it's quite low.

Better keyword research maybe? I'm really not the expert :|

**TeewhY** · 09-09-2008, 09:37 AM

so how many site's do you have?
300 unique visitor i think that's a pretty low number
so you are just a small company?

**webcosmo** · 12-11-2008, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diverg

300 unique visitors a month for a website in first 5 Google results is very low.. Maybe, your keywords are not as good, or you can try more effective ones. Anyway, keep up the good work!

that really depend on the niche. 300 per month could earn thousands if the conversion is reasonable.

**ellehc** · 12-11-2008, 02:32 AM

Wow nice very inspiring!

**mydeafdog** · 02-05-2009, 08:22 AM

Good targeting of niche keywords

almost zero to over 300 per month is a BOOM
keep up the good work

DontShoutAtMyDeafDog

**minorityslam** · 03-13-2009, 04:47 AM

cool good to know. very happy for your.

**jhenna** · 04-27-2009, 05:41 AM

Wow.. very inspiring story. thanks for sharing.. I hope I can be like yours, I want to become successful in this job also.

**certifymix** · 05-25-2009, 08:33 AM

its a great success story. I am new to SEO and I too would like to become successful one day because of it.

**Matt32** · 06-25-2009, 10:42 AM

How long did you take to promote your site? and please share your SEO strategy.

**impactwebdesign** · 07-09-2009, 02:18 AM

Congrates for getting success in SEO field but i think it is not end of success there are many more you can get from the SEO. Ok by the way wish you a good luck for your future.