SEOblog Interview: Milwaukee SEO Expert Colby Wegter from Exley Co.

We’re excited to have interviewed Milwaukee SEO expert Colby Wegter from Exley Co. for the next installment of our Featured SEO Expert Series!

Exley Co. is one of SEOblog’s Top SEO companies in Milwaukee.

As the owner of one of the premier digital marketing agencies in Milwaukee, Exley Co., and director of client strategy at Agency Jet, Wegter makes a difference for clients with his transparency and education. Over 30,000 agencies provide SEO services in the United States but Exley Co. is the only one whose mission statement reads “Eliminating client turnover.” Too many clients feel like just another number at their agency, so the Exley Co. team makes it a priority to average longer client contracts than almost any other agency in the U.S.

What would you say are the biggest challenges when it comes to digital marketing campaigns?

“The perception of SEO or digital marketing being a quick fix for businesses is probably the biggest. Digital marketing shouldn’t be seen as another item on your balance sheet along with plumbing and electrical. While those are important, they are expenses. Digital marketing needs to be seen as an investment – one that should be continually invested in if you want to make your mark. With proper strategy and dedication, any company, regardless of size, can compete with massive companies online. That’s the beauty of it. But if you expect to get there as a business owner, you need to treat digital marketing as way more than another expense.”

How does your SEO agency stand out in a crowded market like Milwaukee?

“We’re the only agency who can boast our client retention, which is 96 percent past initial six-month contract. While there are some talented agencies in Milwaukee, Exley Co. sets ourselves apart by truly being a marketing partner that creates a world-class strategy and then relies on data and the client’s internal processes to see growth month-over-month and year-over-year. Our client retention is so high because we don’t get complacent. The landscape changes quickly and we change with it.”

Can you share a success story from a local SEO campaign centered around your area?

“One success story focuses around a company that had never worked on their own site before, strictly relying on outbound marketing to gain business. Through content management, technical SEO and local SEO strategy, we were able to get them from less than $500 in traffic cost to over $7,000 in traffic cost in 10 months. They also were able to cut all expenses towards outbound marketing and were able to rely on their website’s inbound marketing for all new business.”

What is the best advice you ever received in business as an entrepreneur?

“Always be transparent. Having an environment of transparency with clients and employees allows all involved to get to the heart of the problem and solve it. Clients and employees shouldn’t have to have their time wasted by bending truth to soften the blow. The truth is always the best avenue, no matter how difficult it is, and it means that tough conversations are opportunities to grow and evolve.”

What do you think is the most important quality that makes an SEO agency truly great?

“Advocacy for their clients. Agencies need to be successful and many of them look at their balance sheet to determine how successful they were each year. Exley Co. doesn’t look at our profits, we look at our relationships. We know that putting our clients needs before those of our employees or our investors gives us the long-term growth and potential we seek.”

Any predictions for the future of digital marketing?

“Of course it will have a strong AI focus but what is truly happening is the user getting the control. Google has made hundreds of changes focused on the intent of the user and are most interested in providing the effortless experience. You’ll see user experience on the same level as content and backlinking and if you don’t make your brand accessible, you’ll be playing catch-up with other companies who do.

“Ranking online in search engines is more art form than it is science. There are guidelines and techniques that will help get you found but in 2021 and beyond, it’s the strategies that stand out from the rest in their personality and execution that will see the most growth. Agencies need to understand that it’s not just about getting some high-quality links and publishing a few pieces of content. Every action needs to serve their clients’ ideal customer and it needs to make the users’ job easy.”

What is your reaction when you hear that “SEO is dying”?

“It’s fundamentally false. The definition of SEO is changing. Quality is taking even more precedence over quantity. Years ago, SEO was all about quantity but now quantity gets you a stagnant strategy at best and in serious trouble with search engines at worst.

Before, SEO was all about speaking to algorithms and that was a drastically different language than speaking to a human. Now, the algorithms are so commercialized in their intent that they are trying to get the best products, services and information in the user’s hands as fast as possible. Therefore, SEO strategy needs to focus on serving the user while following the guidelines set in place by Google.”

What do you think is the most important contributor to keeping clients happy?

“Showing them you care and communication are the top two. Clients need to know that you’re going to do all you can when you can to help push their brand forward. Caring and listening to their needs ultimately gets optimum results.

“Communication is also key because, with so many moving parts, things go wrong and break in a digital marketing campaign. Clients don’t expect everything to work all the time but they expect you to care enough to make things right. It may seem obvious to show you care but so many clients have come through my doors saying that their former agency never talked to them or didn’t respond quickly when something went wrong.

If you see yourself as an employee of the client’s company instead just as a service provider, clients feel it and they stick around for the long haul.”

Interested in being considered as an SEOblog “Featured SEO Expert”? Reach out to our team at [email protected]! We’d love to hear from you and give you a high-traffic platform to share your SEO agency’s story and insights.