This document outlines strategies for building a successful SEO agency. It emphasizes the importance of knowledge, process, people, and leads. For knowledge, it recommends becoming an expert in SEO through resources like blogs, courses, and hands-on experience. For process, it stresses having systematic and documented processes for client onboarding, project management, and work delivery. For people, it provides a framework for scaling the agency by adding local and offshore staff. And for leads, it suggests various lead generation strategies like content marketing, speaking at events, networking, and paid ads. The overall message is that mastering these pillars through dedicated effort can enable building a $1M agency within a year.

1. These Pillars Helped Me Build a $1M Agency in 1 Year.
KNOWLEDGE
A deep expertise in
your service.
PROCESS
A systematized delivery of
your service.
PEOPLE
You need help - it’s a
people based business.
Use these to build the foundation of your agency.
LEADS
A predictable way to
generate business.

2. KNOWLEDGE
● SEO has gotten too difficult to wing it -
you can’t just do KW research and build
links anymore, you have to know what
you’re doing.
You need to become an expert in your field
● SEO is MUCH easier to SELL if people
trust you. Trust and expert sales comes
from product knowledge

3. [re] Start with the basics...
👉 Buy a domain, setup the hosting, Cpanel,
DNS and WordPress - understand how
websites function from a basic technical
perspective
👉 Read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines -
they’re always overlooked and lay out the best
practices for you
👉 So much of SEO is lost in the latest “hacks”
- Google has gotten smart. Learn the basics of
how websites work and how search engine’s
interact with them and you will be OK
👍🏻READ MY GUIDE HERE.

4. Use the internet to learn...
👉 I’m sitting here because I took initiative
to seek the information I needed. When
you’re actively building a site, you can piece
together the information that you’re
missing
👉 There’s SO MANY amazing blogs,
YouTube Channels and guides that will help
you out, but the key is to be actively
working on a campaign
👉 PAY for courses - there’s A LOT of
good ones out there (see next slide)

5. Resources I recommend...
SEO News / Algo Updates
● Search Engine Watch
● Search Engine Land
● Marie Haynes
General SEO
● WEBRIS
● Backlinko
● Ahrefs
● Moz
Technical SEO
● From The Future
● SEER Interactive
● Distilled
● SEO By The Sea
👍🏻 OR, LET ME TEACH YOU MYSELF: https://webris.org/training/seo-seminar/

6. Get experience by any means necessary...
👉 Build your own websites, side projects,
affiliate sites, ecommerce sites, etc - get
your hands dirty building an online business
from start to finish (even if you can’t
monetize it)
👉 Go and work for a big agency (if you can).
It’s important to see how the best agencies in
the world function
👉 Offer free work to friends and family
(audits, strategy, recommendations, etc)

7. Go deep with your expertise, not wide...
👉 SEO is such a deep topic, there’s
multi million dollar markets within the
SEO niche (link building, content
marketing, etc)
👉 Instead of spreading yourself
(and resources) thin by offering
other services (PPC, FB, etc), go
DEEP with your service offering
👉 Outpitch competitors by offering
high value, low effort items that fold
well into what you’re pitching.

8. PROCESS
You need to become an expert in your field

9. A framework is NOT a process...
A framework is a high level template. A framework is NOT enough (i.e. if you’re outsourcing
SEO…)
SEO
Technical
Audit
Keyword
Research
On Page
Optimization
Content
Creation
Link
Acquisition

10. What’s the difference…?
A process is a detailed roadmap on how to execute that framework. Anyone can learn SEO, if
you want to make MONEY, you have to know how to EXECUTE it.
Technical Audit
Get access to client’s
GSC, GA and GTM
Crawl website with
Screaming Frog
Review Robots.txt
Send to
client
Review Status
Codes
Review 301
Redirects

11. Turn processes into checklists…
Everything we do as an agency is accounted for with a step by step checklist (or sub process).
For example, reviewing 301 redirects as a part of a technical audit...
Review 301 Redirects
Open Screaming
Frog crawl
Filter Column L
for Status Codes
Crosscheck 301
redirects
Check for
Redirect “hops”
Etc...

12. SEO IS SIMPLE.
SCALING IT IS HARD.
Let’s walk through our processes...

13. It starts before they’re a lead...

14. It starts before they’re a lead...

15. It starts before they’re a lead...

16. It starts before they’re a lead...

18. If the call goes well, they get a proposal...

19. If they accept, they get onboarded...

20. Each client then gets a project calendar...

21. Everything we do has SOP guidance...

22. LET’S GET A LITTLE MORE SPECIFIC...

23. We batch work and stagger delivery...

24. We built custom tools to support us...

26. PEOPLE
● There’s way too much to do by yourself,
you need help.
Find people who will push the agency to the
next level without you
● Hiring and managing staff is an ongoing
process and it’s integral to success.
● When you’re first starting, you’re selling
yourself and your knowledge. As you
grow, you’re selling your people.

27. Doing is offshored, thinking is local...

28. Phase 0 - Consultancy
JUST YOU
You need to be
superhuman
$0 - $10k / MRR

29. Phase 1 - Startup Agency
JUST YOU
1 - 2 ppl in offshore
support
1- 3 PPL
3 - 6 ppl in offshore
support
$10k - $25k / MRR

30. Phase 2 - Scaling Agency
JUST YOU
1 - 2 ppl in offshore
support
1- 3 PPL
3 - 6 ppl in offshore
support
$25k - $100k / MRR
4 - 10 PPL
7 - 20 ppl in offshore
support

31. Phase 3 - Small Agency (Momentum)
JUST YOU
1 - 2 ppl in offshore
support
1- 3 PPL
3 - 6 ppl in offshore
support
$100k - $250k / MRR
4 - 10 PPL
7 - 20 ppl in offshore
support
10 - 25 PPL
20 - 30 ppl in offshore
support

32. Phase 4 - Mid Agency
JUST YOU
1 - 2 ppl in offshore
support
1- 3 PPL
3 - 6 ppl in offshore
support
$250k - $500k / MRR
4 - 10 PPL
7 - 20 ppl in offshore
support
10 - 25 PPL
20 - 30 ppl in offshore
support
25 - 50 PPL
20 - 30 ppl in offshore
support

33. Phase 5 - Large Agency
JUST YOU
1 - 2 ppl in offshore
support
1- 3 PPL
3 - 6 ppl in offshore
support
$500k - $1.5m / MRR
4 - 10 PPL
7 - 20 ppl in offshore
support
10 - 25 PPL
20 - 30 ppl in offshore
support
25 - 50 PPL
20 - 30 ppl in offshore
support
50 - 100 PPL
20 - 30 ppl in offshore
support

34. There’s no right or wrong way...
👉 The point is, people are a critical aspect of
growth and scaling - you CAN NOT do it
without them
👉 If you have a proper process and internal
training in place, it goes a long way to get the
right blocks in place to build on
👉 You want to focus on hiring people who
can think for themselves and solve problems.
If you have to handle everything, you can’t
move forward

35. LEADS
● Once your service is streamlined, you’re
ready to scale. You can turn your
attention to generating leads.
You need a steady stream of inbound leads
● To baseline and predict growth, you
need a steady stream of leads from
predictable sources.

36. Build case studies and social proof...

37. Spend time to garner a reputation...

38. Create content that resonates...
👉 Content has been a big part of my strategy,
but it’s NOT for everyone
👉 A perfect example of content marketing
that drives REVENUE is “lawyer SEO”

39. Speak at niche conferences...
👉 Try and stay away from industry conferences, look for ones where there will be NO ONE
ELSE selling your services (think conferences for doctors, attorneys, professionals, etc)
👉 I automate this by using some offshore help to prospect for conferences then send a canned
pitch to each

40. Start a Meetup...
👉 Our agency runs Meetups in both Miami and Philadelphia
👉 The one in Philly drives consistent leads because we found a niche in which our agency could
provide tremendous value, where no one else was (and could)

41. Join a networking group...
👉 If you’re comfortable meeting people, groups like Chamber of Commerce and BNI are a great
source of leads
👉 I’m an introvert, they’ve never worked for me personally but I know PLENTY of people for
whom it does

42. Paid traffic from social media...
👉 Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,
LinkedIn...They all work, the key is the setup
👉 You need a funnel - otherwise you’re
wasting your time and money
👍🏻 MY FUNNEL GUIDE: https://webris.org/facebook-ad-tips/
👉 Ebooks, webinars, discounts - they WORK,
really well when executed properly

43. Ask for referrals...
👉 Leverage your existing HAPPY
customers as a means to generate new
business
👉 You can run an NPS survey to find out
who is happy (via email) and then ask those
people for referrals
👉 You can offer a discount, but most
people are HAPPY to refer good work to
their friends

44. Sell micro services to other agencies...
👉 Get really, really good at one aspect of your
service and sell that to other agencies
👉 Our agency is ALWAYS looking for reliable
contractor support for specific aspects of our
service (i.e. keyword research, UX, link outreach,
etc)
👉 This tactic is especially good for beginner’s
trying to get initial revenue in the door
👉 As you grow, you can flip to setting up
affiliate relationships with other agencies,
consultants or sales professionals. Let them do
the heavy lifting on sales, you handle the delivery
(using your amazing process, ahem)

45. Video audits + cold outreach...
👉 Find issues FOR them, recommend how THEY can fix it (DON’T SELL)!!!
👉 We built a proprietary audit tool to help us with this but we used to use a VA to run an advanced
manual technical audit.

46. Build tools and distribute...
👉 A more advanced tactic that works really well
👉 We have a number of hacked together tools in Google Sheets and Data Studio that we use as a
platform for exposure and lead generation

47. Nurture your relationships...
👉 At the end of the day, you never know where a lead can come from.
👉 Be nice, be genuine, show your passion, respect others - take pride in your work and good things
will come to you

48. We believe in open, honest pricing. That’s why each campaign is only 4 months long - we don’t waste time on fluff, we
focus on impact items that deliver more organic traffic for your website.
Your monthly retainer fee is built on the number of hours it will take for our consultants to optimize your website during
the 4 month period. The number of hours are determined by the number of pages we will be working on.
Pricing Strategy.
SMALL CAMPAIGN
❏ 0 to 300 indexed pages
❏ 1 - 15 Target Pages
❏ 1 - 2 locations
monthly$850
MEDIUM CAMPAIGN
❏ 300 - 1k indexed pages
❏ 15 - 25 Target Pages
❏ 3 - 6 locations
monthly$1,500
LARGE CAMPAIGN
❏ 1k- 5k indexed pages
❏ 25 - 40 Target Pages
❏ 6 - 10 locations
monthly$2,300
Bigger Website? We do enterprise SEO under our parent agency, From The Future. Schedule a consult here.