Interview with Ihor Volovyi, CEO of the Internet marketing agency Elit-Web - blog Cases, Traffic, Sales

Hello!

I’m Olena Zadniprovska, Head of Content Marketing and a partner at Solve Marketing.

Today, I’m going to talk to Ihor Volovyi, CEO of Elit-Web, an online marketing agency.

In this interview, you will learn about:

— what SEO is and how it works;
— how not to get to the “dark side” SEO when choosing a contractor;
— how much SEO promotion can cost.

You will also get cool tips for your business from an experienced professional.

It’s going to be interesting, so read to the end!

— Hello! Please tell us about yourself and the company.

— Hello everyone, my name is Ihor Volovyi! I am the co-founder of Elit-Web, one of the largest online marketing agencies in Ukraine.

We, that is, the entire Elit-Web team, have been engaged in online marketing and website promotion since 2014. We started, as usual, with fairly simple and insignificant projects, gradually expanded, and took on more complex tasks. And before we knew it, we were approaching our tenth anniversary.

Now we have about 120 employees on staff and remotely, and the number of completed projects has recently crossed the 2,500 mark. Since our foundation, we have been working in Kherson. Unfortunately, after the start of the full-scale invasion and temporary occupation, we were forced to relocate. Now Elit-Web is headquartered in Kyiv, and we have recently opened branches in the United States and Poland. Life goes on, we work, and it really helps in such difficult times.

— As a person involved in SEO, can you tell our readers in simple terms what it is and how it works?

— When you search for information on the Internet, what do you do? That’s right, you open Google, enter your search query, and get a list of websites that match it. Our task as SEO specialists is to make sure that the site you need is among the first in the search results. If the site reaches the top, it means that we have done our job. If not, we need to make more efforts and optimize the strategy. This is speaking very superficially, of course.

— There are such concepts as black and white SEO. How can an entrepreneur understand what this means and avoid falling into the “dark side” when choosing a contractor?

— There is such a division. There is also “gray” SEO, which is not de facto prohibited by search engines, but it is not welcomed either. As for black hat SEO, there are quite a few varieties of it:

cloaking — when search engines see one content and users see another;
hidden texts, which are not visually visible on the page, but are “read” by search engines;
mirror sites used to manipulate rankings;
spam in comments and other resources in general;
massive purchase of links on third-party websites;
deliberate deterioration of competitors’ positions by unfair methods.

In fact, black hat SEO techniques are rarely used nowadays, especially when compared to the situation 10-15 years ago. But such cases still happen.

I can give entrepreneurs some basic advice:

Check the reputation of the company or specialist. Read customer reviews, look through portfolios and case studies.
Ask the contractor for details of their SEO strategy. White hat methods include optimization of content, technical aspects of the site, link building, etc.
Avoid those who promise quick results or guarantee first place in search. Such results are quite difficult to achieve and take time.
Do not agree to dubious methods of promotion (buying links, cloning content, hidden texts, etc.).

Sometimes you just have to ask: “Is this a white hat SEO method?”. If the answer is no, it is better not to work with such a contractor. After all, the consequences can be extremely unpleasant: the site will fall under search engine filters and it will be very difficult or even impossible to get it out from under them.

— There is a controversial thesis that the results of SEO promotion can be predicted. Is it true?

— SEO promotion is a long-term endeavor. And its results do not appear immediately. In the best case scenario, the first positive changes can be seen after 2-3 weeks of active work. But more often, it takes at least a few months.

As for predictions, no SEO specialist can give you accurate forecasts and guarantees. There are too many variables: search algorithm updates, competitors’ actions, etc. And if someone suddenly gives you a guarantee like “in 60 days, 40% of your site’s pages will reach the top 3”, this is manipulation. There is no such thing as a guarantee.

However, by applying the right SEO strategies and methods, you can significantly increase your chances of getting high rankings.

Firstly, a thorough analysis of competition, keywords, user behavior, trends, and algorithmic changes allows you to set realistic SEO goals and plan optimization.
Secondly, comprehensive internal and external optimization, high-quality SEO content, and technical website optimization create a solid foundation for search engine promotion. Regular SEO audit is also useful for identifying problem areas.
Thirdly, tracking website rankings, analyzing conversions, usability, and other key SEO metrics helps to understand which actions are effective and which are not. Based on this data, you can predict results and adjust your strategy.

But even such a comprehensive approach does not allow for 100% accurate forecasts. It’s worth remembering this and not trusting promises, especially if you’re given such forecasts before analyzing your website, niche, and competitors.

— It is very popular now to be in trend, discuss and apply them in promoting your business. But do they exist in SEO? If so, which ones would you highlight for the upcoming year 2024?

— It’s quite rare for SEO to see truly global changes. Everything develops quite systematically, and trends in general have remained surprisingly stable for a long time. Among the main ones I can name the following:

the growth of voice search and optimization for it;
semantic search and natural language processing;
increased attention to User Experience and Core Web Vitals;
visual search and image optimization;
video marketing in all its manifestations;
local SEO and website responsiveness.

And, of course, content. Google’s and users’ requirements for content quality are growing rapidly. Therefore, you should pay special attention to this aspect of promotion.

— Tell us about the process of working with a client: how does it work and how long does it take?

— Everything is very individual, but in general, we build cooperation as follows:

We hold the first consultation to discuss the client’s goals, requirements, current state of the website, desired results, and other issues.
We perform a website audit and competitive analysis. This allows us to objectively assess the competition in the niche and get a clear understanding of the future strategy.
We develop an individual strategy based on the collected data.
Only at this stage do we provide the client with a written proposal and agree on cooperation. If the client is satisfied with all the terms, we sign the contract.
Then we proceed directly to SEO work, support, and improvement.

The minimum promotion time to get results is 3-6 months. And to really reach the top and gain a foothold in it, sometimes it takes several years and further support. After all, SEO is a constant, ongoing process. As soon as you stop, your competitors get ahead of you.

— If I wanted to learn more about your capabilities to work with my project, where should I start?

— It all depends on your specific wishes and goals. In any case, you should start with a detailed study of your business, current SEO performance, and a discussion of expectations and budget.

In general, we always recommend that clients contact us with any questions. If something is not clear, ask. If you have any clarifications on the strategy, please contact us. If you have ideas on how to improve cooperation, propose them. I always say that effective SEO promotion is the result of cooperation and joint efforts. And it is true.

— How much does SEO promotion cost?

— There is no definite answer to this question. It all depends on the website we are promoting, its technical condition, the number of competitors on the market and how active they are, etc. The cost is influenced by many factors, and each of them must be taken into account.

If you still want to hear specific numbers, it is at least $1000 per month. However, this is the cost of promotion for young websites of small companies with little competition. When we talk about larger projects, the price can be many times higher. And this is in Ukraine. Abroad, you can safely multiply the figure by two.

There are clients who do not order comprehensive SEO promotion, but only individual services. For example, they write texts and publish them on their own. This is a perfectly normal practice that really helps to save money. Again, all these points are discussed individually — we are always open to dialogue.

You can also order a comprehensive website audit from us, and then decide on your own how to proceed: start promoting your website with Elit-Web, contact another company, or promote it on your own. All options have the right to exist.

— Tell us about your most successful case.

— Perhaps one of our most successful cases, or most likely the most memorable, was the promotion of the online furniture store “DUBOK”. It was quite difficult, because another company was promoting it before us. Therefore, we had to continue to implement the chosen strategy on the one hand. On the other hand, we had to look for new ways to optimize it. In addition, we found a lot of technical problems on the website: it loaded slowly, there were many errors in the markup of product pages, and the content was not optimized. And the usability, to put it mildly, needed improvement.

There was a lot of work to be done. That’s why it took us four months to make any significant progress. This relates to the question of timing and the ability to predict the result. In such cases, it is impossible to make clear predictions. However, the results were really great:

search traffic increased by 42%;
the number of applications — by 80.4%;
SEO revenue increased by 117.3%.

Yes, it wasn’t easy. Almost the entire team worked on this project in one way or another. But in the end, we were very proud of the result. Achieving such indicators in four months is definitely a success.

— Give 3 tips for entrepreneurs who plan to use SEO promotion in their business.

— These tips may not come as a revelation to someone, but they are really important.

Focus on the quality and safety of SEO methods. Don’t be tempted by black hat optimization techniques that can quickly raise your site in search results, as this will lead to search engine penalties later on.
Invest in creating relevant, high-quality content. Clear, useful, unique content is the basis of a successful SEO strategy. Search engines give preference to websites that actually solve users’ needs.
Be patient and set yourself up for long-term work. SEO is not a one-time action, but an ongoing process of optimization and improvement.

And, of course, work with professionals!