{"id":3723,"date":"2021-11-15T09:14:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T09:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2021-11-15T09:15:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T09:15:22","slug":"my-seo-journey-soflotutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-soflotutors\/","title":{"rendered":"My SEO Journey: Adam Shlomi from soflotutors.com – SEO is a marathon, not a sprint."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My SEO Journey is a series where entrepreneurs and Indie makers share their honest SEO Journey filled with failure and success, and most importantly proven results.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Episode #44 features Adam Shlomi from SoFlo SAT Tutoring<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adam<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My name is Adam Shlomi and I\u2019m the founder of SoFlo SAT Tutoring<\/a>, an online tutoring company for high schoolers looking for an extra edge on their SATs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With seven figures in revenue, SoFlo has helped over 3,000 students prepare for either the SAT or ACT, and we\u2019re not planning on slowing down anytime soon. We know there are many students out there who are looking to improve their SAT scores and strengthen their profile as college applicants \u2014 and we\u2019re here to help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After scoring a 1570 on my SATs and enrolling at Georgetown, I started tutoring high schoolers on my own before word of mouth spread about my SAT services. While bonding with students and helping them increase their scores was fulfilling, it wasn\u2019t something I considered as a full-time career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, a severe foot injury confined me to my room for weeks — doctors said I may never walk again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sudden injury disrupted different aspects of my life, especially since I was bedridden, but I knew that I could still scale my interest in providing online SAT tutoring in my situation. I decided not to let my injury take over my life, and that\u2019s when I founded SoFlo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d always felt passionate about entrepreneurship, and learning how to start my own company while also helping students achieve their goals offered the perfect inspiration. I was and am dedicated to being the best, and I apply this philosophy to every aspect of SoFlo. From building a great and intuitive website and recruiting the brightest and most dedicated tutors, this commitment to excellence has paid off.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we have over 100 tutors and help students boost their scores so they can attend their dream schools or receive life-changing scholarships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We leverage technology to give more people access to education \u2014 students don\u2019t have to worry about transportation to and from different SAT facilities and can instead focus on learning from the comfort of their own rooms, whenever they want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since launch, what has worked to attract more organic traffic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"soflotutors.com<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of SoFlo\u2019s inception, we spent a lot of time testing and considering different ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, in the early stages of a startup, it\u2019s good to throw things at the wall to see what sticks like our free SAT Course<\/a> \u2014 we beat out our competitors simply because we were willing to put in the work and out-test them. We tried different strategies to find the best one because that\u2019s how you become the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, we looked to YouTube videos; that idea failed because the high price to produce these videos didn\u2019t yield enough traffic to be cost-effective. Next, we looked to create a webinar series that included videos like \u201cHow I got into x college.<\/em>\u201d Those also didn\u2019t fare too well because of the low attendance rate: why would students go to a webinar when they could just watch a video that answers all of the same questions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through a lot of trial and error, including things like resource pages<\/a> on our website and promotion of our SAT scholarship<\/a> page, we found that blog posts were the best traction we\u2019ve had so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, it was difficult to start ranking because we were a new company with a brand new website with almost no domain authority. However, when the pandemic began in earnest, I noticed that AP exam questions generated a noticeable amount of traffic with a competitiveness score of 0. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This observation was huge because it showed that very few companies were investing time to answer questions like \u201cHow difficult is the x AP exam<\/a>?\u201d  At the time, SoFlo had slowed down because SAT\/ACT exams were canceled, but I wanted to make sure our tutors could still work if they wanted to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I assigned various blog posts to our bright tutors who wrote articles on different topics they have firsthand experience with, and SoFlo was generating blog posts from 500 to 4,000 words within a few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, the blog posts didn\u2019t rank because there were issues with our URLs and site maps, but once we addressed those issues our blog posts began ranking as top results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we\u2019re focusing on building top of funnel traffic and ranking for high intent terms: we even rank above-established companies like Princeton Review and Kaplan for terms like \u201cSAT tutor\u201d or \u201conline SAT prep<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This organic traffic has higher conversion rates than any other lead funnel we\u2019ve tested like paid ads, affiliates, or direct marketing (with the exception of customer referrals).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If my experience getting SoFlo blogs to rank has taught me anything, it\u2019s that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. The results of our persistence and hard work are starting to pay off immensely, and the evidence from our data insights is clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"soflotutors.com<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Have you learned anything particularly helpful in your SEO Journey?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The best decision I made in SoFlo\u2019s SEO journey was to give our blog a facelift. After our initial AP exam blog posts began to rank, I took a look at different blogs on the Internet in order to gain a greater sense of what works and what doesn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found that blogs that are easily digestible, especially for any technically challenged moms looking for good SAT prep tips for their kids, had the greatest success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted SoFlo\u2019s interface to be clean and simple, inspired by Medium\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, I considered using CMS or other online tools but decided to rule it out because I didn\u2019t want SoFlo\u2019s blog on a subdomain and wanted to keep all of the domain authority concentrated in one spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I worked with a great freelancer who was able to install and customize a clean and readable WordPress theme that is still currently in use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"soflotutors.com<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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There\u2019s more\u2026<\/div>\r\n

Now it\u2019s time to discover the other 102 steps that will get more organic traffic flowing to your website. Get the SEO Checklist here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Want to get a sneak peek of what it looks like?<\/strong>
\nEnter your email and get a free demo version of the SEO Checklist.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n

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