The Problems
When Progressive Payment Solutions first approached Stallion Cognitive, their existing website was underperforming. The site lacked the visual appeal and functionality necessary to convert visitors into leads.
Additionally, the outdated design and poor SEO were hindering their online visibility, causing them to miss out on potential business opportunities. The need for a robust, user-friendly, and optimized website was clear.
Above is the screenshot of Progressive Payment Solutions old website.
The Solutions
We took a strategic approach to revamping the website. The design was the first major overhaul, focusing on creating a visually engaging and intuitive user experience. SEO strategies were implemented from the ground up, ensuring that the site would rank higher in search engine results and attract the right audience.
Key deliverables included a new, responsive and fast-loading website, integrated with an SEO-friendly blog to drive organic traffic.
The Results
The new website started generating more form submissions than ever before. The clean, modern design, coupled with SEO enhancements, has positioned the company for continued growth and success in the competitive financial services market.
Return on Investment (ROI)
The revamp of the Progressive Payment Solutions website has delivered substantial returns.
As highlighted by Zach Kramer, VP of Business Development & Marketing at PPS, the new website transformed their lead generation, increasing form fills from nearly zero to 1-2 PER DAY (that's an average of 45 hot inbound leads a month).
This surge in inquiries directly contributed to securing new clients, including several dental practices — one of the most challenging industries to penetrate.
The most significant impact was the addition of $10k in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from a single dental practice, discovered through the organic reach of the new website and the compelling, well-written blog content that effectively communicated the company's value proposition.
Notably, this is just the lead conversion information we were allowed to disclose. We’re not even talking about the conversions from the leads they receive every month, so you can imagine.
Performance Improvements
Performance plays a crucial role in the success of any website project.
To thoroughly understand how the old website performed and to evaluate the success of the new one, I used a combination of two tools:
- Lighthouse
- PageSpeed Insights
- GTMetrix
Lighthouse Testing
Lighthouse tests provide a comprehensive assessment by combining scores for performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO.
The website now loads quickly, with most of the important content appearing on the screen in under a second. The site runs smoothly with no delays, and everything stays in place as the page loads—nothing shifts around unexpectedly. It's also easy to use and well-optimized for search engines, making it more likely to show up in search results. These improvements mean the website is now fast, reliable, and user-friendly.
GTMetrix Testing
GTmetrix provides a detailed analysis by combining performance metrics, page speed, and overall optimization scores.
The latest GTmetrix report for Progressive Payment Solutions website shows outstanding results. The site achieved an impressive performance score of 97% and a structure score of 93%, earning an overall grade of A. Key performance metrics include:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP): The website loads its initial content in just 842 milliseconds, which is excellent for user experience.
- Speed Index: The entire page becomes visually populated in 945 milliseconds, well within the optimal range.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The most significant content on the page loads in 1.2 seconds, providing a smooth experience.
- Time to Interactive: The website is fully interactive in just 1.5 seconds, ensuring users can engage quickly.
- Total Blocking Time: The time during which the site is unresponsive is minimal, at just 47 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): With a value of 0.02, there is almost no unexpected shifting of content, contributing to a stable and visually appealing page.
These metrics highlight the website’s excellent speed, responsiveness, and overall user-friendliness, ensuring a top-notch experience for visitors.
SEO Improvements
After the website was built, we focused on on-page SEO, technical SEO, and organic growth through blogging.
We consistently wrote blogs for a year until we achieved our target. Once our goal was met, we stopped blogging. The results shown in the screenshots are purely the organic outcomes of our previous efforts.
Our main objective with the website was to generate high-quality leads, not just traffic, and we successfully accomplished that.
As SEO and analytics data are confidential, the client has granted us permission to share this screenshot, with sensitive information appropriately blurred for privacy.
This data from Google Search Console, covering the period from August 11, 2023, to August 11, 2024, demonstrates the long-term impact of our previous SEO efforts. During this time, we did not write any new blogs or engage in additional SEO work. The traffic and impressions shown are entirely due to the groundwork laid before this period.
Organic Impressions vs. Ad Costs
If you were to achieve the same number of impressions using Google Ads targeting business owners looking for a credit card processing solution in New Jersey, the cost could vary significantly based on the competitiveness of the keywords, the quality score of your ads, and other factors.
Estimated Cost Calculation: Typically, for a niche like credit card processing solutions, the average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) could range from $10 to $30, depending on the targeting specifics.
- Low-End Estimate: At $10 per 1,000 impressions, the cost for 2.68 million impressions would be approximately $26,800.
- High-End Estimate: At $30 per 1,000 impressions, the cost could go up to around $80,400.
Therefore, to generate 2.68 million impressions via Google Ads, you could be looking at a budget ranging between $26,800 and $80,400.
And If we take a 1% click-through rate (CTR) on 2.68 million impressions, that would result in 26,800 clicks, the cost to achieve the same number of clicks via Google Ads could range from $53,600 to $268,000.
Keep in mind that the 2023 Google Ads Benchmarks report shows an average CTR of 6.11%, meaning this could have cost between $326,896 and $1,634,480.
This emphasizes the value of organic SEO efforts that have already generated these impressions without ongoing ad spend.
This graph from Google Analytics, shows a significant increase in user activity over time. Despite not engaging in any new SEO efforts or blogging, the user activity, particularly over the last 30 days, has seen substantial growth. This continued upward trend is a testament to the effectiveness and lasting impact of our previous work.
The SEO foundation we built is still driving strong engagement and attracting users consistently.
For projects like this, it's not about attracting a large volume of traffic, but about driving targeted traffic.
PPS blog was specifically crafted to educate customers on their problems and offer solutions, turning them into hot leads who are more likely to sign up for professional assistance.
By reaching the right audience, we ensure that the leads start to flow in naturally, making the content strategy highly effective in converting visitors into clients.
Conclusion
The transformation of Progressive Payment Solutions' website has significantly boosted their business by increasing lead generation through improved organic traffic, reducing reliance on costly paid advertising, and enhancing brand credibility.
The modernized, faster website now better aligns with their business goals, providing a solid foundation for future growth and positioning them for long-term success in the competitive payments industry.
PPS Testimonial
The VP of Business Development & Marketing, Zach Kramer, has shared an incredibly positive review of our work on Clutch. He highlights our team's expertise in SEO and online marketing, noting the satisfaction they've experienced so far.
You can read the full review directly on Clutch by clicking here.
Closing Statement
The success of this project with Progressive Payment Solutions underscores our commitment to delivering high-quality work that not only meets but exceeds our clients' expectations.
We take pride in building strong, lasting relationships with our clients, ensuring that our solutions are tailored to their unique business needs and positioned for long-term success.
If you’re looking to elevate your digital presence, improve your website’s performance, or enhance your SEO strategy, we’d love to discuss how we can help.
Let’s connect and explore how we can achieve similar results for your business!