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Announcing the Pear Analytics Partnership Program

Ryan Kelly — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:50:42 +0000

Physical location is incredibly important for nearly any business, and that concept translates directly to search position for businesses with a presence online. Location can make or break a restaurant, retail location, or any consumer oriented business. Likewise, being found online has made the difference between hugely successful businesses and those that never leave a small home office.

Having helped several businesses get off the ground by increasing their visibility through search, we are very excited to announce a partnership program to reach our further through advertising agencies, web developers, and other sensible avenues.

At Pear Analytics, we have been partnered with several businesses throughout the years with great success. Finding common goals and working together with our clients and partners has been an incredibly successful strategy, and we think that this step to reach out further will work great for all involved.

We have been able to work with Parscale Media here in San Antonio to test out this partnership arrangement with great success. As an ExpressionEngine web development company, they make a great fit. Our partnership page with Parscale can be found here: http://seo.parscale.com/seo-packages/. This partnership works out great in both directions.

Parscale does an incredible job creating and designing sites for numerous companies throughout South Texas and the rest of the world. Our SEO supplements their efforts by helping them to create and update their clients’ sites to increase their visibility in search. Since we provide reports and recommendations, our clients generally need to find a developer to implement those recommendations. With our partnership with agencies and site developers, our end users are able to benefit from the combined skills of an SEO leader along with a trusted name to actually make the recommended improvements.

Our clients and end users love the program, since our partner service providers are able to implement the changes that we recommend. Pear’s partnership program creates a “one-stop” opportunity to excel in search rank position and the benefits that go along with it.

As businesses have come to realize the value that a top position in search delivers, the competition has increased for those locations. By partnering with Pear Analytics, advertising agencies and website developers can offer world-class SEO services without creating an entirely new department or creating a training program from scratch. Partnership with Pear also will include business support and marketing materials that are co-branded with our partners.

We are excited to expand our reach and include new partners in that process. If you would like to discuss the possibility of working with us, please feel free to contact us via email (chip@pearanalytics.com) or give us a call at (888) 427-2178!

Announcing the Pear Analytics Partnership Program is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

Web Analytics Firm Pear Analytics Optimizes Its Own Mission

Ryan Kelly — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:11:49 +0000

Article by Donna J. Tuttle, posted in the San Antonio Business Journal on December 31, 2010

SAN ANTONIO – December 31, 2010 – In the world of Web site SEO, it’s a jungle out there.

Hundreds of companies are vying to be the big bananas and millions of unsuspecting consumers are willing to pay gobs of money for the seemingly magical keywords to improve their search engine rankings.

Here in San Antonio, Ryan Kelly has spent two years trying to demystify SEO (or search engine optimization) and build a company with an innovative, useful perspective on the industry.

And the answer was found by shunning bananas altogether and embracing the pear. Two years ago, Kelly founded Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company that has doubled its revenues from $400,000 in 2009 to $800,000 in 2010.

“The pear seemed to represent a fresh, crisp approach to analytics, so I went with it,” Kelly says.

Today, Pear Analytics — armed with a new business model and backed by two of the city’s most successful technology investors — is entering 2011 with an eye toward a new round of funding and breaking the $1 million revenue mark. While successful, the road to profitability has not been easy — the firm has had to pull back and retool its core mission more than once.

“It’s funny because, in business, the hardest thing to do is to break $1 million. Before you hit $1 million you haven’t figured it out,” Kelly says. “This time, I think we have it figured out.”

Seeds of beginnings

There are myriad complicated ways to describe search engine optimization. But the bottom line is this: Companies need to get noticed on the Web. When potential clients search a product or service online, firms vying for business want to be listed at the top of the results.

“All the companies and people who show up after page three on the Google results, those are our customers,” Kelly says.

Kelly, a former Pratt & Whitney jet designer and engineer, left the company after wearying of the constant travel. He joined San Antonio marketing firm Blue Clover for five years, and left to bootstrap his own SEO company when he realized his passion lay in the qualitative analytics of the Web.

When Pear Analytics first was formed in December 2008, the company’s claim to fame was a free Web site analysis tool. Visitors to the Pear Analytics Web site simply typed in their Web site, hit enter, and voila! in 20 seconds an instant SEO report featuring the good, the bad and the ugly was produced.

In early 2009, Pear Analytics took first prize at the Innotech Beta Summit and suddenly was an online media darling. That summer, the firm decided to build SEO software that business owners could use and attracted investors Pat Condon and Morris Miller, both co-founders of Rackspace Managed Hosting (NYSE: RAX), one of San Antonio’s most successful and high-profile public companies.

“We got our cash and started hiring, and that’s basically when I made a lot of mistakes,” Kelly says. “We built a software tool for experts, but Joe businessman didn’t understand what it was doing for them.”

The firm regrouped. And in an effort to search for a repeatable and scalable business model, they decided on offering piecemeal services with extremely low price points. “Called Fix My Site, we were charging $1 per error to fix what was wrong with people’s Web sites,” Kelly says. “Turns out that’s not very scalable either. We would fix three errors in one-and-a-half days and get paid $3. We were eating the cost all day long.”

The bottom line, Kelly says, is that most SEO firms struggle to find the sweet spot to make business work. Companies are always eager to sign on for monthly-fee Web site and SEO consultation, but are quick to cancel their subscriptions once their basic checklist of needs is met.

Resetting the compass

After much consultation, the company has created a new business model and is chasing a very specific chunk of the market.

Pear Analytics now offers small-to-medium sized businesses with little-to-no Web presence a package system ranging from $200 per month to $675 per month to create a Web site and drive traffic to the site. Pear will devise keywords, find out why competitors are outranking the client, build links to the company’s Web site, write content and track and monitor keyword rankings.

For customers like Winston Crump, owner of QLaser of Stone Oak, who met Kelly on a Southwest Airlines flight, the new full-service package finally gives his business’ Web site the attention it’s long needed. Crump sells handheld Low-Level Laser Therapy units that provide pain relief for people with issues like arthritis, fibromyalgia and more.

“The net savvy weekend warriors and marathoners are a key market for me, and Pear Analytics is helping me get found on the Web,” Crump says.

Pear also is working with Boston company Juice Analytics to simplify — and make more visually appealing — the analytics reports for Pear customers.

“Clients get lost if they have to scroll down pages of data,” Kelly says.

Nick Adams, services manager for Australian-based ReachTEL, a business that helps companies contact their customers by utilizing technologies such as voice broadcast (robo-dialing), SMS and e-mail marketing, recently signed on for the new package after being a Pear Analytics customer for awhile.

“There are so many sharks out there in the SEO industry it’s unbelievable. I’ve paid for link building, copy writing and on-page work before and every time people over-commit and under-deliver,” Adams says. “Thankfully, unlike most SEO companies, Pear has delivered everything they promised and much more. We are able to see real measurable results in our keyword rankings and we’ve been delighted with the copy writing service. Being able to actually speak to Ryan, Megan, Chip or Julie on the phone about our specific needs is just mind-numbingly great service for a company that’s 10,000 miles away!”

Pear Analytics and its eight employees recently moved into 4,000 square feet of new office space at The Century Building at 84 N.E. Loop 410. Under the new business model, the staff is currently manually performing all the research for the SEO analysis by piecing together a series of third-party sources. But they’re currently building software so that clients will eventually be able to sign into a visually aesthetic portal.

The other element of the new business model involves building up a pool of on-demand freelance copywriters, link specialists, keyword experts and other SEO professionals which the firm can tap into as business grows.

Pear also works with a handful of big companies on a consulting basis, and recently signed on with CareerBuilder to build a game that the online HR firm can offer their clients to analyze their human resources SEO.

Piotr Dancewicz, director and head Web business strategist of Good Good Web Design and On Line Marketing, a boutique Web design and SEO company based in Perth in Western Australia, says he switched to Pear Analytics for the company’s quality and efficiency.

“I’ve used a number of different content writing companies and Pear Analytics have outshined all of them. In most other content writing agencies that I’ve used in the past, their content was very generic and in most cases misspelled and used unrelated phrases and words — so I had to redo a lot of the work myself,” Dancewicz says. “The other services are super cheap, but, in the end, costs me a lot more. The quality of what Pear Analytics delivers is superior.”

Web Analytics Firm Pear Analytics Optimizes Its Own Mission is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

SiteJuice Update – New Settings Page

Ryan Kelly — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:40:21 +0000

Dear Beta Testers,

We released an update to the Settings page this week that should make the process much easier. Here is what the changes are:

1. Now you simply add a page to your account, and we break it out into the domain/page hierarchy for you. No more having to create the domain, and then the pages under it.

2. It will be easier to see what reports are currently running. You’ll see the last report ran for each domain, as well as what’s currently running in the queue. An email will still be sent when the analysis is complete.

3. Now you can edit and delete domains, pages and competitors. When you delete a page, that page and all of its history will be deleted. When you edit a page, the old version will be deleted, and we will start tracking the new version since we assume that it was primarily a typo.

4. There is now the ability to archive domains and the pages and competitors associated with them. For SEO consultants, this might be useful if you work with several clients and you want to move one into an inactive status. Analysis on those domains, pages and competitors will stop until they are unarchived. Once unarchived, the analysis will resume and all of the previous data will be available.

Thanks for all your feedback, keep it coming, and we’ll keep making Sitejuice better for you.

Not using SiteJuice yet? Sign up here.

SiteJuice Update – New Settings Page is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

Pear Analytics Upgrades Logo With Brandstack™

Ryan Kelly — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:07:41 +0000

We recently upgraded our logo to represent our new direction towards being a product-focused company. The logo is courtesy of Brandstack, who we happen to co-office with – so it worked out great! The process was super easy. Wes and Robert showed me a couple of logos from one of their designers who does great “web 2.0″ brands, and I was hooked. So I got in touch with “voxsix” on Brandstack and asked him to do several renditions of our existing logo, as we progress into being a product company. About three days later, he came up with about eight different designs, and we went around and got votes on what the best one was. The best part of the whole thing was that I only paid $350 for the logo, instead of the usual 10x that at a fancy “design shoppe”.

Why the pear?

Almost everyone I meet asks me “why a pear?” and what the original logo really means. The pear represents the organic, fresh and crisp nature of what we do. There’s no “auto-pilot” here, and everything we do requires interpretation and analysis to develop real insights. That’s why in the original logo, half of the pear is gray, blurry and out of focus – that’s everyone else; whereas the other side (us), is in-color, clear and crisp.

The new logo expands on the same concept, but with a few subtle changes. First, instead of the straight line down the middle, we now have a sort of this ying-yang effect of bringing balance and equilibrium to your marketing activities. I also like to think of it like Pear Analytics is seeping over the “dark side”, so as the color side infiltrates, there is more clarity now in the entire marketing equation. The logo is now in full vector format, since the last version had an image as part of it, so it was difficult to blow it up to anything bigger than a business card.

So that’s our story – what do you think? If you need a logo upgrade, head over to Brandstack and check out their inventory. Even if you don’t find something exact, just contact the designer directly and they will usually modify it to exactly your needs.

Pear Analytics Upgrades Logo With Brandstack™ is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

Going Premium

Romy Misra — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:42:03 +0000

Right now we are working on developing a premium version of the Website Analyzer, our free SEO tool. The tool is scheduled to be launched at the SMX conference in New York City from October 5-7 (the same conference where Microsoft Bing was launched last year).

We are still going to give the detailed and non-techie reports on the free Website Analyzer just like you get today. However, the premium version is going to help you automate and monitor your SEO efforts in a lot more detail. We will be sharing some features and how they work in the near future.

We are really excited to get an opportunity to showcase our tool at SMX and getting feedback from the search community. Look forward to seeing you there!

Going Premium is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

Different shades

Romy Misra — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:11:21 +0000

We just shifted in this new office space, and we are now co-located with Brandstack and Third Party Code. It looks much better now that we have painted it and got a coffee machine.

We painted it in three different colors, a gorgeous red, a blue (which Robert at Brandstack says is for ‘calmness’), and the conference rooms are green (Robert convinced us the green will help us make money). Quite impressed with how how little paint we spilled in the process! (except for Vid, who spilled red all over the carpet in his area).

Another thing great about this place is having our friends downsatairs on the second floor.

Colors, friends and coffee: great times ahead.

Different shades is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

What's in a job title?

Ryan Kelly — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:25:13 +0000

G’day, my name is Sarah Monahan. I started at Pear Analytics yesterday.
Officially I’m a Project Manager, but unofficially I’m the Internet Keyword Detective. I spent most of my day yesterday looking up and making lists of every possible incarnation of “Dedicated Hosting”. There’s a lot!
In case you’re wondering why I started with G’day instead of the usual Texas Howdy, it’s because I’m actually an Aussie. I’ve been here in Texas almost 10 years now and it’s really growing on me.
I’ll post on here occasionally and let you know what words I’m hunting for! You can just pretend I’m in my khaki outfit chasing keywords down, saying “Look, isn’t she a beaut!”

What's in a job title? is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

A New Addition to the Pear Analytics Team

Romy Misra — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:05:13 +0000

Hey! I am Romy and am interning at Pear Analytics this summer. I am the community manager and today was my first day at work. I will mostly be helping promote our free SEO analysis tool, the Website Analyzer.

A quick background on where I come from: I am currently a grad student in industrial engineering at Texas A&M, did my undergrad in mechanical engineering. I like looking at things from a broader point of view, analyzing them which is why I got into engineering.

The conventional engineering job does not bring out my inherent strengths, which is why I joined the team at Pear Analytics.

My role in Pear Analytics is exciting, broad and will have me involved with different things: SEO, PR and overall management. Right now I am involved in distribution of their product, the Website Analyzer. I will also be putting together some content for an added feature on the site and will be doing some front end analysis for clients’ websites.

Lastly, I love writing so you will be seeing me here quite often!

A New Addition to the Pear Analytics Team is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

Pear Analytics Selected as Finalist in Capital Factory Tech Incubator Program

Ryan Kelly — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:09:21 +0000

(As it appears on the Capital Factory website)

Austin, TX (PRWEB) April 22, 2009 — Capital Factory, an early stage technology incubator in Austin, Texas, announced investments in five emerging technology startups selected to participate in its inaugural 2009 summer program. Each company will receive a cash investment of up to $20,000, more than $20,000 in free services, and mentorship from some of the top entrepreneurs in central Texas. The free services include office space, legal counsel from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosatti, public relations support from Porter Novelli, and accounting support from The Accounting Group and vCFO, among many other benefits.

Investments:

* Cubit Planning – Environmental reports at the click of a button

* FamiGo – Mobile games that bring the family together

* Homstie – Person-to-person marketplace for storage space

* Hourville – A marketplace for services by the hour

* petzMD – Website for Pet Health, from A to Z

Capital Factory also recognizes five additional finalist startups that were top runners among the program applicants as well, including:

* Infochimps – An open marketplace for data

* Notesmart – Buy & sell classroom notes efficiently

* Pear Analytics – Marketing decision analytics

* POLCO – Public policy portal for measuring your representation

* ProspectIdentify – Sales intelligence tool to find who to call, when, and what to say

The five startups were selected from a list of more than 250 applicants and five additional companies were recognized as finalists. Applications were submitted from all over the country although more were from Texas than any other state. Four of the five startups were already located in Austin and one, Homstie, will be relocating from California this summer.

“We were only planning on investing in three startups this year,” said Capital Factory managing director, Joshua Baer. “But we received three times the number of applications that we expected and ended up investing in five! We just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with these entrepreneurs.”

The selection process included a one page application and five minute video. After reviewing hundreds of applications, about five percent were invited to in-person interviews with the mentors. With many promising entrepreneurs to choose from, the mentors focused on startups who they could help the most and with the greatest chance of success.

“The interviews helped us understand what these companies needed and the extent to which we could help them,” said Sam Decker, Capital Factory managing director. “All of them stated that the money helped, but the mentorships were what they needed to get their idea off the ground or to the next level.”

The mentorship program starts on May 22 and lasts throughout the summer, ending with a “Demo Day” where the five startups will present their business to investors, the press, and the world.

About Capital Factory:

Capital Factory is an early stage technology incubator based in Austin, Texas. Startup companies participate in an intense 10-week summer program that gives them up to $20,000 in cash, more than $20,000 in free services, and mentorship by a group of successful entrepreneurs. The program culminates in a demo day where the startups present to investors, the press, and the world. For more information on Capital Factory, visit the website at www.capitalfactory.com or on Twitter @capitalfactory.

Pear Analytics Selected as Finalist in Capital Factory Tech Incubator Program is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.

Pear Analytics scores first prize at Innotech Beta Summit

Ryan Kelly — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:59:49 +0000

Monday, March 9, 2009, 10:27am – Posted in the San Antonio Business Journal Online edition

Pear Analytics, a marketing performance consulting firm, took first prize at the Innotech Beta Summit for its Web site analyzer tool.

Held last week, InnoTech San Antonio is a business and technology innovation conference and exposition that creates an environment where education, innovation, peer-to-peer networking and the latest technology and business solutions are on display for IT professionals.

New to InnoTech San Antonio this year, the beta summit was a sneak peek into the future of technology. The format included six eight-minute demonstrations of new products and/or technologies from some of the Alamo City’s most promising companies.

San Antonio-based Pear Analytics’ Web site analyzer tool is a free online utility that allows anyone to analyze their Web site for searchability on Goolgle and other search engines. In about 20 seconds, the tool will return a score from 0 to 100. It also provides a full explanation of what each score means, as well as extensive details on how to improve those scores.

“We wanted to create a do-it-yourself SEO tutorial for small and medium-sized businesses who struggle with being found on search engines,” says Ryan Kelly, founder and CEO of Pear Analytics, a company he started just under a year ago.

The other unique aspect of the tool is its portability, Kelly says. Pear wanted to allow anyone to grab the analyzer “widget” and place it on their Web site with one line of script code. Anytime the algorithm or application itself is changed, all of the external widgets are automatically updated.

In addtion to Pear Analytics the following local companies also presented at the beta summit: Blellow, Gizaplex, Impact Advanced Concepts, IncSpring, Mosso|The Rackspace Cloud.

“When the results came in, I was shocked. I knew we had a good product, but the competition was fierce,” Kelly says.

Each presentation was followed by a two-minute verbal grilling from a panel of judges including venture capital investors from Houston’s DFJ Mercury, which currently carries a $50 million portfolio.

“All of the presentations were outstanding,” says Blair Garrou, managing director for DFJ Mercury. “The reason we chose Pear Analytics as the winner was because of how they took a seemingly technical and complicated process of analyzing the searchability of a Web site and put it into a non-technical, easy to understand tutorial. Because of that, the market for this application has immense potential.”

It took Kelly and his team about six months to develop the algorithm for scoring, as well as to design, develop and test the application. He bootstrapped the development by investing a portion of the firm’s revenue from other client work.

One of the other tools Pear is currently building is a marketing budget analyzer, which will aid marketing managers in analyzing the efficiency of their efforts by individual sales funnels.

The public can test the Web site analyzer for free at http://analyzers.pearanalytics.com .

Pear Analytics scores first prize at Innotech Beta Summit is a post from Pear Analytics, an SEO tools and software company.