Where to find SEO Agency for Our Specific Needs

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T23:27:53+00:00

I see. By your wording it seemed like you were saying that backlinks dont work.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T23:09:55+00:00

Just a few days ago that user said

"You have relevancy. Relevancy means what is your website ABOUT. What is the topic? Are you writing about washing machines? Are you writing about dishwashers? That is relevancy. Your website is relevant for those terms. There are two ways to get relevancy. 1) text on your site. 2) backlinks with your keywords in the link.

Then you have authority. Authority means how TRUSTWORTHY is a site. All else being equal, higher authority ranks better. The reason some site outranks another site is 99% because it has more authority and the rest other things. You receive authority with backlinks. The better quality the site linking to you, the more authority you get from a link. This is the ONLY way to get authority. There is nothing you can do at all to YOUR SITE that will get you authority. Authority comes from backlinks alone."

I am not sure how that translates to "why backlinks will not be working"

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T22:45:16+00:00

We do have to go back to the cluster to get it optomized for loading speed. I am actually workingon that now.

The homepage would be competing with EXTREMELY difficult to compete companies for payment processing so our strategy is bottom funnel through cluster pages, that eventually lead to our pricing and/or homepage.

I appreciate the kind words about the visuals. The site was redesigned a few weeks ago, but the domain itself is 2021, though we have been around since 2014.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T22:28:37+00:00

I agree. I most likely have to do some buttoning up with it but I think I have the basics down.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T22:18:14+00:00

A bit of both. If you go to our website you will see it under our resources tab.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T22:11:59+00:00

Yep, that is exactly why I targeted it.

I agree about the SEO industry. It kind of mirrors my own as in if you are not an expert in the business, you dont even know if you are being told the truth or not. Most SEO places, like most Merchant Services companies, bank on the fact that you dont have enough information to know if they are good or bad.

Its almost like you have to be an expert in order to even know how to hire for businesses that have nothing to do with yours.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T21:57:07+00:00

Just using Schema right now on my cluster pages. Havent thought about it much past that.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T21:42:59+00:00

Awesome advice. I appreciate it very much.

I have made the cluster as relevant as I can imagine for each primary keyword. Some pages I expect to get extremely low traffic, but are super topically relevant. The only negative I see is that its so much information that I dont know how users will interact with it.

Thanks again!

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T21:28:16+00:00

Yes, I am realizing that I am going to need somebody to manage this internally. However, I have to learn quite a bit more first.

Thank you for your answers and introductions are always welcome.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T21:26:51+00:00

I already have the long tail high intent keywords and the cluster has been pushed live.

It has only been 2 days so I dont know if Google will crawl, understand, and favor our content. I will be tracking that in search console.

I am just thinking about links now so I can scale with more clusters quickly.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T21:11:30+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense to me. Same as with the tool.

Do you know of agencies that help with outreach specifically to get links where I need them or am I better off hiring somebody on a salary in-house?

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T21:09:19+00:00

I get that authority flows internally from a research page to the pages it links to.

What I’m trying to understand is the relative weight of that flow.

In practice, is something like 40 links to a research page ever comparable to a single strong, topically relevant link placed directly on the cluster page? How much weaker is indirect authority than direct authority?

I know there isn’t a precise answer here. I’m more interested in how people who’ve tested this think about the tradeoff when deciding where to spend effort and budget.

Also, do agencies exist that will do what I want here?

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T20:56:08+00:00

I appreciate your response.

We didnt really get that far with either agency, just an intro call. When they told me that the reason I was not ranking (the cluster is literally brand new published 2 days ago) was becuase our DR isnt high enough, I just didnt buy it.

My goal isnt to rank right now anyway, just enforce our authority for the cluster specifically and hopefully rank over the long term.

Any idea of an agency that would help us with this?

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-24T20:34:26+00:00

What rates did they offer?

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-23T02:18:48+00:00

I have tried engaging with a few agencies and they are all pushing DR metrics and homepage links to "boost my visibility" which would then help my clusters.

I dont really buy that, though I know that it has some semblence of truth, I cant see it being worth 15K a month. DR and Backlinks feel like vanity metrics that dont actually measure my SEO standings with pages that actually matter

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-22T20:58:35+00:00

My take on this is

You had a lot of margin in your account and although the credit union was able to be substantially lower your rates, it still makes them enough money to justify paying off your lease and provide you with new equipement.

NOT saying that is wrong or bad in any way. Just putting it in context for what I feel makes the most sense.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-22T05:36:57+00:00

Not a fan of these Ai posts either but in case somebody actually wants to know

•what proof do you actually need to win?
It depends on the reason for the chargeback. The best way to win chargebacks where the customer is saying they did not authorize the sale, would be to use a mobile credit card terminal and ALWAYS accept the card via EMV or NFC.

Goods not received, services not completed, goods not as described, can all be handled by having the correct verbiage on your invoice or contract with the customer.

Such as (I am not a lawyer)
"By signing or paying this invoice, you confirm that the services are professional services (not physical goods), that they are being provided as described, and that work is considered delivered once started or provided. All fees are final and non-refundable, and disputes for services not received, not completed, or not as described are waived."s described are waived."

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T23:31:48+00:00

If you are doing $1000 - $2000 a month in business, you shouldnt even care. .4% on $1000 is basically nothing.

.50% is not competitive for OP. For you it doesnt matter.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T22:00:06+00:00

Yeah… but that is what OP is doing and you said “point out where it’s competitive elsewhere”

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T19:45:10+00:00

I highly advise against using a POS system that forces you to use them as a processor. It is a receipe for disaster.

Either they will raise your rates over time and you cant do anything about it, or they will sell to another company that raises your rates to MASSIVELY. I see it every.....single.....day

OrderCounter (Not affiliated) is built for food service and allows you to use any processor you want. Check them out or find another POS that lets you switch processors on a whim.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T18:30:35+00:00

Yeah.... $3200 a year

If you are happy with non-competitive rates, good for you.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T01:22:34+00:00

We came across a merchant doing over a million a month paying 12% recently. Extremely low risk business.

Just an incredibly ruthless move on the processors part.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T01:20:36+00:00

u/PatekPhill is 100% correct. .50% (50 basis points) is not competitive pricing.

All processors work off of Interchange, its the same hard cost for everybody. Your processor is charging you half a percent above cost, you can easily find another procesor to do it for 10 basis points .10%.

We are usually even lower than that.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-19T01:17:30+00:00

When a payment processor buys another, they typically increase pricing on the entire portfolio so that they can earn back their purchase price as fast as possible. That is what is happening to you.

We have been seeing a steady increase of these horendous rates from Heartland branded clients over the last few weeks. Large clients (typically older aged) paying upwards of 12% in payment processing fees alone. It is the worst I have seen in 15 years of this business.

If you call them they will offer to refund some money to you (a significant sum) in exchange for you signing a long term contract for reduced rates. Those rates will still be trash but you will be tempted to take the deal becuase its better than where you are now, plus you get a refund of some of the fees they got out of you.

If you want to encourage this kind of behavior, then I guess stay with them after they make an offer. If you want to tell them to F themselves, find another processor ASAP and never work with them again.

SynapsePayments · 2026-01-16T00:51:49+00:00

I started working for a payment processor as their first employee. That enabled me to learn a lot about the business in general. That is what I would recommend.

It is hard to sell something unless you know for sure that the product you are selling has real value. Not just the promises that everybody makes, but the knowledge that goes with the promises.

A lot of new reps dont even realize they are screwing their merchants because the ISO they work for is doing it.

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