How was the digital ecosystem created with over 1,500,000 page impressions on Google? What tools did she choose to promote and attract micro-investments? What are the principles of a successful rating company? Hromadske Radio talked about this with Stanislav Bakhariev, a Ukrainian by birth, the founder of the international digital ecosystem IT Rating.
IT Rating is the first independent resource and digital ecosystem that evaluates companies operating in the digital sphere and industry. The company’s ranking is based on reasonable and unique scoring algorithms and systems. To be included in this ranking and see their positions, companies must provide information about themselves, go through the verification stage, and add a portfolio. Smart scoring systems will use this information to compile a top list and determine the specific position of the company in it.
«02/24/2022 burst into my life and turned everything upside down, including my business and my family», says Stanislav Bakhariev.
«After that day, 90% of my IT clients went into hiding. The activity of the IT rating was suspended as companies in this industry faced more pressing problems. We didn’t know how long this would go on.
However, it was necessary to think about what to do next. My reliable partner Alexander Dolgarev and I decided to look for investors for our business and quickly launch a project that will work in the US and around the world. Previously, we had already thought about expanding to Europe and the United States, but we never took it up.
Together with a new partner, Vladimir Zhukov, we found our first business angel, Vasily Rakovnenko. He gave us 55,000 euros. We opened a company in the USA, Delaware, and named it IT-Rating.com Inc. Now we conduct all our activities through an official US company.
We drew up a business plan and set goals that we successfully achieved:
We have chosen search engines as the main source of traffic for our promotion. We have outlined the stages of this advancement: the transition from the top positions in low frequencies to medium frequencies, and then to high ones.
The strategy was designed in such a way that its implementation lasted at least 6 months. However, we can analyze its first results now.
We are certainly happy with these changes and are happy to share with you:
Attendance doubled compared to September 2022.
Ahrefs DR indicator — 32.
Increasing search positions:
Increased service traffic by 317%.
Over 7100 new unique visitors.
We have divided requests for services and activities of companies into the following categories:
We chose the largest market players as competitors to follow suit:
These projects are over 8 years old. Each of them has a solid reputation and a fairly serious amount of traffic.
In the context of comparative analysis, we take one key factor that can show the dynamics of development and growth: the growth of positions for key queries.
Why did we choose this factor? We have been actively promoting the project for only 6 months. During this time, it is simply impossible to accumulate at least approximately the same number of links as our competitors have been on the market for more than 8-10 years. The same can be said about other factors, such as the frequency of branded queries in search, traffic to our site pages, the number of pages in the index, etc.
Despite the short duration of the promotion, we see that the IT ranking project has already been able to outperform some of the competitors listed above in terms of search positions. In some requests, he even managed to get ahead of Clutch.
In September, with such indicators, we began to look for additional micro-investments to complete the next stage of project development. We found two more micro-investors who invested 25,000 and 30,000 euros respectively. During the search, we received an investment offer from https://seedinvest.com for $5,000,000. But at this stage, we are not ready for such investments and do not want to lose a large share of the company’s ownership.
With such an investment, we made a plan for the next stage:
Stanislav Bakhariev says that taking into account these achievements, the company plans to reach the following indicators by March-April 2023:
«The main feature of our rankings is a proven portfolio. We do not trust ordinary words or the eloquence of presentations. We see what the company is doing and what effective and promising results it brings. For example, if a company was working with Laravel, we would list the company at the top of the list of companies working with the Laravel framework. If it is impossible to check whether the company really worked with Laravel or not, then you will not see this in the top. The IT rating is fundamentally different from analogs that can be found. Compared to the IT rating, other rating systems do not check the information for veracity, so any company can classify itself in any category. Moreover, unscrupulous companies can add to their portfolio projects of other teams that have nothing to do with them. The requirement to review each portfolio completely excludes the following cases».
«The second unique feature of our rankings is our Al-based recommendation algorithm, which can suggest companies, resources, and stack technologies based on your personal preferences. They are determined based on the user experience of using our platform.
The third, no less important feature is digital ecosystems. They allow us to provide a range of necessary and convenient services and ensure a high level of partnership. They create crystal clear and fair competition among IT companies, helping to reach a new level in the digital technology market and strengthen their positions.
Also, our ecosystems are expanding the audience. Not only top managers and directors, but also novice specialists can use our services. For them, we have created special articles and courses that will help them gain experience and become professionals. In addition, we offer a job section that can help you find a job».
01 Analysis of parameters in the algorithm
02 Assessing the reliability and number of customer reviews
03 Overview of the company’s portfolio
04 Number of published articles and real projects
05 Visibility of the agency domain in search engines
06 Prospects for further development of the company
07 Participation in competitions
08 Previous customer experience
«Our ranking algorithm is based on a fair and transparent formula. This allows you to determine the most reliable service provider. Our innovative algorithm based on a mathematical formula will help you choose the best service providers. The Review Ranking is an effective tool for quickly selecting IT companies according to your business goals, scale, and budget. We provide an opportunity to compare many competing agencies and evaluate the benefits of cooperation with them», concludes Stanislav Bakhariev.
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