Ryan Stewart's Blueprint Training is a specialized online marketing course designed for SEO agencies, consultants, and freelancers, offering a unique "Sprint Method" to strategically grow and scale SEO businesses. This method has you offer one service and hire a team of 3 or 4 assistants. Its goal is to help you scale your business faster instead of offering all kinds of services and it aims to help you make over 70% profit. The Blueprint training is for SEO agencies, consultants, and freelancers looking to scale.
Reviews for Ryan Stewart's Blueprint Training are mostly positive owing to its comprehensive approach to SEO training offering detailed insights into various aspects of SEO, such as content audit, keyword gap analysis, link building, and SEO reporting. Beginners point out the difficulty in understanding the advanced SEO lessons, the high price of the course, and lack of refund policy.
In the Blueprint training review you're about to go through, you'll learn if Ryan Stewart's method of offering one service and using a team to scale is truly the best way to run an SEO agency.
I use SEO differently and it helps me earn a recurring income each month while controlling all aspects of my business with the local lead generation business model.
Ryan Stewart’s Blueprint Training Pros and Cons
Pros
Ryan Stewart teaches advanced techniques and strategies for more effective and efficient SEO agency operations.
They provide you with several tools and templates to help you save time in your business and provide faster results for your clients.
They regularly update the course with the newest SEO strategies.
In-depth SEO training material that isn't taught in many other courses.
Cons
The advanced nature of the Blueprint Training might pose challenges for beginners in SEO, requiring some foundational knowledge for optimal benefit.
Running an SEO agency doesn't give you the chance of earning a predictable income each month.
Price
Ryan Stewart's Blueprint Training is priced at $5,000, reflecting its comprehensive nature and expert-level content.
Refund Policy
The Blueprint Training is non-refundable
Training
16 in-depth training modules; Google sheets and templates for you to implement immediately.
Group
Private Slack community for support
Origin
Ryan sold his previous SEO agency where he was working over 16 hours per day. After selling, he found a better way to do SEO and gave birth to the Sprint Methodology in 2016.
Reputation
Renowned SEO specialist Ryan Stewart has been a featured speaker at the prestigious Chiang Mai SEO conference, discussing his innovative SEO methodologies.
Top 3 Problems SEO Agencies Face
1. Google Core Algorithm Updates
Almost every day, Google changes their algorithm several times. The bigger core updates are done a few times per year. They released the most recent update on December 14, 2022. These changes enhance the user experience and make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for. When Google releases an update, some websites rankings improve and others drop in ranking. These updates can frustrate SEO agencies because it takes time to go back and figure out how to re-rank the sites. In many cases, SEO agencies lose clients due to those updates.
2. Slow Results
SEO is a long-term play. Therefore, it can take months or years to provide results for your clients. Clients may get more impatient than you are and decide to stop working with you. Even worse, they might want a refund. You've got to set realistic expectations for yourself and your clients before starting a project. Also, focus on making sure your process is air tight. If you stay consistent and are relentless, you will get your sites at the top of the search results. Just know it takes time and relay that to your clients before starting a project.
How long does it take for SEO to work?
For SEO to work, it takes time for the work you do to show results. SEO is a long-term play that can provide lasting results. Depending on the niche and market you're in, it may take weeks or even months and years for you to see results.
3. Competition
The SEO industry is experiencing a surge in the number of agencies, indicating a growing market but also increased competition. This increase in competition makes it harder for SEO agencies, affiliate marketers, and bloggers to rank their sites. What it took to rank sites only a couple of years ago now takes more effort and, as a result, money.
What Is the Breakdown of the Blueprint Training?
This first module is all about how to analyze a client's website before starting a new project. Ryan recommends you look through and note the data of their past year to uncover what they need improvement with so you can bring it to their attention.
Ryan and his team share a project management tool that will help you stay on track with your clients. This module shows you how to get the most out of it.
In this module, you learn how to create accurate analytic auditing reports for your clients.
The Website Quality audit is a Google Sheets template that Ryan and his team put together to help you do the most in-depth website audits on your client's sites.
If your clients are large companies, the level of work you need to put in is much higher than if you're working with a local client. This module teaches you about the more technical aspects of SEO so that you can provide the best results for these types of clients.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website to meet the technical requirements of a search engine to improve organic rankings. Your focus is website architecture, indexing, and more.
Ryan's keyword research approach is a little more complex than what most SEOs do. Instead of just looking at the search volume of any keyword, Ryan prioritizes keywords according to what the competition is doing and what type of content is currently ranking.
Ryan teaches you how to optimize your client's website by checking for keywords related to the main keyword you're targeting, implementing Schema, making sure you have enough content, and more.
In this module, you learn the best techniques for internal linking. Ryan created a template that automates finding internal linking opportunities.
They geared this module more towards improving blog sites by auditing your content.
In module 10, Ryan shares a Google sheet that will aid you in expanding your keyword footprint. The template will help you compare your keyword data with a few other competitors using the SEO tool, AHREFS.
This module shows you how to form strong outlines. It starts with analyzing the SERPS to see what the top pages are doing to be ranking well and implementing it yourself.
In module 12, Ryan dives deep when showing you how to build links. He breaks down all the linking opportunities that exist and how to find them. He also encourages you to automate this process so you can have more time to handle other money making tasks like closing more deals.
Ryan shares a data studio report you can use to keep your clients up to date on the work you're doing. This report is an accumulation of data from the Google Search Console and Google Analytics you put together for them.
This module focuses more on Google Business Profile metrics for local small businesses.
In this module, you're provided with a report template that will help keep you aware of the progress each client is having with you.
Finally, you learn how to create high-level proposals and how to price your services.
Who Is Ryan Stewart?
Ryan Stewart is a successful agency consultant from Miami, Florida. His parents raised him with the mentality of going to school and working the same 9-5 job for 50 years. In 2009, he graduated with a Bachelor's in political science and economics from the College of the Holy Cross. At the time, he was working as a consultant at Accenture, making $55K per year. It was in 2009 that he learned about SEO and realized that he didn't want to work a 9-5 job anymore. A year later, he started an SEO agency with another marketer he met in a Facebook group. After scaling the business to $15K per month, his partner ghosted him, cutting him out of the business. Since there was no legal paperwork between them, he had no legal rights to the business and had to just accept it.
In 2012, Ryan took a job as a digital marketing consultant at SapientNitro, which has now been rebranded as Publicis Sapient. During his time there, he began blogging under his new website WEBRIS and wrote about the work he was doing there.
Then, in 2014, he graduated with an MBA from the University of Florida-Warrington College of Business and started working with SEO clients again. He founded an ecommerce website called Laces Out, which sold shoelaces and sneaker accessories. A year later, he left SapientNitro to dedicate himself full-time to his WEBRIS agency. By 2016, he sold Laces Out and began the video learning program called The Blueprint Training.
In 2017, Ryan sold WEBRIS for 7-figures. Two years later, he parted ways with that company, but since he still had rights to the WEBRIS name, he restarted it and began selling Capture and Convert, which was a WordPress plugin. The following year, he sold it to a competitor for 7-figures and directed his focus to The Blueprint Training and investing in assets. His wife also has many short-term Airbnb rental properties which generate them thousands of dollars per month in added revenue.
On the Ryan Stewart YouTube channel, he posts content about SEO and marketing a few times per month for his over 41.5K subscribers.
What Is White Hat Link Building?
White Hat Link Building was Ryan's former course, where he taught the creation of an autonomous link-building system using virtual assistants. The 6-module beginner's course covered the basics, team assembly, project planning, outreach strategies, link types, and an overview of the entire system. It focused on white hat link building, primarily through writing content for other websites in exchange for backlinks.
Is the Blueprint Training Worth It?
The Blueprint Training is worth it if you want to run an SEO agency without overcomplicating the process. Ryan and his team have a great reputation in the SEO space. If you're going to learn SEO, there aren't many too online entrepreneurs who are better to learn from than Ryan. There is plenty of support when you join the Blueprint SEO training program from Ryan, his team and the private community.
The Blueprint Training Successful Students
John Saunders is the founder of 5Four Digital. They are a remote web design agency out of south Florida. John improved his business because of the systems and procedures he learned in The Blueprint Training. By leveraging the skills he learned from Ryan Stewart's SEO course and Ryan's team, he hired more staff and scaled his business beyond what he could have imagined. From making $5K in revenue per month to now making anywhere between $60K - $80K in revenue per month, he gives all the credit to this course.
James Reynolds is the founder of SEO Sherpa based out of Dubai. Before James and his agency signed up for Ryan's training, they couldn't scale past around 50 clients, though each was paying thousands of dollars per month. After going through The Blueprint Training and implementing many of the systems and processes, they could finally scale past 115 clients. As a result, they were named the Best Large Agency in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Case Study: How a Client Made $500,000 from $60,000 Marketing Spend
Company's Background and Story
Ryan Stewart's client is B2B company that operates in a niche market offering lighting service. They focus on converting large commercial spaces from fluorescent lighting to more environmentally friendly and cost-effective LED lighting.
They have a unique proposition of "no upfront costs" for their clients but signs into a 15-year contract with them. It targets establishments with large square footages like Amazon and Walmart warehouses.
Specific Steps and Business Strategies Ryan Implemented for His Client
How the Company Is Doing Now
The company's leads and revenue substantially increased. From an initial investment of $60,000 in SEO and PPC marketing spend, the company made over 500,000 in revenue. It now has more efficient and targeted online presence, with improved lead quality and conversion rates.
High-intent keywords aligned with the company's service offering were more effective than targeting high-volume, generic keywords.
What's not mentioned in the video: PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase versus organic visitor, because PPC ads target specific search queries with commercial intent.
The Blueprint Training Alternative
The AltAgency by Greg Hickman is another education platform geared towards helping agencies scale. His method is like Ryan's in The Blueprint. Greg teaches how to package your expertise into productized services and digital products no matter what online industry you're in. The idea is to simplify your business and your life while providing immense value to your clients. Greg offers the AltAgency Foundations program, which is a 6-week training program that covers how to package and deliver your products. You also learn how to generate traffic to increase sales and how to automate your business with the help of virtual assistants. The AltAgency Academy is a 12-month program only available after you complete the Foundations course. You learn how to expand your revenue streams, generate paid traffic, and more.
Price: AltAgency appears to be offered as a subscription service according to their TOS page, but the price isn't transparent.
More Info:
AltAgency Review
The Rank and Rent Mastery by Jordan Stambaugh is a course that teaches you to use the local lead generation rank and rent business model to rank your website on search engines like Google. The course focuses on teaching you to build your own website using WordPress, how to run a server, and the needed SEO strategies for your website to rank. Jordan also teaches what GMB is and why you need it. He also encourages students to create more ranking website because you will earn more.
Price: The cost of Rank and Rent Mastery is not shown on the website. Book a "breakthrough call" with Jordan to know the price of the course.
More Info:
Rank and Rent Mastery Review
For more alternatives to The Blueprint Training, including the Rank Daddy Elite program, read my article on the best SEO courses.
Is SEO Still Profitable in 2024?
SEO is still profitable in 2024. Thousands of SEO agencies are helping other businesses rank their sites on Google. As long as people keep using Google for search, businesses are going to need to have their websites ranked at the top of search results if they want to thrive. Although there are many SEO agencies and so-called "experts" not all of them provide their clients with results. Therefore, there is still an opportunity for newer serious agencies and marketers to take on the task of helping those businesses. Those who don't give up and persevere can make a good living.
Is SEO Specialist a High-Paying Job?
SEO specialist is a high-paying job depending on the type of clients you take on and how many clients you take on. You can either make hundreds of dollars per month or thousands.
Can SEO Make You a Millionaire?
SEO can make you a millionaire as long as you have the skills to provide the best results for as many high-ticket clients as you can handle. Hiring a small team to help you take on more work will also help.
The same goes for affiliate marketers and bloggers who are looking to be the authority in their niche. As with other online business models, you can be profitable, but there are better ways to make money online in 2024.
Use SEO to Create Passive Income With Local Lead Generation
SEO allows you to grow a local lead generation business much faster and much easier than if you were trying to rank a client's website. You also have more control in your business with lead gen. You own your lead generation website and you rank it at your own pace, with no clients hounding you for immediate results. Once you get your site to rank at the top of search results, leads will flow. Then, you choose what local small business to send leads to, and you dictate how much they'll pay you for the exclusive leads each month.
The local lead generation business model is sustainable and highly scalable. Once your site is ranked, it basically creates hands-free monthly income. To scale, you simply have to repeat the rank and rent process. There is no limit as to how many sites you can have rented, making local lead generation the best business model to create time and financial freedom.
