As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I count on software program and automation to enhance operations and provide results. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years back, it definitely caught my focus Does GoHighLevel Do SEO.
The idea was attractive– an all-in-one customer administration platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices integrated with each other. As an entrepreneur constantly wanting to simplify and scale my service, it seemed like a desire become a reality on paper. That wouldn’t desire a single solution that does it all?
But in this comprehensive GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my dreadful journey of attempting (and stopping working) to switch over to this popular brand-new software program. You’ll discover:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own organization demands, with any luck you can learn from my unpleasant mistakes and blew up expectations.
Looter: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this list of best CRMs rather. I use Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re seeking a sales, marketing, and project management option to GoHighLevel, after that here are a couple of we suggest.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you need context concerning my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had actually been gladly depending on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to meet all my client administration and automation needs.
I located Keap intuitive to make use of and it took care of whatever I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership websites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to aid small businesses keep their clients while including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and messages, making sure leads and customers get the right messages at the right time. Usage internet site and social media kinds to simplify lead follow-up, and manage your development with simple visit organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated quoting, invoicing, and repayment handling, liberating your time. With Keap, local business can conserve 10 hours per week and increase earnings by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap provides a detailed client connection administration (CRM) and marketing automation remedy tailored for local business and business owners. We appreciate Keap’s focus on streamlining sales processes and nurturing consumer partnerships through powerful automation devices. The platform’s all-in-one technique combines CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job monitoring, making it specifically appealing for services wanting to settle their tech stack.
Generally, it simply worked dependably with minimal difficulty or upkeep required. My open and click-through rates were fantastic (like 35% wonderful). Automations ran efficiently with no concerns.
So why on earth was I attracted to uproot my whole functional foundation from a system that worked to attempt something unverified and untried?
In hindsight I can confess I got attracted by the siren phone call of “glossy item disorder”. You know the sensation: when every person’s speaking about a new tool that will transform your organization … The turf typically looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel could minimize friction points that I would certainly learned to endure over the years with Keap.
I resisted in the beginning, yet a couple of more aggravations led me to assume possibly it was time for a change.
The Investment: Migrating My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I decided to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, investing substantially more than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a choice I ignored. I recognized switching platforms was going to require moving all my Keap information and essentially restoring my entire technology framework from square one using every one of the GoHighLevel integrations offered.
Right here’s an overview of simply several of the effort required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email customer records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Moving customer profiles, notes, and project data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Establishing landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels around again
- Learning a totally international UX and interface design
All in, I invested around 30-40 tiresome hours of setup work transitioning whatever over– in addition to handling shed performance during the switch.
But ultimately, it was a computed investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary pain would certainly settle with GoHighLevel giving a better long-lasting option for my business, Dripify. Oh how wrong I was …
It only took me regarding a month of hands-on use to realize I had made a big mistake. The problems began accumulating promptly, up until it reached a point I needed to reduce my losses and switch back to Keap entirely.
Let’s go through the nightmarish issues I experienced.
Safety And Security Issues & Lots of Bugs
Offered GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I took care to meticulously recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding new e-mail subscribers, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending occasion tips, managing membership expirations and far more.
Whatever seemed to be functioning penalty … till suddenly it had not been. One early morning, I awoke to find 171 totally unnecessary emails had actually been sent out to users who must NOT have received them. This happened 3 days straight, with a different batch of 160 individuals daily.
I desperately tried fixing and reconstructing the automation from the ground up. But the issue persisted.
When I frantically connected to their assistance group, they slightly claimed “server concerns” were at fault. However this description really did not make any type of sense, considering that the errors continued happening each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this huge failing was totally undesirable and just really did not benefit my business. I have thousands of calls counting on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be entirely unreliable, just how could I leave mission-critical workflows and delicate customer information to their technology?
The unintuitive interface just compounded these concerns …
Irritating UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was seamless and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt high and complicated.
Simple jobs like editing workflows involved digging with food selection systems that were all over the place. Secret setups were unexplainably spread in totally various sections. Relocating in between features felt disjointed or confusing.
I’ll inform you what I suggest by discussing their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate settings panels to take care of general, private, and product setups. Yet for some crazy factor, the web links to gain access to each of these core setups were expanded on contrary sides of the screen. What!?
As someone that values clean, thoughtful design, this seriously frustrated me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress rather than a refined item ready for prime-time usage. Their top priorities seemed focused on packing in every feature under the sun, with poor usability as a second thought.
And speaking of features, I soon recognized the small cost tag featured expensive concessions …
Deceptive Pricing Does GoHighLevel Do SEO
One of GoHighLevel’s largest selling points is the inexpensive price for access to many features. Yet I promptly discovered this economical base price was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional fees for core performance. Unexpectedly my credit card declarations had obscure $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you obtain billed whenever you send an email via their servers. So for high volume users, this added up to hundreds of dollars in unexpected expenses.
In between these per-email fees and paying extra for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “budget friendly” GoHighLevel registration wound up setting you back dramatically greater than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was tempting, however just not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully supported email open prices plunge nearly overnight after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market involvement continually hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. But once I migrated their records over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked promptly to a useless 9% open rate.
No matter just how much I optimized my sending out techniques or tried every troubleshooting technique, I might hardly nudge open rates back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous standards Does GoHighLevel Do SEO.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and e-mails unexpectedly had dreadful engagement. The only thing I can believe that would be triggering this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so dependent on email marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the crippling deliverability concerns, concealed costs, broken features, and awful user interface, I had lastly reached my restriction …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my company to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a significant mistake. The cons considerably outweighed any advantages.
No software application is perfect, yet the sheer quantity of issues was past appropriate.
At the end of the day, software program comes down to trust. If I can not trust it to handle essential features capably or believe a vendor has my best interests in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– also after investing considerable time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the hard call to turn around program and return back to Keap completely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I picked up from this debacle.
Key Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a costly accident. But in knowledge, it instructed me a few key lessons:
- Stick to what works. Don’t upset what’s working unless something is definitively much better across the board. Change brings threat.
- Veterinarian declares thoroughly. Marketing buzz around new software program frequently covers larger underlying defects. Deep due persistance is necessary.
- Pick simpleness over features. Well-designed devices need to make your job life much easier, not more challenging and messy.
- Openness constructs depend on. Nontransparent pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert troubles destroys trust fund.
- Seek objective testimonials. Delighted support reviews imply much less if extreme concerns suggest poor total functionality.
- Excellence is impossible. No single service can flawlessly satisfy every special company requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Evolution over transformation. Step-by-step improvements usually surpass risky wholesale reinvention of what already works fine.
Simply put, I discovered to be more cynical of “also great to be real” marketing insurance claims and less attracted by the appeal of shiny new things. The devices you make use of daily need to gain depend on via openness and efficiency, not slick advertising.