📝 NELA: SEO Case Study [True Story]
Published: 2023-01-13 18:53:42

A 1-star review on Google?!

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/7feba118-5c57-43cf-8c55-46d9651faf6e/l_ySCQJaYGsU60T1pONNKw.webp)

...and A CHARGEBACK?!!

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/ea04ef34-efed-4339-8007-1ab88a769098/tvujdES4ZyWkzd9LB4dBGQ.webp)

My heart sank.

And simultaneously my anger, adrenaline (and likely blood pressure) began to rise...

My body temperature started rising and I could almost feel the steam coming out of my ears when I got the message from our team that Luis Bravo had given our company a 1-star review and filed a chargeback for our services.

Unbelievable. That is the only word to describe this situation. That and maybe cojones.

Let me back up for just a moment...

In 2019 a locksmith in Los Angeles called us wanting SEO.

Now if you don’t know anything about SEO, know this: it takes time to work.

And the main factors that determine just how much time it will take to work (in no particular order) are:

Your website:Domain age.Current/previous SEO "equity" / "activity".Having the keywords you want to rank for in the domain name.

The competitiveness of your industry:By quantity of providersBy popularity of SEOs to target those industries.

Sensitivity of your industry:EATYMYLand a select few others, like locksmiths, for weird reasons.

The size of your city (for local SEO): Because there's naturally more competitors in a bigger city.

The keywords you're targeting:By intent (commercial vs. informational)By geographic restriction (local vs. national)By length (shorter keywords are harder than longer-tail keywords)

Keep that in mind for just a second...

Now if you don’t know anything about Los Angeles, know this: it’s big.

In fact, it's the 2nd largest city in the United States:

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/4f6c4b96-7cdb-4be5-92de-dd170e3c63de/uphAgdrzXIdevsbFDq9KJQ.webp)

And if you don't know anything about locksmiths, the industry is notoriously hard for SEO because of "the locksmith scam":

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/b87df32e-91d5-4b1e-82b1-81ceeafc9311/jUBGpHt97Vegt248v7xHNg.webp)

And because so many SEOs make "lead generation sites" for locksmiths - because locksmiths pay good money for leads, and alot of people get locked out of their houses:

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/7e519a11-93c6-46c6-af60-08c9556d24a0/kalqvRZAg28LP6AVquNHWw.webp)

Many SEOs wont even touch the locksmith industry because it's just kind of a shit-show.

Fun Fact: Plumbing is another industry that SEOs like to mess with:

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/1ba4b95f-da05-4319-8de6-5bb365548e24/iOphwZJMpy5UAeRQwPlMow.webp)

Anyways...

So here's a guy who wants SEO help for his business that's:

In the 2nd largest city in the USA...

In an industry that's notoriously difficult for SEO...

With a brand new website with no previous SEO equity, no content, nada.

And wants to rank for the hardest term "locksmith los angeles"

Everything about this campaign screams "EXPENSIVE".

Well, we're not scared of a challenge - but there's just one problem...

He didn't have the budget to pay what we needed to get this done.

He didn't want to commit to the necessary time-period to get it done.

He wanted help with services outside of the scope of SEO, for free (website stuff, help with blogging, etc.)

He wanted weekly calls, ad-hoc un-scheduled calls, text message support, etc. (things we don't provide)

But since he was one of the earlier customers, our sales team made the mistake of saying "Yes".

And our SEO team pulled off the impossible.

In less than 6 months, we ranked him on Page 1 of Google for the absolute hardest term in his industry - “locksmith los angeles”.

A keyword that gets searched 2,400 times a month:

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/d7dc9699-ff0c-4576-b08b-26cca050d465/rpNIGux-Xkk9GgugKqpBLA.webp)

And not just anywhere on Page 1... POSITION 2!!

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/b02ea067-c868-49ca-8d65-bd5bec1727c1/qiVg4QnHC7MPbhu7LylFAA.webp)

The only person above him was an EMD (Exact Match Domain). Which means a website with the EXACT keyword as the domain name - which are much harder to outrank.

And if that wasn’t enough...

That was just ONE of 1,000+ keywords he was now showing up for, 150 of which were on PAGE ONE!

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/b7fccafb-98ea-4d52-9b2b-98ee8bf239d4/g55QoFbF5fXG-18lsIJNGA.webp)

Keywords like:

locksmith glendale ca

locksmiths beverly hills

locksmith alhambra

locksmith koreatown

emergency locksmith los angeles

mobile locksmith los angeles

commercial locksmith los angeles

etc.

And check out those Google Maps:

![](https://ps-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/c962d794-cdcc-4d9a-a2cc-c6b86f497678/gIVPH8qJF1CKzYQpWVhAxw.webp)

Miraculous.

Now, I’m not totally surprised we pulled that off, because SEO is what we do best.

Nobody does it better. (Nate Dogg voice).

But under the circumstances of timeframe, budget, etc...

It was truly unbelievable, even for us.

But the fact that after all that, someone would write a negative review calling us dishonest, file a chargeback, and say he "didn’t make any return from his investment with us" ... that was even more unbelievable to me.

Now...

The truly ironic thing about this is that this entire life-transforming SEO work only cost him $7,500 TOTAL.

And if you look at the screenshot above the value of his traffic (aka what he would have to pay Google in advertising dollars to show up for the terms he is showing up for now) is $7,000... A MONTH.

So for the $7,500 he spent, we got him $7,000 worth of MONTHLY traffic.

12 (as of this writing) months later he is STILL getting that traffic.

So that’s like investing $7,500 for something that would actually cost you closer to $84,000. And that’s just the savings.

There are thousands of locksmiths who advertise using Google ads every month and actually pay those numbers to Google while still turning a handsome profit.

So, if they can spend $84,000 and make a positive ROI, how much do you think they are making in sales?

Well, you shouldn't advertise if you aren't getting at least a 3:1 ROI (2:1 in rare cases), so that would mean spending $84,000 to make $250,000.

So if those other locksmiths can pay $84,000 to make $250,000 - what if they could have spent $7,500 instead?

... "No return from my investment", Luis? Gimme a break dude.

And this is the importance of mapping out your "Dream Customer".

Because NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO -- If you work with the wrong people, you are setting yourself up for a fiasco. You could give them the world, and they still won't be happy.

If you’ve been a business owner for any amount of time, I imagine this story might ring a bell with you.

Have you ever dealt with customers, or clients, who you bent over backwards for and all you got from it was pushback, disrespect, un-appreciation, and maybe even a negative review?

It's not fun.

On the other hand, I could write entire books around the clients we work with who are totally awesome "dream customers".

And when you map out exactly who they are, you can begin to figure out where they are and how to attract them to your business - while simultaneously repelling the people you DON'T want to work with.

Which is exactly what we're about to do, so continue on.

👉 [Grab the (free) course workflow & resources here](https://www.process.st/checklist/course-dream-customers-buyer-persona-customer-avatar-research/)

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