Scope Security: rebuilding a locksmith's website from a Fiverr build
Client location: Alexandria, Sydney NSW
- From 69 visitors in 6 months to 110 in 2 weeks
- Over 2,200 page views and 250+ new organic search terms
- 48,000 search impressions, up from around 1,000 the previous 6 months
- Bounce rate down from over 40% to below 2%
Paul's extensive knowledge about business marketing, advertising, social media platforms and website development is outstanding. His determination to see us reach our goals is most appreciated.
Thanks for being a part of our team and we will be sure to call on you again."
Tom and Tony had merged their independent locksmith businesses into Scope Security, aiming to expand beyond locksmith work into the broader security market. Their initial ask was help placing Google Ads. After reviewing what they already had, I recommended a more fundamental fix first, before spending anything on paid traffic.
Why their website wasn't working
Their site had been built cheaply through a freelance marketplace. It technically existed, but wasn’t generating anything:
- It looked and felt inexpensive next to local competitors, undermining trust before a visitor even got to the content
- The pages were custom coded, easy for the original developer, effectively impossible for the owners to update themselves
- Core on-page SEO, headings, titles, descriptions, was missing entirely, so the site wasn’t being properly indexed
- Every page simply repeated what the owners had given the freelancer, generic promises with no real differentiation from any other locksmith
- There was no tracking in place at all, so the owners had no way of knowing whether the site was working
More than 1,000 competing locksmith businesses existed in Sydney, and this site wasn’t appearing in the top 100 results for any relevant search. It’s a common trap: a business owner reasonably doesn’t want to overspend on a website, so they choose the cheapest option, without realising a site nobody can find isn’t actually cheaper, it’s just invisible.
What I actually did
- Ran keyword research and consumer insight analysis specific to the locksmith and security category
- Rebuilt the website and migrated it to WordPress so the owners could manage it themselves
- Removed toxic backlinks that had been generating fake traffic
- Developed a genuine brand story and point of difference
- Restored and fully optimised their Google Business Profile, resolving a six-month-old listing dispute that had kept it inactive
- Set up Google Analytics, Search Console and Bing listings properly
- Set up review collection, a shared job-tracking calendar, and real staff and service photography
The results
- 48,000 Google search impressions, up from around 1,000 in the previous six months
- 110 site visits in a few weeks against 69 in the previous six months, at over 2 minutes average session time
- Over 2,200 page views, with newly created pages making up more than 30% of that volume
- Bounce rate down from over 40% to below 2%
- Google Business Profile restored, generating 1,100+ impressions
- New FAQ and special offer pages reaching page one of Google
- Google organic search results;
- Sept 2018 to Jan; 152 days = 724 impressions, 69 clicks (.45 per day)
- Feb 2019 to April; 88 days = 48,000 impressions, 147 clicks to the site (1.67 per day)
- May to 17th June; 47 days = 44,900 impressions, 83 clicks to the site (1.77 per day)
- Scope Security is showing up for over 250 differemt search queries or phrases on Google
- Google My Business; 36 actions taken with 20 visiting the site & 11 phone calls
- Website visitor trend;
- Feb to April; 88 days = 359 people, 2,567 total page views, 8% bounce rate
- May to June; 47 days = 215 people, 899 total page views, 1.9% bounce rate
- 48% come from Organic search, 8% from referrals, 6% from social media
What Tom said
“My business partner and I hired Paul to help set up and build the brand of our new company 12 weeks ago. Since day one we felt we had a huge amount of support, guidance and an I.T guru in the team. Paul’s extensive knowledge about business marketing, advertising, social media platforms and website development is outstanding. His determination to see us reach our goals is most appreciated.”
Tom Russo, Co-Director, Scope Security Pty Ltd
An honest update, years on
Scope Security didn’t take up my further recommendations after this initial project, including running short, targeted Google Ads bursts, systematically collecting reviews, and rebuilding the site fully to remove the last of the original freelance code. There’s been more than 40 Google algorithm updates since, and the site itself has stayed largely static.
One result has genuinely held up: they still rank on page one for “Locksmith Sydney Cost,” a deliberately specific, long-tail phrase I targeted at the time rather than the most competitive generic term. It’s not the highest-volume search in the category, but three-plus years of holding a first-page position against a market with over 1,000 competitors, including large corporate directories, is a fair sign the original SEO work was sound. It’s also a clear example of what happens when good foundational work isn’t built on further: it holds, but it doesn’t grow.
If your website was built cheaply and you’re not sure whether it’s actually being found, get in touch and I’ll check the real data with you. I build a foundation that holds up even without ongoing work, and I’m upfront when a client doesn’t continue building on it, results plateau rather than disappear, but they also don’t grow. If your site was built on the cheap and you’re not sure it’s working, see how I could help.
