Case Studies

16.83x ROSI in 5 Months: $12M Brand SEO Recovery

A comprehensive case study showcasing how strategic SEO recovery and optimization generated $437,633 in organic revenue with a $3.29 CPA in just 5 months.

Executive Summary - TL;DR Panel

Client: Premium sunglasses brand (500+ SKUs, Shopify Plus, $12M revenue) Challenge: Google penalties from spammy PBN links, 20% profit margin struggles Timeline: 5 months (Feb 17 - Jun 10, 2025) Investment ROSI: 16.83x return on SEO investment

Key Results at a Glance:

  • Revenue: $437,633 (↑333.53% vs. previous period including BFCM/Christmas)
  • Organic Sessions: 47,498 (↑205%)
  • Conversion Rate: 11.29% (↑42%)
  • Cost Per Acquisition: $3.29
  • Links Secured: 59 high-quality placements
  • Priority Pages Re-optimized: 11
Huge increases in organic search traffic, sales and revenue

The Challenge: When "Expert" SEO Goes Wrong

This established sunglasses brand was caught in a perfect storm. Despite generating $12M in annual revenue with over 500 SKUs on Shopify Plus, they couldn't break through the 20% profit margin ceiling. They needed a reliable profit engine—but their previous SEO agency had become their biggest liability.

The Damage Assessment

The Previous Agency's Fatal Mistakes:

  • Founder with zero hands-on SEO experience (great marketer, terrible strategist)
  • Deployed spammy Private Blog Network (PBN) links they owned
  • Multiple exact-match anchor text links per post targeting money pages
  • Complete disregard for Google's quality guidelines

The Devastating Impact: Their primary keyword "mens sunglasses" vanished from search results. Main money pages were penalized. Organic traffic was hemorrhaging, and they didn't understand why.

Pre-Recovery Baseline Metrics (Oct 26 - Feb 16)

Note: This period includes their peak BFCM and Christmas sales

  • Revenue: $100,946 trailing 30-day
  • AOV: $81.54
  • Conversion Rate: 7.95%
  • Sessions: 15,575
  • Orders: 1,238
Major drops on their main keywords from previous SEO agency - due to over-optimized anchor text and PBN links

Primary Pain Point: Zero trust in their SEO strategy and watching their most profitable keywords disappear from Google.

Our Strategic Recovery Framework

We identified the core problems within our first consultation call. While other agencies would have taken weeks to diagnose, our systematic approach immediately pinpointed the penalty sources and recovery pathway.

Phase 1: Damage Control & Deep Dive Analysis

The Disavow Deep Dive: We manually audited every single backlink pointing to their domain—a painstaking process that revealed the full extent of the toxic link profile. Our comprehensive disavow file targeted every spammy PBN link with exact-match anchor text that was triggering penalties.

Anchor Text Recalibration: Rather than guessing, we reverse-engineered the optimal anchor text distribution needed to signal natural linking patterns to Google. This data-driven approach ensured maximum recovery speed with minimal risk.

[IMAGE: Before/after anchor text distribution chart]

Phase 2: The SEO Audit & Blueprint

Our proprietary deep-dive SEO audit (included in your first month's retainer) uncovered critical optimization opportunities:

Technical SEO Issues Identified:

  • Site architecture problems causing crawl inefficiencies
  • Collection page cannibalization reducing ranking power
  • Missing schema markup for product visibility

Content Strategy Gaps:

  • Underoptimized collection pages missing commercial intent content
  • Duplicate content issues across product variations
  • Missing topical authority signals

[IMAGE: Technical SEO audit findings summary]

Phase 3: Strategic Implementation (Launched Feb 17)

Our Multi-Pronged Approach:

  • Link Recovery: Systematic disavowal paired with high-quality link acquisition
  • Technical Optimization: Monthly technical SEO audits with immediate Shopify development fixes
  • Content Enhancement: Hyper-optimized collection pages with commercial intent focus
  • Strategic Consolidation: Merged competing collection pages to eliminate cannibalization

Why We Focus on Transactional Keywords: 95% of our efforts target commercial and transactional intent keywords. This laser focus drives higher purchase intent traffic, resulting in superior conversion rates and revenue per session—the ultimate formula for ecommerce profitability.

Increases on main commercial and transactional intent keywords, creating a meaningful lift in revenue

The Remarkable Results: 5-Month Transformation

New Performance Metrics (Feb 17 - Jun 10 vs. Previous Period)

Revenue Performance:

  • Organic Revenue: $437,633 (↑333.53%)
  • ROSI: 16.83x return on SEO investment
  • CPA: $3.29 (industry-leading acquisition cost)

Traffic & Engagement:

  • Organic Sessions: 47,498 (↑205%)
  • Conversion Rate: 11.29% (↑42% improvement)
  • AOV: $81.63 (↑0.11%, maintaining premium pricing)

Authority Building:

  • High-Quality Links Secured: 59 placements
  • Priority Pages Re-optimized: 11 money pages
  • Bonus Achievement: Secured press feature on daily news TV showcase

[IMAGE: Triple Whale dashboard showing the dramatic improvement curve]

The Recovery Timeline

Month 1: Strategy execution begins immediately upon payment

  • Disavow file submission
  • Technical audit completion
  • Link prospecting initiated
  • Content creation pipeline launched

Month 2: Early positive signals emerge

  • Revenue, sales, and conversion rates begin climbing
  • Primary keywords start recovering positions
  • Technical fixes showing crawl improvements

Months 3-5: Exponential growth phase

  • Keywords reach page 1 positions
  • Revenue acceleration compounds
  • Client becomes a referral source for other brands

Why This Strategy Works for Premium Ecommerce Brands

The Austin Advantage

Our fast-paced team operates from Austin, Texas, enabling same-day execution once payment is received. We've already completed audit and strategy phases, so implementation begins immediately across all channels: link prospecting, content creation, technical SEO, and development.

The Triple Whale Integration

We're the only SEO agency in the world with a custom SEO intelligence dashboard built on Triple Whale, providing real-time visibility into organic search revenue attribution that most agencies can't match.

The Compound Effect

Our strategic blog content serves dual purposes: establishing topical authority in the sunglasses niche and seasoning performance marketing pixels. This helps identify new audience segments and reduces customer acquisition costs across all channels.

Client Success Validation

This client has become one of our strongest advocates, actively recommending us to other premium ecommerce brands in their network. When a $12M brand stakes their reputation on your results, you know you've delivered something exceptional.

The transformation from Google penalties to 16.83x ROSI in just 5 months demonstrates what's possible when strategic SEO meets flawless execution.

Ready to Scale Your Organic Profit Engine?

If you're a $10M+ ecommerce brand struggling with:

  • Unreliable SEO agencies
  • Stagnant organic growth
  • High customer acquisition costs
  • Technical SEO challenges

Let's discuss how our proven framework can transform your organic search performance.

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