SEO Specialist, Conference Speaker, and EntrepreneurAbout Robert
I’m Robert Portillo, a Los Angeles business owner and SEO specialist.
My work has ranged from independent local businesses to major entertainment brands including HBO, Sony, Marvel, and Paramount.
My approach combines SEO, conversion optimization, retail experience, and a practical understanding of what it takes to run a business.
SEO Specialist Since 2007
Founder of BroBex Marketing
Founder of Dispensary Domination
Los Angeles Business Owner
ROBERT PORTILLO ACROSS THE WEB
Explore Robert’s professional profiles, interviews, articles, videos, speaking appearances, and online communities.
YouTube
Watch interviews, conference presentations, marketing discussions, and educational videos.
WATCH VIDEOSConnect with Robert and follow updates about his businesses, events, and current projects.
VIEW FACEBOOKX
Follow Robert’s observations about SEO, conversion optimization, business, and technology.
FOLLOW ON XCRO Junkies
Join a community of more than 12,000 marketers and business owners discussing conversion optimization.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
I’VE ALWAYS WANTED
TO KNOW HOW
THINGS WORK
I’ve been interested in electronics, technology, and problem solving since I was a child. In seventh grade, I wrote a book about electronics because I wanted to understand how the parts worked together.
That curiosity never went away. I still approach problems by taking them apart, finding the cause, and testing possible solutions. It’s the same process I use when repairing a computer, studying customer behavior, or figuring out why one website succeeds while another struggles.
CURIOSITY STILL DRIVES ME
- I take complex problems apart until the cause becomes clear.
- I test ideas instead of relying on assumptions.
- I keep studying, even after something already works.
- I’m always looking for the detail that other people missed.
PC FIXER TAUGHT ME HOW LOCAL BUSINESSES SURVIVE
In 2001, I founded PC Fixer in West Los Angeles to provide computer repair and on site IT support for homes and businesses.
I learned quickly that technical skill wasn’t enough. Customers also needed fast answers, clear pricing, honest advice, and confidence that the person entering their home or office could be trusted.
Those lessons still guide my marketing work. Local businesses don’t need traffic for its own sake. They need the phone to ring, the right customers to show up, and the work to produce enough value to cover payroll, rent, overhead, and growth.
PC Fixer became one of Los Angeles’s highest rated computer repair businesses. I later sold the company, and it continues operating under new ownership.
Robert Portillo Across The Web
Robert’s work has been featured in interviews, podcasts, conference materials, expert roundups, and industry resources covering SEO, CRO, buyer behavior, and website performance.
SEO Video Show Interview
Robert joined the SEO Video Show for an AMA on using CRO to improve SEO results and increase sales.
Watch InterviewPathmonk Podcast
A conversation about conversion, buyer psychology, and seeing the customer journey through the eyes of the visitor.
Listen NowConversion Rate Optimization Profile
A third-party profile covering Robert’s CRO background, testing work, conversion audits, and CRO Junkies community.
Read MoreQuoted On Page Experience And UX
Robert was quoted on why Google’s page experience signals make UX a bigger part of SEO.
View MentionSEO Expert Roundup
Robert was included in an SEO roundup discussing the connection between SEO, CRO, website speed, and mobile performance.
Explore RoundupEventbrite Speaker Profile
Robert’s Eventbrite profile connects his speaking work to SEO, CRO, and cannabis retail marketing.
View ProfileTech Studio Taught Me How People Buy
In 2012, I opened Tech Studio on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach. The store carried unusual gadgets, electronics, accessories, and products that customers often hadn’t seen anywhere else.
Running the store taught me that people rarely buy based on specifications alone. They buy when a product catches their attention, solves a problem, feels useful, or creates an emotional response.
The layout of the store mattered. Packaging mattered. Pricing mattered. The way an employee explained a product mattered. Even the order in which customers encountered different items changed what they noticed and purchased.
Tech Studio was featured in publications including Dwell and Surface Magazine. I later accepted a buyout offer and sold the business.
That experience gave me a practical education in customer behavior, retail presentation, and conversion. Those lessons eventually became a major part of how I approach websites and marketing.
SEO Started As A Way To Help My Own Businesses
I wasn’t trying to start a marketing agency. I was trying to get customers.
PC Fixer and Tech Studio needed a steady way to reach local customers.I began
studying SEO in 2007 because I couldn’t depend on foot traffic, referrals, or paid
advertising alone.
I tested pages, studied rankings, rewrote offers, improved websites, and tracked
what made people call, visit, or buy. The work produced results for my own companies,
and other business owners began asking whether I could do the same for them.
What started as a way to support my own businesses gradually became client work.
THAT OBSESSION TURNED INTO CLIENT WORK
I kept studying more than search rankings. I wanted to understand why people chose one business instead of another.
That led me deeper into conversion optimization, customer psychology, website usability, testing, and the small details that turn attention into action.
Getting found was only the first step. The next challenge was helping the business earn the customer’s trust and close the sale.
In 2014, I founded BroBex Marketing.
📈
SEO, CRO, split testing. Local shops, regional companies, Fortune 500 brands. The work grew every year, and my team was good at it.
🧩
BroBex gave me a place to bring everything together.
⚙️
The technician side of me cared about structure, speed, tracking, indexation, and the parts of a website most customers never see.
🛍️
The retail owner side of me cared about trust, offers, language, phone calls, and what it feels like when a customer is deciding whether to buy.
🎯
The CRO side of me cared about the small things. Button color. Button motion. Page layout. The order of information. The size of a dollar sign. The words near a form. The thing a visitor needs to hear before they feel safe taking the next step.
That is still how I think.
🔍
SEO gets people to the page.
🧠
CRO helps the page do its job when they arrive.
Traffic alone is not the win. Rankings alone are not the win. The win is when a real person finds you, trusts you, and chooses you.
BroBex
BroBex Became the Place Where It All Came Together
I founded BroBex Marketing in 2014 to combine SEO, conversion optimization, content, website design, customer psychology, and testing under one company. Instead of treating these as separate services, I wanted every part of a campaign to support the same business goal.
WHAT I BELIEVE
Marketing should make a business easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to choose.
Rankings matter when they lead to calls, visits, leads, sales, or another useful result. Every campaign should be clear enough for the client to understand and specific enough to measure.
SEO Brings the Right People
Strong rankings are useful only when they bring people who are likely to become customers.
Conversion Optimization Helps Them Act
A website should make it easy for visitors to understand the offer, trust the business, and take the next step.
Data Replaces Guesswork
Decisions should be based on rankings, traffic, calls, sales, customer behavior, and other measurable results.
Customer Psychology Shapes Every Decision
Layout, wording, pricing, images, trust signals, and calls to action all influence how people respond.
Retail Experience Keeps the Strategy Practical
Marketing must account for staffing, inventory, margins, overhead, slow periods, and the daily pressure of running a business.
Results Matter More Than Activity
A long task list doesn’t mean a campaign is working. The work must lead to useful business outcomes.
Get Found
Reach customers while they’re actively searching for the products or services you provide.
Turn Attention Into Action
Give those customers enough clarity and confidence to call, visit, order, or make a purchase.
ROBERT PORTILLO HAS BEEN FEATURED IN
ONLINE ARTICLES
Robert has contributed to or been quoted in more than 300 articles about SEO, conversion optimization, customer behavior, website performance, and digital marketing.
Selected appearances include MarketingSherpa, Insight Online, and other marketing publications.
PODCASTS AND VIDEO SHOWS
Robert has discussed SEO, CRO, customer psychology, and business growth on industry podcasts and video programs.
Selected appearances include Pathmonk Presents, SEO This Week, and The SEO Video Show.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Robert has presented SEO and conversion optimization strategies at conferences and business events.
Selected appearances include SEO Rockstars, SEO Spring Training, the SEO Mastery Summit, and the Valley Economic Alliance.
CANNABIS WAS NEVER JUST
ANOTHER INDUSTRY TO ME
Cannabis wasn’t a niche I discovered in a marketing report. I’ve cared about the culture since 1988.
By 1990, I was reading High Times and supporting legalization through NORML. This was long before legal dispensaries, state licensing, or cannabis becoming a recognized retail industry.
When licensed dispensaries finally became real businesses, I saw how difficult it was for them to market themselves. Paid advertising was heavily restricted. Local competition was concentrated. Larger chains had more locations, bigger budgets, and deeper discounts.
Independent dispensaries were trying to build serious businesses in an industry that many marketing agencies still didn’t understand.
That combination of personal connection and professional experience made the work feel different from any other industry I had served.
THE CAMPAIGN I COULDN’T EXPLAIN
Then one dispensary campaign moved faster than I expected.
Within about 90 days, a new dispensary client began appearing in the Google Map Pack for searches
I’d expected to take much longer. Traffic increased, and revenue followed.
At first, I assumed it might be an unusual one time result. Then a similar pattern appeared
with another dispensary, and then another.
That forced me to study the sequence of the work, not just the individual tactics.
“At first, I thought it was chance. Then it happened again with another dispensary,
and again after that. I realized the strategies I was combining were producing unusually consistent
results.”
and again after that. I realized the strategies I was combining were producing unusually consistent
results.”
WHY DISPENSARIES BECAME THE WORK I KEEP COMING BACK TO
After years of working across many industries, I knew what normal SEO progress looked like. The dispensary campaigns were producing a different pattern.
Local search gaps were larger. Customer intent was clearer. Many competing websites were poorly structured. Generic agencies often treated dispensaries like plumbers, restaurants, or any other local business.
But dispensary customers behave differently. They compare menus, products, prices, reviews, delivery areas, promotions, and store locations before deciding where to buy.
I spent the next few years studying the strongest campaigns, testing the order of the work, and refining the process into a repeatable system. That process became the Dispensary Domination System™️.
Today, my focus is helping independent dispensaries compete against chains without pretending they have the same budgets, locations, or discounts.
“
Helping dispensaries isn’t a career pivot. It’s the work I wanted
to do all along. I just didn’t know the industry would catch up to
where my head already was.
”
MARKETING MILESTONES
2001: Founded PC Fixer in West Los Angeles.
2007: Began using SEO to grow his own businesses.
2012: Opened Tech Studio on Abbot Kinney Boulevard.
2014: Founded BroBex Marketing.
2019: Founded the CRO Junkies community.
2020: Presented at SEO Rockstars, SEO Spring Training, and the SEO Mastery Summit.
More Than 10,000 Clients Served: Worked with local businesses, regional companies, and major brands.
More Than 12,000 Community Members: Built one of the larger online communities focused on conversion optimization.
Dispensary Domination: Created a dispensary specific SEO process based on real campaigns and repeated testing.
MARKETING MILESTONES
2001:
Founded PC Fixer in West Los Angeles.
2007:
Began using SEO to grow his own businesses.
2012:
Opened Tech Studio on Abbot Kinney Boulevard.
2014:
Founded BroBex Marketing.
2019:
Founded the CRO Junkies community.
2020:
Presented at SEO Rockstars, SEO Spring Training, and the SEO Mastery Summit.
More Than 10,000 Clients Served:
Worked with local businesses, regional companies, and major brands.
More Than 12,000 Community Members:
Built one of the larger online communities focused on conversion optimization.
Dispensary Domination:
Created a dispensary specific SEO process based on real campaigns and repeated testing.
PERSONAL LIFE
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where I still live with my wife and two sons.
Outside work, I spend time making music, skateboarding, mountain biking, hiking, gardening, cooking, and reading. I have a home studio filled with synthesizers and guitars, and my taste in music ranges from The Pixies to Mozart.
I’ve been skateboarding for more than 30 years and still ride local skate parks. I also mountain bike with my family and spend as much time outdoors as possible.
The curiosity that led me to write about electronics in seventh grade never found an off switch. I’m still reading, testing ideas, building things, fixing things, and trying to understand what other people walk past without noticing.
The work and the hobbies aren’t separate. Both come from paying attention to small details and learning how different parts fit together.
AI INSIGHTS
AI-Powered Client Review Sentiment Analysis:
Based on 21 verified reviews
SEO Expertise
95% positive • 7 mentions
95% positive • 7 mentions
Conversion Rate Optimization
92% positive • 8 mentions
92% positive • 8 mentions
Outstanding Results
94% positive • 6 mentions
94% positive • 6 mentions
Highly Professional
90% positive • 5 mentions
90% positive • 5 mentions
Easy to Work With
88% positive • 4 mentions
88% positive • 4 mentions
Increased Rankings
85% positive • 4 mentions
85% positive • 4 mentions
Results-Driven
88% positive • 4 mentions
88% positive • 4 mentions
Fresh Ideas
82% positive • 3 mentions
82% positive • 3 mentions
Industry Knowledge
85% positive • 4 mentions
85% positive • 4 mentions
Great Value
80% positive • 3 mentions
80% positive • 3 mentions
Marketing Excellence
87% positive • 3 mentions
87% positive • 3 mentions
Responsive Team
86% positive • 2 mentions
86% positive • 2 mentions
Clear Communication
84% positive • 2 mentions
84% positive • 2 mentions
Strategic Approach
89% positive • 2 mentions
89% positive • 2 mentions
Dedicated Support
83% positive • 2 mentions
83% positive • 2 mentions
Traffic to my website and conversion to clients is really high! I’m so busy I’ve had to hire more staff.
The team at BroBex are one of the best in the industry.
They really know what they are doing!
Robert is a master of his craft.