Everyone in real estate says they’ve got a “secret weapon.” Neil Patel promises you the world if you only tweak a meta tag. Random SEO gurus whisper about canonical domains and keyword stuffing like they’ve unearthed the Lost Ark.

Meanwhile, John Medina and his team have been buying homes for cash all across the Bay Area and Los Angeles – Long Beach, Palos Verdes, Santa Monica, you name it – for years. They’ve outlasted multiple SEO vendors by simply doing the work: looking distressed sellers in the eye, listening to their stories, and closing deals quickly and fairly.

We jumped on a Halloween Zoom call (October 31 2025) to catch up. John, Rick and Brian were grinning, raising their hands like school kids, thrilled about how far they’d come. You’ll see the screenshot below; it’s not staged. These guys were literally in their Long Beach office on a Friday afternoon, not at a “virtual coworking retreat.”

That Zoom call is a microcosm of why John Medina Buys Houses ranks so well. Sure, they appear for 44 keywords at the moment – everything from “sell my house fast Los Angeles” to “we buy houses Burbank”. But their success has nothing to do with black‑hat tricks. It’s because they embody E‑E‑A‑T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Google’s own quality‑rater guidelines make this clear: search systems look for content that demonstrates these qualities (Creating Helpful, Reliable, People-First Content).

Creating Helpful Creating Helpful, Reliable, People-First Content

The extra “E” (Experience) was added in 2023 to combat all the AI‑generated junk floating around. Real experience matters. John and his crew have it in spades – you can’t fake the look on a homeowner’s face when you save them from foreclosure or buy their house without nickel‑and‑diming them.

For years these guys were led down rabbit holes by so‑called experts. The consensus among the SEOs was always: “If you just fix this WordPress setting, the leads will roll in.” Yet when Google rolled out E‑E‑A‑T, those technical tricks were exposed for what they are: distractions. The real “ranking factor” is your reputation, as reflected by your actual customers.

John Medina Buys Houses has testimonials from real people in Long Beach, Palos Verdes, and Burbank. They show up at local events. They answer the phone. They are the community. That’s why they’ve been around since 2015 and have a BBB accreditation – because they do what they say they’ll do.

So instead of burning thousands on the next SEO “hack,” take a page from their playbook:

• Show your face. Publish real photos and videos of you and your clients (like the Zoom shot below).
• Tell real stories. Forget AI‑generated fluff. People trust real homeowners talking about how you solved their problems.
• Cite your mentors. Perry Marshall’s 80/20 rule still applies. Focus your time on the 20 % of activities (like building relationships) that drive 80 % of your results.

By living this out, John Medina Buys Houses isn’t just ranking better – they’re building a durable brand. They’ve outlasted the fad‑chasing gurus because they understand the simple truth: digital marketing is just a mirror. If you care for your customers offline, Google will reflect that online.

The screenshot below from our Halloween call captures John, Rick and Brian waving from their Long Beach office. Below that is a peek at their current keyword performance. Both visuals are proof that there are real people behind this business and real results behind the numbers.