Case Studies

Confidentiality is a cornerstone of our service. The following case studies are intended to be anonymous in nature to protect our clients. All information in the following case studies are real examples of engagements and projects we take on daily at sitejet.

 

Case Study – Website Security

A visit from the Secret Service can be a pretty frightening event. In this case study a company president called and stated the Secret Service had visited their office and stated there were significant credit card disclosures occurring. Not a fun day but he was referred to the right agency!

Within one hour access was obtained to the problematic website, the malicious code was identified and removed using a compare against repository code and production code. The source of the disclosure was eliminated.

Eliminating the source to stop the bleeding was the first step after backing up all evidence in secure storage. The next step was identifying how the security was breached. Log files were analyzed and it was determined that the management portal was not restricting access from the Internet. That problem was resolved and we were on to the next step.

Now that we understood the root cause for the malicious code upload, the next step was force strong passwords and eliminate any unused accounts. This was completed and within three hours we had eliminated the source, closed the hole, enforced some additional security measures, and the business was able to resume business. This was the easy part.

The hard part was making sure this never happens again. Our team analyzed the current platform, updates, tech stack software versions, and then put together a full remediation plan to ensure a breach and disclosure would not occur again in the future.

The remediation plan was shared with the Secret Service, Card Issuing Brands, and the Payment Processor. All were satisfied that immediate action was taken and a solid plan for future occurrences was in place with an acceptable timeline of execution and managed by qualified personnel.

The sitejet team managed the execution of the plan, advised on communication with the customers, and eliminated the possibility of a credit card disclosure by implementing a token-based payment system. The end result was the company was back in business with no fines assessed due to the quick reaction, the strong remediation plan, and updated policies were written and distributed to personnel.

Case Study – Banned by Google

Imagine going from 41% of your traffic coming from organic to banned by Google. Nearly all sitejet clients come from referrals from colleagues and or current clients. When this referral came through, the business was facing a significant challenge.

Small businesses that break through the barriers and begin to produce sustainable revenue cannot afford a major mistake just as they near the threshold of owning an established business. This client called and stated my entire business is at risk as strong organic was allowing for aggressive prospecting in the paid channels which in turn was driving the growth.

At sitejet we do not turn down the challenges. Many agencies would tag this prospective client as extreme high risk not only from a financial perspective, but from a reputation perspective. The different with sitejet is our reputation is we take on the impossible. In this case we started with identifying the root cause for the ban and worked backwards to recovery.

The source of the issue was easy to find. A SEO agency promised great results and they delivered, but the how is always where the rubber meets the road. The agency had paid numerous sites that were already well known by Google as paid link exchanges to post links. At the time Google was cracking down on paid links aggressively and had just rolled out the disavow tool.

Using the disavow tool and back link analysis we identified all of the bad links and we began executing an aggressive content marketing strategy to garner true organic links while we worked the bad links. Once the bad links were disavowed and other black hat issues were removed to include cloaking, we submitted a request for a review from Google.

Google accepted our clean up and allowed the website back into their index. The positions of course were dramatically different. We stayed the course and built an enviable SEO program out that captured the attention of a large eCommerce company and within three years of a ban the company was successfully acquired.

Did I mention they had a credit card disclosure at the same time of the ban? Yes they did. We handled both and the owners realized their dream of building a successful business and secured their futures with the acquisition.

Case Study – Shopify Migration

Platform migrations can be very risky as it is very common for the bulk of the URLs to change. Our team has completed numerous platform migrations and we have compiled a checklist to ensure the project completes and a celebration can ensue.

The key to to migrations is understanding it is not a SEO migration where you need to retain SEO value…that is assumed. The focus is maintaining paths. We refer to this as Adopt a Highway. Each channel driving traffic to the website is essentially a highway and we manage each of those sections of highway to ensure it is cleanly migrated. Affiliates, SEO, Paid Search, and Direct traffic sources are all impacted by the move.

For our client we tailored the checklist to their migration as each platform does have idiosyncrasies that must be accommodated. Shopify has a rigid URL structure, no access to robots.txt, but handles redirects flawlessly. We completed the checklist and then passed on the requirements to an agency handling the website build. Some projects we handle the end to end with the website build and migration, in other cases we add value to the process by ensuring the agency doing the build adheres to all requirements.

Our client successfully migrated and the following month their SEO revenue jumped 151% driven by the clean migration and the additional SEO enhancements we had added to the website build. Many migrations have a bit of a dip and then Google digests and recovers. With our process we provide multiple signals to Google to encourage Google to update their index quickly. The process works for high and low traffic websites.

Case Study – New Product to Market

Bringing a new product to market can be very difficult with a limited budget. At sitejet we tailor our strategies to the budget of the client. The reality is we thrive on assisting new business owners in realizing their dream as we are living ours.

A referral came in from an existing client about a relative that was launching a new product that originally she was making for friends and family and was encouraged to make it a business. The key to launching any product is exposure. If you have a great product, exposure from a few angles can build a foundation for growth.

The foundation for growth in this case was start with selling on Amazon. Amazon is commonly looked at as a retail marketplace, but the reality is it is one of largest marketing platforms on the planet. We assisted in optimizing the product listings and then began phase two of our exposure program.

Phase two of our program for new product launches is getting an audience in front of the product. Using a proprietary approach, we identify websites where content yields the highest return in terms of impressions. We were lucky our client had a natural knack for writing compelling content about her products and her philosophy. This made phase three much easier to launch.

Phase three is to establish a web presence. When a company is just starting out and they are funding their own business, they cannot afford to bring on eCommerce personnel right away. Our strategy was to create a web presence and educational resource to provide a place to engage customers that drew interest from our other activities. On top of the web presence a Social presence was created on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Our team managed the posts leveraging the natural writing ability of the owner.

The end result is after seven years the product and company is still growing strong. The owner is enjoying a work from home situation that allows for more time with her children while satisfying her entrepreneurial spirit by building her own brand. Another success and a very rewarding engagement for our team.

Case Study – Investor Due Diligence Project

Our team members have all worked in startup environments where investors have placed an investment in the company. To date every startup engagement with an investment has resulted in a solid return for the investor. With this experience, investors turn to sitejet to perform due diligence on the strength of the business typically focusing on the marketing channels and technology.

A website to the normal visitor may appear to be in good shape. The website may function correctly, but how much time and expense is involved in maintaining the platform? What technology is in use? Will the website require an overhaul or a new platform in the near future? Are there security risks that even the website owner does not know exist? All of these answers require an experienced CTO capable of digging into the what is referred to as tech debt.

In this engagement we evaluated the current marketing channel performance, the potential value of the website history, the technology in place, and provided our client with a breakdown of the good, the bad, and the ugly so to speak. We uncovered serious issues such as a platform that was no longer supported with security updates, no security protocols in place at the company, an inexperienced development team, and a business dependent solely on paid marketing.

The end result in this case was that the investor decided not to invest as the expense and time to bring the business up to acceptable standards and align to a marketing mix that would provide profitable, sustainable growth did not align with the investor’s objectives. At sitejet we work on both sides of the equation. If you are looking for investors or a potential buyer for your business, we can conduct due diligence and establish an action plan to drive to your end goal. If you are an investor, we can provide the same due diligence service and help you to avoid the trap of investing in a business where the bulk of the investment is tied up in bringing the business up to acceptable standards instead of funding marketing budgets to fuel growth. 

Case Study – Trademark Infringement & Reputation Event

Preparing for a brand reputation issue online proactively is of course the best way to prevent a bad day. Most companies today do not have a strategy and action plan in place to handle a reputation event. In this case study we review a blatant trademark infringement and how we guided the client through resolving the issue.

The first step in a trademark infringement is to send a cease and desist letter to the violator. In the case of a domain, the domain violating the mark has to be in use before it is a true violation. Sometimes the violators are truly unaware that they are violating trademark law and they respond appropriately to the request in the letter to avoid future litigation. When a violator ignores those requests, actions must be taken even if you do not have the legal resources to litigate.

Our client has an established brand that was in use and demonstrated on their website. The domain included the trademark, and the trademark was located on every page of their website. The violator registered social handles with the trademark, leveraged hashtags with the trademark, and launched a website on a domain that was violating the trademark. A clear case of infringement, but the violator refused to remove the offending content and domain.

Litigation is a last resort. It is a costly process and depending on the location and violator you may be going after a business that may not be solvent. After considerable expense, you win your case and fees and damages are assigned, but you never receive payment. The process takes a long time and the expense again is high. Luckily there are other actions you can take that can have near immediate results.

The first step we took for our client was to obtain the registration information for their trademark and contact all Social channels through their forms for submitting trademark infringement. Facebook is fast…the offending content was removed in under 8 hours. Other channels take more time but act expeditiously when it is a clear violation.

After the Social channels were handled we walked the client through the WIPO process for filing a UDRP complaint. There is a cost associated with this complaint, but it is far less than litigation and the decisions and actions from the decision occur quickly. This process is used to force the violator to cease the use of the trademark in domain registrations. Once the decision was made in our client’s favor we submitted the documentation to the registrar, web host, and to the search engines to request removal.

The violator was also utilizing Google Adwords to capitalize on our client’s mark and we walked the client through filing a trademark infringement and how to allow certain partners to continue use in the advertising platform.

The last step for our client was to clean up the affiliate and content sites that were unaware the violator was advertising while violating trademark law. This process required tracking communications and sending cease and desist notices to all the website owners. In these cases we assume good intent in our communication until the website owner refuses to cooperate. For websites that refused to cooperate, the hosting company was provided the UDRP documentation along with the trademark registration details and the hosting accounts were suspended.

Protecting your brand online is not the last step when launching a business. Commit to your business and secure trademarks early in the process of launching the business. Prepare your action plan for violators and defend your brand. If you need assistance, we are an email or phone call away!