Case Study: IT Consulting Meets SEO

Would like to share a case study on how IT Consulting can help in SEO projects.

Project Background & Challenges

When a client approach us to help with their objective on bringing in more sales from their website. We were acting as the “architect” to assist in the technical portion of the project. While the client already has a long-term contract with an SEO Agency.

However, after initial discovery session, they conveyed that their website was having below issues:

1. Website doesn’t seem to be working as intended.
2. Some elements were missing or behaving strangely.
3. Slow to load and time out sometimes.
4. Missing images sometimes.
5. Sometime content updates were not reflected on the site.

Website Audit

We went in to have a look, and also ran a website audit. We notice that:

1. The website foundation is very shaky, due to being worked on by multiple developer over several years.
2. Having outdated plugins and themes that was causing conflict. Many of these were redundant plugins with overlapping functions.
3. There’s also “cracked” or “nulled” version of pirated software full of vulnerabilities because they couldn’t be updated.
4. Website is on a hosting plan that is quite old with outdated specs and features. Which the value doesn’t justify for the cost.
5. Hosting provider support are limited and seem to be outsourced to a different time zone. Took at least 12 hours before any response.
6. There were no alternative channels of communication with support. To close the support ticket, they will just rectify the issue at hand with drastic solution without communication or feedback from the client.
7. Example of an issue that plugins wasn’t the root cause. The support still disabled all plugins and broke the website. But solve the ticket of “website cannot be access”. Assuming that a broken but loadable website counted as ‘resolved.’

Our Approach

Our job scope was to handle the technical part of the website. Therefore, we work on fixing the website’s issues as maintenance services. While also research the plugins, configure them accordingly and set it up as the new structure for their sales funnel.

Below are what we implemented for the client as website maintenance services.

1. Properly backup the whole website.
2. Assist the client to purchase proper licenses for all the “nulled” or “cracked” plugins.
3. Upgraded the WordPress Core, and updated the theme and plugins. Removing all the existing vulnerabilities.
4. Research and recommend a new hosting plan from a provider offering local support and a proper SLA.
5. Migrated the site to the new hosting, and configure the PHP for optimized performance.
6. Clean up all redundant plugins, and also replace abandoned plugins with new actively developed plugins.
7. Installed a suite of plugins for security, backups, and performance.
8. Rectifying all other issues from our audit on the website.

Our Finding

During this process of solidifying the foundation of the website. We actually notice that the client’s SEO agency appeared to have no activity in the WordPress backend.

This is very weird to us, because from our understanding from the client. They are quite happy with their SEO agency work. Some feedback they have as below:

1. When search for their targeted keywords, a lot of other websites show up and link back to them.
2. According to the SEO agency’s report, their target keywords consistently ranked in the top 10 and some are #1.
3. Seeing that the targeted keywords at top 10 is having a lot of “Results”.
4. There are actual enquiries coming in.

Since it wasn’t our job scope, and we wouldn’t want to intrude. We just let the client know our finding that the SEO Agency seldom login to WordPress backend.

There’s also no proper configuration done on the installed free SEO plugin. Along with no new articles, or any custom meta title, and meta description for any of the existing blog.

Client’s Confusion

After a few months, the client is gearing up for the next phase of their campaign. So, they were seeking our recommendation of plugin or features needed to support their new campaign.

However, they brought up some confusion they have about their website as below:

1. The sales enquiries coming through their website is getting lesser significantly.
2. Their SEO report they gotten is still showing their target keyword at top ranking, and “Results” is a lot still.

Identifying the SEO issues with Technical SEO Audit

We actually ran an SEO audit for the client website. It was not that great.

Then we also request to take a look at the Google Analytics and Google Search Console. To our surprise, the client had no access and had to request it from the SEO agency.

Meanwhile, we also requested to take a look at the monthly SEO report that the SEO agency sent to the client.

After looking at WordPress backend, Google Analytics, Google Search Console and the monthly SEO Report. We notice some red flags as below:

1. Still no activity on the SEO agency account at backend. Meaning no new blog, no meta title or description optimization, or any on-page optimization.
2. SEO Report showing top 10 ranking keywords for those keywords with just “Results” and “Position” column.
3. “Results” column data was not properly explained to the client. Client misunderstood that “Result” for a keyword is 45 million mean that there’s 45 million searches for that keyword. Indirectly thought that there’s high demand for that keyword which represent the client’s “product / service”.
4. The ranking data is correct, showing a most targeted keyword is ranked 1 ~ 5. However, the report’s data is NOT in a month range.
5. Meaning that the report cherry-picked data from a specific day in whole month, when those keywords are ranking at the top.
6. While for the rest of the month, the keyword is not at top 10 rank at all. And it was very low impression and traffic.
7. Most of the time, the client site never even shows up when that keyword is being searched.
8. A lot of backlinks from a lot of unrelated websites linking to the client’s targeted keyword page. Some website even having more than 1000 links to just that 1 page.

Clarifying the Situation

We don’t like to jump to conclusion, so we did clarify with the client, and also on what tasks the SEO agency is working on.

To our surprise, we were told that:

1. The SEO agency have their methods that cannot disclose to us.
2. They don’t need to login to the client website to do any SEO tasks.
3. Their strong USP is being able to get others website to link to the client’s website.
4. The client was lucky that when a Google Spam Update was being implemented, the wasn’t delisted.
5. The SEO Agency says that a lot of their client got impacted badly.

Since we gather all the information we needed, we have generated a finding report concluding that:

1. The SEO agency is just subscribed to a blog farm or backlink generating services. More than 90% of those backlinks were low domain authority and high in toxicity.
2. They don’t work on the website at all, so no new content, no proper SEO meta data, no on-page optimization and so on.
3. The client website impression wasn’t hit hard by Google Spam Update, but the actual CTR actually dropped to half of what it was before after that. That’s why the sales enquiries actually lessen.

Client’s Decision

Client after knowing what they are dealing with, started a new campaign for a new keyword with the SEO agency. They actually evaluated the tasks and approach of the agency this time.

After a few months, they are done with the agency due to:

1. The SEO agency still doesn’t work on the website, only requested the client’s staff to handle SEO metadata.
2. Backlinks generated from them is still not from quality or relevant sites and bringing in actual sales enquiries.
3. The website traffic got worst due to them ask the client’s staff to do the SEO meta data without recommending best practices and keywords.

Therefore, the client decided to terminate the contract with them.

Client’s Transition

The Client now is in progress of searching for new vendor in preparation for their new strategy campaign.

To avoid any conflict of interest. We didn’t offer our SEO services to them. Instead, we offered them our Vendor Vetting support under our IT Consulting services.

We are currently assisting the client by:

1. Sitting in on all meetings and discussions they have with potential new SEO agency.
2. Evaluating and assessing the capabilities of those SEO agencies.
3. Shortlisted, and discuss each agency’s pros and cons in their proposed approach.
4. Review any proposal or quotation received on:
   1. The job scope, and tasks.
   1. Pricing, value and the ROI.
   1. The SLA, along with the terms and conditions.
5. Making sure that SEO contract is with client’s best interest in mind.
6. Also monitoring and making sure that the appointed SEO agency is fulfilling their job scope, being transparent and truthful in their approach and reporting.

The client gave us feedback that they felt those potential vendors are being more grounded during meetings.

1. Not over promising things.
2. Being more transparent on the pricing.
3. Much detail in the job scope listed.
4. More explanation on their approach.

We are very glad to hear that, and hope that this case study can help other business owners understand how IT consulting can help in SEO projects.