Reduced Small Business Risks by Regaining Website, Domain, and Marketing Tool Control
About this Business
Client Type
Architectural firm with under five employees
Goal
Increase website traffic through better SEO and LLM visibility
Technologies
WordPress, GoDaddy domains and email, Google suite
The Small Business Challenge
Started with Brand and SEO optimization
A small architectural firm joined Ready, Plan, Grow! to learn to strengthen their brand presence and improve SEO performance. Their goal was to increase traffic to drive sales.
What started as a simple optimization project revealed a much larger problem: they did not actually own or control their website, domain, or analytics data.
When we accessed the backend, we found:
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Outdated WordPress core, PHP version, and plugins creating major security risks
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The main admin login under the vendor’s name, not the business owner’s
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A theme that had not been updated, breaking layouts and functionality
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A misconfigured SSL certificate that left the site insecure
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A GoDaddy domain registered to an inactive email address, requiring recovery support
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Google Analytics and Search Console created under the vendor’s accounts, leaving the client without data access
These risks left the business paying $500 a month for a site that was slow, unsafe, and technically not theirs.
Risks
High level small business risks
Website and Technical: High Risk
(Impact: Immediate threat to security and ownership)
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Risks:
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Website tied to a 3rd party vendor account with outdated WordPress, PHP, and plugins. Simple site updates were taking weeks.
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Blog and portfolio pages contained old template code that slowed performance and hurt SEO.
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SSL was broken, making the site appear unsafe.
Resolved:
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Moved hosting to a business-owned SiteGround account, saving almost $400 per month in hosting fees. Took back control of site updates.
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Updated all software, removed legacy code,
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Fixed SSL, added caching, and set up backups for long-term security.
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Medium level small business risks
Marketing Operations: Medium Risk
(Impact: Blocked visibility into marketing performance and sales data)
Risk:
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Google Analytics and Search Console were created under the vendor’s Google account, blocking access to reports.
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Merchant Center was missing.
Resolved:
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Re-established GA4 and Search Console under the business owner’s email with full reporting access and SEO monitoring.
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Merchant Center setup and product upload completed.
Lower level small business risks
Content: Low-to-Medium Risk
(Impact: Reduced visibility and credibility in search results)
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Risks:
Blog content was outdated and filled with code from an old WordPress theme, slowing load times and hurting readability.
Resolved:
Rewrote and optimized content for SEO and LLM discovery. Established a publishing cadence of four posts per month and created cornerstone pages for ongoing growth.
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Commerce Visibility: Low Risk
(Impact: Missed marketing opportunities, low exposure)
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Risk:
Merchant Center not connected, limiting exposure for potential projects and listings.
Resolved:
Merchant Center configured under the business owner’s account with sixteen products awaiting review.
Results
After the technical recovery and SEO rebuild, the firm’s online presence was stronger, faster, and fully under their control.
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Hosting costs dropped from $500 to $45 per month
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Page load speed improved by more than 50%
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The site is now secure, backed up, and easy to manage
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Google Analytics and Search Console data show accurate traffic and engagement
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All logins, domains, and tools are centralized under the business owner’s email
Most importantly, the firm now owns everything tied to its digital presence. They can scale confidently with us or independently, knowing their systems are secure and built for growth.
You can run a simple check today:
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Look up your domain registration. Is it under your business email?
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Log into your website. Are you listed as the main admin?
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Review your hosting. Do you pay the provider directly?
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Check your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts. Are they in your login?
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Keep one secure list of all accounts and logins.
Free membership includes your risk assessment. If you cannot answer “yes” to all five, join our community to find out what needs fixing.
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We offer office hours so that you get help when you need it.
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.
