The Client
A Managed IT And Cybersecurity Firm In San Diego
An SEO agency based in Utah brought us in to run white label link building for one of their clients, a managed IT and cybersecurity provider in San Diego, delivered entirely under the agency’s brand. The agency kept the relationship. We ran the program.
They came in with a solid service reputation but a thin organic footprint. Search was not sending them buyers. The category terms that matter, the ones a business owner types when they realize they need help, sat far outside the first page. That was the gap to close.
The Challenge
Good Reputation, Invisible In Search
At kickoff in February, the site pulled fewer than 300 organic visits a month and held a Domain Rating of 27. The high value cybersecurity terms were parked on page five, six, and seven. Traffic was flat, not falling, but flat is a slow death when your competitors are moving.
There was also cleanup to do first. A backlink audit flagged 96 toxic referring domains dragging on the profile. We disavowed them before adding anything new, which is why the referring domain count actually dipped in month one. You do not build on a cracked foundation. You fix it, then you build.
The Strategy
Fix The Base, Then Earn The Links
Four moving parts, run in sequence so each one made the next one land harder. Nothing went live without the client seeing it first.
01
Foundation
Analytics, Tag Manager, and Search Console set up clean. A full technical audit, schema across every page type, blog URL migration with proper redirects, internal linking, and the 96-domain toxic backlink disavow.
02
Content
A quarterly calendar, a pillar blog and three supporting posts every month built on AI-focused keyword research, plus optimization and keyword mapping across 27 service and landing pages so they matched real search intent.
03
Links
Ten guest posts a month on relevant sites at DA 30 plus and DA 40 plus, three community mentions a month, local citations and NAP work, and outreach on existing brand mentions. Relevance first, volume second.
04
Control
Every link plan, page outline, and anchor list went to the client for approval before it shipped. No surprise links, no off-brand content. The client stayed in the driver seat the whole way through.
The Results
Traffic Up Roughly 8x In Five Months
Once the cleanup was done and the links started compounding, the curve bent hard. Here is what moved between February and July, straight from Ahrefs.
+295
REFERRING DOMAINS, +107%
From 276 at kickoff to 571 by July, after the toxic profile was cleaned out first.
8x
ORGANIC TRAFFIC, +737%
Monthly organic visits climbed from 293 to 2,453 across the five-month window.
27→35
DOMAIN RATING, +8 POINTS
Authority moved up a full eight points as clean, relevant links replaced the junk.
Referring Domains
Feb to Jul 2026 (Ahrefs)
276 at kickoff
571 by Jul
Monthly Organic Traffic
Feb to Jul 2026 (Ahrefs)
293 at kickoff
2,453 by Jul
Keyword Wins
Page Five To The Top Five
These are the commercial category terms that bring buyers, not brand searches. Every one of them started outside the top 40 and finished on page one, several at number one. Search volumes are US monthly figures from Ahrefs.
Keyword
Monthly Searches
Was
Now
cybersecurity solutions
7,000
#67
#4
cyber security solutions
5,100
#69
#6
it security service
1,300
#48
#1
cyber security solution
1,000
#72
#3
cyber protection solutions
900
#81
#1
solutions for cyber security
600
#53
#1
Why It Worked
Sequence Beat Volume
A lot of programs bolt links onto a broken site and wonder why nothing moves. This one worked because the order was right. Clean the profile, fix the technical base, sharpen the pages, then point authority at them. By the time the links landed, the pages were ready to catch the lift.
- Cleanup first. 96 toxic domains disavowed before a single new link was built.
- Relevance over reach. Guest posts at DA 30 and 40 plus on sites that actually fit the niche.
- Pages made ready. 27 pages optimized and mapped so links had somewhere strong to point.
- Client in control. Every plan approved before it went live, so nothing drifted off-brand.
Stan Ventures
Want Numbers Like These For Your Client?
We build white-label link building programs for SEO agencies and brands. Pre-approved domains, real relevance, and a cadence that compounds. You keep the client relationship. We handle the links.
Book A Strategy Call
Dileep Thekkethil is the Director of Marketing at Stan Ventures and an SEMRush certified SEO expert. With over a decade of experience in digital marketing, Dileep has played a pivotal role in helping global brands and agencies enhance their online visibility. His work has been featured in leading industry platforms such as MarketingProfs, Search Engine Roundtable, and CMSWire, and his expert insights have been cited in Google Videos. Known for turning complex SEO strategies into actionable solutions, Dileep continues to be a trusted authority in the SEO community, sharing knowledge that drives meaningful results.
