Case Studies

We have three case studies to share on this page. At the forefront of our findings, 2 of the 3 cases center around Wordpress. Many owners and leaders have Wordpress sites with plug-ins, but many business owners and organizations don't have the time to ensure that plug-ins are properly updated. Unfortunately, Wordpress sites are also really prone to get hacked by malware. Pismo Web has helped businesses update their plug-ins, add Google Analytics tracking and manage their content. Furthermore, Pismo Web helped an organization's website with removing the "Harmful Software Warning" red alert for their domain/hosting server in November 2025. There were 2 malicious files added by an unknown entity that had to be removed on the root level. We were able to get it back to safety measures.

If you encountered the same issue with your Wordpress site, scroll down to read our Case Study #2 below to learn how to resolve it.

Pismo Web Case Study #2:

Wordpress "Harmful Software Warning" from Google Browser

Also Known As Malicious Threat on Wordpress

On November 5, 2025, an organization's Wordpress website that an organization hired overseas to create got hacked by malware and all users had trouble entering the website without seeing the "Harmful Software Warning" that Google browser would show first. It created a very unpleasant experience and risk to all involved. After 10 days, Pismo Web was able to find the root of the issue that was infected on their Wordpress website.

How we fixed it in 5 steps:

• We needed access to the Wordpress main dashboard log-in and where Wordpress was being hosted (their server). In this case, their hosting was served by Godaddy. So, the client had to provide access to two different places for access. Sometimes this is harder to get than expected as the clients often don't remember where they store their website log-in information.

• After getting access, we had to remove the malicious lines of code from two files: the functions.php file and the header.php file using the organization's Wordpress log-in.

• Then, we had to log-in to their Godaddy server via SSH terminal connection to find and delete two malicious files that were maliciously added within the last 2 weeks under their Wordpress root directories. This took a couple of hours to narrow down because we want to be sure which files are the right ones to delete. Godaddy has integrated an amazing Al chat tool on their website that is, in my opinion, better than ChatGPT and Gemini for Godaddy servers. This makes sense though.

• Afterwards, I checked the user list in the Wordpress and saw a suspicious user called "wordpresslicensed" and deleted that backdoor access. This is a known and common issue with Wordpress and this threat typically uses that username to trick Wordpress site owners and continue to hack.

• After doing all of those things, on Nov 15, 2025, we were able to get their Wordpress website back in order and Google passed our safety check when we submitted a final request to Google Search Console. It is imperative to have Google Search Console connecting with your website as soon you have your website live in order to connect directly with Google in this way. It was a good day when we were able help them out!

Pismo Web Case Study #3:

No Response on Contact Forms

Client thought there was not enough traffic.

In January 2026, a client was worried that their organic listing had fallen to the wayside and that their website was not indexed properly as before because they were not getting any responses on their 'Contact Us' forms for a while. Many websites have a form on their website that gives users a way to contact them. Usually, the business owner of the website gets an email notification on any real-time submission. The client thought that they were dropped on SEO ranking and that their website was not getting enough traffic because they were not getting an alert for a while from their website's form. After we reviewed their Brevo account, which is what they use to receive email alerts about a 'Contact Us' form submission, we found out that the email they used to get submission forms (which was a gmail account, by the way), was not subscribed to get "transactional" emails. After I checked that box to allow this gmail account that they use to get alerts about any submission to their Contact Us form on their website, they started getting submission alerts right away! So, what you may think is not enough traffic, maybe something that you need to look further into under "settings", if you're using Brevo or even MailChimp, to send and receive email submissions from any form.

In my opinion, if you're using a CMS, you can use the default form that is included in your hosting plan, without having to pay extra for Brevo or MailChimp if you have no use for online email campaigning and is just interested in getting alerts for someone trying to contact you via a form. See my SEO tips if you're interested in finding ways to help your website rank higher in Google, organically.

DMARC and DKIM

Once we toggled that on for the client, there was a "hallelujah" moment and something as simple as a toggle "on" could fix an important concern like this one. The backlogged emails came flooding. However, that toggle "on" button won't stick unless you also create proper DMARC and DKIM records under your DNS to stay compliant for Brevo; so that your email domain continually receives these without issues. Fortunately, there are many documentations on the internet on how to do that so that any marketing manager can look up on how to fix this. Pismo Web LLC would also be happy to assist you at our consulting rate.

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