Founded by brothers Jason and Toby Schulz, 5Tales prides itself on delivering real results.

“In truth, 5Tales exists to improve and grow other people’s businesses. Our strategies are designed to increase visibility and traffic while staying aligned with each client’s unique business goals.”

Like many agencies, they faced slow websites, unreliable support, and security issues from their previous host.

In our recent chat with 5Tales Director Jason Schulz, he shared how their team overcame these obstacles and found a solution that allowed them to expand their services. With faster speeds, stronger security, and a reliable support team, 5Tales could finally focus on what matters most—helping their clients grow.

Find out more about 5Tales’ journey to see if Kinsta’s Managed WordPress Hosting could be the perfect fit for you, just like it has been for them.

Snapshot

• Industry: Digital marketing agency
• Business size: 11 team members

Problem

“In the past, we had a lot of problems with our websites. They were slow, the hosting support team wasn’t very helpful, and our websites were infected with malware all the time.” –  Jason Schulz, Director at 5Tales

5Tales relied on multiple hosting providers, including WPX Hosting and WP Engine, but this approach wasn’t working. They were struggling with:

• Slow website speeds: Despite all their marketing efforts, slow load times frustrated clients and hurt the user experience.
• Unreliable hosting support: Every time an issue came up, getting help from their hosts was a challenge. Delayed responses and poor communication only made things worse.

Example of a malware error message

• Recurring malware infections: Their websites were frequently hit with malware, causing disruptions and putting their clients’ trust at risk.
• Resource drain: Schulz noted that 20% of each Account Manager’s time was spent dealing with hosting issues—time that could’ve been used for growth and innovation.

Client relationships were starting to feel the strain, and their reputation was at risk. They needed to find a solution—and fast—before these issues began to undermine the trust they’d worked so hard to build with their clients.

“When we started looking for a new web host, we had a few must-haves: fast website speeds, reliable support, easy migrations, an intuitive interface, and a secure platform. We didn’t want to need in-house expertise just to manage WordPress hosting. Kinsta checked all the boxes.” – Jason Schulz, Director at 5Tales

Solution

When 5Tales realized their hosting providers weren’t keeping up, they knew it was time to make a change. Eventually, they found Kinsta—and the difference was immediate. 5Tales found a partner that delivered everything they needed and more: better speed, stronger security, and reliable support.

“Since migrating our website over to Kinsta, we noticed an immediate improvement in our website uptime – we no longer faced the issue of our website going down. In addition, our website security has improved, and we have not experienced a website hack since.”

“The team at Kinsta was able to raise and repair any suspicious activity. They also helped restore a number of problematic websites as part of the migration.”

Key features loved by 5Tales

• Speed powered by Google Cloud: Kinsta’s use of Google Cloud’s fastest server on its premium infrastructure ensures fast load times across all sites. This helped 5Tales deliver a better experience for users, no matter where they were located.
• 24/7/365 expert support team: Unlike their previous hosting providers, Kinsta’s support team is available around the clock. The chat feature makes it easy to contact support, whether it’s 3 AM or 3 PM.

“The Kinsta feature that was really useful for day-to-day tasks was the chat feature, which lets you easily reach and communicate with the support team. Team members can log into their accounts, talk to a Kinsta support person, and resolve an issue quickly.”

• Free, unlimited migrations and malware cleanup: Kinsta managed the migration of over 100 WordPress sites without any downtime. Its expert team also took care of removing malware, which was a major pain point for 5Tales.
• Built-in efficiency tools: The MyKinsta dashboard includes features like bulk updates, automated plugin notifications, and a Search and Replace Tool. These tools helped 5Tales manage their sites more efficiently, saving them valuable time on routine tasks.

“There’s also a simple feature where we can update plugins and get automated notifications if there are any bugs. Plus, our SEO team likes the search and replace tool that Kinsta offers.”

The WordPress Hosting Tools page in MyKinsta.

• Enhanced security with Cloudflare integrations: Kinsta’s integration with Cloudflare added an extra layer of protection, with features like a Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS protection. This kept 5Tales’ sites secure and free from attacks. Additionally, Kinsta’s commitment to internationally recognized security standards ensured that the websites were protected at the highest levels.

“Since moving to Kinsta, we haven’t had a single website hack. That’s been a huge relief for us and our clients.”

Results

Seamless migration of 100+ WordPress sites

5Tales migrated over 100 WordPress websites to Kinsta using Kinsta’s free migration service. What could have been a lengthy, complex process was completed in just over a month with zero downtime.

During the migration, Kinsta’s team also cleaned up any malware or website issues so the 5Tales team didn’t have to worry about lingering security problems or site errors. This seamless migration process saved 5Tales time and resources, and they can now refocus on their core business.

“It helps to have a team that supports you 24/7/365. The Kinsta team was able to detect and repair any suspicious activity. They also helped restore a number of problematic sites as part of the migration.”

But the real value came after the migration. Kinsta’s speed and security features made a huge difference for 5Tales’ clients.

Higher search engine rankings

Hosting may not be the most well-known component of SEO, but it’s an important one. Your site needs to function well to be favored by Google, and your hosting company can help with that (or prevent it from happening).

Kinsta’s infrastructure is built for speed and security, and these features directly impacted 5Tales’ client success:

• Site speed improvements: Kinsta’s use of Google Cloud’s high-performance network significantly improved load times for all 5Tales’ client websites. Faster sites lead to better user experience, higher engagement, and better SEO rankings. Google rewards fast-loading sites with better search positions, and this speed boost played a big part in driving more traffic to 5Tales’ client sites.
• SSL implementation: Kinsta provided free SSL certificates for all of 5Tales’ client websites. SSL not only protects user data but is also a key factor in Google’s ranking algorithm. With SSL in place, 5Tales’ clients gained more trust from users and saw improved visibility in search results.
• 99.9% uptime guarantee: Uptime is crucial for both user experience and SEO, as search engines favor sites that remain consistently available. Kinsta offers a Service Level Agreement (SLA)  backed uptime guarantee, as well as site monitoring every 3 minutes (or about 480 checks a day). This level of support gave the 5Tales team peace of mind and was a key factor in their ability to maintain 99.9% uptime.

These gave 5Tales the tools they needed for their clients to rank higher on search engines and to deliver impressive results:

• One boutique client experienced a 152% increase in Google traffic and a 2,914% boost in keyword visibility.
• A home maintenance service now ranks #1, #2, or #3 on Google for 26 valuable search terms.
• A family law firm saw a 123% increase in traffic from Google and a 1,747% surge in keyword visibility.
• A chiropractor clinic achieved a 71% rise in prospective patients from Google and a 1,048% jump in keyword visibility.

Improved productivity and client trust

One of the biggest changes for the 5Tales team was how much time and resources they saved by moving to Kinsta.

Before Kinsta, the 5Tales team spent too much time dealing with downtime, malware, and hosting issues. This not only drained their resources but also took a toll on their relationships with their clients.

“We used to have to apologize to clients for our hosting issues, which made them less trusting of our other services.”

“But since we switched to Kinsta, we’ve saved a lot of time in our team because we no longer have to deal with issues like malware and website crashes. This has allowed us to focus on other tasks. Additionally, customer satisfaction has increased as the website performs much better.”

“Now, we have plans to include more detailed information about the Kinsta difference in the proposals we send to prospective clients.”

Conclusion

For 5Tales, moving to Kinsta transformed how their agency operated. With a seamless migration of over 100 WordPress sites, faster load times, 99.9% uptime, and robust security, Kinsta solved the problems holding them back.

No more downtime, no more malware issues, and no more waiting for support. In the end, Kinsta became a partner that empowered them to focus on what really matters: delivering great service and driving business growth.

The post 5Tales drives up to 152% more traffic and 2,914% higher visibility for 100+ client sites appeared first on Kinsta®.

“We’ve made it our mission to be the best in the business. We use our in-depth knowledge of the industry and cutting-edge AI tools to guarantee our clients get the top-notch service they deserve.”

In over 16 years, they remain dedicated to their mission. Adapting Social’s team of experts has increased revenue, search engine visibility, website traffic, brand identity, and social media following for thousands of brands and businesses.

“Our team of design and marketing experts urgently implement our strategies for you so you can focus on your business, while we focus on building a brand your target market will remember. We help our clients become the next and best versions of themselves.”

But even the best agencies face challenges. For Adapting Social, those challenges came from their previous web hosting providers. Their client sites were plagued by recurring downtime, slow-loading pages, and security vulnerabilities.

In our conversation with Christopher Iafelice, Chief Operating Officer at Adapting Social, he shares how Kinsta’s Managed WordPress Hosting solved these issues and how it empowered them to deliver even better results for their clients.

Get inspired by their success story and see what Kinsta can do for you!

Snapshot

• Industry: Digital marketing and design Agency
• Business size: 50 employees

The problem

Adapting Social worked with several hosting providers before discovering Kinsta.

Prior to discovering Kinsta, we’d worked with a few different hosting providers, including GoDaddy, BlueHost, and Network Solutions.

Unfortunately, Adapting Social kept running into problems that made it difficult for them to provide their customers with the smooth online experience they deserved.

We had to do something. We were constantly dealing with website downtime, which meant lost traffic and potential lost revenue for our clients.

• Frequent downtime is the #1 problem: Recurring downtime was the most frustrating issue for the Adapting Social team. The worst part? These outages were often unpredictable and long.

“It was disheartening to witness the frustration of our clients as their websites were repeatedly taken offline. This undermines their trust in us and hinders their ability to reach their business goals.”

• Vulnerable client sites: The security vulnerabilities in these hosting platforms left client websites exposed to potential attacks.

“We were reluctant to host client websites on these platforms because of their unreliable performance and potential negative impact on our reputation. We realized that we weren’t just having trouble ourselves but also that, because of all these limitations, we couldn’t provide the best service to our clients.”

• Complex site management with no server control: “On another note, not being able to control where our servers were and having no way to oversee all our client websites at once just made things more complicated.”

Staying wasn’t an option anymore as these website issues were hurting their bottom line. So Adapting Social’s Creative Director, Caitlin Morris, led the search for a better solution.

“Caitlin and I did a lot of research and evaluated many hosting providers. We were looking for a solution that would meet the needs of both our clients and our team.”

“We needed a hosting solution that matched our commitment to excellence and gave us the confidence to offer hosting services to our clients. One that was reliable, performed well, and kept our clients’ websites safe and secure. That’s when we discovered Kinsta.“

The solution

Adapting Social’s search for a reliable hosting provider led them to Kinsta, a platform that quickly proved to be the ideal solution for their needs.

Kinsta really stood out for us because of its great features that make it easier to manage websites and make our workflows more efficient.

Key features and their impact

• Free staging environment: Each WordPress install at Kinsta can have its own free WordPress staging environment, completely separate from the live production site.

“The fully-powered staging environments let us safely test updates and changes before deploying them to live sites, which helps us avoid errors or downtime.”

• One-click backups: Kinsta provides daily automatic WordPress backups, as well as system-generated backups for all user sites, including Adapting Social’s websites. These backups, along with each site’s manual backups, are available as restore points in MyKinsta.

“One-click backup creation and restoration gave us peace of mind knowing that we could easily revert to a previous state if needed.”

• MyKinsta dashboard: MyKinsta is an integrated, single intuitive dashboard for deploying, hosting, and managing all Kinsta-hosted web projects. It saved Adapting Social the time and effort of managing plugins, themes, and user access directly from one place.

“Being able to update plugins and themes directly within the MyKinsta dashboard saved us a lot of time and effort. Another great thing about MyKinsta is that you can add as many users as you want and control what each one can access. This helped us work better with our clients.”

• Global CDN and free SSL: Kinsta partnered with Cloudflare, an HTTP/2 and IPv6-enabled content delivery network with 200+ locations, to turbocharge all its assets and media around the globe. 

“Kinsta CDN was a total game-changer for us. It allowed us to optimize website delivery based on visitor location, which improved load times and the overall user experience.”

“We also loved that Kinsta offers free SSL certificates with automatic renewals. This kept our clients’ websites secure without them having to worry about it.”

With these new features, Adapting Social can now offer clients a more reliable, secure, and efficient service thanks to more powerful and feature-rich managed WordPress hosting.

The results

Since partnering with Kinsta, Adapting Social has achieved remarkable improvements across various aspects of its business.

Kinsta really impressed me… We’ve successfully moved over 50 client sites to Kinsta, and we’ve retained them all — which we think says a lot about how reliable and high-performing the platform really is.

“The migration was completed flawlessly, and the client’s website saw an immediate improvement in performance, reliability, SEO, and security.”

“We’ve even integrated Kinsta into our standard service offerings because we know we can rely on them to help our clients make a big impact. We’re not just saying these results are good—we’ve got the data to back it up.”

Greater engagement with 33% faster page load times

When Adapting Social saw their average page load time drop from 4.2 seconds to just 2.8 seconds, it was a huge win. That’s a 33% improvement in site speed!

And those seconds resulted in reduced bounce rates, which made all the difference. This ultimately has a big impact on user retention and overall site success. More visitors are staying on their clients’ sites longer, exploring their content, and engaging with it.

“Since moving to Kinsta, we’ve seen some big improvements across our websites, operations, and user experience. Our client sites now load much faster, which has led to lower bounce rates, more engagement, and better search engine rankings.“

And it doesn’t stop there. “Best of all, we’ve completely eliminated downtime incidents, so our client sites are always up and running.”

Up to 767% increase in search engine traffic for a client site

With much faster websites, the SEO of their client sites saw notable boosts. One client of Adapting Social had a 767% increase in search engine traffic, with search engine ranking increasing from page 9 to page 1.

When Google sees a fast, well-performing site, it tends to reward it with higher search rankings, which is important for attracting new visitors.

“By offering a high-performance hosting environment, we make sure that our clients’ websites make a great first impression and engage their target audience effectively.”

And this fits right in with Adapting Social’s goal of providing tailored digital marketing experiences that deliver results.

250 hours saved annually with streamlined site maintenance

With the MyKinsta dashboard and tools, Adapting Social cut their weekly maintenance from 15 hours to just under 10.

This 5-hour reduction adds up to over 250 hours a year—equivalent to about six full workweeks for the team. Adapting Social now has extra time to innovate, tackle new projects, and strengthen client relationships, driving faster growth and delivering even greater value to its clients.

“We’ve made some big changes to our internal processes to make our operations more efficient. Kinsta’s dashboard and tools have made it easier for us to manage our websites, so we can focus more on what’s important.

By freeing up the team’s time, Adapting Social can now respond more quickly to customer needs which allows them to better serve their clients.

“Kinsta gives us the tools we need to deliver better results for our clients, and we’re excited to leverage more of their features. With tools like Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Edge Caching, we’re set to make our websites even faster and more efficient.”

Looking ahead, Adapting Social is excited to explore Kinsta’s multisite capabilities. This will help them manage complex website networks and push the boundaries of what’s possible as a full-service digital marketing agency.

10% growth in monthly leads and sales

When your site runs smoother and faster, great things follow. For Adapting Social, this translated into a 10% boost in monthly leads and sales for their clients after moving to Kinsta.

“The results speak for themselves: a 10% increase in leads and sales for our clients and a 98% client satisfaction rate, which shows how powerful Kinsta’s platform is and how committed we are to excellence.”

The difference is clear: with Kinsta’s Managed WordPress Hosting and its easy-to-use dashboard, clients feel more in control of their websites.

“We know that a better user experience helps our clients, too. Kinsta’s user-friendly interface and great features let our clients take more control of their websites, which makes them feel more in charge and more involved. That’s where the satisfaction comes from.”

Christopher also adds, “But these numbers don’t tell the whole story. Our clients are also really happy with the extra security and backup processes Kinsta provides.“

Kinsta fuels Adapting Social’s growth

For Adapting Social, Kinsta not only solved their problems with its previous web host, but it also became a driving force behind their overall growth and success.

As COO Christopher puts it, the impact of Kinsta has been remarkable.

“Since we teamed up with Kinsta, Adapting Social has hit some pretty impressive milestones… I’m really proud of how successful we’ve been together, and I’m excited to see how our partnership with Kinsta will continue to drive our growth and innovation in the years to come.”

By choosing Kinsta, Adapting Socials overcame critical issues like frequent downtime and slow client sites hurting their agency’s bottom line and reputation. The team also saw impressive results, including a 33% drop in page load times, a 700%+ traffic boost, and a 95% client satisfaction rate.

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Its university faculty members share information on research results, projects, and academic conferences by creating their own websites on the Waseda WWW Service platform.

With now hundreds of user sites, Mr. Matsuura of Waseda University’s IT Strategies Division shares the challenges of managing Waseda WWW Service, and how they turned to Kinsta’s Managed WordPress Hosting to solve them. 

Read on to discover how Kinsta powered and supported Waseda University’s large-scale infrastructure project involving the migration of hundreds of sites.

The problem

Waseda University faced security concerns, inefficient site management, and a costly, complex hosting environment with their previous web hosting provider. They needed a solution to anticipate potential attacks, and take a proactive approach in securing user sites.

When asked about the goals that prompted them to change their hosting solution, Mr. Matsuura answered:

“We are constantly working to strengthen the security of our campus services, and it is imperative that we continually review and improve them.”

With that aim, they decided to focus on:

1. Ensuring the security of WordPress and PHP through effective version control.

“Software version control is crucial to the security of WordPress and PHP. We aimed to investigate whether we could find a way to do this more safely and reliably than in the past.”

2. Balancing the freedom for users to manage their sites while ensuring these sites are secure.

“Waseda WWW Service allows many users to create and manage their own sites with a high degree of freedom. While maintaining this flexibility, administrators have to monitor usage from a security perspective and ensure that sites are not abandoned after they are no longer needed. For example, we conduct a periodic inventory of the sites we manage. If we find unused sites, we need to take action, such as deleting them upon confirming with the user.”

Complex system and incurring high hosting cost

Dealing with overlapping systems and external service integrations complicates the daily operations of Waseda team:

“The old service had some overlapping systems for the same purpose and was intertwined with external services. Amid mounting costs for the maintenance and operation of the overall system, it was clear that we had to take action.”

“For these reasons, we gathered information in search of a new solution to ensure a secure system and a superior user experience.“

The solution

To streamline operations and resolve the issues with the old service, Waseda found Kinsta as a solution with robust security features and a strong focus on version control.

Choosing Kinsta’s Managed WordPress Hosting

Mr. Matsuura and his team looked at a number of hosting provider candidates. They narrowed their requirements down to those that could:

• Manage software versions and vulnerabilities
• Install plugins freely on a per-site basis
• Use the WAF/CDN system already in place at the university
• Handle migration from the old service with ease
• Ease the workload of periodic site inventory and maintenance

After a thorough search, Kinsta emerged as a leading solution.

“Ultimately, Kinsta met all of these criteria, and we moved forward with testing Kinsta’s platform. It was easy to test the system with a small number of sites to check the requirements, and so the POC (proof of concept) proceeded smoothly.”

Free unlimited migrations made simple

With hundreds of user sites, migrating them all to a new platform could be a huge undertaking for Mr. Matsuura and his team. Fortunately, Kinsta offers free, unlimited migrations for WordPress sites, handled by a dedicated team of migration experts.

Kinsta’s migration team and support engineers made it easy to migrate the sites for free, which was incredibly helpful.

“I also vividly remember how receptive they were to our many detailed requests, and the fact that they were also able to handle static PHP sites and complex configurations was a great source of reassurance. And so while checking the functionality along the way, we proceeded with a phased migration.”

The result

Kinsta powers Waseda University with its secure, flexible, and easy-to-manage hosting solution that allows Waseda to guarantee a top-notch user experience (UX) while making back-end security management more efficient.

Enhanced web security and compliance

We are very happy with Kinsta. While providing users with a reasonable degree of freedom in content management, Kinsta maintains strict adherence to security requirements.

“For example, only the latest version of PHP can be used, which allows us to avoid situations where individual administrators forget to upgrade and are left with an outdated version of PHP. Automatic notification of plugin vulnerabilities is another useful feature.”

“Moving to Kinsta has taken our security to the next level. At the same time, we have been able to maintain traditional content management functions, such as uploading static files via FTP, editing pages using WordPress and installing plugins. It has also made operational tasks more efficient.”

Streamlined site management and maintenance

By centralizing site management with the MyKinsta dashboard, Waseda University has significantly reduced the time and effort needed to maintain each of its user sites.

“The nature of the university’s services means that many users will create sites according to their individual needs. That is why the process of setting up a site had to be made more efficient.”

In the past, FTP and DB account information was provided to users on physical paper or PDF documents, but after moving to Kinsta, it can now be completed easily in the ‘MyKinsta’ control panel.

Tasks that once required complex coordination or third-party services can now be handled internally with more efficiency and greater control:

“As for the site inventory process, we can now check each site’s resource usage in MyKinsta. With our old system, we had to request information from an external company, but the process has become much simpler with Kinsta.”

Kinsta supports large-scale infrastructure migration and system renewal

Kinsta handles a lot of the routine maintenance, updates, and security management so the university’s IT staff can focus on other initiatives.

“With the help of Kinsta’s migration and support engineers, we were also able to complete the migration successfully.”

“We appreciate that Kinsta provided the site migration within their normal scope of service, covering not just WordPress but also HTML static sites. It was helpful that they flexibly handled special settings particular to the old system, such as character encoding, redirect, and server-side includes (SSI) settings.”

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