YEG Digital is an award-winning web design agency in Canada, Alberta. Their mission is to help their clients transform ideas into outstanding digital marketing experiences. The essence of their business success is entrepreneurs serving entrepreneurs; their team relates to clients and is able to understand and interpret client needs on a deeper level. Their operations are characterized by a solutions-driven, result-focused approach and a professional alliance and willingness to form long-term partnerships with their clients.
Their active presence at community events like WordCamps and commitment to connecting and collaborating with other developers and agency owners worldwide help them stay on top of their game.
Paul Letourneau, CEO and Director of Strategy at YEG Digital, sums it up perfectly: “The WordPress community is incredible for how much everyone supports each other, always willing to help solve problems.”
In this case study, Paul takes us behind the scenes of YEG Digital’s site management workflows, their discovery of Kinsta, and the impact this partnership has had on their business. Get ready for an exciting look into their journey!
Snapshot
- Industry: Web Design, SEO, Digital Marketing
- Business size: 6 employees
The problem
YEG Digital hosted its sites with numerous web hosts, bouncing between solutions and trying the biggest names in the industry. It has also migrated hundreds of sites several times.
Too much time spent on server management
Prior to Kinsta, they used Gridpane to host sites. Working with Gridpane, Paul realized that he was spending a significant amount of time managing servers, troubleshooting, and optimizing sites instead of building them:
“I couldn’t get the sites to consistently perform at their best. I’d have to constantly tweak settings and troubleshoot.”
Lack of ability to manage sites from a distance
While server management was an indicator that might be time to switch, the turning point came after one specific instance that cast a shadow on Paul’s vacation. He recalls: “I was on vacation with my family, and in the middle of Disneyland, I was trying to troubleshoot server issues on my mobile. That’s when I knew I needed a better solution.”
The Disneyland fiasco instantly added a new item to Paul’s list of non-negotiables in his search for a new hosting provider: “One of my major sticking points was having a really great mobile experience. If I ever found myself in a similar situation again, I wanted to be able to easily manage things from my phone.”
Need for reliable support
The biggest non-negotiable for Paul was a Technical Support Team that was reliable and available around the clock to help address and troubleshoot site issues. Paul wanted a team of experts who could effectively apply fixes to his sites:
“I needed a team that was not only ready to jump in and help but could actually get the issue fixed quickly.”
The solution
Mobile-friendly dashboard
Kinsta’s site management dashboard, MyKinsta, is an in-house-built platform. The dashboard is meant to serve as an all-in-one toolset for users of various skill levels, from beginners to more technically advanced. Providing a mobile-responsive dashboard is also an important factor for ensuring ease of use and smooth site management for our clients.
Paul compliments the MyKinsta mobile experience: “I wanted to be able to easily manage things from my phone. Kinsta nailed that. Their mobile-responsive client dashboard is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I love it so much that I often just open it on my phone to check how all the sites are running using their stat widgets.”
Professionals who care
Paul highlighted that one of the key factors why he switched to Kinsta was reliable support. He also mentioned that even during his onboarding, he was able to get helpful and professional assistance.
“My account representative, Jonathan, really stood out. He’s honest, helpful, and genuinely listens, which is rare in the hosting world. That kind of service aligns perfectly with how I treat my clients, so it made switching to Kinsta an easy choice.”
Paul conducted the migration of his sites to Kinsta’s platform himself, but during the process, he encountered some issues, that required assistance from support. He felt that he was treated with the same level of professionalism, care, and reliability.
“During our migration from Gridpane, we ran into issues because of MU plugins and custom code that had been added to our WP-Config files, and it was causing problems when trying to go live on Kinsta. I reached out to Kinsta’s support team, and they jumped in right away, cleaning up the issues across every site. Their responsiveness and expertise made a huge difference in making that migration successful, and I couldn’t have been more impressed.”
Steady and optimized hosting environment
Kinsta’s infrastructure is built on Google Cloud’s Premium Tier network and strengthened by an enterprise-level Cloudflare integration, the combination of these two technologies ensures a steady core infrastructure.
Speed, reliability, and security are also further enhanced by various features and optimizations that are available by default across all plans. This out-of-the-box solution helps businesses, like YEG Digital save time and unlock the fast and smooth running of their sites:
“With Kinsta, every site we build starts with a solid foundation. Unless we’re taking over a site built by someone else, we almost always pass core web vitals and score in the 90s on Google PageSpeed Insights—straight out of the box.”
Infrastructure optimized to handle traffic spikes
Besides the speed and security optimizations, Kinsta’s infrastructure ensures that a generous amount of resources are allocated to each site to handle traffic peaks and simultaneous requests smoothly. Our Account Management and Technical Support teams are also available to help prepare for traffic surges or sales events.
Paul reflects on this scalability experienced on the platform: “We have a few larger sites that experience big traffic surges a few times a year. Since moving to Kinsta, I haven’t had to think about scalability once. It’s all handled seamlessly.”
The Result
Peace of mind
Paul’s vacations and time-offs are no longer threatened. He does not need to engage in time-consuming server management and optimization workflows, he has a powerful toolset at his fingertips with MyKinsta that he can easily access through mobile too. Knowing that his sites are safe and running smoothly has given him confidence and relief:
As for improvements, the biggest one wasn’t a specific metric—it was my peace of mind. I no longer have to load balance sites or mess with server settings. Knowing that Kinsta handles security checks, vulnerability monitoring, and offers CDN services made a huge difference. Once the last site was moved, my stress level dropped significantly.
Paul appreciates knowing that Kinsta provides a secure hosting environment and that YEG Digital’s Project Manager, Janelle Carriere, can easily work with skilled engineers in MyKinsta to resolve any issues.
“Kinsta’s chat support is incredible. They help my team solve problems directly, often without me even needing to get involved. I have more peace of mind now, knowing that Janelle and the team could access Kinsta support as well. I don’t have to be the one to do it all the time. Which free’s up my time and gives them the support they need for helping our clients.”
Paul also added that he appreciates the human touch that adds a bit of spice to support conversations:
Kinsta’s support isn’t just great at solving problems—they’re fun and real. I actually enjoy talking to them because they’re personable, with a great sense of humor, which is rare in tech support.
Smooth site management experience
MyKinsta’s tools and mobile-optimized environment helped Paul achieve peace of mind, and YEG Digital’s team achieve more efficient workflows. Less server maintenance and optimization tasks allowed them to focus on other tasks and grow their business.
When we asked Paul about the immediate improvements he experienced after moving to Kinsta, he said: “One of the biggest improvements has been the streamlined workflow for our team.”
He also praised Kinsta’s security features and alerts, which not only brought peace of mind for him and his team but also helped them to a more organized and focused workflow: “I love that I get email alerts anytime there’s an issue with a plugin or site. It makes it easy to pass those tasks off to my team for quick resolution.”
Time saved on optimization
Besides the peace and tranquillity, moving to Kinsta’s hosting also freed time for YEG Digital’s team. Paul explained that they don’t normally need to start off optimizing new sites:
We almost always hit 90+ on Google PageSpeed Insights without needing to do a ton of extra optimization, which saves me a lot of time.
He even mentioned a specific example of a site that went from not passing core web vitals to 90+ PageSpeed scores with only minor optimizations applied.
From an agency owner’s point of view, return on investment is also an important factor, Paul evaluated Kinsta accordingly: “From a ‘what’s your time worth’ standpoint, the price perfectly aligns with the value we get. I don’t have to waste time managing servers or troubleshooting, which means I can focus on growing my business.”
Conclusion
Having moved their sites to Kinsta, one of the most significant achievements for YEG Digital’s team was peace of mind and the fact that they found a web hosting partner they could trust. They also achieved more streamlined workflows, which positively impacted their business growth.
Paul also gave us a quick peek into his plans for the near future:
“We have a few larger enterprise sites that will be launching with Kinsta soon, and we’re consulting with those clients to identify their exact needs. Overall, we’re just enjoying the ride and look forward to adding more sites to the platform.”
The time, stress, and effort of managing hosting yourself don't compare to the value Kinsta brings. I honestly wish I had been with Kinsta from day one.
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