Grew a security firm's site as it became a national brokerage

Client: Pono Security · Industry: Physical security · Coverage: Licensed in 13 states, with roots in Hawaii · Work: Site rebuild, SEO and content, technical SEO, brand repositioning

Pono Security started in Maui as a hands-on guard company. Today it's growing into something bigger: a national security brokerage that manages vetted local providers for clients across the country. I've worked with Pono across several projects as the business changed, and the website has had to change with it.

Phase 1: A site built to scale location SEO

Pono's original WordPress site had performance issues, lead generation was stalling and launching location content was painfully slow. I rebuilt the site in Webflow around a system for location pages, migrated the content and added the motion that makes a security company feel modern and trustworthy. The team could launch new location pages quickly and update content without waiting on a developer.

Then I led the content program: hundreds of new location, industry, service and blog pages targeting both city-level and question-based searches. With AI-assisted workflows, the site grew from under 25 ranking keywords to more than 800 and became a real source of leads.

Phase 2: Keeping a large site healthy

As the site grew to around 2,000 URLs, technical problems got harder to spot. A full crawl audit found that every generated location page was set to noindex by a single page-builder template setting, which quietly hid the pages that were meant to bring in local leads. I traced it to the source and fixed it, and added security headers to harden the site.

Phase 3: Repositioning the brand as a brokerage

Pono's business model shifted. Instead of only staffing its own guards, Pono now acts as a general contractor for security: one point of contact who sources, vets and manages licensed local providers, then reports on the work in one place. The homepage still read like a single guard company, so I redesigned it to sell the new model:

• Lead with the brokerage promise: one partner, one contract and one account manager, with no vendor juggling for the client.
• Make vetting visible: licensing verification, background checks and compliance review for every provider in the network.
• Show the oversight: real-time reporting, GPS tracking and digital logs through Pono's TrackTik platform.
• Widen the offer: armed and unarmed guards alongside remote video monitoring, access control, AI-assisted surveillance and drone patrols.
• Answer the new questions: an FAQ that explains how a brokerage differs from a traditional guard company, plus clear paths to a security consultation.

The Hawaii roots and the meaning of "pono," doing what's right, stay at the center of the brand. They now support a nationwide promise instead of a local one.

Phase 4: A vendor network page

A brokerage is only as strong as its network, so the site now needs to recruit as well as sell. I'm building a vendor network page that speaks to security companies: what Pono expects from partners, how vetting works and how to apply. It's designed to give Pono a steady pipeline of qualified providers in the markets where clients need coverage.

What this shows

Good sites keep up with the business. Pono's site started as a lead engine for one guard company, and it's now the front door for two audiences: clients who need security and the providers who deliver it. Each phase built on the last. The location system and content gave Pono reach, the technical fixes protected it, and the repositioning points all of that traffic at the business Pono is becoming.