Primetek Industrial Web Portal

Project Overview

Primetek is a B2B supplier of heavy industrial components, valves, actuators, and mechanical engineering supplies. Their digital presence serves as the primary gateway for industrial procurement managers and factory maintenance contractors searching for replacement parts and technical datasheets.

The Challenge

The client approached us with a compromised web environment and significant customer drop-off:

• Security Breach & Malware Injection: An outdated legacy PHP codebase had been penetrated by automated injection bots, causing blacklisting alerts on Google Chrome and damage to domain reputation.
• Unresponsive Mobile Layout: Field technicians and on-site engineers attempting to verify part numbers from smartphones faced broken menus, horizontal scrollbars, and unreadable technical diagrams.
• Lost Commercial Opportunities: Technical PDF catalogs were buried behind broken FTP links, preventing prospective buyers from identifying compatible valve configurations.

The Architectural Solution

We executed a comprehensive two-stage recovery: first hardening and sanitizing the hosting layer, then developing a custom, bloat-free WordPress 6+ web portal.

Infrastructure Hardening & Malware Eradication

We migrated the entire application to a freshly provisioned Linux VPS running a hardened LAMP stack behind an Nginx reverse proxy:

1. Database & File Sanitization: Purged infected database tables, stripped backdoors, and rebuilt core application files from verified checksums.
2. Web Application Firewall (WAF): Configured ModSecurity with OWASP Core Rule Set to automatically block SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and automated brute-force attacks.
3. Hardened File Permissions: Locked down critical configuration files (wp-config.php, .htaccess) to read-only permissions and disabled PHP execution within upload directories.

# Nginx security block: Block PHP execution in upload folders
location ~* /wp-content/uploads/.*\.php$ {
    deny all;
    access_log off;
    log_not_found off;
}

Bespoke Theme & Catalog-Mode Architecture

Rather than relying on heavy pre-packaged commercial themes burdened with 40+ third-party plugins, we built a bespoke theme from scratch:

• WooCommerce in Pure Catalog Mode: Disabled shopping cart, payment gateways, and shipping calculators while retaining WooCommerce's robust taxonomy, attribute filtering, and variation matrices.
• One-Click RFQ Workflow: Replaced the "Buy Now" button with a custom modal that automatically pre-populates product SKU, name, and specification options into a rapid RFQ submission form.
• Asset Optimization: Implemented WebP image conversion, deferred script loading, and native browser lazy-loading for all industrial drawings.

Implementation Milestones

1. Sanitization & Clean Migration: Transferred cleaned data onto isolated staging environments before public cutover.
2. Bespoke Theme Development: Crafted semantic, accessible HTML5 templates with clean CSS styling.
3. WooCommerce Catalog Configuration: Structured thousands of spare part SKUs by pressure rating, material grade, and connection standard.
4. B2B Technical SEO: Configured structured breadcrumbs, rich product snippet metadata, and automated XML sitemaps.

Verified Production Outcomes

• Malware-Free & Whitelisted: Complete restoration of clean status on Google Safe Browsing and security scanners.
• +40% Surge in Mobile Traffic: Fully responsive design enabled on-site field engineers to comfortably look up part specs from mobile devices.
• Top 3 Search Rankings: Regained top organic search placement for targeted industrial valves and mechanical component keywords.
• +65% Increase in Qualified RFQs: Clear calls to action and pre-filled inquiry modals drastically reduced procurement friction.