Small businesses often have big dreams but face steep digital challenges. Many get stuck with websites that look nice but don’t deliver, strategies that miss the mark, or agencies that keep them in the dark. Jeremy Jalnos and co-founder Shane Tepper saw this problem firsthand and decided to build something different.
That vision became Clicksmith, an agency built on clarity, collaboration, and measurable results. With a simple mission: “turning clicks into leads.” Jeremy, Shane, and their team set out to empower small and mid-sized businesses with the kind of digital tools usually reserved for larger players. What followed is a story of growth, reinvention, and relentless focus on helping clients compete with confidence.
A Clear Purpose from the Start
Jeremy Jalnos and co-founder Shane Tepper founded Clicksmith with a shared mission. They had seen too many small businesses struggle online, not because they lacked talent or drive, but because they faced “lackluster design, poor strategy, or agency gatekeeping.”
– Inside Clicksmith’s office: A nod to creativity and leadership with Jeremy Jalnos, Founder & CTO.
They recall, “We built Clicksmith to change that by creating marketing solutions that are not only custom and conversion-focused but also transparent, collaborative, and results-driven.”
From the beginning, their vision was simple: empower small businesses with high-impact digital tools that fuel growth.
Serving the Underserved
Jeremy and Shane, along with their team, chose to focus on small to mid-sized service-based businesses. Hospitality, healthcare, legal, and local retail became their core industries. These businesses, they explain, are often “underserved in the digital space” and face unique operational challenges.
By giving them strategic and scalable solutions, Clicksmith helped them “compete with confidence” and achieve meaningful results.
A proud milestone along the way was rebranding from Texas Web Developers to Clicksmith. Jeremy describes it not as a name change but as “a thoughtful evolution of our voice, our mission, and the way we deliver value to our clients.” The new identity reflected their purpose perfectly: crafting custom digital solutions that turn clicks into leads.
Scaling Without Losing Touch
As Clicksmith grew, Jeremy and Shane faced the challenge of scaling without sacrificing quality. They built systems, hired smarter, and streamlined operations — all while protecting the personalized experience clients valued most.
They credit Cloudways for playing a key role in this journey. “Simplifying hosting allowed us to focus more on strategy and client support,” they say.
– The Cloudways Platform — powering Clicksmith with speed, scalability, and simplicity.
Their team refined their approach through bundled services, education-first sales, and relentless focus on local SEO. “Combining web design with SEO, paid ads, or social media has allowed us to drive better results for our clients while increasing retention and ROI,” they explain. Education built trust. Local SEO gave clients the edge to “dominate their niche and outrank national competitors.”
Technology That Makes a Difference
Jeremy and Shane often point to projects where technology solved complex problems for small businesses. One example was a custom website for a high-end jewelry retailer. Their team built a seamless integration between the client’s WordPress site and in-store POS system.
The result was real-time inventory syncing, fewer manual errors, and full independence for the retailer. “It was a powerful example of how good technology, when implemented with clarity and purpose, can simplify complexity and drive measurable impact for small businesses,” they say.
Clicksmith’s toolset reflects this philosophy: Cloudways for hosting, Semrush for SEO and audits, and Freshdesk for support. Together, Jeremy and Shane’s team has the ability to deliver excellence in both development and long-term client care.
Growing with Clients, Powered by Cloudways
Jeremy and Shane’s vision for the future is clear. They want to expand into AI automation, grow a network of strategic partners, and invest in thought leadership. But at the heart of it all, Clicksmith’s growth is tied to client success. “We grow alongside our clients,” they explain. “By understanding their goals and anticipating their needs, we stay a trusted partner through every stage of growth.”
When it comes to hosting, Jeremy and Shane are open about their journey. They tried GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround, and WPEngine. But nothing matched Cloudways. “What really won us over was how seamlessly Cloudways fit into our workflow,” they recall. “It gave us the freedom to scale, launch faster, and spend less time in the weeds of infrastructure.”
– Cloudways gave Clicksmith the freedom to scale without losing the personal touch clients love.
They highlight one example: migrating a legacy WordPress site that had constant crashes. Within a day on Cloudways, the site had caching, CDN, and SMTP set up — with load times cut by nearly 40%. “It was fast, efficient, and scalable — exactly the kind of result we strive for,” they share.
Jeremy and Shane sum up Clicksmith’s mission in just four words: “turning clicks into leads.”
And with Cloudways powering their journey, Clicksmith continues to deliver on that promise every day.
Interested in working with Clicksmith? You can connect with Jeremy Jalnos on LinkedIn or through their website. We recently interviewed him as part of our Agency Spotlight series.
Mansoor Ahmed Khan
Been in content marketing since 2014, and I still get a kick out of creating stories that resonate with the target audience and drive results. At Cloudways by DigitalOcean (a leading cloud hosting company, btw!), I lead a dream team of content creators. Together, we brainstorm, write, and churn out awesome content across all the channels: blogs, social media, emails, you name it! You can reach out to me at [email protected].
