Web design SEO services, hired on evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How to buy a build and its search work together

1. Decide which discipline leads. A brand-led redesign and a search-led rebuild produce different sites. Name the one that has to succeed before you shortlist, because it determines whether you want a design studio with search capability or a search team that can build.
2. Get search into the wireframes. Page structure, template hierarchy, URL patterns and internal linking are design decisions. Ask when search input happens in the candidate's process; if the answer is after the build, you are buying a retrofit at full price.
3. Protect what already ranks. Redesigns lose traffic mainly through unmanaged URL changes. Ask what the migration plan covers: a full inventory of existing URLs, mapped redirects, and a check after launch that the mapping actually held.
4. Ask who owns the site afterwards. Confirm in writing where the code lives, which platform and licences are involved, and whether another agency could take it over. A site you cannot maintain independently is a subscription in the shape of an asset.
5. Price against published floors. The minority of agencies that print their prices set the reference points for both build and retainer. Ask each finalist to position its quote against those published figures and to separate the build cost from ongoing work.

Why the two disciplines belong in the same room

A search programme executed on a site whose templates fight it will spend most of its budget on workarounds. Page speed, heading structure, how content is rendered, whether key text is reachable without interaction, and whether the navigation actually connects related pages are all set during design and are expensive to change later.

The reverse failure is just as common: a technically flawless site nobody wants to read or buy from. Search brings someone to the page; the design decides what happens in the next few seconds. Buying the two together is worth doing when the team can genuinely argue both sides, and worth avoiding when one discipline is simply an upsell attached to the other.

How to test the search half of a design studio

Ask to see a site the studio launched more than a year ago and what happened to its search visibility through the migration. A team that has done this well remembers the details; a team that has not will change the subject to portfolio work.

Ask who does the search work: an in-house specialist, a subcontractor, or a checklist applied by the developer. All three exist in this market at similar prices, and only the first is what most buyers think they are getting.

Agencies are listed in this index only on what can be verified from their own published pages, including whether they rank for the phrases they claim as their specialty. That last check is free, and it is the one claim a studio cannot outsource to a copywriter.

Setting expectations for the first months after launch

Some movement after a migration is normal even when everything was done correctly, and the useful measure is whether the site recovers and then exceeds its baseline rather than whether it dipped at all. Agree before launch what the baseline is and who is watching it.

No credible provider will attach a ranking guarantee to a redesign. Search engines state that no one can guarantee a top position, so treat a guarantee in a build proposal as a signal about the seller rather than a benefit of the package.

Questions people actually ask

Should the same agency do the design and the SEO?

It works well when search decisions shape the wireframes rather than following them, and badly when one discipline is an upsell attached to the other. Ask which is the agency's core capability and how the two teams work together on a build.

Will a redesign hurt my search traffic?

It can, and the usual cause is unmanaged URL changes rather than the design itself. Insist on a full URL inventory, a mapped redirect plan and a post-launch verification that the mapping held before you approve a launch date.

How should a build and ongoing search work be priced?

Separately, so you can see what each costs and change one without renegotiating the other. Ask each candidate to position both figures against the agencies that publish their pricing openly.

Who should own the site after launch?

You should. Confirm in writing where the code and content live, which platform and licences apply, and whether another agency could take over maintenance without a rebuild.

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