Most websites aren't looked after. They're just put up with. Someone needs a new page, the existing pieces don't quite fit, so a new version gets made. Six months later there are four button styles, three ways to lay out a card, and adding a case study needs a developer. Nothing is broken enough to fix, and everything is a bit harder than it should be.
That friction costs money, even though it never shows up on an invoice. It shows up as the promo page that took three weeks. The accessibility complaint nobody can trace. The visitor reports that can't answer a simple question. And the redesign that comes two years early, because the current site has become impossible to work with.
This is the work that treats that friction as the real problem. It can come after a redesign, before one, or instead of one. Sometimes a site people are ready to throw away mostly needs its groundwork rebuilt, under a look that was never the problem.
It covers what decides whether a site stays good. A content setup that fits what you really publish. Shared styles and building blocks, with instructions someone will actually read. Ongoing accessibility work, not a one-time check. Speed limits that are actually enforced. Search basics built into the site itself, not added with a plugin. And visitor tracking built around the questions you need answered, instead of collecting everything and telling you nothing.
It also covers the part most projects skip: who looks after it afterward. A site with no one in charge drifts back into a mess. So we hand over clear rules too: what they are, who gets to break them, and how to add a new page without creating a new one-off.
Who it’s for
Teams who can update pages but struggle to keep the whole site consistent. Also useful after a redesign that changed the look but left everything underneath the same.
The problem it solves
The site looks finished but behaves like a pile of one-offs. New content is hard to fit in. Accessibility and speed were afterthoughts. Nobody is in charge of keeping it in order.
How we do it differently
We give the groundwork the same care as the parts you see. Shared styles, how your content is organized, and what you track are treated as real decisions, not plumbing tacked on at the end.
What you get
- A content setup that fits what you publish, so new pages don't need a developer
- Shared styles and building blocks, explained well enough to be used correctly
- WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility kept up over time, not checked once and forgotten
- Speed limits enforced every time the site is built, not just hoped for
- Visitor tracking that answers specific questions, and a named person in charge of the site
How it works
Reveal
We review five areas: how your content is organized, your design building blocks, accessibility, speed, and tracking. You get a list in order of priority, with honest ratings of how serious each problem is.
Reimagine
We plan the new setup (types of content, shared styles, the list of building blocks, and what to track) around how your team actually works.
Build
We build the new setup and fix the problems, worst first, so your team can start using it as we go.
Refine
Written guides, training for the people who'll use it, and simple rules that keep it from drifting back.
What’s usually included
- A content setup and building-block structure
- Shared styles and written guides
- Ongoing accessibility work and fixes
- Core Web Vitals and speed limits
- Technical SEO and visitor tracking setup
- Clear ownership rules and team training
What it costs
$5,500Typical starting point
This work is easy to scope, and it's the one project that can sensibly start small: just one area, like ongoing accessibility work or rebuilding your tracking, instead of all five at once.
What moves the number
- How many of the five areas are included
- How many pages and building blocks you already have
- Whether we fix the problems, or just plan the fixes
- How many people need training, and how much
- Whether we work in your existing code or rebuild that layer
Questions we get asked
Can you do this without redesigning our site?
Yes, and often that's the right call. This work is separate from a redesign. Your site can keep its look exactly as it is and still get a content setup that works, ongoing accessibility work, and real tracking underneath.
What does an accessibility program include?
A review against WCAG 2.2 AA (the common standard for sites that people with disabilities can use), with honest ratings of how serious each problem is. Then we fix what it finds. Then comes the part that matters more: the checks and habits that stop new work from bringing the same problems back. A one-time review that nobody follows up on is just a document.
We already have a design system that nobody uses. Can you fix that?
That's one of the more common reasons people come to us for this. A design system is your shared set of styles and building blocks. Unused ones usually fail for one of three reasons. They don't cover the cases people really have. The instructions don't answer the question being asked. Or nobody is in charge of deciding when something new is needed. The fix depends on which it is, so the review comes first.
How do you approach technical SEO here?
We build it into the site itself. That means making sure Google can find and read every page, a clear page structure, sensible links between your pages, structured data (labels that help Google understand your business), good scores on Google's page speed measures (Core Web Vitals), and correct sitemaps and canonical tags (which tell Google which version of a page is the real one). These live in how the site is built, not in a plugin. It goes hand in hand with good content, but it's a separate skill.
Is this an ongoing retainer?
It can be, but it doesn't have to be. The goal is to leave you able to run things yourselves. When ongoing help makes sense, it's usually small and specific: keeping accessibility and speed up to standard as the site grows.