Your website
is property.
Your marketing
is a campaign.
Keep them in separate hands. We build and run the site, with everything search engines and AI tools need to find it built in from day one. Your marketing agency, whoever that is this year, runs the campaigns on top.
Your website is property.
Think of it like the building your business works from. You own your domain and every piece of your content: your name, logo, words, photos and data. The site should be maintained, improved and kept for years, not rebuilt every time something else in the business changes.
If you ever leave us, you take a working copy with you: the code, the content and the media. Nothing is held hostage.
A few of the websites we designed and built.
Marketing agencies come and go.
That isn't a criticism. It's the nature of the work: strategies change, budgets move, account managers leave, and most businesses go through several marketing agencies over the life of one website.
When the same agency also built and hosts your site, every change of marketing turns into a website project: a rebuild, a migration, or a fight over who owns the logins. Keep them separate and you can swap the campaign without touching the property.
Why separate works better.
Four practical reasons, none of them about which agency is better.
Change one without breaking the other.
A new marketing agency starts with a working site and the access it needs. No rebuild, no migration, no argument about who holds the logins.
Know where to look when leads drop.
We report on speed, uptime and errors every month. If the site is healthy, the question goes to the campaign. One agency doing both can blame whichever half suits it.
Each team does what it is best at.
When a marketing agency builds websites, the site is a side product, often on a template only they control. If we ran your marketing, it would be our side product. Neither is a good deal for you.
Your site outlasts every campaign.
Campaigns change every quarter. Your site has to stay fast, secure and current for years, through every strategy and every agency.
Built to be found, from day one.
Part of SEO belongs to the website itself. That part is included in every site we build and maintain. It isn't sold as a retainer.
Speed
- Fast on phones, the way Google measures it
- Pages that show their content without waiting on scripts
- Images sized and compressed for every screen
Structure
- One clear headline and a clean heading order on every page
- A title and description written for each page
- Old addresses redirected when we rebuild, so you keep the rankings you earned
Signals
- Schema that tells Google and AI tools who you are, where and what you do
- Sitemap and robots file kept current
- Name, address and phone matching your Google Business Profile exactly
- Search Console and Analytics running from launch day
Want the speed part guaranteed in writing? That's SpeedLayer.
Need more than that?
Content, link building, ads and local campaigns are ongoing marketing work. If you already have an agency, we work alongside them: they get the access they need, and the site stays yours. If you don't, we'll introduce you to one we trust.
Questions we hear.
Should my web designer also do my SEO?
Your web designer should build the foundation: speed, page structure, schema, sitemaps and analytics. Ongoing SEO, meaning content, links and local campaigns, is marketing work, and it is usually better with a specialist you can change without touching your website.
What happens to my website if I change marketing agencies?
Nothing. Your site stays where it is and keeps running. Your new agency gets the access it needs to do its work, and we keep the site fast, secure and up to date in the background.
Do I own my website?
You own your domain and all of your content: your name, logo, text, photos and data. If you ever leave us, you get an export of your site's code, content and media so it can run anywhere.
Where should I register my domain name?
Cloudflare is generally the best choice: it sells domains at cost and runs some of the fastest DNS available. GoDaddy and Squarespace are acceptable. Wherever it is, register it in an account in your own name. If your registrar's DNS is slow, you can point the DNS to Cloudflare for free without moving the domain.
Do you work with marketing agencies?
Yes, in both directions. Some of our clients came to us through their marketing agency, and when a client needs ongoing SEO or ads, we introduce them to an agency we trust.
Keep reading.
Want a site that's built to last?
Tell us about your business and your current site, and we'll tell you what we'd keep and what we'd change.
