Our standard
Every website we build goes through a 47-point quality standard across five layers — from foundation to compliance. This is what rigour looks like.
Why this matters
A website that looks nice but fails these checks won't rank on Google, won't load fast on a 4G phone, and could be blocked by browsers for being insecure. Most studios don't publish their process because they don't have one. We publish ours because accountability is the point.
01 — Foundation
Google reads your site like a book — it needs proper chapters and headings, not a wall of text
One clear headline per page tells Google exactly what it's about — multiple H1s confuse it
Each page has its own title in the browser tab and Google results — not all the same
The two lines under your link in Google — written to make people actually click
Tells Google which version of a page is the real one — prevents your own pages competing against each other
Controls how your site looks when shared on WhatsApp or Facebook — title, image, description
The small icon in the browser tab and on phone home screens — looks amateur without it
Prevents text from showing as garbled symbols — especially with phone numbers and special characters
The line of code that tells phones to show your site at the right size — without it, everything is tiny
Tells browsers and Google the site is in English — affects translation prompts and regional ranking
02 — SEO
Tells Google which pages to index and which to ignore — a misconfigured one can hide your whole site
A map of every page submitted to Google — helps new sites get found faster
Hidden code that tells Google your exact name, address, phone, and hours in a format it understands perfectly
Labels your services so Google can show them directly in search results — before someone clicks
/web-design/corby instead of /?p=42 — readable URLs rank better and look more trustworthy
Pages linking to each other logically — helps Google understand which pages matter most
Dead links lose you ranking points and look unprofessional — we check every single one
Anyone typing your address without https gets automatically sent to the secure version — no gaps
Your Name, Address, Phone must be identical everywhere online — even one mismatch can hurt local rankings
03 — Speed
Google measures three speed scores (Core Web Vitals) and uses them to rank you. A slow site ranks lower — no exceptions.
Modern image format that's 30–50% smaller than JPEG with the same quality — pages load faster
Without this, the page jumps as images load — Google penalises this and users hate it
Images below the screen don't load until you scroll to them — makes the page feel instant
The first big image loads before everything else — so the page looks full within 1 second
All code is compressed — like zipping a file before sending — so it arrives faster
Fonts show placeholder text while loading instead of blank space — no invisible text on slow connections
The server sends compressed files — like a courier packing tighter boxes — cuts transfer size by 70%
Largest Contentful Paint — how long until the main content appears. Google wants under 2.5 seconds
Cumulative Layout Shift — measures page jumping. If a button moves as you tap it, that's CLS
Files served from a server closest to the visitor — someone in Glasgow loads as fast as someone in London
04 — Accessibility
Screen readers, keyboard users, people with poor vision — and Google crawls your site exactly like a screen reader.
A description of every image — read aloud for visually impaired users, and indexed by Google for image search
Every input field is properly labelled — screen readers announce what to type, not just silence
Text must be dark enough against background — light grey on white fails and is unreadable in sunlight
The full site works using only Tab and Enter — required by law for public-facing UK websites
When you tab through a page, the active element is highlighted — many sites break this accidentally
A phone icon with no text still needs a hidden label — otherwise screen readers say nothing
Buttons and links are at least 44x44px — so fingers on phones don't tap the wrong thing
Some sites disable zooming — that's bad for accessibility and penalised by Google on mobile
Keyboard users can jump straight to the content — skipping the menu every single time
05 — Security
The padlock in the browser bar — without it Chrome shows Not Secure and most visitors leave immediately
Invisible rules that stop hackers injecting malicious code into your pages — most cheap sites skip these
Prevents your site being secretly embedded inside another page to trick your visitors
Honeypot fields and rate limiting — stops bots flooding your inbox with fake enquiries
UK ICO law requires consent before setting tracking cookies — ignoring this can result in fines
Legally required if you collect any data — even just a contact form email address counts
No pre-ticked boxes, clear consent language — UK GDPR is still enforced post-Brexit
If you're a Ltd company, Companies House number and registered address must appear on your website
Your phone number is a real tap-to-call link — not just text that people have to manually type