Web design in Lancashire, built around the problem.
Calder is a strategy and design studio. When a Lancashire business needs a website, we start by finding out why the current one isn't bringing in enquiries. Then we build one that does.
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Check your website in a minute
Six quick questions about your own site. As you answer, the page on the right shows where it's letting you down. At the end you can ask us for a free review of the real thing.
Most websites don't have a design problem.
They have a clarity problem. The homepage tries to say everything at once. Services are described the way the business talks about them, not the way customers search for them. The contact form is the last thing anyone sees.
A new coat of paint won't fix that. A website only starts bringing in work when it's built on clear answers to three questions.
Who is it for?
The customers you actually want more of.
What should they do?
The one action that turns a visitor into an enquiry.
Why you?
The reason to choose you over the other results on the page.
We answer those first. The design follows.
Sometimes the answers point further back than the website, to the offer or the brand. If they do, we'll say so, and that's where we'll start. What else we do.
What's included
Every project covers the planning, the design and the build. Nothing starts from a template, so the finished site is built around how your business actually wins work.
Diagnosis
A proper look at your current site, your analytics and your competitors, ending in a clear view of what's holding it back.
Structure
A page plan and navigation built around how your customers search and decide, rather than how your business is organised internally.
Messaging
Clear headlines and page copy direction, so every page says one thing well and leads somewhere.
Design
A custom design in your brand, for desktop and mobile, shaped by the structure rather than decorated on top of it.
Build
Fast, accessible and easy for your team to update, and checked on real devices before it goes live.
SEO foundations
Page titles, structured data, local search basics and Google Search Console, set up from day one.
How it works
Four stages, in order, and you sign off each one before the next starts. Scroll through them and the example follows along.
Listen
Conversations with you, a look at your numbers and a proper read of your current site and your competitors. We write the brief, so you don't have to.
- What the site says versus what customers need to hear
- Where visitors drop off
- How competitors are winning the search
Position
One plan for the site: who it's for, what it says, which pages it needs and the one thing each page should get people to do. You sign it off before anything is designed.
- Page plan and navigation
- One clear action, placed where it's seen
- Your best work near the top
Make
Designed and built by the same people who wrote the plan. You see real pages early and give feedback as it comes together, so there's no big reveal at the end.
- Custom design, desktop and mobile
- Fast, accessible build
- Easy for your team to update
Hand off
We launch, set up tracking and show your team how to run it. It's yours to look after without calling us, though we're around if you need us.
- Tracking and Search Console set up
- Handover and training
- A site that starts doing its job
Who we work with
We work with owner-led and growing businesses across Lancashire, including professional services firms, manufacturers, trades, B2B companies and charities. Usually the business is good at what it does and the website hasn't caught up.
You might recognise some of these:
- The site looks fine, but it doesn't bring in enquiries.
- Most of your work comes from referrals, and those people look at your website before they call.
- You've outgrown a site that was put together in a hurry.
- You're not sure whether you need a new website or a better version of the one you've got.
Web design across Lancashire
Calder is a Lancashire studio. We're happy to meet in person in Preston, Blackburn, Burnley, Lancaster, Blackpool, Chorley and the towns in between.
Most of the work happens remotely, so we also work with businesses across the North West and the rest of the UK.
- Preston
- Blackburn
- Burnley
- Lancaster
- Blackpool
- Chorley
- Accrington
- Clitheroe
- Ormskirk
- Morecambe
Common questions
Something else? Email hello@calderstudio.co.uk
How much does a website cost?
It depends on what the site needs to do. A focused site for a service business is a very different job to one with hundreds of products. We quote a fixed price once we understand the problem, so you know the full cost before anything starts.
Why start with strategy rather than design?
Because most underperforming websites aren't let down by how they look. They're let down by unclear messaging, the wrong structure, or no obvious next step for the visitor. If those aren't fixed first, a new design just makes the same problems look better.
Can you improve my existing website instead of replacing it?
Often, yes. Sometimes the right answer is a rebuild; sometimes it's restructuring a few key pages and fixing the route to your contact form. The diagnosis tells us which, and we'll recommend the smaller job if it's the right one.
Will we be able to update the website ourselves?
Yes. We build on WordPress, so your team can change text, images and pages without needing a developer, and we show you how at handover.
Do you do SEO?
Every site we build has the SEO foundations in place: a sensible page structure, fast load times, page titles and descriptions, structured data, and Google Search Console set up. If ongoing SEO work makes sense for your business we'll say so, and if it doesn't we'll tell you that too.
Do you only work with businesses in Lancashire?
No. We're based in Lancashire and happy to meet clients in person across the county, but most of the work happens remotely, so we work with businesses across the UK.
What is the free website review?
Send us your website address and we'll look at it properly, including what it says, how it's laid out and how easy it is to get in touch. We'll reply by email with the three things we'd fix first. There's no call and no obligation.
What are you trying to fix?
Send us your website for a free review, or tell us about the project you have in mind. Either way, you'll hear back from us directly.
And if a new website isn't what you need, we'll tell you. It happens more often than you'd think.
Or email us at hello@calderstudio.co.uk
Got it.
We'll take a proper look at your site and come back to you by email with what we'd fix first.
Thanks, that's come through.
We usually reply within a day or two.