About
Hello, I’m Ash. I’m interested in what your business could become.
I am the independent web designer Dartmouth businesses call when they want one person to design, build and optimise the site personally. Developer and SEO consultant too: twenty-five years building for the web, fifteen in search and marketing, and every website designed, built and optimised personally.
Web design is only part of the picture.
The most interesting part of the job is not building a website. It is getting underneath a business.
That means understanding how the business works, where the value is, who the best customers are and where digital could make a bigger commercial difference. It might mean bringing in more of the right enquiries through search, improving the way visitors become customers, strengthening how the business is positioned, removing friction from a process, or spotting an opportunity that was not obvious before.
I like working directly with ambitious business owners because the conversation can go further than pages, colours and layouts. We can talk about what you sell, where you want to grow, what is holding things back and what a successful result would look like. Then I bring design, development, SEO and marketing together around that. The website matters enormously. I am interested in what it can do for the business behind it.
Experience that shows in the detail.
The tools change every year. Understanding what makes a website work for a customer does not.
More than twenty-five years building for the web gives a wider perspective than any one platform, trend or technology. More than fifteen years in SEO and digital marketing is the other half: helping businesses become easier to find, easier to understand and easier for the right customers to choose.
More than two hundred projects across local businesses, education, hospitality, ecommerce and professional services, each with different customers, challenges and opportunities. Different businesses. The same commercial focus.
See the case studiesHow I got here.
The short version.
- Late 1990s
First websites, hand-coded, when a business having one at all was news. Everything since has been built on the same instinct: understand what the site is for before deciding what it looks like.
- 2000s
Design and development for businesses of every size, through the arrival of content management systems, ecommerce and the smartphone. The tools changed every year; what makes a website work for a customer did not.
- 2010s
Search and digital marketing became the other half of the job. More than fifteen years of SEO, Google Ads and measurement, learning what actually makes a business easier to find and easier to choose.
- Now
Web Design Dartmouth: one person doing the whole job for ambitious businesses in South Devon and beyond, with more than 200 projects behind it and the same question at the start of every one.
What I believe about websites.
Six things every project is held to.
The website is for the business.
Not for the designer, not for an award. Every decision is tested against what it does for enquiries, bookings, sales and trust.
Structure before style.
What the pages are, what each is for and what people search to find them, agreed before anything is drawn.
Fast is a feature.
A performance budget on every project, no third-party scripts without a reason, and 100 on PageSpeed as the target.
Plain English.
In the copy I write, the advice I give and the proposals I send. If I cannot explain it simply, I have not understood it.
Honest advice, including “don’t”.
Sometimes the right answer is a smaller site, a different platform, or not rebuilding at all. You will hear it.
You own everything.
Domain, hosting, design, code and content, in your name, with the files to prove it.
What working with me is like.
One person, start to finish, which changes a few things.
- You brief the person who does the workNo account manager translating between you and the people building the site. What you say is what gets built.
- Decisions are quickA question gets an answer the same day, from someone who knows the whole project, not a ticket in a queue.
- Everything pulls the same wayDesign, words, search and speed are made by one pair of hands, so they fit together instead of being bolted on.
- Your budget goes into the siteNot into layers of management. The same money buys more website.
- You see everything before it is builtEvery page on a phone and a desktop, with changes made until it is right.
- It does not end at launchCare plans, SEO and ads from the person who built the site, if and when you want them.
Questions people ask about me.
Yes: the strategy, the design, the build, the copy if you need it, the search work and the care afterwards. For photography, illustration and the occasional specialist job I bring in people I trust, and I tell you when I do. You always deal with me.
At Capton, a few minutes from Dartmouth in South Devon. I am happy to meet in person anywhere in South Devon for the conversations that deserve it, and most of the work happens by phone, video call and email wherever you are. See the areas I cover.
Yes. I take on build, SEO and development work for agencies and designers who need a reliable pair of hands, quietly and to their standard. Ask me about it.
Monday to Sunday, 9am to 9pm. I answer the phone when I can and messages the same day in almost every case. If something on a live site breaks, clients on a care plan know how to reach me.
Send me a few lines about your business and what you want the website to do, through the contact page, by email or by phone. You do not need a brief or a budget in mind; a conversation is enough to begin. If you are looking for a web designer, Dartmouth is where you will find me, but the conversation works from anywhere.
Let’s build what comes next.
Tell me where the business is now, where you want it to go and what you feel is getting in the way. I’ll help you work out where digital can have the biggest commercial impact.
- 1You send a few lines.What the business does and what the website needs to do.
- 2I reply, personally.Usually the same day, with questions and a time for a call.
- 3You get a written proposal.Scope, stages and price for exactly that. No obligation, no hard sell.
Monday to Sunday, 9am to 9pm. You talk to me, not an account manager.