How we price web design and SEO engagements
Three tiers, anchored numbers, no hourly rates. Here's why and what each one actually buys.
Pricing for creative work has two failure modes. Hide it and you get a parade of unqualified leads. Make it too rigid and you can't accommodate the work that actually fits. Our answer is three named tiers with anchored numbers, transparent enough to filter, flexible enough to scope.
Why we publish prices
Publishing pricing is the cheapest qualification step a studio has. The discovery call is where real fit gets evaluated, but the prospect needs enough information beforehand to know whether to book it. Vague "starting at" copy or "talk to sales" gates produce a waterfall of mismatched calls. Specific numbers like "Studio engagements start at $25k for an eight-week scope" produce calls that already make sense.
What each tier buys
We anchor three things: a Starter (focused on a single problem, 2–4 weeks), a Studio engagement (the bread-and-butter eight-week multi-discipline project), and a Retainer (ongoing SEO + content + light dev, monthly). Most projects land in Studio. Starter is for clients who already know exactly what they need and don't want to over-scope. Retainer is for clients we've shipped a Studio project for already.
Why fixed scope, not hourly
Hourly billing punishes the studio for getting good. Eight years of doing this means we ship the same outcome in two-thirds the time, and our prospects shouldn't pay less because we got faster. Fixed-scope pricing rewards expertise, makes budgeting predictable for the client, and forces us to be honest about what's in scope at the start. The brief is the contract.
What "indicative" means on our pricing page
Each tier has an anchored number, and most projects land within 15% of it. The 15% accounts for the things you can't see in a website inquiry: the existing CMS, the data migration scope, the brand work the client thought was done but isn't. The discovery call is where we name that 15%, and where either side can walk if it doesn't fit.
How discounts work
We don't discount price. We adjust scope. If the Studio tier is too expensive, we drop something, usually the launch content series, which the client can take in-house, rather than do less of everything for less. This protects the work and keeps the relationship clean. Budget-driven scope cuts are normal; "do everything for half" is a red flag for both sides.
What's included that isn't itemized
Every engagement includes weekly written updates (no calls unless you want them), unlimited Slack questions during the engagement, a public progress page, and 60 days of post-launch support. We don't itemize these because they're not features. They're how we run engagements. Studios that itemize them are either nickel-and-diming or signaling they don't usually do them.
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