No handovers, and the reason that is the point.

We have spent about ten years in and around the web and search industry, in a few different roles, which mostly taught us that the interesting problems sit in the gaps between jobs. The designer hands over to the developer, the developer hands over to the SEO, and the thing that gets lost in both handovers is the reason the site exists.

Somewhere in the middle of that we started an e-commerce brand of our own, selling sustainable kitchenware mostly into Oceania. We ran it for about two years, and it is the part we would point at if you wanted to know why we are worth listening to. Running a shop teaches you things building shops does not: what it feels like to spend money on traffic that does not convert, how much a slow product page costs when it is your own money, and how quickly you stop caring about a beautiful design that is not selling anything.

It also means the conversion work is not theoretical here. Every change we argue for on a client site is something we have already tested on our own revenue, which is a very different incentive from redesigning somebody else's shop and moving on.

So Werehouse Media is deliberately built the other way round. The people who have to live with every decision do the design and the search work together, because they are the same decisions wearing different hats.

What we actually do

Websites built for one business rather than out of a template, standalone SEO on sites somebody else built, branding, and the workflow automation that stops enquiries falling down the back of the sofa. All of it is priced openly on the services page, because making you ring to find out what something costs is a tactic, not a business model.

If we had to name the thing that sets this apart from the rest of our trade, it would not be the search work. Plenty of people do search. It is that the sites are built to convert and built to behave properly on whatever someone opens them on. Genuinely responsive layouts - designed at real sizes, on real content, checked on real devices, not a desktop design squeezed down at the end. Interface decisions made because they help somebody decide, not because they looked good in a portfolio. And conversion rate optimisation as part of the build, rather than a service sold back to you in month six.

That last part is the bit we would push hardest. Most studios can make something attractive and a fair few can make it rank. Far fewer will argue with you about the order of the page, the wording of the form, or the three extra fields you want to add that will quietly cost you a fifth of your enquiries. We do that because we tested it on our own shop, where getting it wrong cost us money rather than costing a client money.

For anyone who wants the detail: every site is written for that business rather than assembled from a theme, every change is kept so any version can be put back in seconds, and updates go live without the site ever being down. The approach is chosen for the project rather than the project being fitted to whatever we happen to like, which usually means fewer moving parts and a faster page. Before anything goes live we check it on a mid-range phone on mobile data, so it is fast for the people who will actually be using it, and usable by people who cannot use a mouse.

How we work, in four sentences

• Fixed price, in writing, before anything starts. No hourly meter and no surprise invoice at the end.
• You own everything. Domain in your name, code yours to take, accounts under your login. If you leave, nothing switches off.
• Search is not an upsell. Page structure gets decided by someone who knows what it has to rank for, which is the entire reason this studio exists.
• We will tell you when the answer is no. Including when the answer is that you should buy a template, or hire an agency, or spend the money on Google Ads instead.

Where the work happens

The practice is in Sussex and most clients are in the UK, which is where knowing the local market is actually worth something. The work itself is remote, and has been since the beginning. Projects in Europe and the United States are normal rather than exceptional, and nothing about the way we work changes for them: the same fixed price in writing, the same people on it, the same handover at the end. Time zones are the only genuine constraint, and a call at either end of the day usually settles that.

Who we are not right for

Worth saying plainly, because it saves us both a call.

• You need a team with cover. We take a limited number of projects at a time, and a queue is normal. If you need a guaranteed response time or several workstreams running at once, buy an agency and do not feel bad about it. We have written an honest comparison of the three options.
• You want hands, not judgement. Most of the value here is in being told the brief is wrong before anything gets built. If you have already decided exactly what you want and just need somebody to produce it, a freelancer will do that faster and for less.
• You want a committee to sign off every stage. This works because the decisions are made by the people doing the work.
• You want page one within a month. Nobody can promise that. Anyone who does is guessing with your money.

The name

Werehouse, not Warehouse. It gets misspelled constantly and we have made peace with it.

If you want to know whether we are the right studio for what you are trying to do, the fastest route is to tell us what the business does and what you want more of. You will get an honest answer within a working day, and if the honest answer is somebody else, we will say so.