Sites built to be found, not just to look finished.
Custom design and build, with search and AI visibility handled at the structure level from day one rather than bolted on by a different vendor six months later.
Most agency websites are a template with your logo on it.
The economics of the agency web market push almost everyone toward the same output: a purchased theme, lightly restyled, loaded with plugins to cover the gaps. It's fast to produce and it's why so many sites in this market load slowly, share the same layout, and perform badly in search.
The costs show up later and indirectly. Page weight that no amount of caching rescues. Markup that fights the crawler rather than helping it. A plugin stack that breaks when one dependency updates. And a structure nobody can change without the original builder.
Building custom sounds like a luxury and is mostly a decision about where the effort goes. We put it into structure first, semantic markup, correct heading hierarchy, real structured data, compressed assets, a URL architecture that makes sense to a machine, then design on top of that foundation rather than the other way around.
That ordering matters for AI search specifically. An assistant deciding whether to cite you is reading structure and specificity, not visual design. A beautiful site with no structured data is invisible to it.
How it works, step by step.
Structure before design
Information architecture, URL scheme and heading hierarchy decided first, because retrofitting these later means redoing the design.
Design to the brand
If you have a brand system we build to it precisely. If you don't, that's a separate conversation with its own scope rather than something we improvise.
Build custom
No page builder, no purchased theme. Hand-built markup, which is why the pages weigh what they weigh.
Structured data from the start
Organization, Person, Service, FAQ, Breadcrumb, implemented during the build, validated, and consistent with what's visible on the page.
Performance budget
Image compression, no unnecessary framework weight, and a target we hold ourselves to rather than measure afterwards.
Verify at real breakpoints
Actual browser testing at mobile, tablet and desktop, measured, not assumed from a design file.
Four things people assume this is.
A WordPress theme with your logo
Different product entirely. If a theme genuinely suits your needs we'll say so rather than sell you a custom build you don't need.
Design-first, SEO-later
Structure retrofitted after design usually means redoing the design. It's the most common expensive mistake in this market.
A site you can't edit
Where a CMS makes sense you get one. For a brochure site it's often unnecessary overhead, and we'll tell you which you are.
Locked to us
You own the code on handover, in writing. Another developer can pick it up.
Concretely, what's delivered.
- Custom design and build, no page builder, no purchased template
- Structured data implemented during the build, validated, consistent with the page
- Performance budget, compressed assets, minimal framework weight
- Responsive and accessible, verified at real breakpoints in a real browser
- A CMS where it makes sense, so your team publishes without a developer
- Analytics and Search Console configured properly at launch, not later
- Sitemap and robots.txt done correctly, including AI-crawler access
- Code ownership transferred to you on handover
Why we can say this.
This site is the proof, and it's checkable rather than claimed. It's hand-built, it carries the schema described on this page, and its own AI-search score, 42 to 75, is published on the site with the audit log rather than described in a case study.
What this won't do.
- Custom costs more than a template upfront. If your needs are genuinely simple, a good theme is the honest recommendation.
- We don't do ongoing content writing as part of a build. We'll structure it and write the key pages; a sustained content programme is separate.
- A fast, well-structured site doesn't rank on its own. It removes the technical obstacles, substance and authority still have to exist.
- We're not a large agency. If you need twelve stakeholders managed across a nine-month programme, we're the wrong shape.
Straight answers.
Do we get a CMS we can edit ourselves?
Yes, where it makes sense. For a brochure site it's often unnecessary overhead; for anything with listings, posts or a team roster it's essential. We'll be straight about which one you are rather than defaulting to the more expensive answer.
Who owns the code?
You do, on handover, in writing. Another developer can pick it up without us.
Can you work with our existing brand?
Yes. If you have a brand system we build to it. If you don't, we can build one, that's a separate scope with its own conversation.
How long does a site take?
Three to six weeks for a typical marketing site, depending on page count and how ready the content is. Content readiness is usually the real variable, not engineering.
Do you do e-commerce?
For straightforward catalogues, yes. For complex multi-warehouse inventory and fulfilment, an established platform is usually the better answer and we'll say so.
What happens after launch?
Either a maintenance retainer or a documented handover to your team. We don't require the retainer.
Anqor is a small studio, so you deal with the person who builds it. If this isn't the right fit for your business, I'd rather say so on the first call than sell you something you don't need.
LinkedIn →We'll audit your current site first.
Sometimes the honest answer is that yours needs fixing, not replacing. That's a cheaper conversation and we'd rather have it.