This guide explains how to rank on ChatGPT through practical AI search engine optimisation steps that make your site extractable, verifiable, and consistently referenced. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to structure pages, monitor performance, and work with our AI search and GEO optimisation experts to stay visible wherever your audience is asking questions. 

How to Rank on ChatGPT (Core Principles)

To rank on ChatGPT, think less about keywords and more about signals of selection. AI assistants choose which content to cite based on how clearly it answers a question, how trustworthy it appears, and how easy it is to extract. In Microsoft’s words, AI search is “selection, not discovery.”

Here’s what matters most:

1. Clear, Answer-Ready Structure

AI systems prefer sections that resolve a question quickly. OpenAI notes that ChatGPT fetches and cites web pages that are crawlable, concise, and contain short factual summaries near the top.

• Do this today: Add a 2–4-sentence answer block at the start of your best-performing pages.

2. Structured Content and Schema

Schema markup tells an AI what your page contains: organisation, article type, author, or product details. Google confirms that structured data improves eligibility for AI features.

• Do this today: Use FAQPage and Article schema plus consistent @id references for every major entity.

3. Authority and Trust Signals

AI models connect consistent brand mentions with author credibility. Verified reviews, visible credentials, and a clear ‘last updated’ date all reinforce authority and experience.

• Do this today: Ensure your brand name and author bio appear in the same phrasing across press releases, guest posts, and site copy.

4. Conversational Queries and Tone

Research from Nielsen Norman Group shows that AI users phrase questions naturally and expect immediate, human-sounding explanations.

• Do this today: Rework key headings into question-led H2s that mirror how people ask in ChatGPT; for example, “How does structured data improve visibility?”

5. User Experience and Clarity

Maintain a clear, mobile-ready layout and fast load speeds; assistants ignore sites that delay or hide key text. Slow or cluttered pages are often skipped during crawl.

• Do this today: Audit performance and ensure pages load in under two seconds.

These principles form the backbone of ChatGPT’s visibility. Build each one into your workflow; structure for clarity, speak conversationally, show proof of expertise, and treat every page as if it could be quoted verbatim in an AI-generated answer.

Technical Setup for AI Search (ChatGPT and Copilot)

AI platforms rely on technical clarity as much as content quality. If your site blocks the right crawlers, hides information behind scripts, or loads too slowly, it won’t appear in ChatGPT or Copilot answers, no matter how good your writing is. Think of this setup as your foundation for visibility.

1. Open Up the Right Bots

ChatGPT relies on two crawlers: OAI-SearchBot for search and GPTBot for training. To appear in answers, you must allow the first one. OpenAI’s Publishers FAQ advises checking your robots.txt file for a clear allowlist.

Monitor visits from “ChatGPT-User” in your analytics; these signal real assistant-driven queries reaching your pages.

2. Keep Pages Fast and Accessible

Cloudflare’s analysis of modern AI crawlers shows that performance and accessibility affect selection. Keep JavaScript content crawlable, maintain responsive layouts, and aim for LCP under 2.5 seconds with a stable TTFB below 800 ms.

3. Verify Visibility in Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow

Copilot pulls from Bing’s index, so verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, upload fresh sitemaps, and enable IndexNow for instant content updates.

• Expert Tip: Verify property in BWT, submit sitemaps, and activate IndexNow before making large-scale edits or launches. It shortens inclusion time significantly.

4. Align with Google Search Console Parity and Schema Consistency

Maintain parallel setup in Google Search Console to track crawling and AI-related impressions. Ensure markup stays consistent across pages using matching @id references for major entities.

Once these baselines are met, your content becomes accessible, traceable, and fast enough to be cited by AI engines; the technical groundwork every team should put in place before scaling AI search optimisation.

How Do ChatGPT and Bing Copilot Rank and Cite?

When someone asks a question in ChatGPT or Bing Copilot, the engine doesn’t “rank” pages in the old sense. It selects small, relevant sections from multiple sites that can be cited to build a clear, factual answer. That’s the new visibility contest; being the source an AI trusts enough to quote.

How ChatGPT Selects Sources

ChatGPT Search uses a real-time retrieval system, not a static index. When a user types a query (say, “how to improve site visibility in AI search”), the engine rewrites that query for precision, fetches results from trusted public websites, and checks whether the text can be cited directly. It then builds a response that includes traceable attributions. Pages that are crawlable, structured, and regularly updated are favoured because they’re easier to parse and reference.

How Copilot Composes Answers

Bing Copilot works through a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline:

1. It rewrites the question using context from the conversation
2. It retrieves matching results from Bing’s index
3. It summarises the findings while validating citations 

Microsoft stresses traceability; the assistant must be able to show where each statement originated. If your page includes structured headings, verified authorship, and clear metadata, it’s easier for Copilot to attribute and display.

Why Freshness and Volatility Matter

AI surfaces change fast. Ahrefs found that AI-generated summaries on Google refresh roughly every two days, with nearly half of cited URLs replaced in each cycle. Similar volatility applies to ChatGPT and Copilot, so keeping content fresh is essential.

In short: user asks → AI rewrites → retrieves → filters for clarity and credibility → cites the cleanest match. The better your structure and sourcing, the higher your chances of appearing in those search results in Copilot and ChatGPT answer panes. 

How To Build Topical Authority (GEO in Action)

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the discipline of building content that AI systems can understand, connect, and quote without confusion. Where traditional SEO stops at ranking, GEO focuses on recognition, ensuring your brand, entities, and expertise show up consistently across the web’s conversational layer.

According to Stanford, GEO works by aligning pages around well-defined entities (people, products, industries) and structuring them so that AI crawlers can identify relationships between topics. When these links are clear, the model treats your content as an authority within that subject space rather than just another result.

The practical side of GEO:

• Cluster your topics: Build content groups around a central theme (for instance, “AI search optimisation”) and interlink them logically.
• Map entities: Name people, tools, and sectors consistently. Use schema and @id tags so they’re machine-readable.
• Repeat brand mentions naturally: Consistency builds brand visibility and trust in AI selection models.

Public guidance points the same way. Structure your pages so key information sits in predictable places. This consistency helps AI engines parse meaning across your cluster. 

Microsoft highlights selection signals and clear attribution paths; OpenAI requires crawlability plus answer-ready blocks and exposes ChatGPT referrals in analytics. Ahrefs shows AI summaries reshuffling sources frequently. Together, that supports a GEO workflow focused on structured content, schema consistency, and a rolling update cadence.

Backlinko’s GEO playbook echoes this: clarity, schema, and relevance win visibility. Treat every page like a node in a knowledge graph, not a standalone article. That’s how you build topical authority in an AI-first search world.

AI Search Optimisation Tools and Techniques

Choosing the right stack of AI search optimisation tools makes the difference between guesswork and measurable progress. Each has a defined role in helping your team plan, structure, and monitor visibility across AI-driven platforms.

Content scoring and optimisation

• MarketMuse, Clearscope, and Frase help identify information gaps and measure how well a page aligns with real search intent.
• Use this when: reviewing existing articles to ensure each section directly answers a user’s question rather than repeating keywords.

Entity and schema tools

• Use InLinks or a schema generator to keep entity relationships machine-readable.
• Use this when: you need a clean, machine-readable way to show AI crawlers what connects your products, people, and topics.

Tracking and analytics

• GA4 and Google Search Console remain the baseline for measuring human traffic, impressions, and crawl status.
• Ahrefs’ AI Visibility Audit adds a newer layer, tracking how often your pages appear in generative answers or AI snippets.
• Use this when: you want to compare traditional metrics with assistant-driven citations to see if your updates are paying off.

Monitoring and verification

• Perplexity Alerts notify you when your brand or URL appears in AI answers, helping track citations in near real time.
• Originality.ai serves a different purpose: verifying that your own published text remains human-authored and compliant with platform standards.
• Use this when: auditing internal or outsourced content before publishing.

Crawl and freshness management

• Use Bing Webmaster Tools to confirm crawl status and push key updates.
• Use this when: you’ve made structural or content updates and want them reflected in Bing and Copilot results without waiting for natural recrawls.

Together, these tools keep your workflow balanced; creative in planning, structured in execution, and verifiable in results.

2026 Trends Shaping AI Search

The year ahead will test how fast marketers can adapt to an AI-first search economy. Four forces are already reshaping the field:

1. AI-native analytics replace traditional SERP tracking. Dashboards are moving beyond keyword ranks to measure assistant mentions, citation rates, and conversational reach. Marketers must learn to read AI visibility the way they once read Google positions.
2. Voice and multimodal search converge. Assistants now answer through text, speech, and visual prompts. Content must describe, show, and explain; optimised for how people talk and what they see on screen.
3. Cross-engine entity graphs emerge. Google, Bing, and OpenAI are syncing shared entity data. Authority will depend on how consistently your brand appears across ecosystems, not just one index.
4. Regulation demands transparency. The EU AI Act and UK guidelines require explainable sourcing. Visible authorship, dates, and evidence are no longer optional; they’re compliance signals as well as trust signals.

Conclusion: How to Rank on ChatGPT and Copilot

AI search has changed the rules. Success no longer depends on keywords but on how clearly your content defines entities, shows structure, and earns trust. Microsoft and Google both emphasise the same thing: assistants select what they can understand and verify.

If you want your brand cited by AI systems rather than buried behind them, start refining structure today; auditing schema, authorship, and clarity. For expert guidance, explore our AI search optimisation services or speak with our SEO team to make your content ready for the next generation of search.

The post How to Rank on ChatGPT and Bing Copilot in 2026 [Full Guide] appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Half of consumers use AI-powered search engines, consciously choosing them over traditional search engines, according to McKinsey’s AI Discovery Survey. It’s especially important during the awareness stage of the purchasing journey, with 73% of shoppers using it for broad research.

If you want to get started, our GEO service page breaks down how we approach this.

This means that if you get cited by AI tools, you can create a lead over your competitors that rely only on traditional SEO for brand discovery. This should be incentive enough to learn how generative search works. While it’s similar to SEO, there are a few key differences and steps that you can easily implement to remain visible in a changing search landscape.

Source: McKinsey & Company

Core Differences Between GEO and SEO

The differences between GEO and SEO make more sense when you look at how each one decides what to surface. Traditional SEO is about ranking pages in the search results. GEO is about earning a place as a cited source in AI generated answers. The decision making behind both is very different.

A good way to look at it is in two parts:

How content is chosen
SEO relies on signals like links, relevance, crawlability and technical performance. GEO leans more on clarity, entity strength, topical depth and how well your content aligns with the way people phrase questions in AI tools. You’re not trying to win a ranking position. You’re trying to be trusted enough to be referenced.

How success is measured
This is where GEO breaks away from SEO. You’re not only tracking clicks or impressions. GEO is about visibility, mentions, being pulled into summaries and becoming a recognised source within a topic. It’s closer to authority building than it is to traffic chasing.

What Is SEO?

Search engine optimisation is about improving your site so it ranks higher on Google or Bing. At its core, it comes down to a few areas:

• Keyword research
  Understanding what people search for and shaping your content around it.
• Backlinks
  Earning links from credible sites to show you have authority.
• Technical work
  Making sure the site loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, and is easy for search engines to crawl.
• User behaviour signals
  Click through rate still plays a part even if Google pushed back on it for years.

When you get these elements right, your site fits neatly into how search engines judge relevance and quality. That is what moves you up the results.

What Is GEO?

Generative engine optimisation is about being cited in AI answers rather than fighting for a ranking position. The goal is to help ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude see your content as a reliable source they can pull from.

Structure matters a lot more here. Clear headings, lists, and direct language make it easier for AI to understand what you are saying and lift the right information.

Where SEO is about improving your position in the results, GEO is about becoming the reference point the answer is built from.

Process

With SEO, search engines use a three-step process: crawling, indexing, and ranking. 

Before your website content becomes discoverable to users, bots must first crawl, process, and index your web page in their database. Search engines then use their ranking factors (like the user experience of your website, content depth and quality, and backlinks) to display and rank web pages that match the search query. 

GEO, on the other hand, places a lot more emphasis on content. AI platforms continuously consume content and use relevancy and reliability to decide which sources to use when creating AI-generated answers. If your content presents clear statements in a structured way and showcases your authority in the field, you increase your chances of getting cited. 

As the influence of AI on search grows, many established SEO approaches are evolving to meet new user behaviours and AI-driven ranking, a shift that is changing 2025 strategy for search and can be seen in discussions on how AI is impacting SEO today.

Metrics

The success of an SEO strategy is typically evaluated by tracking click-through rates (CTRs), bounce rate, and the number & position of keyword rankings.

However, non branded queries are already seeing close to a 20% decline in CTR, signalling how AI driven search is reshaping SEO strategy in 2025, as highlighted in this AI search strategy analysis by Blaze Media.

To measure the success of your GEO efforts, you’ll need to look at how often AI-generated responses cite your content or include your brand in their responses. 

Similarities Between GEO and SEO

While there are noticeable differences between these two strategies, they overlap in some ways. Hence, why some marketers argue that they’re actually the same. 

Whether you want to improve SEO or GEO, you’ll need to prioritise content creation. You need high-quality content that matches user intent to show up in the search results of traditional as well as AI-powered search engines.

To a certain extent, AI-driven search builds on Google’s E-E-A-T concept, which uses experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to rate content. If you can establish content credibility, you’ll get noticed by both Google and ChatGPT. 

Both AI and traditional search engines also value the same type of structure. Clear headings that follow logically upon one another, short paragraphs, and bullet points make it easier to find the value in your content. 

4 GEO Strategies

If you’re looking at GEO for the first time, it can feel a bit abstract. To make it clearer, I’ve pulled together the core strategies that actually move the needle. These are the practical steps that help AI engines understand who you are, what you offer, and why you’re a credible source. The checklist below breaks them down in a way that’s easy to follow.

Scrutinise structure

Whether you’re writing a landing page, product descriptions, or articles for blogs, ensure that you use a clear heading structure. This means using a mix of descriptive H1s, followed by relevant H2s, H3s, H4s, etc. 

Another way that you can help AI models to pull facts is to add bulleted lists. For example, long paragraphs that describe processes can be rewritten as a list of actions, or at least shorter sentences. 

Summaries of key takeaways and frequently asked questions (FAQs) also make it easier for AI to extract data. 

Write for long-tail queries

There’s another reason why your GEO strategy should focus less on keywords. Consumers use traditional search and AI answer engines differently. With Google, search queries are shorter. On the other hand, when they interact with ChatGPT, they use longer prompts that use more descriptive words and conversational language.

Keyword research tools can help identify long-tail keywords. But to identify the types of questions being asked, you can turn to online forums like Reddit, Quora, and even TikTok. 

Next time when you doomscroll in the name of research, ask yourself: 

• Which topics are trending? 
• Which types of questions are users asking? 
• How are they phrasing their questions?

Analysing Reddit threads will help you create content that answers actual search queries. 

Add sources for claims

Content with clear citations appears higher in AI summaries. Where possible, add a link to a source to add validity to your statements. In fact, Search Engine Land suggests a minimum of one data point per key section. You can, for example, link to case studies, survey results, benchmark reports, or statistics. 

In addition to concrete numbers, you can also incorporate qualitative data. Quotes from an authoritative voice can act as a credible reference and add more context to a statistic. 

Refresh content regularly

GEO is as much as it is about creating new content as it is about refreshing existing content. As mentioned earlier, AI models give preference to up-to-date content. 

To ensure your content remains accurate, you can include historical optimisation as part of your content strategy. It’s not a new concept and SEO teams have been doing it for years. Search Engine Land recommends that you audit your content each quarter by:

• Checking that statements are still factually correct
• Ensuring that you cite reputable sources 
• Replacing old statistics with recent data
• Checking that sections follow a clear structure

Is SEO Still Important in 2026?

Even though people can now also ask ChatGPT for anything from how-to guides to hotel recommendations, traditional search engines aren’t being replaced by ChatGPT. In fact, AI search generates less than 1% of referral traffic. 

As such, you still need to use marketing strategies, like SEO, to ensure you show up in the search engine results pages. 

Organisations also realise this. The majority (56.6%) remain confident in SEO’s relevance and aren’t reducing their SEO investment, according to Search Engine Journal’s State of SEO 2026 report. What’s more, 65% don’t expect their SEO budgets to decrease in the next 12 months. 

Combined Approach: Integrating GEO and SEO

You can think of GEO a bit like how new social platforms appear. Every so often something new launches and it becomes another place to reach people. You don’t ditch what already works. You adapt so you can show up in both spaces.

Take Threads as an example. Brands didn’t shut down their Instagram accounts. They adjusted their content to work on both platforms. GEO and SEO should follow the same idea.

How the two fit together

• Most of your content was originally written for SEO. That’s fine. Going forward, you can focus on adding more authority signals and clearer structure.
• Use checklists, tables and FAQ blocks. They help AI engines interpret your content and they make life easier for users.
• Audit your existing content. This is something you should already be doing for SEO anyway.
• Start with your best performing pages and look for simple improvements.

Quick structural improvements

• Add more headings to break up heavy paragraphs.
• Where it makes sense, turn subheadings into questions. For example, instead of “Integrating GEO and SEO”, use “How can you integrate GEO and SEO strategies?”
• Add quotes, stats or external references to strengthen authority.
• If you already have data points, see if you can replace them with a more recent stat.

What success looks like

GEO changes how you measure performance. If your click through rates drop but you’re being cited more often by AI tools, that is still a win. It means your authority is growing even if the traffic shifts.

The post GEO vs SEO: How Generative Search Is Changing Online Visibility appeared first on CreativeWeb.

User Experience and Usability are essential to allow users the best possible results from their journey on a site, understanding your users is more important than understanding the technology behind the website.

In this article, I will summarise some of the key processes and principles for UX and Usability to allow you to gain a stronger understanding of what user-centred design involves, and how it benefits you and your users.

What is User-Centred Design?

User-centred design is an iterative design process that prioritises the needs, wants and behaviours of the user at every stage of design and development. It involves analysis, such as identifying stakeholders, building the context of use by creating user profiles and identifying red routes, and creating the User Experience by developing informational architecture, evaluating usability and repeating the process.

There are 3 main principles to remember when it comes to user-centred design:

• Users are involved throughout the design and development.
• The design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation.
• The design team includes multi-disciplinary skills and perspectives.

So what do we need to do to ensure users are considered throughout the process, what steps and tasks need to be taken? Let’s take a look!

Users In Context

A key term to remember when understanding your users is always thinking back to the ‘Context Of Use’, this is a description of the users tasks, equipment and physical and social environments in which a product or system is used.

Usability depends entirely on the context, you can’t design usable software, technology or websites if you do not understand the context of use, this is because as designers, you don’t:

• See things like your users;
• Know what your users know;
• Want what your users want, and;
• Work how your users work.

Finding out what users want seems so simple then right? Just ask them what they want…wrong! Users’ opinion is subjective and it is far too risky to make design decisions based on this, instead, observe your users in their environment. Find out the goals they are trying to achieve and how the users currently handle the task. What people say isn’t as useful as what people do, observing users and interviewing them while they work on their tasks and needs allows you to clearly see the parts they love about the system and the difficulties they come across.

Field Visits – Observing The User

To observe your users and discover their needs and behaviours, you perform field visits. Field Visits, or Contextual Inquiries as they are often otherwise called, allows you to find the people who really use the system, software or website you are working on, and gain insight into how they achieve their goals in a natural environment.

The context in how people perform tasks reveals information you maybe wouldn’t have thought to ask about. A key thing to remember is that users have a different set of knowledge to you, and may know very little about technology or a subject you are widely familiar with. At the end of the day, the best observations are things you’ve seen or heard – not your interpretations.

An observation could be anything from a direct quote, a user goal, an action they take, a pain point, or simply anything that surprised you when they attempted to perform their task.

Creating Personas – Designing For Specific Needs

The average user does not exist. Many design projects suffer from trying to design a system or website that fits the needs of every single person under the sun, but this is impossible to do. Instead of trying to please every single person, design for individuals with specific needs. You can do this by creating User Personas.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Richard Pryor

A User Persona is a user archetype or stereotype of a customer, created by analysing and organising your field study data into key takeaways of needs, wants and behaviours. They are not an “average” or a real user, but rather a cluster of multiple users with specific needs. 2-3 Personas are recommended to ensure you understand the most essential users with the most critical tasks, but how do you decide which persona is primary, secondary or even tertiary?

Simple! Would a solution for Persona A also let Persona B and C achieve their goals? If not, A is not the primary persona.

Would a solution for Persona B also let Persona A and C achieve their goals? If yes, B is the primary persona.

Personas are essential, as they place emphasis on specific users instead of ALL users, and by limiting and focusing choices based on these personas needs and wants, it helps make better design decisions. There are also some considerations with personas:

• Don’t have too many personas, they are designed to be focused on a range of specific users.
• Personas must be based on research, only create assumptions if you plan to test these with real users.
• Personas should be formatted as a story around a person.

Red Routes – Critical Journeys For Users

If personas are the operating room lights, then knowing who you’re designing for is like switching them on! Red Routes are the surgeon’s scalpel, they provide insight and understanding. Every application, system or website has a small set of blockbuster tasks that deliver a huge amount of value. Successful development teams focus on improving the usability for their users’ critical tasks.

In Central London there are a series of roads with red lines, which tells drivers that they cannot stop at any time, allowing traffic to smoothly flow through. Your website has red routes too! They are the critical “User Journeys” with the system. The sheer number of potential users can slow or even halt the design team’s progress, how can you understand everything everyone wants to do?

Red routes avoid this issue, as you focus on critical scenarios and tasks enacted by the key personas. Make the easy things easy, and the hard things possible! 

A good example would be to consider this; what are the red routes for a mobile navigation system such as Google Maps?

• Planning a route.
• Adding favourites.
• Changing the brightness.
• Alternative routes.

By gaining an understanding of these specific tasks that users need met, you can design a software that focuses on these critical systems, with secondary systems being moved out of the way to reduce “noise” for the user.

Usability Testing – Creating Prototypes For Users

Once red routes have been identified and the user personas are understood, you can create wireframe prototypes of your site to give to users in a form of usability test. There are two types of tests that can be done.

Formative Test

A form of iterative usability testing that aims to find problems with a system so they can be fixed.

Summative Test

A form of usability testing that aims to measure metrics such as effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.

So how are usability tests carried out? 

A participant uses the wireframe prototype to carry out a set of pre-defined tasks by the observer, they are encouraged to think out loud while they do this to provide insight to the observer as to what they are thinking during each stage of the process.You can practice thinking out loud with them before beginning to ensure the participant is comfortable with the concept, and prevents any details being missed during the test if they lack the confidence to speak aloud.

It is essential to talk only when the participant has been quiet for a while. If the participant forgets to think aloud, you can probe them with questions or comments such as “What are you thinking?” and “Remember to think aloud.” to encourage them to speak on what they are doing while going through the test. This type of probing also prevents bias by giving questions that are open ended and do not lead the participant into going where you want them to. 

All data, good or bad, is essential in a usability test, there are no wrong answers the participant can give, just ways to improve the system. Here are some points that make a good usability test:

• All wording and comments are expressed in the users language, don’t use jargon.
• Be realistic, i.e. describe things that the user would normally expect to be able to do.
• Don’t hint at the correct task, the purpose is to analyse the users behaviour in a natural environment and how they progress through the task.
• Have a correct solution to the scenario or task, so you know if the task was completed successfully.
• Have a poker face, users will naturally look to you for whether they have made the right decision, but you mustn’t give anything away that would lead them to an answer.
• If they question how a functionality is supposed to work, answer the question with a question.
  • For example, a participant asks the observer “Where is this button supposed to go?”, the observer can respond with, “Where do you think this button goes?”

Iterative Design – Repeating The Process

Once usability testing has been done, you can go back and analyse the data you found, what worked best and how many participants completed the task.You also can detail any problems that were found, such as ‘Is the problem of high impact?’, ‘Are many users affected?’ and ‘Is the problem persistent?’, and categorise these into Critical, Serious, Medium, or Low improvements or changes that need being made.

So…we’re done right? Not quite! When it comes to user-centred design, the task is never truly over. Even after you’ve done rounds of usability testing and tracking real-world usage, continuously improving software, websites or systems is essential to ensuring the users needs, behaviours and wants are always considered and met. It comes back to that term the ‘Context Of Use’, always consider who the users are, what tasks they will perform, the tools they would use, and the environment they are in.

This article only begins to scratch the surface of UX and Usability, as there are more finer details involved in each process that you can consider during user-centred design, from turning red routes into user stories, understanding effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in usability, card sorting and organising groups of data, to key usability heuristics for identifying problems within a design.

There is so much more in the world of user-centred design out there, but one key takeaway is this, user experience is all about making a system easier to use. It’s not about what you like, it’s what works for your users.

The post User Centred Design A Guide to UX and Usability appeared first on CreativeWeb.

That’s why you need to complete proper UX audits from time to time. A UX audit takes a comprehensive approach to UX research and will look at all the elements that can hurt the browsing experience. Here’s a breakdown of the main steps involved in auditing your digital product’s user experience so that you can improve it for your users. 

Key Takeaway

UX audits can be used to improve the overall website performance or zoom in on specific areas like mobile-friendly design. As such, before you jump straight into testing, take the time to define your business objectives first. Then, ensure you get a holistic picture by assessing accessibility, information architecture, and the visual elements. 

What’s a UX Audit?

A user experience (UX) audit is a check run to evaluate the user-friendliness of your website or mobile app. It measures elements like usability, information architecture, design, accessibility, and performance from the perspective of your website visitors and app users. The findings are summarised in a comprehensive report, allowing you to identify issues, such as responsiveness or site speed, that make it difficult for your target audience to complete a task. 

Main Steps Involved in a UX Audit

1. Identify your goal

Understanding your business objectives will help you outline the scope of your UX audit. By first taking the time to define your goals, your UX audit will also deliver more valuable results, as the changes that can make a noticeable difference and deliver the biggest impact will get tackled first. 

For example, if your goal is to improve your conversion rate, you can limit your audit to your checkout page. On the other hand, if you want a general overview of your site’s user experience, it will make sense to invest more resources into evaluating your entire website. 

To help you with this step, refer to available data and user feedback. Studying the analytics data can uncover problems like a higher-than-average bounce rate, slow site speed, etc. 

2. Complete user research 

While your available data is a great starting point, you’ll need to make a point of asking your users’ feedback directly. User interviews, heat maps, support tickets, and online surveys can give valuable insights into your audience’s real needs. Plus, using various methods will allow you to view user behaviour holistically. 

You can also take it one step further and use this data to create user personas. This way, you can customise your user experience further to better meet the specific needs of different segments. 

Then, expand your research to your competitor’s website or app. A competitor analysis will reveal best practices and opportunities that you can tap into to deliver a better experience than the industry standard. 

3. Perform a heuristic evaluation

A heuristic evaluation is when you evaluate the intuitiveness of the user interface (UI) by applying a set of principles. It’s typically completed by a team of product managers, UX designers, and website developers using Jacob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics as guidelines. These focus on matters like design consistency, website error tracking, and minimalist design. 

If your business objectives call for a full UX audit, you’ll check each part of your website against this set of guidelines. You’ll ask questions like:

• Do users receive relevant feedback when creating an account?
• Is the language used across the website free from jargon and technical terms?
• Can users easily undo an action? For example, can they choose to continue shopping instead of checking out?
• Does your layout follow established processes?
• Do you use the same terminology consistently?
• Are error messages easy to understand?

Each team member typically evaluates the website or app independently, jotting down any issues they find. Next, their findings are summarised in a report. 

What makes this step in the UX audit so valuable is that the problems are usually prioritised based on the severity of their potential impact and how easy they are to fix. This helps you to identify the changes that can have the biggest impact on the user experience.  

4. Conduct usability testing

While designers and developers check your website from a user’s perspective, they can’t entirely predict every user’s behaviour accurately. Usability testing will validate the assumptions they made during heuristic evaluation and identify other areas of friction that they (and your data) might have missed. 

Like your UX audit, your usability testing should also have a clear goal. For instance, do you want to evaluate your responsive design, onboarding, or checkout process? 

Then, recruit participants who are representative of your real customer segments and ask them to complete common or critical tasks. You can, for example, ask new users to find a specific product and add it to the cart, or ask returning customers to create a wishlist. 

You can use session recordings to capture their interactions and conclude the exercise with feedback forms. The session recordings will help you identify points of friction that users might be unaware of, while the feedback forms will reveal whether the delay was because of confusion or frustration.   

5. Analyse visual elements

During your heuristic evaluation, you would’ve checked that your visual design was informative,  familiar, and applied consistently. It’s also key to evaluate if your different elements, like the colour combos and font choice, match your branding. 

Consistent visuals build brand trust. Small inconsistencies, like using different icons or typography across your web pages, weaken your brand identity and credibility. 

You can start by creating a library for all of your UI components (e.g., buttons, icons, images, etc.). Next, you’ll check that these elements match the standards outlined in your brand style guide and that they’re applied consistently across different pages. 

In addition to consistency in style, also check that whenever they’re used, they add value. All icons, illustrations, and images should support your content. 

6. Evaluate information architecture 

Information architecture (IA) refers to how your content is structured. It looks at elements like menus and content organisation. This step in running a UX audit will help you understand if users can navigate their way around your website or app and find the information they need easily. 

Creating a site map and/or wireframe will make it easier to identify weak areas in your content structure. You’ll want your website’s structure to align with how customers think. To help you review its current structure and navigation, specifically double-check that:

• Main categories are clear and descriptive
• Naming conventions are applied consistently across pages and devices
• Search and filtering tools are effective
• Pages are free from unnecessary elements
• All internal links work and direct to the right page

Source: CreativeWeb

During this step, also double-check that there’s a clear visual hierarchy. Relevant content should be grouped together. Then, ensure that you use cues like a bold colour or larger font size for the most important information. This supports exploration and action. Users can easily scan your content and are guided through the customer journey.

Source: CreativeWeb

7. Double-check accessibility

Auditing website accessibility is key for two reasons. Firstly, it can uncover usability issues that users might encounter when browsing via a mobile device. Secondly, it ensures that everyone, irrespective of their abilities, can engage with your app or website. 

Once again, you don’t need to start from scratch. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) summarise the best practices you can take to improve website accessibility. These include:

• Providing alternative text (alt text) for all images
• Compatibility with assistive technology like screen readers
• Adequate colour contrast between text and background
• Including captions or transcripts for multimedia
• Appropriate font size and readability
• Navigation using only a keyboard

It can also be a good idea to gather user feedback specifically from users with disabilities like colour blindness, limited mobility, or attention disorders. Their input will ensure that you’ve successfully implemented these guidelines. 

The post How to Run a UX Audit in 7 Steps / From Frustration to Flow appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity now handle over a billion searches each week. They deliver instant recommendations without forcing users to click through multiple sites. If your brand does not appear in those answers, potential customers will not find you.​

This shift is changing the discovery process.

People used to search Google, compare results, then make a choice. Now they ask an AI assistant and act on its recommendation immediately. That means you need to optimise for being referenced, not just ranked.​

Some call this AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation), AISEO, LLMSEO, or GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). The names differ, but the goal remains the same: make your content easy for AI systems to cite and recommend.

How do you do this? By combining established SEO practices with tactics designed for AI platforms.​

In this guide, I’ll explain what Generative SEO is, why agencies need to care, and how to build content systems that perform across Google and AI search engines.

What Is Generative SEO?

Generative SEO, or GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), is the practice of optimising content so AI platforms cite and reference it when generating answers.

Traditional SEO aims to rank your site in search results and drive clicks. GEO focuses on making your content a trusted source that AI engines quote directly in their responses.​

The goals differ, too. Traditional SEO pushes users to visit your website. GEO positions your brand as an authority without requiring an immediate click. When ChatGPT or Perplexity repeatedly cites your content, users start recognising you as an expert. That recognition builds trust over time.​

Think of it as playing the long game. You may not get instant website visits from every AI citation. But when someone needs to make a purchase, book a consultation, or download a resource, your brand is already familiar to them. They have seen you referenced multiple times in answers they trust.​

This is how lead generation works in an AI-driven search environment. GEO helps you become the go-to name in your field before prospects even reach your site. For agencies looking to future-proof client growth, understanding this shift matters a lot.

Why Agencies Can’t Ignore GEO in 2025

The shift to AI search is not a future trend. It is happening right now. Four reasons stand out for why this matters to agencies managing client visibility.

User Behaviour Has Changed

ChatGPT processes 2 billion prompts daily and reached 700 million weekly users by September 2025. AI platforms now drive traffic to 63% of live websites on the internet. 

Users ask questions in conversational interfaces and act on the answers they receive without clicking through to multiple sites. If your clients are not cited in those answers, they lose visibility at the exact moment potential customers are making decisions.​

AI Traffic Converts Better

Multiple studies show AI traffic converts 4.4x to 23x better than traditional search, with specific examples like:

• Semrush study: AI traffic converts at 4.4x the rate of organic search
• Ahrefs internal data: AI visitors convert at 23x the rate (12.1% of signups from 0.5% of traffic)
• Adobe study: AI-referred users in banking were 23% more likely to start applications

These visitors arrive with a stronger intent because they have already used the AI assistant to narrow their options.​ 

According to the Ahrefs State of AI in Content Marketing report, companies using AI grew 5% faster than those without it, with median year-over-year growth of 29% for AI users compared to 24% for non-users.

For agencies managing client visibility, these numbers represent a significant portion of potential traffic that traditional SEO alone won’t capture. Early adopters are already seeing the benefits.

Builds Credibility Before the Click

Around 60% of Google queries now end without a click, a trend accelerated by AI Overviews and AI Mode. Traditional rankings still drive traffic, but citations in AI responses build something more valuable: trust and authority. 

When prospects see your client’s brand referenced repeatedly in AI-generated answers, they recognise it as credible before visiting the website. That pre-qualified trust leads to higher-intent visits and better conversion rates.​

Creates Competitive Advantage

Most agencies have not yet mastered GEO. Those who invest in it now position themselves and their clients as authoritative sources. AI models build trust through consistently accurate, well-structured content. 

Once your client’s content becomes a trusted source, competitors struggle to displace that authority. The first-mover advantage in GEO is real, and the opportunity to claim it is now.

Generative SEO extends traditional SEO rather than replacing it, combining ranking fundamentals with AI citation and discovery mechanics, a shift also reflected in how agencies are approaching AI SEO strategies that improve rankings, as outlined by Nine Peaks.

Proven and Strategic GEO Techniques for Agencies

Mastering Generative SEO does not require scrapping your content marketing strategies. You need to adapt your approach. Here are five techniques that work for brands trying to gain AI visibility.

Content Structure and Clarity

AI engines prioritise content that directly answers questions. The first 100 words of any article are critical. Lead with a clear, concise answer to the primary query before expanding on the details. This approach works especially well for how-to guides.​

• Use descriptive headings and subheadings to structure your content. AI crawlers scan them to understand context and relevance. 
• Break content into modular sections of 100 to 300 words, each focused on answering a specific question. 
• Use bullet points, tables, and summaries to simplify information. These formats help AI engines accurately extract and cite content.​

Structuring content for humans is something we marketers and SEO specialists have been doing forever, but your SEO strategy for 2025 and beyond must include one additional step – structuring content for AI bots.

Do it right, and you will easily rank in ChatGPT.

Authority and Trust Signals

Traditional SEO focused heavily on backlinks from authoritative sources. The quality of your backlinks determines your ranking for relevant search queries. 

This still matters, but the game has shifted. Now you need to build trust signals across multiple platforms.​

• Be present everywhere. Along with your website, maintain an active presence on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram. The more AI models see your presence across various platforms, the more they trust and cite your content. Post regularly. Publish one long-form LinkedIn piece per week plus three micro-posts.​
• Do Reddit marketing. Reddit threads have been outranking traditional websites on Google’s first page. Google AI Overviews cite Reddit in roughly 21% of cases, while Perplexity cites Reddit nearly half the time at 46%. Create your company’s official profile on Reddit (@Company_Name) and start engaging in the relevant subreddits. Focus on authentic participation and transparency when engaging as a brand.​
• Publish Claude Artifacts, Perplexity Pages, and Press Releases. Claude and Perplexity let you publish standalone pages that are indexable in Google. ChatGPT cites press release articles almost instantly. If these methods work for you, double down on them.​

Tell your team members to create personalised Reddit accounts using the format Chrisfrom[Company_Name] and start commenting on relevant threads. This builds community engagement and brand discoverability. 

Build a personal brand on LinkedIn and X for founders and executives by publishing thought-leadership content. This boosts your client’s business’s credibility in the AI algorithm.​

Schema Markup and Structured Data

Schema markup remains one of the most effective ways to help AI engines understand your content. Research shows that 81% of web pages cited by AI platforms include schema markup. However, not all schema types matter equally.​

• Add schema to all website pages. Use the FAQ schema for question-and-answer content, the Article schema for blog posts and guides, and the HowTo schema for instructional content. ChatGPT gives significant weight to the Person schema, with 70.4% of sources cited including this. Organisation and Article schema also receive importance from ChatGPT.​
• Test the schema before adding it to live pages. Use tools like technicalseo.com to validate your schema markup. An incorrect schema is not just unreadable to crawler bots; it also harms your chances of ranking in ChatGPT.​
• Use plugins to add schema automatically. If your client has a WordPress website, use SEO plugins like Rank Math SEO or Yoast SEO to add schema easily. 

These structured data formats make your content machine-readable, allowing AI platforms to parse and extract information with confidence.​

Natural Keyword Integration

Long-tail keywords give you an advantage when ranking in ChatGPT. Make including relevant long-tail keywords related to your business a cornerstone of your GEO strategy.​

• Focus on conversational, long-tail keywords that reflect how real people ask questions. Including “what’s the best project management software for small teams?” in your blog works better than repeatedly stuffing “project management software” into it. 
• Aim for 1% to 2% keyword density. Anything higher risks sounding unnatural. Semantic relevance matters more than exact-match repetition.​
• Chat with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini about your business and see how they cite your content. Use those insights in your GEO strategy. 

AI engines understand context and semantic meaning far better than traditional search algorithms. Include keywords that your client’s ideal customer profile would use when talking about their business.​

Build Topical Authority

Building topical authority helps you dominate search results whenever users search for topics related to your product or service. This also tells AI tools that you are an expert on the topic, and they should cite your content.​

• Create topic clusters. A topic cluster has a pillar topic in its centre that covers a broad subject. Supporting cluster pages explore related subtopics in more detail. This is the easiest way to build topical authority organically.​
• Cover a topic from all angles. If one of your pillar topics is website design, your cluster topics should include the best website design agencies in London, what to look for when choosing a website design agency, and the best website design agency for an aviation company. Each pillar should have 5 content topics with 10 clusters per topic.​
• Emphasise EEAT. While originally a Google Search concept, Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are even more critical for AI visibility. ChatGPT’s knowledge is based on credible sources, and it is trained to favour authoritative information.​

Update content regularly with fresh data and insights. AI models favour current information over outdated resources. The goal is to create the definitive resource on your topic, leaving AI platforms no choice but to cite you.

Tracking Your AI Visibility: Tools and Metrics

You cannot improve what you do not measure. Traditional SEO offers clear metrics like rankings and traffic. GEO requires a different approach to tracking. 

The challenge is that AI citations do not always generate immediate clicks, making them harder to monitor through standard analytics tools.​

Essential Metrics to Monitor

• Brand Mentions: This metric tells you which AI platforms are currently mentioning your client’s brand and how frequently. Brand mention context and sentiment matter equally. Is your client cited positively, neutrally, or in a less favourable light?​
• Cited URLs: Keep track of which specific URLs are being cited. This reveals which pieces of content resonate most with AI engines, helping you identify successful patterns to replicate.​
• Share of Voice in AI Responses: When users ask questions in your client’s niche, what percentage of responses cite your client versus competitors? Recent data from 6 million AI responses shows that first place captures 36.55% share of voice, second place gets 19.7%, and third place receives 13.21%. This winner-takes-all pattern makes share of voice the most important metric in AI search.​
• Referral Traffic: Monitor referral traffic from AI platforms in Google Analytics. While not all citations drive immediate clicks, tracking this metric reveals the commercial impact of your GEO efforts.​

AI Visibility Tracking Tools for Agencies

Google traffic can be tracked in Google Search Console and Google Analytics, but tracking AI traffic requires different tools. Here is how you can keep track of AI visibility for your client’s brand.

Premium Solutions:

Tracking AI Traffic Manually Using Google Analytics (GA4):

If you do not want to spend on the AI visibility tools, you can track traffic that comes from AI tools for free in Google Analytics (GA4). 

One of the SEO strategists that I follow on LinkedIn, Matthew Capala, shared a simple way that you can implement in 2 minutes.

Create a new channel group

Log in to your Google Analytics and create a new channel group. You can name the channel group anything you want – LLM Traffic, AI Visibility Tracker, etc.

Add channel group details and the Regex code

After adding a relevant name for your channel, go to Channel Conditions and select Source. Set the condition as matches regex and paste the following code:

🔔Note: Paste the entire code, do not miss a single character. Also, as new AI platforms and LLMs come out, this code may need to be updated.

Getting Started: A Practical GEO / LLMSEO / AEO / AISEO Roadmap for Agencies

So, Are You Ready to Get Cited in AI Tools?

How people discover a product or brand has changed since the launch of LLMs; they no longer want to scramble through 10 different sources, compare brands, check reviews, and then make a decision – they want a summarised answer that pushes them to make the decision.

And early adopters will gain citation authority that’s hard to replace.

GEO is not a replacement for traditional SEO; it is simply an extension – a new and more advanced way of doing SEO. Traditional SEO is still the foundation of your online presence; adding Generative SEO tactics to it simply expedites the results.

A good place to start is to audit your website for current AI visibility, optimise strategically, and track diligently. Once you have enough data, start scaling it.

The post Generative SEO: A Beginner’s Playbook for Marketing Agencies appeared first on CreativeWeb.

But some teams find it restrictive, slow to update, too reliant on developers etc. Due to their flexibility and ease of editing, platforms like WordPress, Webflow and Contentful have gained popularity.
Here at CreativeWeb, we help teams review their existing Umbraco setup and help move over to systems that support day-to-day marketing and make content effective.

Why organisations still choose Umbraco

Umbraco has a strong technical foundation and it runs on modern .NET. It integrates cleanly with Microsoft environments and it now offers a headless mode through the Content Delivery API.

For companies with internal development teams, it provides flexibility and control that other CMSs might not.

For multilingual or enterprise-level sites Umbraco still performs well but it needs to be maintained correctly.

Many businesses are re-thinking their CMS choices with content management and marketing becoming more collaborative and the CMS needs to keep up.

Common challenges that teams report with the Umbraco platform

It has a rigid design structure

Older versions often use block-based layouts that are hard to change. Design teams report feeling limited by the CMS; they are unable to create fluid and modern sections without a developers input. This slows down changes and massively restricts the creative flexibility.

Editing and campaign creation

Marketing teams find everyday updates in Umbraco difficult because adding pages or adjusting layouts typically need a developer. When fast campaign turnaround is key, this becomes a bottleneck. Some teams even use separate landing-page tools to work around these issues.

Time and cost of updates

Because Umbraco typically requires .NET skills, the pool of available developers is smaller than a CMS like WordPress. This often results in longer lead times and much higher costs. It is not always a negative but it is a consideration if your marketing or content teams want more flexibility and control.

How the CMS market looks in 2026

According to W3Techs, WordPress still dominates the CMS landscape, powering about 43% of all websites. Platforms like Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Joomla, Drupal and Webflow hold smaller shares (but these are growing!).

The chart above shows current CMS usage trends and as you can see WordPress leads by a big margin. Shopify and Wix have gained popularity with small businesses and eCommerce brands, while Webflow is seeing steady growth among design-led agencies and start-ups.

Beyond the major platforms, many smaller CMSs hold modest shares of the market. The list below summarises a few, based on 2025 W3Techs data:

Breakdown of additional CMS usage

• Shopify is 4.7% of all websites
  Super popular with online shops because it’s got everything built-in – checkout, hosting, the lot. You basically just plug in your products and go.
• Wix is 3.8%
  Easy drag-and-drop stuff, great for small biz owners or anyone just getting started. You don’t really need to know how to code.
• Squarespace is 2.4%
  A favourite with creatives and small service brands – it looks nice out the box and it’s simple to manage too.
• Joomla is 1.4%
  Bit old-school now, not many new sites are using it but you still see it hanging around on older projects.
• Drupal is 0.8%
  More for big, complicated websites – stuff like universities or gov sites that need loads of structured data.
• Webflow is 0.9%
  Really slick CMS, made for designers and marketers who want more control but don’t wanna mess with code too much.
• Tilda is 0.9%
  Becoming more popular lately, especially with design agencies and folks over in Eastern Europe.

Duda, GoDaddy Builder & Adobe Experience Manager are under 1% each
Still used here and there, but not massive. Mostly for niche projects or bigger companies with very specific needs.

These figures help explain why ‘other’ remains a large category. Thousands of smaller or custom CMS exist with many built in-house or using frameworks like Laravel, React or Django.

Alternatives that are worth considering

When businesses move away from Umbraco the alternatives they consider depend on different factors like team size, technical skills and marketing goals. Here are three of what we think will be the most common options in 2026:

WordPress

Powering over 43% of the web, WordPress offers flexibility and its easy to use. Its vast plugin library supports everything from SEO to multilingual content. When set up properly, it delivers strong performance in both search/visibility and usability.

For examples of high-performing WordPress sites, see our WordPress web design service page.

Webflow

Webflow is a favourite among design-led teams who want full visual control without diving into heavy code. It supports animations, responsive layouts, and a clean editing experience. While it’s not ideal for complex integrations or large datasets, it’s perfect for fast-moving campaigns and modern, design-focused websites.

Contentful

Contentful is a headless CMS built for enterprises that need to push content across multiple channels like websites, apps, and more. It gives developers lots of flexibility and scale, but the setup is more technical and often comes with higher costs. Some teams take a hybrid route: using WordPress for the marketing layer and Contentful behind the scenes to power other systems.

Does Staying with Umbraco Still Make Sense?

If your team has strong developers and you’re already deep into the Microsoft stack, Umbraco can still be a great fit. It handles multi-language content well, works with headless setups and offers a lot of control especially if your devs are fluent in .NET.

But if your content team is constantly waiting on developers just to make basic changes, that’s a red flag. In that case, switching to something more intuitive might save everyone time and frustration.

In the end, it’s less about what platform you’ve used in the past and more about what actually works for your team now.

Migration Doesn’t Always Mean a Redesign

If you’re moving away from Umbraco, you’ve got two main options:

Rebuild with Your Existing Design
This path keeps your current look but moves it into a more flexible CMS. It’s a solid choice if your design still fits your brand and performs well. It can also save time and cut costs. Our web design team can help assess whether your layout’s worth reusing.

Redesign and Rebuild
If your site feels a bit dated, migration is a great opportunity to modernise. You can refresh the visuals, improve accessibility and streamline navigation while switching to a CMS that gives your team more control.

What a smooth migration looks like

Google’s official site-move documentation explains how to preserve rankings during a migration. Key actions include implementing 301 redirects, maintaining URL structures where possible, and testing everything before go-live.

At CreativeWeb, our process typically includes:

• Content and URL mapping, including redirects and metadata migration.
• Building and testing templates in the new CMS.
• Checking performance, accessibility and structured data validation.
• Training teams on editing and content workflows.

Handled correctly, migration does not have to cause ranking loss or downtime. Our website audit helps identify any SEO or performance risks before migration begins.

How the development landscape is changing

According to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, JavaScript remains the most widely used language, with HTML, CSS, and Python close behind.
C# still plays a key role in enterprise and Microsoft-heavy environments. However, its developer base is smaller than that of JavaScript frameworks. This difference helps explain why platforms like WordPress and other JavaScript-based systems tend to evolve more rapidly. enterprise and Microsoft-based environments. However, its developer pool is smaller than that of JavaScript frameworks. This gap helps explain why platforms like WordPress and JavaScript-based systems often evolve more quickly.

Signs it might be time to re-evaluate

You may not need to move away from Umbraco immediately. However, it’s worth reviewing your CMS if:

• Simple content updates are taking longer than expected.
• Campaigns or landing pages are requiring a developers input.
• Performance in SEO or visibility has declined despite good content.
• Internal teams are struggling to collaborate effectively.

If this sounds familiar… switching to a system that supports marketers and editors directly can pay off in both time and cost.

Key takeaway

Umbraco does still remain a reliable CMS for organisations BUT only with the right technical setup. For teams that want faster editing, improved SEO control and lower maintenance costs – alternatives like WordPress, Webflow, and Contentful are becoming more attractive.

Start with a website audit

If you’re not sure whether a move makes sense, start with a website audit to get a sense of how your site’s doing – its structure, speed and whether it can grow with you. Then you can figure out if it makes sense to stay as is, do a redesign or switch to a new setup.

The post Exploring Umbraco alternatives and migration options in 2026 appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Controlling feedback revisions is essential to allow projects to proceed smoothly and efficiently. This helpful process can be used to prevent getting hopelessly stuck and making changes indefinitely. At our web design agency, it’s something we actively prioritise from the start of every project.

The Root Causes of Feedback Loops

Nobody likes to get bad feedback, it sucks! However, that’s not the leading cause of endless revisions, it’s the vague, impractical feedback which is troublesome. Constructive feedback is always appreciated, it promotes collaboration with the clients, getting a strong outcome for everyone involved😇. The type of ‘bad’ feedback we are discussing in this article can look a lot like the following examples:

Lengthy emails:

A long email which rambles on will never be resolved quickly, and it becomes very easy to miss specific points, which leads to feedback going back and forth on repeat.

Too many cooks:

When there are too many decision-makers involved in one project, feedback tends to become conflicting and very confusing. 

Undetailed comments:

Subjective feedback such as “Make it pop”, “Change this” or “It’s not quite there” can lack actionable direction, making it difficult for designers to implement meaningful changes.

Without structured revision rounds, feedback can become a never-ending process, with new suggestions emerging continuously.

Setting Clear Guidelines

Let’s discuss how we can establish clear boundaries early to prevent endless rounds of amends.

Firstly, setting clear deadlines for feedback submissions ensures that your project stays on schedule and keeps it progressing in the right direction. Secondly, we need to make the client aware of the approval hierarchy. This means that only one person will be the voice for communicating feedback between revision stages, keeping the feedback process clear and concise. Finally, we need to be breaking feedback up into a process like ACAF.

So what does ACAF mean? 

Ask – Categorise – Act – Follow up

ACAF is a simple 4-step process to ensure we’re not just collecting feedback but using it to make meaningful improvements. It works by gathering, filtering and actioning customer feedback, ultimately closing the loop and keeping customers happy. Let’s break it down.

Ask: This is where we ask clients for feedback on a design.
As we do all our design in Figma, we find it easiest to utilise the comment tool, so clients can leave direct feedback on the section of the design they are referring to.

Categorise: The feedback will then be split into categories.
This helps us prioritise what needs attention urgently, what is an actionable fix, and what needs more clarification from the client.

Act: Take action based on the feedback.
This is where we will implement design changes, and refine any problem points.

Follow-up: Close the loop by responding to customers.

By following this process, you’re not just collecting feedback for fun, you’re actually doing something with it. Clients appreciate that, and when they see real changes, they’re far less likely to hit you with the dreaded “Per my last email…” 👀.

So What Does Good Feedback Look Like?

We’ve addressed some of the common root causes for getting stuck in a feedback loop due to unclear comments, but what does useful feedback look like? 

Useful feedback is:

Specific
Addressing an issue clearly, leaves everyone on the same page.

Visual
Utilising tools like Figma, means we know exactly where the issue appears and what needs amending.

Actionable
Leaving realistic feedback in terms of budget and timescales.

Let’s take a look at some frequent feedback points and how they can be rephrased to help not only the designers but also to move the project forward.

I’m sure at least once, we’ve all been guilty of using unclear phrases like “it needs more wow factor” or “can you make it more modern” 🤦 – instead, we need to think about what we are trying to communicate. What does “modern” mean to the client, do they want a minimalistic approach, or do they want to see a layout with more whitespace? 

Alternatively, the feedback could sound more like this “Compared to our competitors, the design felt a little dated. Can we try a rounded font with a more contemporary colour scheme to brighten it up?” Instantly, we have some actionable points of feedback to work on that will end up with fewer rounds of revisions and less back and forth with the client.✨

Take Control of The Feedback Loop

Endless rounds of revisions don’t just prolong projects, they frustrate everybody involved. By making sure you have clear guidelines in place using a tested process like ACAF, and making feedback visual (by incorporating tools like Figma Comments) you can put a stop to the dreaded ongoing feedback loop 🤩.

Imagine this… designs are approved on time, no endless email chains and everyone involved is happy. You’re thinking that’s crazy, right? It’s totally possible, next time you start a project, put this strategy in place and see how much smoother and shorter your feedback loops become.

The post Fewer Revisions, Faster Approvals – How to Manage the Web Design Feedback Loop appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Not long ago, launching a site meant days of manual coding and endless design tweaks. Now, AI is stepping in to take the heavy lifting off the developer’s plate – making websites more personalised, better performing, and far more efficient to build.

If you’re looking for a web design agency that’s embracing this new era of AI-powered development, that’s what we do.

So, what does that actually mean? Let’s break it down.

AI is Taking Over the Tedious Tasks

Building a website from scratch used to be a pain. Writing lines and lines of code, debugging, testing – over and over again. But now, AI is making that process far easier (and faster).  Tools such as Github Copilot or Tabnine handle the time consuming and repetitive tasks in creating a website to allow developers more time to complete complex tasks and handle the aspects which AI hasn’t mastered yet.  The tools don’t stop at just doing the repetitive tasks, they suggest code as you type, catch errors before they become a problem, and help you follow best practices, all of which saves a huge amount of time.

Websites Are Getting Smarter (and More Enjoyable to Use)

A great website isn’t just about how it looks – it’s about how it feels to use. AI is making websites more personal, more interactive, and just… better.

Chatbots that don’t sound like robots – You know those little chat windows that pop up when you visit a site? AI-powered chatbots (like ChatGPT and Dialogflow) are getting really good at having actual conversations with visitors, answering questions, and even helping with customer support – without making people wait on hold.

Tools such as Zipy use AI to monitor and analyse user sessions helping to identify and capture errors and bugs in real time as users are interacting with the site and feeding back to developers with summarised and detailed notes along with recordings of the sessions.  Helping developers to spot and fix bugs quickly and efficiently.

SEO is also getting an Upgrade

If you want people to find your website, you need good SEO. But keeping up with Google’s algorithm changes can be like trying to hit a moving target.  That’s where AI-powered SEO tools like Clearscope and SurferSEO come in. They analyse what’s ranking on Google right now and give you real-time recommendations on keywords, structure, and readability.  They also help with the behind the scenes setup with generating meta tags automatically, just like with writing code it’s streamlining and doing the heavy lifting when it comes to the repetitive tasks.

Creating that unique Image or Video is now possible with AI

Have you thought of a video for your hero that would sell your business best or the perfect image that represents your article but you don’t have the ability to create or capture it?  AI has now become powerful and intelligent enough to be able to create a video or image with just a couple of words.  DALLE·3 and Adobe Firefly can now create images that look just like a photographer had taken them and with Sora you can create videos that would take months to create normally. However, you have to be careful, as it can be easy to spot an AI image.

So… What’s Next?

AI in web development is still evolving, but here’s where we’re headed next:

• AI-generated code – Developers will rely even more on AI to write and refine code, making the process faster and smoother.
• Voice search optimisation – More people are using voice assistants, so websites will need to be built with voice search in mind.
• AI-powered design – Expect smarter design suggestions, adaptive layouts, and even AI-generated animations.
• Predictive analytics – AI will help businesses understand what users want before they even realise it themselves.
• More accessible websites – AI will improve accessibility with real-time translations, voice navigation, and automatic captions.

The Bottom Line

AI isn’t here to replace web developers – it’s here to make their jobs easier. From writing code and optimising SEO to making websites more interactive, AI is transforming web development in all the right ways.

AI-powered web development isn’t the future. It’s happening right now. And honestly? It’s pretty exciting.

Our founder, Christopher Baker, also contributed to Clutch’s feature on AI in web design, which explores how agencies are adopting these tools in practice.

The post How AI Is Transforming Web Development in 2025 appeared first on CreativeWeb.

How on earth were they expected to know what we were looking for, when they didn’t even know who we were, or why we were on their website?

Fortunately, it’s 2025 and we’ve come a long way from those archaic practices. The Web has evolved into a global, intelligent network of resources – we simply ask it what we need and it delivers us personalised results, guaranteed to be useful. AI has transformed how we interact online – the traditional website experience is very much dead.

However… We didn’t arrive at this point by accident. Plenty of traditional techniques have contributed to the way in which the web has evolved over the last 25 years, from minor features to major considerations that have been used to enhance the way we experience content.

Let’s have a look back at some of those techniques that were used to make websites Self-Aware – often missed by legacy website designers, but always appreciated by website visitors. You’ll hopefully have seen some of these in the wild!

Dark Mode

We all know about Dark Mode, right? It’s that handy setting on our devices that stops you burning your eyes out when the outside world is… well, dark. Nowadays, with most of our web interactions being conversational, this goes unnoticed – but back in 2025 it was kind of a big deal.

You may remember a few websites having the ability to toggle between Light & Dark versions, but did you consider that they could do this automatically for you?

Most of the coding languages we used to create websites offered a way to get both the time of day, as well as the visitors’ device settings.

It would be fairly straightforward for developers to not only create a Dark Mode for their site, but to have it switch depending on these factors without having to press a toggle.

This way, the website would automatically adapt itself – no more blinding people browsing in the dark with a bright white website, or having to compromise on design trying to design something that would appeal to both modes.

Illuminating! (or not, as the case may be…)

Cookies

If you were visiting websites in 2025, you’ll know all about Cookies. Well – maybe not all about them, but at least that they existed – thanks to the never-ending slew of popups that you were presented with upon opening almost any site.

Alongside the sneaky things like data collection & tracking, developers could also use Cookies to improve your experience of their websites. A couple of ways they could have done this might have included:

Filter History

Let’s say you had a shop, or some other sort of archive on your site. A visitor might only be looking for a particular thing, so they use your filters to narrow down their search. They find what they’re looking for and plan to come back later to review it. Great!

But… they come back later, and have to filter all over again. They are sad! Developers could use Cookies here to prevent this frustration. We wouldn’t want to just preload their search for them, as they might not want that – but an option as simple as –

‘Use my previous search’

– would help them get instantly back to their results. They are happy!

Content Suggestions

This one worked particularly well on sites offering different types of end goal – ie. Services, Products or just Articles. Maybe visitors found a post through a Google search, and as the website manager you wanted them to continue to explore. How would you know what they were interested in?

You may have heard of tools such as Clarity, used for capturing data from users visiting a web page. Though you may not have considered that this could also be done in real-time! Here’s a potential example:

• You’re a pet store selling pets online. Your blog post covers the keeping of various kinds of pets, with paragraphs covering Small Mammals, Reptiles, Birds & Fish.
• You also sell Small Mammals, Reptiles, Birds & Fish through categorised sections of your site.
• Using IntersectionObserver technology, you could determine which sections of your post the visitor lingered on the longest – and tailor your suggested content accordingly. They skimmed the article but spent 10 minutes reading about fish? Show them more fish!
• This data could be stored in Cookies, so it would constantly be kept up to date with what the visitor was interested in, and the suggested content updated in real-time.

Localisation

Localisation was really important on traditional websites where the content needed to be unique to visitors in different locations. This would generally be for a couple of reasons:

• Language (they needed to be able to read the site!)
• Physical Addresses (they might want directions, or a branch of the company nearest to them)

Both of these could be automated to improve the UX of the website:

Language

To optimise websites for different languages, the content could be translated using either human translation (slow & expensive, but most accurate) or AI translation (quick & cheap, but sometimes made mistakes).

We could store these translations in the site, and use the visitor’s IP address to determine which country they were visiting from, and show the language that matched – while also providing a switch to allow them to change it if they wanted. Simple!

Physical Location

In addition to just your country, we could also perform more accurate Geolocation. If you ever approved the browser popup ‘This site wants to know your location’ – congratulations, you’ve been geolocated!

Sites featuring Google Maps to show a location, or with a range of branches around the country, could use this to personalise your experience.

Instead of a regular map, it could show directions from your actual address.

Branches could automatically be sorted by nearest to you, making finding the right one much more convenient.

Speed Optimisation

Preloading

You may, or may not have heard of DNS Prefetching / Preloading. This was a technique where we instructed the user’s browser to load resources from somewhere before the page actually needed them – things like font files and external CSS were often ‘prefetched’. Did you know, though, that we could also fetch entire pages?

Using intelligent javascript, we could detect when someone’s mouse lingered on a button on the page – and then immediately preload that page’s content – before they actually opened the link.

This would result in that page loading much faster in their browser when they did decide to click on it – saving loading times and the potential for a lost lead.

Performance Tests

Another way that our websites could think for themselves is by using performance tests to analyse the capabilities of the visitor’s device, before serving them material appropriate to their power. Not everyone in 2025 possessed the newest, fanciest, ultra-beefy phones or computers – plenty of people (most, actually) were still working with limited hardware. We had the technology to display incredible 3D scenes, but what would be the point if it crippled users’ devices?

Using relatively lightweight performance tests was a great way to determine whether their browser was up to the task – and if it wasn’t, web pages could be reduced to a version that still hit the mark visually, but was much less intensive to load. They could also determine other things such as media format support &  support for modern CSS such as scroll behaviour, to load resources appropriately.

Physical Sensors

Did you know that many fingerprint sensors built into mobile phones in 2025 also doubled as heartbeat monitors?

I recently came across a calming/meditation app that used this feature to progressively enhance its UX – while going through the steps in the app, the user could measure their heartbeat and try to lower it through the calming sequences offered – and different sequences would be offered depending on your starting rate.

This is a great example of how physical attributes of a device could be used to improve the self-aware capabilities of a website or app.

In Summary…

Plenty of our standard practices used by our Web Intelligence in 2050 have roots in some of the features mentioned above, alongside other advanced techniques used by designers & developers to nail down the UX of their sites and make them as self-aware as possible, to tailor experiences to the users themselves.

Next time you’re building or commissioning something on the web, think about how it could be intelligently optimised in this way – your users will love you for it!

The post UX Design in 2025 – Tips & Tricks for a Self-Aware Website appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Three years after the pandemic officially ended, are we now returning to the “old normal”? Are our clients looking for more meaningful relationships that include face-to-face meetings? Let’s explore how business meetings have evolved and what that means for client relationships today.

Boardroom to Zoom – and its impact on our relationships

During the pandemic businesses were forced to evolve rapidly into a new virtual world. We were no longer allowed to meet face to face to discuss projects, have a catch up or pitch our services. 

I always felt there was something a little cold about virtual meetings. While you could break the ice with a flickering camera, disconnected headphones, or the classic muted microphone, it never quite matched the energy of being in the same room.

However the convenience of the virtual meeting made a huge impact. The ability to go from one or two meetings a day to four or five was a major increase in productivity. More importantly, it opened doors to clients across the world, making it easier to form relationships without geographic limitations.

A major shift for our team—and many others in the web design and digital space—was the opportunity to build strong connections with international clients. We’ve had the privilege of working with businesses across the USA, South Africa, and Australia, relationships that may not have happened without this global shift.

Shifting back to face-to-face engagement

But now that the pandemic is behind us, are we going back to the old ways? Over the past year, we’ve noticed a real shift—our clients are keen to meet face-to-face again. Whether it’s just catching up with a long term client face to face to discuss new projects or existing ones or in person sales pitches, we have definitely noticed an increase in requests to meet face to face. 

As a team we are more than happy to be stepping out of the virtual world to meet our clients. So, we’re back on the road, jumping in the car or catching the train to see them. It’s a breath of fresh air being able to step away from the screen and have real, in-person conversations brings a new energy to our work. It allows us to connect, discuss ideas more freely, and collaborate in ways that just aren’t the same over a video call.

Why are face-to-face meetings making a comeback?

Is it just digital fatigue, or is there something more bringing people back to in-person meetings? Many professionals have realised that virtual interactions often lack the engagement needed to build strong, long-term business relationships.

Face-to-face meetings develop trust and rapport in a way that emails and video calls cannot. Harvard Business Review carried out research into email vs face to face requests and the studies showed that face to face communication is 34 times more successful than over email. 

The web design and development market is highly competitive and competition is fierce, businesses that are investing in personal connections are standing out. When you sit down with a client, you can read their expressions, feel the energy of the conversation, you can also have spontaneous conversations that actually end up sparking new ideas that might not happen on a call. Meeting in person isn’t just about talking, it’s about connecting. In a creative industry, working side by side like this isn’t just nice to have, it’s the best way to collaborate.

Additionally, decision-making processes can often be expedited in face-to-face settings. Many companies are also finding that clients are more receptive and engaged when discussions happen in person rather than through a screen.

The future of business relationships

From working through to Covid to the last few years since, I think this is beginning to come clear. Although technology has evolved and it makes it easier to connect, it can’t replace real human interaction. That’s why I believe in-person meetings are making a comeback—because people value genuine, face-to-face interaction.

Companies that are recognising this shift and making the effort to meet in person when it matters will be able to build stronger, more lasting relationships. After all, business isn’t just about emails and video calls—it’s about people. As we get back to meeting in boardrooms, cafés, and conference halls, it’s clear—nothing beats being in the same room. Talking, listening, bouncing ideas around—it just feels more natural. That’s where the real connections happen.

The post Why Face-to-Face Business is Making a Comeback appeared first on CreativeWeb.

With this new found accessibility more and more people are using AI to create content for their businesses, blogs and social media. While a lot of use cases are perfectly harmless, there are other cases where AI content is being used for nefarious purposes such as false advertising and spreading fake news.

It’s therefore important that internet users learn how to spot AI content, both written and visual.

Spotting AI-Generated Written Content

Between written and visual content, AI written content is often the hardest to spot. Copying words is easier than copying detailed images and so AI has become pretty good at it. If you’ve ever had a chat with a service like ChatGPT or Bard, you’ll understand just how human they can sound. Even when you talk to companies through their chat systems online such as Amazon or your car insurer, you are more than likely talking, at least initially, to an AI bot.

So how do you spot when you’re reading AI content? Here are some tells to look out for:

1. Overly Polished and Repetitive Language

AI loves using “big” words. If a piece of content is written using AI it’ll use fancy adjectives instead of varying between regular and fancier words, so instead of “the business meeting was important” it’ll say “the business meeting was crucial”, or instead of “the document still needed improving” it’ll write it as “the document still needed enhancing”. Obviously these words are in a human writer’s vocabulary but if a piece of content consistently uses these “bigger” words instead of a more varied vocabulary, then this is a good indication that the article is AI-generated.

As well as that, its use of repetition is actually one of the best ways to spot an AI written piece of content. It loves using “lists of three’s” to describe things, for example, “the dog was big, friendly and happy”. It’ll use this structure over and over again when describing things. So if you’re reading a piece of content where things constantly have three descriptors, then the chances of it being written by an AI are pretty high. Human writers are more likely to vary their sentence structure and length, while this is something that AI doesn’t seem to factor in when writing.

2. Lack of Personal Experience or Anecdotes

You may not actively notice it when reading a regular human written article but they often have personal experiences, references or anecdotes in them. Perhaps they use a pop culture reference or talk about a relatable situation.

AI struggles with this. It hasn’t had personal experiences and it can’t see the similarities between a situation and a moment from pop culture. If you’re reading a piece of content and it seems very bland and lacking any sort of personality then it could be written by AI.

3. Perfect Grammar but Unnatural Phrasing

AI text will almost always be grammatically flawless, but the phrasing might not be quite right. Certain sayings or words might not be used in quite the right way, a bit like a person who learned a language studying textbooks rather than through natural conversation with other people.

Spotting AI-Generated Images and Videos

While their written text content is very impressive and hard to spot, AI still hasn’t quite got the hang of visual content. There are so many nuances to visual content that we never think about, as to us, that’s just how the world looks, but for AI, perfectly replicating all the little details in visual content is hard to get right.

However, saying that I still scroll through places like Facebook and see plenty of accounts posting AI images with users in the comments believing them to be real. So if you’re struggling to tell real from fake, here are the easiest ways to tell if an image is AI generated:

1. General Glitches and Artifacting

The biggest tell an image has been created using AI is to check the background. Even if the AI has got the subject of the image correct, it will have taken less notice of the background and smaller details.

As such, their images will often have issues like walls warping into each other, peoples limbs combining together, or even faces looking like they’re out of a horror film!

Even the subject matter can suffer from this, be it too many limbs on a person or strange and uneven items on cars and buildings. AI makes a lot of mistakes so once you notice one you’ll start seeing more and more.

Take a look at the below photo, how many mistakes can you spot?

The few things that stand out to me straight away are:

• The cat’s face is distorted and looks more like a painting than a photo.
• The wood panelling on the left behind the sofa mixes with the curtain when it passes behind the lamp.
• The frames of the window at the top in the curved section aren’t straight and look like they’ve been drawn on.

1. Inconsistent Facial Features

When you think about it human faces are actually very detailed and as such it really struggles with human features. If you’re not sure whether a photo is real, take a look at the face and the body features. Hands having too many fingers or their teeth seeming to blend into one another are easy ways to tell that an image is AI generated.

It also creates faces that have near perfect skin. Even the best looking people in the world have slight imperfections in their faces but AI struggles with these little details and as such AI faces will often have perfect, air-brushed skin that doesn’t look real, making them look a bit like cartoon characters or CGI.

2. Unnatural Situations

You know how the classic saying goes: “if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is”. The same goes for AI images. If the image you’re looking at seems unbelievable then most likely it isn’t real. You might look at an image of a cat surfing and think “yeah that’s obviously not real” but the amount of people who get fooled by images like that is alarmingly high!

If you’re not sure if something is real, have a quick Google search for the same image or scenario and see if it exists. If it’s real then lots of people will be talking about it, so if you can’t find multiple pictures or articles about it from reputable outlets, it’s not going to be real.

3. Lighting That’s Too Perfect

A detail that people often overlook in AI images is the lighting. Take a look at the below image:

Notice how the shadows of the railings cast on the wall on the left, and how there’s more than one light source (behind camera and from the other room). Natural light is something that AI is currently incapable of properly understanding. Now have another look at this image from earlier that was created by AI:

While it gives it a good go, AI doesn’t understand the nuances of shadows and lighting. It always makes images in high contrast.

It doesn’t take into account the light from the lamp and everything is bathed in this warm yellow sunlight. In reality the light would be much flatter and less colourful with more shadows and dark areas. It’s as if the AI wants you to be able to see all the details in the picture so none of the shadows are dark enough. The bookshelf especially should have a shadow cast on it from the plant that is between it and the light source but doesn’t!

Interestingly, if you were to put this image into Photoshop and average out all the colours it would become just one, bland colour. Whereas doing the same with a real photo would result in more than one colour. This is because AI images, unlike real life images, always have a 50:50 spread of dark and light spots. There is a really interesting video by the YouTube channel Corridor Crew which explains this phenomenon better than I can which you can watch here.

Tools to Help Detect AI Content

While manual detection is a useful skill to have, being able to get a second opinion is always useful. Here are some tools to check for AI content if you’re still unsure:

• AI Text Content Detectors: Tools like ZeroGPT and QuillBot are good ways to get an idea of whether something might be AI generated, however, they aren’t perfect. I’ve had pieces of content that these checkers have flagged as being 100% AI despite being written entirely by me. Even this article has sections being flagged as AI despite being 100% written by myself!
  
  A good rule is if multiple different checkers give a piece of content a score of 50% or more then the chances of that content being AI written, or at least partly AI written, is very high.

• Reverse Image Search: Using Google’s reverse image search is a handy way to check if an image is real or not. If Google comes back with lots of results or even better, different angles of the same subject or event, then you know that the likelihood is high that that image is real.

• Deepfake Detectors: Tools like Deepware and Reality Defender help analyse images and videos for AI creation or manipulation.

Conclusion

As AI generated content becomes more advanced, distinguishing between human and machine becomes increasingly difficult. However, by paying attention to the details and not taking something on face value you can become more adept at spotting fake content. It’s a skill that might take time to learn, but it’s an important one that all internet users should know.

So the next time you’re reading an article or looking at an image online, take a closer look, you might just uncover an AI’s handiwork.

The post Spotting AI Content: How to Avoid Being Fooled Online appeared first on CreativeWeb.

But in building our site recently, despite us being a leading web design agency building over 500 websites in the last 12 years, I found myself in the depths of appeasing Google Speed Insights. Even with my quite vast knowledge on the subject, I ended up discovering and implementing various tactics to sort out our images, get the loading times up to scratch, and do away with those annoying “Properly size images” and “Serve images in modern formats,” etc.

So where to start? Head over here: https://pagespeed.web.dev/, pop in your website, and if you get any warnings about images in your report, then keep reading on, and let’s try to sort them out.

Types of images 

Ok, so basics first. If you’re a pro, read on to the next section. However, it’s always good to have a little refresher.

Different image and graphic types need different formats. If you’re jamming big JPEGs into your site for everything, you need to stop (collaborate) and listen.

Jpeg 

Ok, what does JPEG even mean? Honestly, I use them every day, and I still had to Google this, JPEG stands for:

“Joint Photographic Experts Group.”

Great, what does that mean though? If you want a guide on the nitty-gritty, head over here: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/process-of-jpeg-data-compression/, but basically:

JPEG compresses images using lossy compression by transforming the image into frequency components via the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), quantizing the data to reduce precision, and applying entropy coding to efficiently store the remaining information.

Basically, it makes your image much smaller, often with minimal quality loss. Most places where you can save an image from Adobe, Figma, etc., allow you to choose a compression level. I usually go for around 60% unless there is visible quality loss because of this.

Great, so I’ll make all my images JPGs? Well, no-don’t do that. JPEGs work well for pictures. By pictures, I mean pictures of your offices, pictures of your staff, your holiday photos, pictures of your dog – that sort of thing.

JPEGs don’t work well for graphics – your logos, icons, infographics, flow diagrams, etc. If your logo on your website is a JPEG, you’re probably noticing it’s likely a bit blurry and not crisp. Other formats like PNG or SVG work much better for this!

So in summary, if you have an image or something that’s not a graphic, great-save it as a JPEG, aim for around 60% compression (and size it appropriately-more on this later).

NB: WebP and, to a lesser extent, AVIF have mostly replaced the need for JPEGs on your site in 2025, so still use them if you have something on-site to sort out delivering WebP from a source file like a JPEG. If you don’t, then skip ahead to WebP and read on.

PNG

So, PNG-it stands for Portable Network Graphic and is a type of raster image file. Again, the nitty-gritty here: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/raster/png-file.html, and a summary:

PNG compresses images using lossless compression by applying filtering to improve redundancy, then encoding the data with the DEFLATE algorithm, which combines LZ77 and Huffman coding for efficient storage without quality loss.

Great, so what should I use a PNG for? Basically, it’s a good option for a graphic that isn’t vectored. So if you have your logo, infographic, icon, etc., that isn’t vectored, a PNG is usually your best option. It allows transparency in the background as well, so you can save, say, your logo on a transparent background. If your header changes colour, no more white block background around your logo.

So you have your logo that isn’t in a vectored format? (By “vectored,” I mean an EPS, AI (no, not ChatGPT or the likes but Adobe AI), or SVG format.) Then a PNG is usually the best way to go.

Top tip: Put it through this tool – https://tinypng.com/ – this is great for reducing the size of your PNG without quality loss before popping it into your site.

GIF

So, whenever I say this in the office, someone usually tells me it’s pronounced “Jif” with a soft G. There’s your top tip for saying GIF and sounding like a pro.

It stands for Graphics Interchange Format-nitty-gritty: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/raster/gif-file.html, and a summary:

GIF compresses images using lossless LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression, which replaces repeated patterns with shorter codes to reduce file size while supporting a limited 256-color palette.

Great, so when should I use this? Well, I rarely use GIFs-maybe I should use them more, but the problem I find is that GIFs, due to their limited colour profiles, often result in poor – quality output for more complex graphics. There are also much better options (cough, SVG) that allow for vectored formats so your graphic can resize without losing quality.

So, if you’ve got a simple icon, then a GIF can be a good way to go.

But wait! GIFs do animation.

Yes, they do. You can create animations with GIFs using multiple frames to animate things like your logo.

But if you use a GIF on your website, Google Speed Insights will show you this:

“Use video formats for animated content.”

So, as Google says, it’s not a good way to go. Animated GIFs are usually very big. If you’re using an animated GIF and don’t want it to be massive, then use this tool: https://ezgif.com/ – it’s pretty good!

Animated GIFs are good for email signatures, but use them on your site, and Big G is not your friend. If you need animation on your site, consider MP4, WebM (if you don’t care about Mac iOS support), or Lottie (https://lottiefiles.com/).

In summary, GIFs are somewhat of a dated format. We rarely use them on websites unless we have something like a non-vectored icon and a PNG doesn’t make sense. But if you want an animated email signature, GIF is still your friend.

SVG

Ok, we’re getting a bit closer to formats that really matter on a website in 2025.

SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.

The guff: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/vector/svg-file.htm

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) represents images using XML-based vector paths, defining shapes, lines, and colors mathematically, allowing infinite scalability without loss of quality while remaining editable and lightweight.

So, if you’re building a site in 2025 and have a graphic, then SVG is your friend. They are great for your logo, icons-pretty much any graphic that isn’t too large or complex.

Why are they good?

• They are vectored, so whether you view them on your 8K gaming monitor or your grandma’s iPhone 8, they will not lose quality and will scale without loss.
• You can embed them! Unlike other images that require src=”urltoyourimage” (unless you’re doing something like Base64 encoding), embedding SVGs removes the need for extra “requests” on your webpage. Too many requests to images or files can slow down your site, and most speed test tools recommend reducing the number of page requests. (Oddly, I don’t believe Google Speed Insights does this, but it still matters as it contributes to a lower speed index.)
  • They are great for use in, say, a logo carousel, where you would normally have 10 requests to different images. If you embed them as SVGs, there are no additional requests.
  • But be careful! Embedding too many large SVGs can lead to an “Avoid an excessive DOM size” warning.

• SVGs can put a lot of code on the page. Google Speed Insights doesn’t like this, so you need to strike a balance between embedding SVGs and including them as standard images.
  • If you’re embedding an SVG, this tool is great: https://jakearchibald.github.io/svgomg/-it optimises your SVG by reducing the amount of code and making them smaller.
• If you embed SVGs, you can apply CSS effects to them.
  • Have a big map of the world and want hover effects on a location? SVGs allow you to do this.
  • Want to apply a gradient or hover effect to your SVG across your site? SVGs allow you to do this.
• They are good for animation.
  • In fact, the whole Lottie library (linked previously) is an SVG animation library.
  • SVGs allow you to create vectored, scalable animations that you can trigger on interaction.
  • Want your logo or icons to animate when a section comes into view? SVGs can do this-and they’re usually the best option.
• They are easy to work with.
  • If you have a design in Figma, you can copy an SVG directly as code and paste it into your site when you’re developing it.
  • You don’t have to go through the hassle of exporting, saving, optimising (although using SVGOMG as linked earlier is still a good idea), uploading, referencing the URL, dealing with relative URLs from staging to production, etc.

Where SVGs aren’t so good

• Embedding too many SVGs can create an excessive DOM size. As mentioned earlier, watch out for this.
• Watch out when you have an image inside an SVG.
  • This happens quite often-sometimes an SVG will Base64 encode an image, meaning it won’t actually be vectored or scalable. An SVG imposter!
  • In these cases, you can end up with a very large SVG that won’t scale properly-so consider using a PNG or another format instead.

In Summary

• If you have an icon or non-complex graphic that is vectored, SVG is the way to go.
• If you want animation or interactivity with your graphic, use an SVG.

WebP

WebP’s are pretty great-they are a modern format for images and graphics that drastically reduce file size. If you have a website in 2025 and aren’t using WebP’s, you need to start doing so.

It’s also what Google Speed Insights means when it says “serving images in modern formats.” WebP is a modern format, and guess what? Google owns it, and it’s developed by Google-maybe a reason they want you to use it, but credit to Google, they are good.

So, onto a definition of what WebP stands for… well, it doesn’t stand for anything-it is simply derived from “Web Picture.” I sometimes refer to them as What Even Breaks Photoshop? (since WebP wasn’t natively supported for ages).

Here is a link to Google’s page about WebP: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp

WebP compresses images using predictive coding for lossy compression (similar to VP8 video frames) and dictionary-based techniques for lossless compression, supporting transparency and animation with smaller file sizes than JPEG, PNG, and GIF.

I could go deep into WebP, but basically, if you have a JPEG, PNG, or GIF, then you should convert them to WebP (or AVIF in the next section) and use that instead.

When should you still use a non-WebP image?

The only time you want a non-WebP on your site is if you know your Content Management System (CMS), CDN, or server is converting them for you, and you want conversion and quality handling carried out by that tool. Otherwise, always convert them (or avif, see below)

🚨 Please don’t use massive JPEGs and PNGs.

In 2025, no one needs a 1.2MB PNG when a 76KB WebP will work just as well. They also support transparency, so that transparent background PNG you’re using? Make that a WebP too.

How to convert to WebP

This is a great tool for mass converting to WebP: https://towebp.io/ There are also some good CDNs and plugins that can handle conversions for you. I’ll go onto that later, along with the pros and cons.

The only downside to WebP?

This is becoming less and less of an issue, but compatibility. Check here to see what browsers support them: https://caniuse.com/webp

But basically, unless you are developing a website that must support backwards compatibility for outdated browsers (this might be needed for a developing country or because that CEO still thinks IE is the way to go), then WebP is fully safe to use.

AVIF

So, AVIF is a modern image format, released in 2019. I say modern, but six years ago isn’t all that modern in terms of the web.

AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format, which is based on the AV1 video codec and uses the HEIF (High-Efficiency Image File Format) container for storing images with advanced compression.

Our friends over at Smashing Magazine have a good article on AVIF and modern file formats: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/09/modern-image-formats-avif-webp/

When should you use AVIF, and when should you use WebP?

So, AVIF is a modern image format that Google doesn’t own-if you don’t like Google, that makes the choice easier.

Basically, AVIF offers better compression and is newer, but WebP is more widely supported.

Check browser support here: https://caniuse.com/?search=avif

In general, unless you have many older Edge users, AVIF should be safe to use.

Quick update on AVIF images – there are two important things to flag that I didn’t mention before.

First, AVIFs can be quite resource-heavy to decompress, which means they can slow the browser down a bit, especially if you’re using a lot of them across your site. Something to keep in mind from a performance perspective.

Second (and more annoyingly), Google doesn’t really like them. It won’t show AVIFs in search results – for example, when your site shows up on mobile with an image next to it, Google won’t pick up AVIFs for that. It’ll only use WebPs, JPEGs, PNGs, and the like. So even though AVIF offers the best compression and file sizes, I can’t really recommend using them on their own unless you’ve got proper fallbacks in place.

Unfortunately, Google controls a huge chunk of the internet and marketing visibility, so WebP tends to be a better all-round option unless you’re happy to go the extra mile with fallbacks.

Is AVIF better than WebP?

Yes, in real-time usage, AVIF is better-so really, in 2025, you should be using it and could even argue for it over WebP.

However, WebP has better support in design software (only recently with Adobe), whereas AVIF isn’t really a format you see when exporting an image from Adobe, Figma, or similar tools.

This is because:

• AVIF takes longer to encode and decode
• It’s more resource-intensive, especially on older hardware
• The uptake in design software is low

Compression: AVIF vs WebP

AVIF can offer 30-50% better compression than WebP.

That’s a big saving, but note that this is compound compression.

If you’ve already saved 900KB by converting a JPEG to WebP, you’re probably thinking:
“That’ll do-massive saving!”

At this point, the need to take one step further and optimise might get lost, especially if you’re already meeting Google Speed Insights’ requirements.

Example Calculation:

• Starting with a 1MB JPEG
• Converted to WebP at 100KB (90% smaller than JPEG)
• AVIF is 30-50% smaller than WebP, so:

At 30% smaller:
100KB × 0.70 = 70KB

At 50% smaller:
100KB × 0.50 = 50KB

That extra 30-50KB saving over the compatibility of AVIF often gets overlooked.

In Summary

✅ Yes, you should be using AVIF.

Its support is now almost as wide as WebP, it saves more file size, and it has all the same features (including transparency) as WebP.

So, if you’ve already converted to WebP, go one step further and use this to convert to AVIF: https://towebp.io/webp-to-avif

Image File Types Summary

In short: stop using JPEGs, PNGs, and GIFs unless you’re handling image conversion at the CDN, server, or CMS level.

There is now good and wide support for modern file formats like WebP and AVIF-there’s no good reason not to use them on a website.

The file size savings are massive, and you’re not going to achieve a good score on Google Speed Insights unless you’re using these formats.

Image sizing

Ok we’ve got your file types sorted. You’ve gone into your site, switched all your jpegs, pngs and gifs to webp or avif, we should be good right?

Not that easy, Google Speed Insights might still be giving you this warning:

Properly size images 

So we’ve saved loads of space converting them to the right format, but if your image is still 2000px width and is being rendered in a 300px frame then there is still optimization that can take place. 

At this point the most logical thing to do would be to resize your image to 300px. Yes thats right, but we live in a time of responsive web design, no more fixed width container divs (minus 60px for the scroll bar) or websites built in tables. Your 300px resized image is good for a desktop screen size (above around 1200px) but on mobile its likely rendering smaller, lets say 100px.

So what do you do here? This is where srcsets come in: 

Srcsets

The Guff: srcset is an HTML attribute that lets you define multiple versions of the same image at different widths (e.g., 400w, 800w, 1200w). The browser uses this list, along with the sizes attribute, to choose the most appropriate image based on the device’s screen size and resolution. It helps reduce file size and improves loading speed without sacrificing image quality.

So in summary It lets the browser choose from different image sizes depending on the screen size and resolution. Saves bandwidth, improves speed, and stops Google Speed Insights moaning about properly sized images.

Here’s a basic comparison:

Standard image tag:

<img src="image.jpg" alt="Example image">

With srcset:

<img src="image-800.jpg" srcset="image-400.jpg 400w, image-800.jpg 800w, image-1200.jpg 1200w"  sizes="(max-width: 600px) 400px, (max-width: 1200px) 800px, 1200px" alt="Example image">

What this means:

• srcset tells the browser which versions of the image are available.
• sizes tells it how wide the image will be at different breakpoints.
• The browser picks the best one based on screen size and resolution.
  

Sounds good, but writing that for every image is a pain-cropping, resizing, writing markup-it’s not realistic for most builds. Which is why this is usually handled at the CMS level.

In WordPress, if you’re using wp_get_attachment_image() or the_post_thumbnail(), it should be doing this for you automatically.

Example:

<?php echo wp_get_attachment_image( $image_id, 'full' ); ?>

That’ll output the full srcset and sizes for you. As long as you’re using WordPress’s built-in image functions, it’s already sorted.

In React (Next.js), use the built-in <Image /> component:

import Image from ‘next/image’;

<Image src="/images/example.jpg" alt="Example image" width={1200}  height={800} sizes="(max-width:600px) 400px, (max-width: 1200px) 800px, 1200px" />

In Vue (Nuxt):

<NuxtImg src="/images/example.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 400px, (max-width: 1200px) 800px, 1200px" alt="Example image" />

If you’re not using a framework that handles this, you’ll need to do it manually-or look at a CDN to help out (we’ll come onto that shortly).

WordPress tip:
Sometimes WordPress’s auto-generated srcset and sizes aren’t ideal. You might find it defaults to things like sizes=”auto” or serves weird image breakpoints. If that’s the case, you can define your own image sizes in functions.php:

function cbd_register_custom_image_sizes()
{
  add_image_size('mobile', 576);
  add_image_size('large-mobile', 768);
  add_image_size('tablet', 1024);
  add_image_size('small-laptop', 1366);
  add_image_size('medium-laptop', 1600);
  add_image_size('full-width', 1920);
}
add_action('after_setup_theme', 'cbd_register_custom_image_sizes');

function cbd_custom_image_sizes_dropdown($sizes)
{
  return array_merge($sizes, array(
    'mobile'        => __('Mobile (576px)'),
    'large-mobile'  => __('Large Mobile (768px)'),
    'tablet'        => __('Tablet (1024px)'),
    'small-laptop'  => __('Small Laptop (1366px)'),
    'medium-laptop' => __('Medium Laptop (1600px)'),
    'full-width'    => __('Full Width (1920px)')
  ));
}
add_filter('image_size_names_choose', 'cbd_custom_image_sizes_dropdown');

This will give you more control over how WordPress handles your image breakpoints and what gets added to the srcset.

Summary:
If you’ve sorted your srcsets, your images should now be correctly sized across devices, and that “Properly size images” warning in Google Speed Insights should be gone.

Now we’ll go on to look at some other techniques that can help-like CDNs, lazy loading, and delivery optimisation.

Lazy loading

Okay, so you’ve done your srcsets, you’ve got your images in the right formats, everything’s looking good-and now you’re getting hit with “Defer off-screen images”, like the screenshot below.

What does this actually mean, and how do you fix it? 

You can see Google is suggesting you consider lazy loading, so let’s go into what that actually is.

So, what is lazy loading?

In technical terms, lazy loading is a browser-level optimisation that defers loading of off-screen resources (like images) until they’re about to enter the viewport. Instead of requesting all assets as the page initially loads, the browser holds off on fetching anything marked with loading=”lazy” until it’s needed. This reduces unused data transfer, speeds up time to first paint, and lowers your LCP score in tools like Google Speed Insights.

Lazy loading works by using the native loading attribute on <img> and <iframe> elements. It’s supported by most modern browsers and doesn’t require any JavaScript or external libraries to use in basic cases.

Here’s the guff: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Performance/Lazy_loading

Without lazy loading:

<img src=”example.jpg” alt=”An example image”>

With lazy loading:

<img src="example.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="An example image">

 What this does: it tells the browser not to load that image straight away. It’ll only fetch it when the user scrolls close enough for it to actually matter. Saves bandwidth, speeds things up, and stops Google from shouting at you about deferring off-screen images.

The markup is pretty easy. You basically just add loading=”lazy” to your image tag.

In WordPress, this is handled for you in most cases-you can just include lazy loading as an option, and it’ll do the rest. Same goes for React or Vue. It’s pretty straightforward, so you don’t need me to walk you through that bit.

However-you don’t want to lazy load everything.

If you’ve got images that are needed on first load (like anything in your hero section), lazy loading them can actually cause more problems. You might end up with layout shifts or missing images on first render, and Google Speed Insights might start complaining about things like render-blocking or content not appearing fast enough.

So, general rule of thumb: Lazy load anything below the fold.
Don’t lazy load images that are needed for the first view of the page.

Native lazy loading vs JavaScript fallback:
Most modern browsers support native lazy loading with loading=”lazy”, but if you need to support older browsers (looking at you, Internet Explorer or older Safari), you might consider a JavaScript fallback like lazysizes. For most people in 2025, though, this is overkill.

Preloading key images:
If you’re not lazy loading a hero image or anything above the fold, and it’s critical to the visual load, consider preloading it to prioritise it:

<link rel="preload" as="image" href="hero.jpg">

This can help boost LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) if that image is a big part of your page’s first impression.

CDN’s

Okay, so now we’re on to CDNs.

So what is a CDN?

It stands for Content Delivery Network. It’s a network of servers around the world that deliver your website’s files-images, scripts, stylesheets, that sort of thing-from the closest location to the user. This reduces latency and improves load times.

Here’s the guff on it if you want the deeper explanation: https://www.akamai.com/glossary/what-is-a-cdn

CDNs are generally a good thing to use on your website. They help load your content from different locations around the world, so it’s usually delivered faster. Say your server is in London and someone loads your site in New York,a CDN might have a server location much closer to them, so instead of waiting for everything to come from London, they get it quicker from a nearby server.

So they help speed up your website, which is great-but they can also do all sorts of things with your images. And that’s why I’m bringing them up here.

So at this point, you may have got down to this part of the guide-who knows, you might’ve got fed up by now-but you’re probably thinking, this is a lot of effort, isn’t it? I’ve got to convert all my formats, I’ve got to do srcsets, I’ve got to fiddle around with sizes and compression and all sorts. This seems like a right faff.

Is there not a better way?

And yes-there is. In some cases, you can just use a CDN, and it’ll sort a lot of it for you.

There are pros and cons to doing it this way, and I’ll go through the two CDNs that we use, explain how they work, and what the pros and cons are. But yes, there is a faster way.

Cloudflare 

Cloudflare is great. If you’re not using it, you probably should be. It does your DNS, handles security, and acts as a solid CDN. I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs of what Cloudflare can do-there’s loads of guff on their site if you want that. Here’s the link: https://www.cloudflare.com

What I will go into is Cloudflare’s image optimisation-because this is where it gets useful for what we’re doing here.

There are two things worth knowing: Polish and Image Resizing.

Polish is Cloudflare’s automatic compression tool. It strips out metadata like EXIF data, compresses your images (you can choose lossy or lossless), and if the browser supports it, it’ll automatically convert and serve WebP. This all happens on the edge, so it doesn’t mess with the original image on your server. It just delivers a much smaller version when someone loads the site.

Image Resizing is the clever one. Instead of you having to create ten different sizes of every image and build your own srcset, you can just give Cloudflare a high-res version, and it’ll resize it on the fly. You can literally define the width and height in the image URL. So you might end up with something like:

<img src="/cdn-cgi/image/width=300,height=200/your-image.jpg" alt="Example image">

That tells Cloudflare to resize your image to 300×200 before serving it. It works well with srcset too, so you can still give the browser a few options if you want to. Saves you from doing all the cropping and exporting manually.

So yeah-Cloudflare doesn’t just speed things up, it can also take a lot of the image optimisation hassle off your plate. Worth looking into if you’re not already using it.

The only thing I will say about Cloudflare’s Polish is that, in real-world usage, the compression isn’t that extreme. So for example, I might upload a PNG to the site-it could be, say, 300 or 400KB-and when I download it from the front end with Cloudflare enabled, it’s still 300 or 400KB. No real difference.

Even after fiddling with the settings, Polish will often tell me that image is as optimised as it can be and that there’s no benefit to converting it to WebP. But in reality, if I take that same PNG and run it through a manual tool and convert it to a WebP-or even better, to AVIF-I can usually save a massive amount of space.

So, same example: upload a 400KB PNG, Polish says it’s good to go. But if I convert that to AVIF manually, I can usually get that down to under 100KB. That’s a 300KB saving, and a pretty big one if you’re doing that across loads of images.

So yeah-Cloudflare Polish and Image Resizing are good, and I love Cloudflare generally, but if you really care about compression, especially on heavy pages, you’ll still get better results using manual tools to convert to AVIF or WebP before uploading.

So yeah-Cloudflare is great, and you should be using it. But I wouldn’t say its image optimisation tools are enough to just switch on and be done with it:

• You still need to lazy load.
• You still need to change your markup if you want to use image resizing properly.
• Polish is decent, but it’s not enough on its own-you’ll probably still get warnings in your speed test tools.

If you’ve got Cloudflare and you can enable these features, then yes-absolutely use them. But manual optimisation will still give you better results every time.

Ewww

The last one I’ll mention is EWWW.

It might be relatively unknown, but it’s a very good tool-and it works well with WordPress. If you’re looking for an all-round solution and you’re not particularly technical, this is a solid option. You can install it on your site, check a few boxes, and it’ll handle a lot of the heavy lifting for you. It comes with loads of features, including automatic srcset injection, lazy loading, format conversion, and CDN delivery. You can tweak the settings, turn things on or off, and generally get decent optimisation without much effort.

The only thing I’ll say is that it can cause conflicts. So depending on your setup, you might run into issues-things like JavaScript errors if it tries to lazy load something it shouldn’t, or even images going blurry no matter what settings you pick. It can be frustrating to get to the bottom of if that happens.

So I’d say: If you’ve got a site that’s already been built and image optimisation wasn’t thought about properly at the time, EWWW is a good way to go back and patch it in.
If you’re building a new site and you know what you’re doing, I’d lean more towards doing it manually. You’ll get better results and more control.

That being said, it’s a very good tool-and it plays nicely with things like WP Rocket and Cloudflare, so you can stack it with other optimisers to really speed your site up.

Final Notes & Summary

So, in summary-image optimisation is one of those things that sounds simple at first but ends up being more effort than you’d expect. And while there are tools that can help (and you should use them), you still need to understand what’s going on behind the scenes.

Here’s the quick version:

• Use modern formats like WebP or AVIF wherever you can.
  
• Resize your images to fit the actual size they’re being rendered at-don’t just chuck in a 2000px-wide image because it “looks better”.
  
• Use srcset to let the browser choose the right size based on the screen.
  
• Lazy load anything that’s not needed on first load-but don’t lazy load above-the-fold stuff.
  
• CDNs like Cloudflare or EWWW can save you time and fix bad habits-but they won’t fix everything.
  
• Manual optimisation will always give you the best results-but yes, it’s more work.
  

If you’re building a new site, get this right from the start. If you’re fixing an old one, tools like EWWW and Cloudflare can get you most of the way there.

And one last point-test everything. Run your site through Google Speed Insights or Lighthouse and check the results after every change. What looks good in theory doesn’t always translate into a faster site in practice.

That’s it. Hopefully, this has been useful-or at the very least, helped you avoid a few of the rabbit holes I ended up going down.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Website Image Optimisation appeared first on CreativeWeb.

A good website is not everything…98% of the visitors will exit without looking for anything else. And it’s not in the traffic – most websites are built without lead capture, qualification or conversion in mind. AI builds on top of that, answering questions while visitors browse or shop, guiding the most likely to convert, personalising their content and core interactions.

By analysing visitor behaviour, ranking potential customers based on brand engagement and identifying those likely to convert, AI can transform your website into a lead-generation powerhouse. But it needs page views, time on page and engagement signals, to know who the buyers are.

1. AI Helps You to Stop Guessing and Find the Right Leads

The Problem – In most companies, the biggest time wasters account for 50% or more of your overall sales time, wasted trying to reach out to unqualified leads. Instead of helping you close deals, AI delivers insights to ensure that your team doesn’t chase the wrong prospects.

How AI explains — AI studies visitor patterns, assigns scores based on conversion probability and showcases the best of the best. It assesses page visits, time spent and engagement signals to determine who’s ready to buy.

Case in Point: Carson Group’s AI-Lead Scoring
One company that was spending way too much time pursuing unqualified leads was Carson Group, an investment advisory firm. They used an AI-powered lead scoring system that analyzed Salesforce data to determine with high accuracy which leads would convert. This would eventually lead their advisors to have only prospects with great value, resulting in better customer acquisition and thus improving their sales process efficiency by multiple folds.
Source: Provectus Case Study

How it matters: You can filter out cold leads with AI, allowing your entire team to focus their efforts on customers that actually have the potential to close deals.

2. AI-Personalized Content So You Can Treat Every Visitor as Unique

The Problem – The majority of websites serve identical material to all site visitors, resulting in low engagement and increased bounce rate.

AI Solution – It modifies content, CTAs and special offers dynamically, depending on the action of the visitors. It can identify if a visitor is a new customer, a returning customer, or a BUYER-ready prospect and provide a customised experience.

Example in the Wild: The AI-Generated Content of the ‘Thinking Traveller’
They took advantage of web optimisation solutions supported by AI that adjusted content in real-time based on the habits and preferences of users visiting the respective site. It also allowed them to experiment with individual pieces of content to see which messaging worked best. Once personalised content was injected, online booking inquiries increased by 33%, testifying that if you care to engage your readers/audiences, personalised content is the way to go.
Source: Bloomreach Blog

AI Ensures: Every visitor gets tailored content using AI, improving engagement and conversions.

3. Never Lose a Lead Again: AI Follows Up For You

The Problem – “So, I thought to delve deeper and see what else I was missing; I needed the right approach to comprehend these leads”

How AI Solves It — AI automatically sends personalised emails, chat messages or reminders based on how a visitor interacts with your website. Conversely, if a potential lead browses your website but doesn’t convert, AI ensures you follow up in time, so you don’t miss out on the opportunity.

Case Study: Use AI to Better Follow Up Before Your Competitors Do at Yum Brands
Yum Brands – the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC – sought to increase customer engagement and reduce churn. They used new AI-enabled marketing automation systems to customise follow-up emails according to customers’ interests and previous purchases. This enabled them to provide highly relevant promotions, resulting in higher purchases and lower customer churn.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Summary – AI nurtures leads so they don’t slip through the cracks.

4. Get To The Bottom Of Why Visitors Are Bouncing: AI Analytics Reveal What’s Not Working

The Problem – The basic analytics that most people are seeing at the moment just tell you how many visitors have left and never give you a reason why.
How AI Fixes It – AI-centric analytics focus on visitor engagement, foretell stages of leaving and give recommendations above and beyond standard reports.

Example: AI-Generated Heatmaps for Webpage Optimization
AI-Based Heatmaps are used to optimise web pages. For example, Every.org, a nonprofit fundraising platform, saw that users who started to make a donation were abandoning the process. AI-generated heatmaps showed that users were rage-clicking the donation button because the bandwidth was frozen on the payment form. They simplified multi-step payment and once they did, Every.org noticed a 29.5% increase in successful donations.
Source: Impression Digital

Takeaway: Using AI shows you what’s working and what’s not so that you can enhance and optimize using data.

5. AI and Conversions for Smarter CTAs, Seamless Forms

Static Challenge – Static CTAs and run-of-the-mill forms don’t engage visitors at the key decision-making moments.

AI Solution – AI-driven CTAs and forms reshape on-the-go as per user behavior. It can:

• Modify Call To Action copy, position or colour based on engagement severity
• The tip: lessen friction and pre-fill the sections

Findings: Adjusting CTA based on data through AI
A marketing agency realised that they had good website traffic, but their conversion rate was low. Leveraging dynamic AI-driven CTA optimisation, which changed placement, text and even CTA colour according to well-worn visitor behaviour. Through machine learning, AI discovered that some users clicked on those buttons that appeared higher on the page, whereas some others responded better to CTAs that appeared after a scroll delay. CTA clicks increased by 30% after implementing adjustments driven by AI – adaptive lead capture at its best. Source: Unbounce

Core takeaway: AI is streamlining lead capture to make it much easier and frictionless for visitors to convert.

Maximise Conversions, Minimise Effort: AI is the Key

AI works better than old-school approaches for engaging, qualifying, and converting leads. By leveraging AI-powered lead scoring, personalisation, automated follow-ups, website analytics and smart CTAs, businesses can generate more leads without extra traffic.

The post AI Websites: The Future of Lead Generation appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Finding the right web partner can be a bit of a minefield—there’s a lot out there, and it’s not always easy to know who actually delivers. To help make the decision a bit easier, we’ve researched and compiled a list of the Top 8 Web Design Agencies in the UK for 2025—based on agencies we know consistently do good work. We’ve selected them based on a few key factors:

• Client Satisfaction: Verified 5-star reviews and consistent positive client feedback (e.g. on platforms such as Clutch, Google Reviews)
• Creativity & Innovation: Agencies that produce unique, user-focused designs and forward thinking digital experiences.
• Expertise & Custom Design: Teams that go beyond templates and instead build bespoke, high-performing websites tailored to the businesses needs.
• Scalability & Flexibility: Agencies that focus on building digital platforms that are designed to grow alongside a business as time goes by.
• Full-Service Capability: Agencies that also provide additional services such as branding, SEO, UX strategy, hosting and ongoing support.
• Industry Recognition: Agencies that have won awards and are consistently recognised on directories such as Clutch, Sortlist and DesignRush.

1. CreativeWeb

Offices: London, Surrey
Website: https://www.cbwebsitedesign.co.uk/
Hourly Rate: £115

To begin the list, we have placed ourselves at the top, as both curators of this list and an agency that regularly ranks among the best in the UK, we understand what it takes to create websites that are so much more than simply visually appealing. Here’s a closer look at why CreativeWeb leads the way in 2025.

CreativeWeb was founded in 2013 by Christopher Baker, a developer-turned-agency-owner with over a decade’s experience in web development and SEO. Since then, the agency has delivered over 500 websites for clients across a range of sectors—including tech, leisure, aviation, corporate, charity, and gaming.

Now a team of 25, we focus on building websites that not only look great but are built to perform—designed and developed entirely in-house, from scratch. No templates. No shortcuts.

We’re proud to be ranked the No.1 Web Design Agency in the UK and Europe on Clutch, out of more than 40,000 agencies, which reflects the quality and results we’ve delivered for our clients.

We’ve worked with companies like 4media Group, Strata Create, The Social Element, and Infoserv Ltd—handling everything from bespoke site builds to high-performing marketing platforms.

Most of our work is built on WordPress—it gives us the freedom to design and develop sites from the ground up, and clients find it straightforward to use day-to-day. That said, we’re not tied to one setup. We’ve also worked with Shopify, Webflow, and headless CMS platforms like Contentful, Sanity, and Strapi, when the project calls for it. It really comes down to what’s right for the brief.

With accredited standards (ISO certified and a Google Partner), and a background in both design and development, we bring a well-rounded approach to every project—delivering websites that are fast, user-friendly, and built with long-term growth in mind.

In addition to web design and development, we offer other services including branding, SEO, hosting management, digital marketing, and ongoing support, making us a full-service digital partner. We also work with charities and non-profit organisations, supporting great causes pro bono where we can.

If you’re looking for a bespoke, high-performing website, get in touch:

2. Plug and Play

Offices: London, Guildford
Website: https://www.plugandplaydesign.co.uk/
Hourly Rate: £75 – £115

Established in 2006 by Peter Richman, Plug & Play is a UK based web design agency, with offices in the historic Surrey town of Guildford, as well as multiple London locations.

They pride themselves as a “people business”, focusing on strong client relationships while delivering high quality and high performance sites that convert visitors into sales.

Their full-service offering includes everything from web design, brand development, and eCommerce solutions to mobile apps, digital transformation, and digital marketing strategy. They are particularly experienced in sectors like recruitment, education and fintech.

Plug & Play is highly rated by their clients with highlights being their value for money, effective communication and timely delivery.

Recent clients include Give A Grad A Go, Powerleague and Third Space but they’ve also worked with well know organisations like WWF, Tesco and Shell.

3. UX Studio

Office: Budapest
Website: https://www.uxstudioteam.com/
Hourly Rate: £40 – £75

Since being started in 2013 by founder Dávid in the beautiful Hungarian capital of Budapest, UX Studio have become know for their passion for excellence and their commitment to quality.

As a dedicated UX/UI design studio, their service list differs from most regular web design agencies as they provide extra services such as UX/UI design, mobile app design, UX research, and usability testing.

They have very positive client reviews with qualities like value for money, quality, and strong ROI results being some of the most highlighted features.

Their portfolio is very diverse having worked with high profile clients such as Netflix, Samsung, United Nations and Cisco, while also catering to smaller clients, with Nanoleq, Nutriversum and Fankee being notable examples.

4. Yellowball

Offices: London, South Africa
Website: https://weareyellowball.com/
Hourly Rate: £75 – £115

Founded over a decade ago by co-founders Owen Hunnam and Nic Lapham, Yellowball is a multi award winning web design agency based in London that also has a team all the way in South Africa!

They pride themselves with caring about the details of each project, from every line of code to every pixel, they aim for perfection. While they specialise in WordPress websites, they also build websites with Laravel, with their other services include SEO, branding, and eCommerce solutions.

With over 250 websites delivered across various industries, they’ve achieved over 95 five star reviews on Google and have a 92% client retention rate, with clients praising them for their ability to hit deadlines, fantastic designs and noticeable SEO results.

Recent clients include Ballet with Isabella and Nova Motorsport, but they’ve also worked with well know brands like Belvoir Farm, Wren Kitchens and Securitas.

5. The Web Kitchen

Offices: London, New York
Website: https://www.thewebkitchen.co.uk/
Hourly Rate: £75 – £115

Founded in 2006, The Web Kitchen is a specialist web design agency with offices in both London and New York.

Although they provide services to various business sectors, they’ve really cornered the market in the education sector with notable clients being the Oxford University Colleges, City of London School, Wellington College, and Eton College.

As well as providing bespoke WordPress website design they also offer additional services such as branding, copywriting, video production, and SEO.

Despite being best known for their education websites, they have plenty of clients from other industries including recognisable names like Indeed Flex, Global Radio and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

6. Made by Shape

HQ: Manchester
Website: https://madebyshape.co.uk/
Hourly Rate: £75 – £115

Established in 2010 by Andy Golpys and Jason Mayo, Made by Shape is an independent web design and branding agency based in Manchester.

They use a slightly different approach to most other web design agencies in that they build their websites with Craft CMS instead of WordPress which they claim is faster and easier to update. As well as offering branding and SEO services, they also specialise in creating Shopify sites and can setup a custom Shopify store within 4 weeks.

While many top web design agencies outsource some of their more tedious work, Made by Shape prides themselves in keeping all of their project work in house ensuring their work is the best it can be and nothing is lost in translation.

Made by Shape’s diverse portfolio includes clients such as Gary Neville, YMU and Relevé Clothing.

7. Together

Offices: London, Nottingham, Oxford
Website: https://togetheragency.co.uk/
Hourly Rate: £115 – £150

Starting in 2006, Together is a creative agency based in Nottingham with additional offices in London and Oxford.

Unlike others on this list, web design is just one of the strings to their bow, as they specialise in everything digital including branding, online marketing, graphic design and content creation.

They are especially proud of their ability to mix creativity and behavioural insight to change consumer behaviour at an emotional level. This technique enables them to deliver successful campaigns every time.

Their clients have nothing but good things to say about them with transparent cost management, their tailored approach, and their rebranding and UI/UX redesigns standing out as common sentiments.

Despite having a varied portfolio, they specialise in working with food and drink brands, with some standout projects being Müller, Jammie Dodgers, Maryland Cookies, and Ramsay’s Gin.

8. Kota

Offices: London, New York
Website: https://kota.co.uk/
Hourly Rate: £75 – £115

Established in 2013, Kota is a creative agency with offices in London and New York.

They’re main specialities are in WordPress web design, branding and digital marketing with animated and interactive websites at the heart of what they do. They also offer copywriting and eCommerce solutions.

They understand that creativity is not just about big ideas; it’s also about the smallest details, and they pride themselves that their attention to detail is a reflection of their commitment to providing the highest quality service they can.

KOTA has earned international recognition and reviews with clients praising their excellent communication skills, technical skills and their problem solving skills.

They’ve also won multiple awards for their impactful work for clients such as Jamie Oliver, Penguin Books, British Red Cross and Matchroom Boxing.

How Much Does Web Design Cost in the UK?

Determining the price of your web design project in the UK can vary depending on your project. Most top agencies prices are between £8,000 to £30,000+ for a custom site and hourly rates, across the industry often range from £80-£150/hr depending on the size, location and expertise of the agency. Check out our Web Design Cost Calculator, which is a quick and easy tool that can help you determine the cost of your project.

Which Web Design Agency is Right for You?

Choosing the best web design agency for your business is essential for long-term success. Whether you’re looking for a bespoke WordPress site, a focus on interactive experiences, or a design that’s more conversion-driven, the agencies listed above offer a range of options to help bring your vision to life.

When deciding who to partner with, it’s worth considering a few key points:

• Do they offer fully bespoke design, or do they mostly rely on templates?
• Is their process transparent, collaborative, and well-structured?
• Are their services aligned with your goals, such as branding, SEO, UX, or ongoing support?
• Can they show previous work that demonstrates proven results for their clients?
• Do they have experience within your sector or with similar industries?

When it comes to how to choose the right web design agency in the UK, a good starting point is to review their portfolio – what they’ve built before, and whether it fits the style or functionality you’re aiming for. There’s little point hiring a very corporate agency if you’re after something highly creative, for example.

Some agencies are quite flexible and work well across different industries, but it’s still important to find one that feels like a natural fit. Client references and reviews are another strong indicator – if an agency has plenty of recent, positive feedback, it’s usually a good sign they’re consistently delivering quality work. Checking award sites like awwwards.com can also give you a sense of whether their projects stand out.

Budget is another key factor to align early on. Website costs can vary significantly – anywhere from £5,000 to £35,000+ depending on the project scope – so it’s sensible to ensure your expectations match the agency’s pricing structure. There’s little point approaching an agency with a £30,000 minimum if your project budget is £10,000.

Taking time to assess these points upfront will give you a much better chance of finding the right long-term partner for your project.

What questions should I ask a web design agency before hiring them?

I’d recommend asking about their process – although once you get to a certain level, most agencies follow fairly similar steps. Some might offer a more agile, intensive approach, while others spread out resources over a longer timeline. It’s worth finding a style that suits how prepared you are.

Timelines are important too: ask about lead times and realistic delivery dates, especially if you have a set launch in mind. Also, be clear about budget early – it saves everyone’s time.

Other good things to ask:

• Are SEO fundamentals included or extra?
• What’s the warranty or support like after the site goes live?
• Do you offer ongoing maintenance?
• Can you show examples relevant to what I’m looking for (e.g. multilingual sites, interactive designs)?

The key is making sure the agency’s experience matches your project’s goals. Typically, most of these points will also be covered in a good proposal, so providing a clear brief and having an initial call is a good way to start.

Should I work with a local UK web design agency or does location not matter?

It depends on what you prefer. Location doesn’t matter technically – an agency can build your site from anywhere. But after the last few years, a lot of clients prefer the option to meet face-to-face.

Building a website is a partnership – you’ll need to provide information, give feedback, and work closely with the agency – so sometimes meeting in person helps build trust.

If you’re happy working remotely and confident in the agency’s communication, you can work with anyone in the UK. But if you feel more reassured meeting in person, it makes sense to choose someone local.

How can I tell if a web design agency will deliver a website that performs well?

It really comes down to what you define as “performs well.” Start by being clear about your objectives – whether that’s SEO performance, high interactivity, or excellent user navigation – and then check whether the agency’s previous work matches those goals.

Look at their case studies, actual live sites they’ve built, and any performance results they can share. For example, if SEO is critical, look for examples where they’ve delivered strong SEO outcomes.

Once you’re considering good agencies, it often comes down to a mix of cost, expertise in your area, and a general ‘feel’ for who’s the best fit.

Is it better to choose a specialist web design agency or a full-service digital agency?

If your main goal is to build a high-quality website, I’d recommend a specialist web design agency.

Full-service agencies often offer websites alongside other services like SEO or paid ads, but they might not have the same depth of expertise when it comes to design and development. Specialists typically have a better understanding of what makes a high-performing, brand-consistent site.

Of course, if you have broader marketing needs, a full-service agency could still be a good option – just bear in mind their focus might be slightly different.

What’s the risk of choosing the wrong web design agency?

Choosing the wrong agency can lead to a lot of headaches – delays, hidden costs, poorly performing websites, or even projects that end up abandoned halfway through.

Most problems we see come from misaligned expectations: often where a project was under-quoted, communication broke down, or the agency over-promised.

It’s important to be clear from the start, make sure everything is properly scoped out, and trust your instincts if something feels off.

If you stick to reputable agencies – like the ones listed on this page – you’re much less likely to run into problems.

Are you Searching for a Web Design Agency?

We have worked with leading organisations globally, helping to create bespoke, high performing and scalable websites that drive real results. Get in touch and let’s discuss your project: info@creativebranddesign.co.uk

The post Top 8 Web Design Agencies in the UK in 2025 appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Here are our top 8 web design trends to consider following for your next web design project:

1. Sustainable Web Design 

The internet might seem as though it is not really there, but it has a very real environmental impact (Read more on this here). So much so that it contributes to around 4% of global carbon emissions (yes, the internet pollutes more than planes!) So while you are busy travelling, your website could be accumulating its own carbon footprint! As businesses become more conscious of the impact web sites can have on the environment, sustainable web design is taking centre stage.

How can web design be more sustainable? 

• By Limiting Video Content: Video content is one of the largest energy consuming factors on the internet. There are different ways to reduce this on your website by limiting unnecessary videos, turning autoplay off and hosting externally through the likes of YouTube or Vimeo, which can all significantly lower your site’s carbon footprint.
• By Optimising & Compressing Images: Try and use less images especially those that are not very well optimised and take forever to load. Compression tools such as EWWW Image Optimiser can significantly cut down energy consumption.
• By Switching to Renewables: Through choosing a web hosting provider that is green and powered by renewable energy, you can significantly increase your site’s sustainability.
• By Cleaning & Minifying Your Code: You will see enhanced performance all around, through removing any unnecessary code, minimising CSS and JavaScript, as well as reducing third-party scripts.

As well as helping the planet, sustainable web design also improves page speed, enhances SEO rankings, and reduces costs. Users love fast, efficient sites, and Google rewards them too.

2. Micro-Interactions & Micro-Animations

Micro-interactions and micro-animations are taking up a lot of space in the web design world, through subtle design elements that bring websites to life. Here’s the difference between the two:

• Micro-interactions provide instant feedback, like a button changing colour when clicked or a form shaking when there is an error.
• Micro-animations create smooth transitions, guiding users attention and making interactions feel seamless.

Where are we seeing this?

•  Hover effects: Buttons that change colour or grow slightly when hovered over.
•  Scroll-triggered animations: Elements that fade in or slide as users move down the page.
•  Loading animations: These keep users engaged whilst content loads.

The goal of these is not just to look good, it is also to enhance usability, increase engagement, and make websites feel more intuitive.

3. Scrolling Animations & Dynamic Page Transitions

Static websites are a design style from the past, going forward it is all about scroll-triggered animations, dynamic transitions, and fluid interactions that transform the way users experience a website. Instead of just clicking page to page, visitors are now taken on a journey as they scroll.

Ways to create scrolling animations and dynamic page transitions:

• Parallax scrolling: This involves background images that move at different speeds, adding depth and storytelling elements.
• Seamless page transitions: Instead of abrupt reloads, pages can fade or slide into one another for a smoother experience.
• Interactive scroll-based navigation: Users feel more in control as elements shift dynamically based on movement.
• Cinematic effects: Layered visuals, zoom effects, and motion-triggered elements bring a more immersive feel.

These effects improve user engagement, make navigation feel intuitive, and very importantly encourage visitors to stay longer.

4. Immersive Experiences with 3D & AR

Through 3D elements and Augmented Reality (AR), websites are enabling immersive experiences, where users can explore, interact, and engage with content in ways that appear very close to a real life experience.

How is this transforming web design?

•  E-commerce: Virtual try-ons and 3D product previews let shoppers see how items look before buying, an example like you see below is Nike’s AR sneakers or IKEA’s virtual furniture placement.
•  Real estate & travel: 360° property tours and interactive maps are helping users explore spaces before booking, with brands like Airbnb leading the way.
•  Branded storytelling: Companies are using interactive 3D visuals to show off products with 360° views, making online shopping even more engaging.
•  Gaming & entertainment: Web-based 3D experiences powered by WebGL and AI-generated models run smoothly in browsers, bringing game-like interactivity to websites.

With WebXR, AR-enabled browsers, and AI-powered 3D models, these high-quality visuals no longer slow down websites, making interactive experiences faster, more accessible, and more effective than ever.

5. Dark Mode Evolution

Dark mode has now become a prominent feature with websites offering adaptive dark mode options, allowing users to switch based on preference or system settings.

Why dark mode is not going anywhere:

• Better for you: It is easier on the eyes, especially in low-light conditions.
• Energy efficient: OLED and AMOLED screens consume less power in dark mode.
• Modern aesthetics: It makes websites look modern and sleek.

In 2025, we are seeing intelligent dark mode that automatically adjusts based on user behaviour, time of day, or ambient lighting conditions.

Example: YouTube and Twitter/X both offer dark mode options, reducing screen glare and improving the user experience.

6. Responsive & Adaptive Design

Forget mobile-first, websites in 2025 need to work seamlessly on any device. From smartphones and laptops to foldable screens and smart TVs, modern web design is all about adapting dynamically to both screen size and user behaviour.

Key innovations include:

• AI-driven layouts: Websites that adjust layouts on the fly based on user preferences and behaviour.
• Variable fonts: Enhancing readability across different devices and screen sizes.
• Smart breakpoints: Optimising UI for everything from foldable phones to car dashboards.

The goal of this is to create an experience for users that is more seamless.

7. Personalised Content Powered by AI 

AI-driven personalisation is making web experiences smarter and completely tailored to individual users through analysing user behaviour, preferences, and past interactions. 

How is AI personalising the web?

• Dynamic content recommendations: Websites now track everything from browsing habits, purchase history, and user interests to suggest relevant articles, products, or videos. 
• AI-powered chatbots & virtual assistants: These are no longer the basic and scripted bots; Advanced AI-driven chatbots learn from previous conversations and provide personalised support.
• Adaptive landing pages: AI adjusts headlines, CTAs, and visuals based on where a user is in their buying journey. For example as a first time visitor, you might see an introductory offer but if you are a recurring customer you would instead perhaps see a ‘Welcome Back’ message.
• Predictive UX: AI can now anticipate user needs through analysing real-time behaviour, which is particularly useful if someone is about to abandon their cart then they will be sent a discount offer to entice conversion.

As AI continues to evolve and integrate with machine learning, expect hyper-personalised web experiences to become the new normal.

8. Voice User Interfaces (VUIs)

Voice search and smart assistants are becoming part of everyday life, meaning websites need to also integrate them to stay relevant. 

Here is how VUIs are changing web design:

• Talking instead of typing: So, instead of clicking through menus, users can directly ask questions or give voice commands to find what they need from a website.
• Voice-friendly SEO: If websites integrate this, this means that sites need to optimise content for how people speak in everyday life, using conversational, question-based queries.
•  Hands-free browsing: This is perfect for an eCommerce site to help and convert multitaskers, busy shoppers, and those who rely on accessibility features.
• Voice-powered shopping: This means you can add products to your cart or check out with just a quick command with no scrolling or clicking, again really great for eCommerce sites.

AI-powered assistants such as Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri are getting smarter and VUIs will over time change the way we interact with websites, making browsing a lot faster and easier.

Final Thoughts: The Future of Web Design 

Web design in 2025 is all about smarter, more immersive, and user-first experiences. Whether it’s sustainability, AI-driven personalisation, or interactive 3D elements, the brands that stay ahead of the curve will be the ones that stand out. The digital world is evolving fast – if your website feels outdated, slow, or uninspired, now’s the time to level up.

Is your website ready for the future? At CreativeWeb, we create websites that don’t just look great – they work smarter, load faster, and engage better. Get in touch, and let’s build something next-level.

The post 8 Web Design Trends to Follow in 2025 appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Here are eight of our favourite examples in no particular order

1. Soapbox

We built the Soapbox site in 2024. They’ve completely rethought how people experience music using 3D holograms to bring legendary artists to life.

We created a scroll-triggered effect using Three.js that mimics stepping into a VR headset. It starts with a 3D model of a headpiece then moves into a full-screen video that shows off the platform before pulling you back out.

It does a great job of showing what Soapbox is all about. WebGL Three.js fixed scrolling and clever spacing all work together to create a properly immersive effect.

Props to Patrick and Tyler for making this one happen

Check it out here: https://www.soapbox.us/

2. Recharge

Recharge is a global brand offering prepaid gift cards. We worked with them in 2024 to give their site a proper overhaul.

The main effect is a scrolling animation that takes you through the different types of cards they offer. We also built a 3D slider where users can explore different Recharge products and partner sites.

It uses a mix of a Three.js canvas for the floating bits and GSAP animations for the rest. Simple idea but well executed.

Big shout to the dev team and the client for being great to work with

Check it out: https://company.recharge.com/

3. Gorilla Science

We built this one last year. Gorilla Science creates science content with a twist. There’s nothing too complex in terms of tech no 3D no fancy frameworks but it’s a great example of how to use animation and interaction to bring a site to life.

It’s all about the details here. Micro-interactions page transitions and subtle movement give it loads of personality.

Nice work from Peter and Tyler on this

Check it out: https://watchgorillascience.com/

4. Nato Innovation Fund

This was a long-running project across 2023 and 2024. The fund backs new tech that supports defence and security and they wanted a site that felt modern open and forward-looking.

We extended their brand visuals with custom icons and illustrations and added clean layouts and scroll-based animation to make it feel more dynamic without overdoing it.

Really nice to be involved with this one. Great team to work with

Check it out: https://www.nif.fund/

5. Landways

Landways design and install digital infrastructure for stadiums and large venues. We built their new site to reflect that same level of innovation.

There’s no heavy tech here. Just smart use of animation hover states and scroll effects to give the site energy without affecting performance.

Clean modern and sharp. Exactly what it needed to be

Check it out: https://landways.com/

6. Fairvue

Fairvue Partners work in a sector that can feel a bit dry so this one was about showing that even serious businesses can have a fresh and engaging website.

The design is clean the animations are subtle and we used fixed-position scrolling to add some depth. No need for flashy effects just solid design and development doing their job

Check it out: https://www.fairvuepartners.com/

7. SiTESPAN

This site is a good example of how we’re bringing more 3D work into our projects. It uses a WebGL background with light scroll-based movement to add a sense of depth.

It’s the kind of thing that makes a site feel different. You can tell when something has been properly designed and built and when it hasn’t. That’s what we’re focusing on here and pushing further in future builds like Modern

Check it out: https://sitespanllc.com/

8. Altnets

We’ve just launched the new Altnets site. It’s clean modern and has the right amount of motion and interactivity to keep things interesting.

No need for heavy libraries here. Just good design and lightweight code working together to make something that feels polished and professional

Check it out: https://www.altnets.co.uk/

Final thoughts

Interactivity and animation are key to making a website feel engaging. They don’t just look good they help keep people on the page and make your brand more memorable.

And it doesn’t always mean big frameworks or complicated tech. A well-built site with the right design choices can go a long way.

These are just a few of the projects we’ve worked on recently. If you’re looking for a site that stands out and gets noticed get in touch.

The post 8 Interactive Website Examples & Creative Animations appeared first on CreativeWeb.

A strong SEO strategy isn’t just about ranking higher, it’s about getting discovered by the right people at the right time. 

Let’s break it down into six actionable steps to help build an SEO strategy that actually works in 2025.

Step 1: Research, Research, Research

Before you dive into optimising your website, you need to understand the digital landscape. Research is the foundation of a strong SEO strategy. Without it, you’re essentially throwing darts in the dark and hoping for the best.

The first step? Sizing up the competition. Take a look at who’s already ranking for the keywords you’ve got your eye on. What kind of content are they putting out there? Is it in-depth guides, listicles, landing pages? Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush will give you insight into high-value keywords with good search volume and reasonable competition.

But it’s not just about keywords, it’s also important to consider search intent. Google’s search results pages (SERPs) are structured based on user expectations. Are your target keywords triggering blog posts, product pages, or local listings? Understanding this tells you exactly how to structure your content for the best results.

Once you understand search intent, look for gaps in existing content. If key topics aren’t well covered, that’s your chance to create something more useful — and become the result people actually want to find.

Step 2: Understand Your Audience & Search Intent

Ranking well is great — but if that traffic isn’t turning into leads or sales, what’s the point?

That’s where user intent comes into play. Every search query falls into one of three categories:

• Informational intent – Users want answers (e.g., “How does SEO work?”). Perfect for blogs and guides.
• Navigational intent – They’re looking for a specific brand or website (e.g., “Nike running shoes site”).
• Transactional intent – These are the moneymakers. People are ready to buy (e.g., “best price for iPhone 15”).

If your content doesn’t match search intent, Google won’t rank it—and users won’t click on it. Google is also doubling down on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), so your content needs to be credible, helpful, and written by experts.

Step 3: Mobile-First Everything

If your site doesn’t work seamlessly on mobile, you’re likely already behind. Google made mobile-first indexing the norm back in 2019, and that hasn’t changed in 2025.

On top of that, speed matters more than ever — a sluggish site doesn’t just annoy visitors, it can seriously hurt your search rankings.

Your goal? A Google PageSpeed score of 90+. Beyond that, your site needs to be fully responsive, meaning users shouldn’t have to pinch and zoom to navigate. Google’s Core Web Vitals are still a major ranking factor, so keep an eye on metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

If you’re unsure how your site performs on mobile, tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights can give you a full breakdown.

Step 4: Leverage Structured Data (Schema Markup)

Structured data, or schema markup, is one of the most underrated SEO strategies, yet it can dramatically boost your presence in search results. It helps Google understand your content and display it in rich results, which can mean higher click-through rates and more traffic.

Ever seen search results with star ratings, FAQs, or event listings? That’s structured data in action. If you’re not using it yet, now’s the time to start. Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool can help ensure your schema markup is working correctly.

Step 5: Build High-Quality Backlinks (The Right Way)

What happens off your site is just as important as what’s on it. Backlinks are still a major ranking factor, but the old tricks, like spammy link farms, don’t cut it anymore. In 2025, it’s all about earning genuine, high-quality links from reputable sources that actually trust your content.

• Guest posting still works – but only when done ethically. Writing valuable content for reputable sites in your industry can generate backlinks that boost your domain authority. 
• Digital PR is another great strategy – getting featured in news articles or industry publications can drive real, long-term SEO benefits.

And then there’s broken link building – where you find outdated links on high-authority sites and suggest your content as a better alternative. Smart, effective, and very Google-approved.

💡 Pro Tip: Use Ahrefs or Moz to track your backlink profile and eliminate backlinks that could harm your ranking.

SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” game. Tracking your progress and adapting your strategy is essential to long-term success.

With comprehensive tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Ahrefs, you can monitor:

• Where your traffic is coming from
• Which keywords are driving results
• What your conversion rates look like
• How long visitors are staying on your site

If your engagement rates are low, your content might not be resonating. If your rankings are slipping, you might need a content refresh. SEO is about constant refinement – the brands that adapt the fastest win the game.

Final Take: To Succeed in 2025, SEO Needs Both Strategy and Adaptability

SEO isn’t about shortcuts – it’s about creating valuable content, optimising user experience, and keeping up with Google’s constant changes. By focusing on high-quality content, user intent, and solid technical foundations, you’ll build a future-proof strategy that drives sustainable, long-term growth.

Looking to take your SEO to the next level? At CreativeWeb, SEO is what we do best. Whether you need a complete strategy revamp or just a little fine-tuning, we’re here to help. Or, if you’re curious about how your site is performing, try our SEO Checker Tool and see where you stand!

Let’s talk about your SEO goals today!

The post How to Create an SEO Strategy – The 2025 Guide appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Read on to discover what Visual Hierarchy is, its core principles, and why it’s important in Wireframing and Design.

What is Visual Hierarchy?

First and foremost, what exactly is Visual Hierarchy? Visual Hierarchy refers to the arrangement of design elements that encourages users to view the most important information first. From main Calls To Action, Featured Services or a company’s USPs (Unique Selling Propositions), Visual Hierarchy is key to ensure users are being made aware of the most essential content first, the next important details second and so on and so forth. Playing a crucial role in all stages of Web Design and Development, Visual Hierarchy guarantees that relevant messages stand out while also retaining an intuitive and interactive User Experience.

• The Hero is the largest section on the site, and is what users will see the moment they load on the page. There is a large bold headline detailing their ‘Spring Collection 2025’, with a contrasting main Call To Action such as ‘Shop Now’ to encourage users to click further.
• The second most prominent section of the site is the Navigation Bar, which has a well spaced out list of pages which is clear to read and click on. This Header nav ensures users can find the right details and products they are looking for with no faff or confusion.

• Thirdly, below the Hero a section detailing a range of the sites Featured Products, with high-quality imagery, clear product names and a CTA to ‘View More’ of these types of products.
• Testimonials would be of lower importance but still relevant to the User Journey. This will be placed lower down the page with smaller text but still simple to view and read on. This section is key for users to feel trust with the company’s past products and is useful one users have become engaged in the type of product they are looking for.
• Finally, the Footer of the page is of least importance but still relevant. Offering links to all pages and their categories, with Policies and Legalities in smaller text at the bottom. This information is very much needed, but does not need to compete with content attempting to sell their products to users.

Why Is Visual Hierarchy Important?

Now we know what Visual Hierarchy means, why is it important? A well informed and organised Visual Hierarchy helps users quickly understand the structure and purpose of the page to discover the most necessary content for them, as the majority of users tend to scan sites, not read word for word.

Websites are more often than not built with key CTAs (Calls To Action) in mind, Visual Hierarchy allows to be directed to said actions. Without the use of Hierarchy, CTAs would blend in too much and would be missed, users would be unsure where to go next, and in turn would cause lower conversion rates due to having no clear direction. This is why on e-commerce sites for example, products have a bold ‘Add To Cart’ button right below the product, making it the clearest element on the page and high up on the Visual Hierarchy.

It’s not just the readability and organisation of the content that Visual Hierarchy helps with, but the Branding and Aesthetic of the website as well. A visually engaging website gives a strong sense of credibility and reinforces their brand assets and identity. Having a structured layout with relevant design elements gives users a sense of professionalism and trust with the company, the use of consistent fonts, key branding, spacing and the use of colour theory, creates a powerful and informed brand look and feel.

The Principles Of Visual Hierarchy

So we have the definition and importance, now for the final piece of the trifecta, the principles.

Visual Hierarchy is created with the uses of many core principles that guide users to engage with a website. These principles allow content and elements to be shown in an interactive and informative way. Below, we’ll explore these key principles and how they help.

Sizing

When it comes to design, size really does matter!

Large elements on a website appear more important than others and this is why website designs make use of larger header text compared to body text to ensure the main points stand out.

Proportion is key, if everything’s the same size, nothing catches the eye. Well considered Visual Hierarchy involves using different sizes of elements to create contrasting sections and allows attention to naturally flow to the main areas of content.

Increasing an element’s size (in terms of dimension) or its scale ( its size relationship in relation to other elements) is by far one of the easiest ways to emphasize it and draw attention to it.

Similarly the reverse can be applied throughout design. Creating elements that are smaller in size or in comparison to other neighbouring objects can deemphasize them and draw the focal point away from them.

Consider the terms and conditions on an offer or deal – companies do not necessarily want to draw attention to them, so they design in a small and subtle mannerism.

Colour

When we think about the psychology of colour, we typically start to think about blue inciting a sense of calm and red triggering a stress response. In visual hierarchy, we can extrapolate the psychology of colour to further encourage our users to behave in a desired way. For example, we can use colours to sign-post our users to the most valuable or important information on a site. We can use bright colours to attract attention to calls to action, and we can utilise contracting colours for contrasting themes or arguments throughout our content.

Vibrant and well saturated use of colour gains the attention of users, while neutral or toned down colouring blends with the background.

The human attention span has decreased, and as designers, we are in a constant fight with an increasingly fickle attention span to grab the attention and incite action. You can use visual hierarchy to incite action by:

Emphasise that really important information in the same colour throughout your content.

Use contrasting colours for contrasting points or themes throughout content.

Save a colour of your brand’s colour palette (we would recommend the most eye-catching one!) for calls to actions and buttons

Contrast

So we’ve had a look at why colour is so important, now it’s time to take a look at contrast.

The use of contrast allows specific elements to stand out among the rest, for example a dark button on a lighter toned section will draw users to view it easier, or vice versa.

As your users interact with your website more and more, they will become more and more comfortable and familiar with your brand. Contrary to popular belief, venturing outside of your brand guidelines isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, utilising assets and colours that are contrasting to your brand guidelines is another way to signpost important or essential information to users.

One of the best mediums that uses this strategy is magazines. Every article on the cover of a magazine is just as important as the other, they’re all fighting for your attention. More often than not, you’ll notice that the individual articles on a magazine cover will typically vary in font, size and colouring.

By using varying fonts, colours, sizes and tones throughout your copy and content, you can encourage the user to engage with more of your content than by maintaining a consistent brand style throughout.

Typography

Font sizing is a key principle throughout your Visual Hierarchy considerations, font size and weight automatically determine the order of reading for users. If text is bold or coloured it will naturally be more obvious for users, consider this when trying to reinforce key points in your content, such as the benefits of services a company provides.

Imagine a page where all the text is of the same size and weight. Whilst this would accomplish a sense of equivalency it would also make the page monotonous. There is a high chance you would land on the page, take one look and leave.

The use of different style fonts emphasises the brand identity of a website, serif is a good example of a traditional style, whereas sans-serif could be used for more modern, technology based sites. To avoid an overabundance of types, I recommend no more than 2-3 font types to maintain clear consistency of your branding.

Movement & Direction

There are two main patterns eyes will follow when browsing a page, the Z-Pattern or the F-Pattern They work exactly as you may think with users’ eyes following the page in the shape of these letters.

The F – Pattern

The F was a pattern found to be popularised by NNGroups eye tracking study when studying the eye movements of hundreds of users looking at web pages. The F pattern was found to be applied when reading text heaver pages (Very much like this one)

A reader will scan the page in an F or ‘E’ format: Firstly across the top of the page to read the headlines, and then down the left hand side of the page looking for key headers, numbers or bullet points.

The Z – Pattern

The Z pattern reading focuses on pages or other documents similar to Ads or posters whereby information may not be presented in a block paragraph format. With a Z format pattern the user initially scans horizontally across the page where the important information is likely to be before moving diagonally across to the lower section of the page.

Alignment

Whilst it’s important to keep your content digestible, readable and comfortable for a user to engage with, there’s nothing to keep you from being a bit scandalous and breaking the rules of alignment. Standing out from the crowd is no bad thing, especially when it comes to those key pieces of information or data that you want your users to really pay attention to. So what does this look like in practice?

Well, you could…

Format key information with a central alignment instead of a left handed one.

“Align a quote from the right hand side. Users in the west will typically read from left to right. Aligning occasional pieces of information to the right is a good way to grab attention without making the reader uncomfortable.”
Chris Baker – CreativeWeb

What’s good for one, may not be good for everyone. So before publishing content, run it past trusted friends and colleagues first. A/B testing doesn’t always have to involve expensive task forces and think tanks.

Spacing

This principle is very simple to understand, if items or elements are close together they will be seen as related to one another, while more spaced out sections give the impression of them being separate entities.

In Gestalts theory of psychology, the proximity principle applies to grouping objects and elements together to form a perceptual organisation. Whether it’s minimalist, single page or flat website design, the use of proximity & space is a major factor to consider when separating content, or bringing it together. You might have two calls to action that are related, but are currently so far away from each other that it’s confusing for your users. Are they related? Are they not? Will clicking one do something entirely different to the other?

A simple but very effective example are words. When certain letters are grouped together such as ‘beat’ we see a single word. However, place a space between them ‘be at’ and we have a totally different phrase.

Make sure that your calls to action, buttons, and content are appropriately spaced, located and optimised for a seamless user journey.

The use of white space can also be very effective to reduce overly cluttered sections and enable better readability.

Conclusion – What Have We Learned?

Well there we have it! A brief summary of the definition of Visual Hierarchy, its importance and principles, so what have we learnt?

We’ve learnt that the foundation of effective website design is the use of Visual Hierarchy, it shapes how users engage and are informed by the content they perceive, as well as how organising elements based on importance can create exciting and user-friendly experiences.

A well-informed Visual Hierarchy improves usability in its own right, guaranteeing users can easily gain access to the right information for them to make informed decisions and to take key actions from product purchases to exploring more. With no clear Visual Hierarchy, websites become bland, hard to navigate and confusing to users, leading them to click away and end their User Journey before it even begins.

By making use of Visual Hierarchy’s key principles, the design of a website guides users attention in a free–flowing and natural way, letting them take the reins on their own exploration of an aesthetically pleasing and highly-functional site.

At the end of the day, web design isn’t just about the creative aspects, it’s also about communication. Understanding Visual Hierarchy throughout all phases of web design ensures the right information and takeaways reaches the demographic in the most effective and insightful way, making the experience impactful, informative and enjoyable.

The post Visual Hierarchy in Web Design: The Ultimate Guide for 2025 appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Our Commitment to CSR and Pro Bono Work

The Great Friendship Project was entirely pro bono as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, where we focus on supporting charities and non-profits. We achieve this by working together and providing them with high quality website design and development to help highlight their cause and achieve even greater things. As an agency that truly cares, we are very passionate about using our skills and expertise to help organisations like this who are working to make a real difference in the lives of others. 

About The Great Friendship Project

Loneliness among young people is on the rise and The Great Friendship Project is helping to change this through building connection and community. Founded in 2021, they are a non-profit organisation dedicated to building spaces where young people can create real friendships and feel supported through holding community events, educational workshops and outreach programs. 

They approached us in 2024, with a need for a complete overhaul of their online presence to help promote their community, connection and friendship initiative as well as to spread their message.

The Collaboration

To bring the vision to life, we partnered with JKR Global, a creative agency that helped refresh the branding, visual identity and UI/UX design of The Great Friendship Project. Our role was to take JKR’s creative vision into an interactive and engaging site using some magic front end development, all whilst highlighting the great things this project does from their community activities, support resources, awareness campaigns and research to drive change.

Together with JKR and the team at The Great Friendship Project, we created a fun, warm and engaging website that captures the community spirit and authenticity of the charity.

The Result

The new website is interactive and accessible, becoming the perfect tool for The Great Friendship Project to use to promote and support their mission, have greater reach and visibility as well as to continue making an impact. It acts as a central hub where visitors and the community can discover this charity’s ethos, view real data showcasing the results of their work, discover upcoming events, read community members first hand experiences and learn about their growing network of brand partnerships.

We are incredibly proud to have collaborated with such an amazing charity, where we achieved not only a beautiful website design but one that provides a digital home for those that want to be a part of this impactful cause and community, resulting in something very special. 

If you are a local charity or a non-profit looking for digital support, get in touch as we are always looking for ways to support causes through our pro bono initiatives.

The post Charity Web Design | Pro Bono Website for The Great Friendship Project appeared first on CreativeWeb.

It’s complete with a fresh new look, an evolved & improved brand identity, as well as a showcase of our latest, award-winning projects.

Like many agencies, our own site took a backseat while we focused on developing cutting-edge websites for our clients. But this update was long overdue! It’s more than just a redesign, it marks a brand evolution, a refined identity that better reflects who we are today and where we’re headed next.

Our Brand Evolution: A Fresh Yet Familiar Look

Our brand has always been about pushing creative boundaries while maintaining a strong foundation of technical excellence. With this refresh, we’ve made subtle yet impactful refinements to our visual identity, from modernised typography and colour tweaks to a cleaner and more sophisticated aesthetic.

Rather than a radical change, this refresh fine-tunes our visual identity while keeping us instantly recognisable. And this is just the beginning… you can expect more updates later this year as we continue to evolve. 

What’s New on Our Website?

We didn’t just want to give our site a new lick of paint but rather reimagine the whole experience.

Here’s what you’ll now find on our site:

• Updated Projects: Our portfolio now showcases some of the most exciting projects we’ve worked on in the past couple of years, including award-winning web designs and client success stories.
• Expanded Services: We’ve introduced new offerings, including our Website Audit Service, designed to give businesses the insights they need to optimise their digital presence.
• Improved User Experience: From smooth animations and interactive elements to 3JS-powered effects, the new site shows the creative and technical direction we’ve taken with our projects, with being highly engaging, visually stunning, and performance-driven.

Our Focus Moving Forward

This update demonstrates our ongoing commitment to innovation and growth. Here’s what you can expect going forward:

• More frequent updates: Get ready for more insights, case studies, and behind-the-scenes content as we ramp up our marketing efforts.
• Ongoing website improvements: We’ll keep improving and evolving the website, making sure it stays up-to-date with the times.
• Pushing creative boundaries: Our portfolio will continue expanding with cutting-edge designs, pushing boundaries.

This is Just the Beginning

After having finally carved out some time to refresh our website, bringing it up to date with our latest work and demonstrating our evolving approach to design; We feel this update reflects not just what we’ve been working on, but how we’ve been pushing boundaries through incorporating 3D elements using Spline and Three.js to create more immersive, interactive experiences.

It’s been a long time coming, and we’re looking forward to sharing more of what we’ve been up to in the months to come.

While you’re here, explore the new site, check out our latest projects, and let us know what you think!

The post Announcing Our New Website & Brand Evolution appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Planning Your Website Project: Where to Start?

Launching a new website (or giving an old one a much-needed refresh) is a big decision for any business. Whether you’re a start-up or an established brand, careful planning and taking the time to think things through ensures you get the most out of your investment. Without a clear plan, you’ll risk blown budgets, missed deadlines, and disappointment with a website that doesn’t actually do what you need it to.

So, here’s a guide website planning guide direct from a web design agency to make sure that the above doesn’t happen.

Choose the Right Name & Domain

If you’re starting fresh with a new brand or website, picking the right name is a critical first step. Here’s how to avoid naming disasters:

• Google It: Before you get too attached to a name, please Google it. You want to see what already exists under your potential name. If there’s an established business dominating search results, you will most likely struggle to rank, and rebranding later will only be a headache for you later down the line.
• Check Domain Availability: Your domain name should match your brand name as closely as possible. Don’t include any awkward dashes or weird spellings that people won’t remember. Check if your preferred domain is available using a domain registrar. If it’s already taken or only available for at a crazy high price, it’s worth considering alternatives. Also consider the domain extension. If you’re a UK-based business, a .co.uk can give you a slight SEO advantage and shows you’re targeting the UK market. If you’re planning to go international, a .com or another recognised top-level domain may be more appropriate. It’s best to steer clear of the newer or more unusual extensions, as they can sometimes cause issues with email deliverability and don’t always look trustworthy.
• Company Name Registration: Are you planning to register as a limited company? Check availability on Companies House (if you’re in the UK) to ensure your name is unique and legally available.
• Trademark Check: You can to avoid legal drama down the line. If your name is a core part of your brand, make sure it’s not already trademarked in your industry. Again, saving yourself yet another headache later on.

This might seem basic, but it’s crucial – don’t start building a brand or website until you’ve done proper checks. Make sure the name isn’t already trademarked and the domain is available. I’ve worked on projects where everything was finished and we had to rebrand two or three times because this step was skipped. Do the due diligence early. It saves a lot of time, money and hassle down the line.

Define Your Website Goals & Features

Before jumping straight into the design, be crystal clear on what your website needs to achieve.

Ask yourself:

• What’s the main goal, and what do you want people to do? (Is it lead generation, eCommerce, portfolio, brand awareness?) Once that’s clear, think about the key action you want people to take. That might be filling in a contact form, making a purchase, signing up to something, or booking a call. If you’ve got more than one goal, that’s fine too. Just be clear on what matters most.
• What action do you want visitors to take? (is it to buy, book, subscribe, get in touch?) That’s your primary call to action. For an eCommerce site, that might be making a purchase. A secondary goal could be signing up for your newsletter. For B2B, it’s usually lead generation, filling out a contact form or booking a call.
• Who’s your audience? (And how do they browse online?) Think about who’s landing on the site. You might have more than one type of visitor. For example, customers and investors will care about different things and take different routes through the site. Customers might be looking for services and pricing. Investors might want to read about the company, the team, and your wider impact.
• What features does the site need? (is it contact forms, booking systems, membership areas, blogs?) List the essentials. That could be contact forms, booking systems, a blog, payment tools, gated content, or anything else that supports the goal. This all forms part of your scope and helps you get a realistic idea of time and cost.

Top Tip: If your project is complex, write a website brief. The clearer you are, the better your cost estimates and timelines will be.

Timeline and Project Milestones

When you’re planning a website, it’s important to map out the phases of the project from the outset. One of the first things we’ll usually ask is when you want the site launched? Then we’ll plan backwards from there, mapping out the project approach based on the time available, if its a shorter timeline we might run the project agile like a sprint . The timeline should be realistic, with buffer time included (especially during the design phase, which is often the hardest to estimate for). Setting clear milestones also helps everyone stay on the same page and track progress properly.

We typically break projects into four main phases:

Discovery – This is essentially the planning stage. It’s where you pull everything together, from your goals and target audience to site structure and features.

• Creation of a discovery document
• Wireframing to define layout and user journey

Design – Once we’ve nailed the structure, we move on to visuals. This covers everything from initial concepts to a full set of page designs.

• Homepage design concept
• Full subpage design rollout

Development – With the designs signed off, we move into build. This covers both how the site looks and how it works behind the scenes.

• Front-end development based on approved designs
• Back-end development, CMS setup, and any integrations

Testing & Launch – Before anything goes live, everything’s checked and double-checked. We test across devices, fix any issues, and then launch when ready.

• Interoperability and Q&A testing
• Final fixes and go-live

Content Planning

Content is often an afterthought, but without it, your site is just a pretty shell. Writing web copy takes a lot longer than you think, so start early. A typical website has around 400 – 600 words per page, which all quickly adds up.

• Who’s writing the content? If you’re handling it in-house, get started as soon as possible. If you need help, consider professional copywriting services to ensure high-quality, SEO-optimised content that converts.
• Gather images & media: Will you need custom photography, stock images, or video content? Finding visuals at the last minute will only equal to stress. So just plan ahead.
• SEO Considerations: Content isn’t just about sounding good. It needs to rank. Optimised headings, keywords, and metadata are key for getting found on Google.

SEO

A lot of people group SEO in with content strategy, but it deserves its own focus. This is especially true if you’re redesigning an existing website. If you are not planning for your site to rank, how is anyone going to find it?

Start by reviewing how your current site performs. Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to understand what pages are ranking, what they are ranking for, and whether that is actually helping your business. Look at bounce rate, engagement, and user behaviour. Gather that data and bring it into your website plan.

We usually handle this during the discovery phase, but it is something worth doing upfront. Go to your agency or team and say, here is what is ranking, here is what we want to rank for, and here is where we are trying to get to. It helps shape the strategy and informs better decisions.

You should also look at your competitors. What are they ranking for, what keywords are they targeting, and where can you do better? This insight feeds directly into how you structure your site, plan your content, and improve visibility.

The long and short of it is this. SEO is not something to leave until after launch. It should be baked into the planning from the beginning.

Branding & Design

Your website is like your digital shop window. It should instantly communicate who you are and why you’re different. If you already have an established brand identity, make sure that your website aligns with it. If not, this may be the time to think about a branding refresh.

• Logo & Colour Palette: Stick to consistent brand colours, typography, and logos for a polished, professional look.
• User Experience (UX) Design: Navigation should be intuitive and seamless, if users can’t find what they need in a few clicks, they’ll leave faster than you can say “bounce rate.”
• Mobile First: With 70%+ of traffic coming from mobile, prioritising mobile-friendly design is no longer optional.

Budgeting & Choosing the Right Web Agency

A website isn’t just another business expense, it’s a serious investment in your brand’s growth and online success. But how much should you budget? The answer depends on what you need your website to do.

Here’s some key factors that impact your website’s cost:

• Design Complexity: A fully custom-built site will naturally cost more than an off-the-shelf template, but it also gives you complete creative freedom.
• Number of pages: A simple five-page brochure site is relatively quick and easy. A multi-layered website with tons of content, now that’s a bigger project.
• Functionality & Features: if you need an eCommerce store, membership system, booking tool, or integrations, this means more functionality which means more development time.
• Content Creation: Great design needs great content. If you’re writing it yourself, factor in the time. If you’re hiring professionals, factor in the cost.
• SEO & Performance: Want your site to rank on Google and load at lightning speed? You need a proper SEO setup and performance optimisations are key.

Are you unsure how much to budget for your website? Use our Website Cost Estimator to get a breakdown tailored to your project.

Top Tip: Don’t just go for the cheapest option. A low price website might cost less upfront, but if it doesn’t perform well, you’ll be paying more to fix it later. Look for experience, client reviews, and a portfolio that shows an agency understands your vision.

Technical Considerations & Hosting

A beautifully designed website is useless if it’s slow, insecure, or constantly crashing! Speed, security, and performance aren’t just afterthoughts, they’re the backbone of a successful site. No one stays for a slow-loading page, and Google definitely will not rank one highly. Here’s what to condiser:

• Hosting & Security: Invest in a fast, reliable hosting provider with SSL security, regular backups, and malware protection.
• Speed & Performance: A slow website kills conversions. Make sure your site is optimised with caching, a CDN (Content Delivery Network), and image compression.
• Analytics Setup: Install Google Analytics & Search Console from the start to track performance and user behaviour. 

Final Thoughts: Plan Now, Succeed Later

Planning your website properly before diving in saves a lot of hassle later on. It helps avoid common pitfalls, keeps costs down, speeds things up, and generally leads to a much better result. It also helps you figure out what the best route is for your business – because let’s face it, there are a lot of different options out there nowadays.

So take your time. Sit back, think it through, and map it all out. You’ll be glad you did once things get moving.

And if you’re not quite sure where to start, or you want someone to steer you in the right direction, feel free to get in touch. That’s often what you’re paying an agency for – not just to build the thing, but to help you make the right calls from the start.

Get in touch with CreativeWeb – we’ll help bring your vision to life.

Let’s Talk About Your Project!

FAQ’s

Can I create a website by myself?
Yes, you can. There are website builders like Wix, Squarespace and more recently AI platforms like Lovable which make it very easy to get something up-and-running with no technical know-how. You choose a template, add your own content, and off you go.

But if your site’s a major player in lead generation or traffic conversion, then it’s worth taking a moment to see how solid the foundations are. A templated site can get things off the ground, but where it’s not especially well thought through, then you end up with a lower conversion rate. Consider, say, a generic sort of template converting 1% and a thoroughly-thought-out-site converting 5%. That difference can dramatically affect your return on marketing dollars. A bad-performing site doesn’t just disappoint expectations, it’s an expense.

There’s also the bigger picture. Current marketing is trending even more toward brand impressions and recognition, and an off-the-shelf website isn’t going to be likely to leave a lasting impression. So by all means, go ahead and build it yourself, just be mindful of what it needs to do within your company long-term.

How much does it cost to start a website?

You could, technically, get a website live with no expenses, or something in the region of £10–£20 per month should you be taking bare-bones hosting. Or, going to the extreme opposite, a bespoke-built, interactive, enterprise-grade website could be into tens of thousands. It all depends upon ambition.

If you want something simple and templated, with no real bells and whistles, it’s going to be very cheap. But if your website’s a central part of your business and you want it to look sharp, convert well, and accurately represent your brand, that takes thought, time and money.

The better question here is – what is your website worth to you?

What are the 7 major steps to designing a webpage?

• Discovery – This is where everything gets assembled. Goals, audience, research into your competition, references, all of it. Keep it all together so you’re not guessing later.
• Planning – This is where everything gets planned correctly. Sitemap, wireframes, structure of content. You want to be planning your content here as well, and not leaving it as something to be completed later.
• Design – If you are new to having a brand, then you’ll first have to get that sorted out. Having that taken care of, start with the homepage and then go ahead and work with subpages with a similar design language.
• Front-end development – This is coding up the design so it’s usable in-browser. The things everyone actually looks at and interacts with.
• Back-end development – Anything more complex falls here. That could be CMS integration, dynamic behavior, anything server-side.
• Interoperability and QA testing – The proper cross-browser and device testing, to check if it’s functional, accessible, all that. This needs to be done pre-launch.
• Launch, maintenance and marketing – Getting it live is just step one. You’ll then be liable to keep it up to date, secure, and to get traffic to it.

Is wireframing necessary?
Yes, it is. It forces you to step back and think about user flow. It helps you to sketch out how your users are going to flow through the website, what you’re actually presenting them with, and where. The look comes next. If you’re trying to do them side by side, it becomes extremely easy to prioritize appearances over usability. That’s where things get problematic. Skipping wireframes generally leads to bad UX and lower engagement. And lots of straightforward website builders don’t allow easy proper planning, which is one reason. If you want your site to do well, wireframing’s not something to be avoided.

The post The Ultimate Website Planning Guide appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Caching (which is pronounced “cach-ing”) is a very important web development technique that improves not only improves site speed, but also reduces server load, and enhances user experience. In 2025, with Goggle’s Core Web Vitals shaping SEO rankings and users expecting instant page loads, caching is now essential. 

Different Types of Caching

{Info graphic here of different types of caching types}

Different caching methods target different parts of your site’s performance. Here are the different types of caching methods:

1. Browser Caching

Browser caching stores static assets (like image, JavaScript, and CSS files) directly on a user’s device. Instead of downloading these files again and again each time they visit, their browser retrieves them from local storage, making pages load much faster.

Benefits of Browser Caching:

• Faster page loads: Users don’t have to wait for repeat downloads.
• Lower server load: Fewer requests sent to the web server means better performance.
• Better user experience: A faster site keeps visitors engaged.

If you update a website image or style, users might still see the old version, which is why cache expiration settings are really important to manage.

2. Page Caching

Page caching saves a ready-made version of the page, so it loads instantly instead of being generated from scratch with every single visit.

How It Works:

• Normally, when a visitor lands on a page, the server processes multiple database queries before displaying the page.
• With page caching, the server saves a ready-to-go version of the page and delivers it instantly to visitors.

When to Use Page Caching:

Page caching is great for blogs, landing pages, and informational pages. But it’s not so great for dynamic sites like live chat platforms or personalised dashboards, where content changes frequently.

3. Server-Side Caching

This method stores data on the hosting server itself, which reduces workload and improves performance. In 2025, AI-driven caching techniques have made this process even more efficient by predicting and preloading content before users even request it! 

Common Types of Server-Site Caching:

• Object Caching: This stores repeated database queries for faster access.
• Opcode Caching: This saves compiled PHP scripts, so they don’t need to be processed repeatedly.
• Edge Caching: This uses a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to cache content closer to the user for global performance boosts.

4. Content Delivery Network (CDN) Caching

{CDN world map showing how CDNs distribute content globally graphic}

A CDN caches website content across multiple global servers, helping users access pages faster no matter where they are in the world. But why do CDNs matter?

• Improve Load Times by serving content from the nearest server.
• Reduce Bandwidth Usage and offloads traffic from your hosting provider.
• Boost Reliability by preventing server overloads and downtime.

The Key Benefits of Caching

Caching holds many benefits, some of which include:

1. Faster Load Times & Smoother Experience: Caching reduces network traffic and improves load times, which directly boosts site engagement and conversions.
2. Lower Costs: Reducing server requests means lower bandwidth costs, which is especially helpful for high-traffic sites.
3. Content Availability (Even If Servers Go Down): In cases of short-term network issues or server failures, cached content keeps your site accessible, even when your server has a few hiccups.

The Downside of Caching

Caching is great, until it isn’t. The most common issue is seeing outdated content.

For example, if you change an image on your homepage but you can still see the old one, your browser may have cached the previous version. This is especially frustrating during website development, where clients might see outdated pages instead of the latest updates.

The Solution

If you’re experiencing issues with your content, the solution is to clear your cache!

Here’s how to do it:

Clearing Browser Cache (Google Chrome Example)

1. Click the three-dot menu in the top right corner
2. Select More tools > Clear browsing data
3. Choose Cached images and files, then click Clear data.

Clearing Cache in WordPress (If Using a Caching Plugin)

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to your caching plugin settings (e.g WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, or Cloudflare APO).
3. Click Clear Cache or Purge All Caches.

The Role of Caching in SEO & Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, and CLS) prioritise page speed and user experience for ranking. A well-cached website improves:

1. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Which means faster pages will rank higher.
2. FID (First Input Delay): Helps lower server load, which equals better interactivity.
3. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Cached layouts keep pages from jumping around while loading.

So Is Caching Essential in 2025?

Absolutely! Whether it’s browser caching, page caching, server-side caching, or CDNs, caching is non-negotiable for a fast, high-performing website. It’s all about balance, your site should be lightning fast without showing any outdated content. 

Do you need a faster website?

At CreativeWeb, we specialise in high-performance websites, making sure your site runs fast and effortlessly while delivering an exceptional user experience. 

Want to speed up your website? Let’s talk.

Cover Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

The post What Is Caching and Why Does It Matter in Web Development? appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Sustainability isn’t just about getting rid of plastic straws or recycling your coffee cup, it also includes the digital world too. The internet might feel as though it’s not really there, but it accounts for around 4% of global carbon emissions, and that number keeps growing as our online activity skyrockets!

At CreativeWeb, we’ve worked on projects where sustainability was a key focus, like our work for the COP26 Climate Conference: Net Zero Needs Nuclear. More businesses are prioritising eco-friendly websites, and we see this shift becoming the new standard in web design for the years to come.

So, how do we design websites that do not cost the Earth? Let’s break it down.

What Is Sustainable Website Design?

A sustainable website minimises its environmental impact by reducing energy consumption, promoting accessibility, and following ethical digital practices. The modern web comes with many challenges such as: the rise of data-heavy sites, growing energy consumption, and, on the darker side, questionable tech practices that compromise user privacy, promote misinformation, or manipulate user behaviour.

A truly sustainable website should be:

• Energy-efficient: Uses fewer resources, meaning less energy consumption.
• Green-powered: Hosted on servers running renewable energy.
• Lightweight: Optimised for performance with lower data usage.
• Puts users first: Accessibility-focused and user-friendly.
• Ethically responsible: Free from deceptive design tactics, privacy violations, or manipulative tech practices.

Sustainable web design doesn’t just help the planet, it also improves site speed, SEO rankings, and overall user experience. So really it’s a win-win.

How Green Is Your Website?

Before making improvements, it helps to see where you already stand. The Website Carbon Calculator is a handy little tool that estimates your site’s carbon emissions and compares it to the internet average.

Guess what? Even brands that are publicly all about sustainability often unfortunately are not. Take Greenpeace UK’s website back in 2022, which produced 1.51g of CO2 per visit! That’s equal to around nine trees’ worth of carbon absorption per year. Multiply that by thousands (or millions) of visits, and the environmental impact becomes massive. Let that just sink in… 

Fast forward to today, and while many websites have switched to greener energy sources, some major companies are still lagging behind. Platforms like Pinterest, Yahoo, Samsung, Twitter/X and many more continue to rely on unsustainable hosting, demonstrating that there’s still work to be done. (Read more on this here)

So, what actually affects a website’s carbon footprint?

What Makes a Website More (or Less) Sustainable?

When calculating a website’s carbon impact, tools such as the Carbon Calculator look at many factors. While they might vary depending on the provider, these are the key metrics they are looking for:

1. Data Transfer & Hosting Energy Use

Every time someone loads a website, data is transferred between their device and the hosting server. The bigger the page, the more energy is required to load it. This might not seem like a big deal on its own, but multiply that by thousands (or even millions) of visits, and the environmental impact quickly adds up.

2. How Data Size Affects Energy Consumption

• Websites that are bloated with oversized images, auto play videos, and excessive scripts require more energy to load, which increases carbon emissions.
• Returning visitors consume less energy than first-time users because cached elements (like images and stylesheets) are stored on their device instead of being re-downloaded.
• A well-optimised website keeps individual page sizes below a few megabytes, reducing strain on servers and improving the user experience.

3. What’s the Cost of Web Data Energy Use?

This metric is essentially how much energy is needed for users to load your website. Calculators will look for an average energy cost related to the geographic location your website is being served from, whilst factoring in the power required for your servers, as well as the power required of the user to view the site – ie. their device, home router and network. In the UK, the estimated data energy cost is around 1.8Wh/GB, and is a key part of what makes up your overall Carbon Impact score.

4. Why Does Green vs Traditional Hosting Matter?

Your choice of web hosting plays a major role in your site’s carbon footprint. The Green Web Foundation tracks hosting providers globally, highlighting which ones use renewable energy and which ones still rely on fossil fuels. Here’s a major difference between green and traditional hosting:

• Traditional data centres contribute heavily to carbon emissions, with standard grid electricity producing around 475g CO₂ per kWh.
• Renewable-powered hosting, on the other hand, significantly reduces impact with wind energy, for example, which emits as little as 11g CO₂ per kWh.

If sustainability is a priority, switching to a hosting provider that runs on renewables is one of the most effective ways to cut your digital carbon footprint.

5. How Website Traffic Impacts Carbon Emissions

The more visitors your site gets, the greater the energy demand, but that doesn’t mean you should shy away from growing your audience. Instead, optimising caching, compression, and efficient code can help manage the impact.

• Websites with high returning visitor rates benefit from cached content, which reduces unnecessary data transfers.
• On average, 30% of web traffic comes from returning users, meaning a well-cached site can significantly cut down on repeated data requests.

By being mindful of how data is handled, optimising page sizes, and choosing an eco-friendly host, businesses can make a big difference in reducing their website’s carbon footprint while maintaining fast, high-performing digital experiences.

How to Make Your Website More Sustainable

If your website isn’t as green as you’d like, here are some easy ways to make it better for the environment and your visitors:

1. Limit Video Content

Videos are one of the most energy-consuming elements on a website. They require large amounts of data to stream, increasing both server load and carbon emissions.

• If video isn’t essential, consider removing it or replacing it with static imagery.
• If you do use video, disable autoplay—this prevents unnecessary streaming when users don’t actually want to watch.
• Host videos externally (like YouTube or Vimeo) rather than embedding them directly to reduce server strain.

As of 2025, the environmental impact of streaming video has grown even bigger than most people realise. Recent research shows that the TV and videos streaming industry now accounts for 4% of global carbon emissions – double that of the aviation industry’s 2% share. While streaming platforms have been working to improve energy efficiency, high-definition and ultra-high-definition video still require a huge amount of power.

2. Optimise & Compress Images

Essentially, use fewer images – and the images you do use should be optimised, smaller and ‘lazy-load’ into the page when required.

If you’re running a WordPress site, there are dozens of well-supported image compression plugins that can help to reduce your page weight. On many of our client sites, we use plugins such as EWWW Image Optimiser to help achieve the best sizes possible.

In addition to images, custom fonts can also require a chunk of data to load, using native system fonts, or reducing the number of font weights required by your site is another easy way to reduce load size and improve your carbon score.

3. Switch to renewables

Your energy sources matter. A lot of energy is required to actually show websites to the user, for instance to power servers & data centres 24/7, keep them cool, make them secure and optimise their routing to be fast. Such a great amount of energy usage has a negative impact on the environment, so choosing a green web hosting solution can be a big step towards becoming more eco-friendly. Look for a provider or data centre that sources most of its electricity from renewable energy. Centres located in The Netherlands are some of the leading hosting platforms in this regard.

4. Clean & Minify Your Code

Messy, bloated code makes websites slower and more resource-intensive to load. Cleaning it up improves performance and reduces unnecessary data transfers.

• Minify CSS, JavaScript & HTML: Use tools like PurgeCSS or UglifyJS to remove unnecessary characters and compress files.
• Reduce third-party scripts: Excessive tracking scripts, ads, and analytics tools slow down your site and increase energy consumption.
• Load only what’s needed: Use asynchronous loading to prioritise important elements and delay non-essential scripts.

Smashing Magazine, a leading online web technology magazine, writes: “When it comes to serious performance enhancement, we should bear in mind that literally every character of code counts. Every character represents a byte, and even after they’ve been compressed by gzip, they’re still taking up weight. CSS is a domain where we often see a lot of bloat.”

By keeping your code lean and efficient, you’re not just improving sustainability—you’re also creating a faster, more user-friendly website.

Summary

In 2025, the push for greener websites has never been more urgent. With digital consumption at an all-time high, making web design more sustainable can have a real impact in the fight against climate change. Every website, large or small, contributes to the internet’s carbon footprint and right now, only 5% of websites are powered by renewable energy, while the internet remains one of the world’s biggest polluters.

Instead of overloading websites with unnecessary animations, oversized media, and bloated code simply because we can, it’s time to design with intention. Every piece of content, every data transfer, and every hosting decision should serve a purpose, without unnecessary waste. Choosing eco-friendly hosting, optimising performance, and reducing data-heavy elements aren’t just sustainability wins, they create faster, more efficient websites that improve user experience and boost conversions.

If you’re looking to reduce your website’s carbon footprint and build a future-proof, energy-efficient digital presence, we can help. At CreativeWeb, we’ve worked on projects that prioritise sustainability, helping brands make a tangible impact while maintaining high-performance web experiences.

Let’s talk about your green web project! Reach out for a no-obligation chat on how we can make your website more sustainable. Get in touch!

The post Sustainable Website Design: How to Reduce Your Digital Carbon Footprint appeared first on CreativeWeb.

The result? An award-winning website, earning top industry recognition, including Gold at the London Design Awards!

Beyond the Basics: A Website Built to Lead

Previously, NIF’s website had all the appeal of a government brochure, functional but uninspiring. As a venture capital fund, supporting cutting-edge, deep-tech startups, their online presence needed to reflect that ambition and forward-thinking mindset.

Our job was clear: modernise their digital identity. A redesign that would not only enhance user experience but also its interactivity and scalability; All whilst aligning with their goal of driving innovation in technology and global investment. 

The new site had to: 

• Engage a diverse audience, from investors to startup founders.
• Maintain a professional, authoritative presence (but with a modern refresh!)
• Deliver a visually compelling, high-performance user experience across all devices. 

Here’s what we delivered: A sleek, engaging platform that captures the essence of deep-tech startups and positions NIF’s reputation as an industry leader. 

We didn’t just touch the surface; we revamped everything, from the complete strategy and designs to usability and technical performance. The end product is a site that not only looks beautiful but also works seamlessly across all devices.

How We Built an Award-Winning Website

Our team jumped straight into completely reimagining NIF’s digital presence. Here’s what we did to turn this vision into a reality: 

• A Bold, Modern Design: Out went the old, stiff government-style design, and in came a high-contrast, modern colour palette and clean typography. This new look reflects NIF’s innovative mission while still maintaining a strong, authoritative presence.
• Interactive & Engaging Features: Think subtle animations, smooth scrolling effects, and interactive maps, all carefully placed to deepen the user experience without being overwhelming. The goal was a dynamic but easy-to-navigate journey through the site that keeps users engaged from start to finish.

User-Focused Functionality: We made sure that complex investment and funding information didn’t feel like a maze. The content is structured in a way that is intuitive and easy to digest so that startups, investors, and stakeholders can now find what they need quickly and effortlessly.

Collaboration at its Best and Bringing NIF’s Vision to Life

This wasn’t a simple “set it and forget it” project. CreativeWeb worked closely with NIF and NATO (yes, NATO!) to ensure we were perfectly aligned at every stage. We held regular feedback sessions, to make sure the site stayed true to their vision, all whilst refining the design and user experience.

By using inspiration from NIF’s initial vision and mood boards, we built a site that strikes the perfect balance between cutting-edge innovation and professional presence, with every element created with precision, usability, and future scalability in mind.

A Website That Wins (Literally!)

Since its launch, the NATO Innovation Fund website has delivered incredible results, including: 

• A 220% increase in user engagement
• Gold Award Win at the London Design Awards
• Site of the Day (July 18th, 2024) from Design Nominees
• Honourable Mention (July 23rd, 2024) from Awwwards.com
• Star Award (July 25th, 2024) from CSS Winner

Beyond these wins, the site has also been recognised by CSS Design Awards, CSS Light and Orpetron securing its place as an industry-leading digital project.

With this 220% increase in user engagement, the numbers speak for themselves. These results reinforce the fact that we create more than just pretty websites, we deliver award-winning websites that achieve measurable success.

Why Does This Win Matter?

This project isn’t just another portfolio piece, it’s proof that CreativeWeb excels at creating award-winning digital experiences. We combine creativity with technical expertise, ensuring that every site we design is not only visually stunning but also high-performing, user-friendly, and future-proof.

“Winning Gold at the London Design Awards is an incredible achievement for our team,” said Chris Baker. “It’s a proud moment that reflects what we truly excel at: creating beautifully designed, high-performing websites that empower our clients to shine.”

Want an Award-Winning Website? Let’s Talk

Are you looking to elevate your digital presence with a site that doesn’t just look great but performs exceptionally? Get in touch today!

Discover More About Us or check out our Website Audit & Review Service for a free sample audit.

The post Transforming NATO Innovation Fund’s Digital Presence with Award-Winning Web Design appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Put simply, responsive web design is all about resizing elements to fit different screen sizes, mainly by scaling desktop layouts down for mobile. However, this approach no longer makes sense in a world that’s obsessed with their phones.

Why the Old Ways No Longer Work

For most websites today, mobile traffic dominates. On many projects we work on, around 70% of visitors are using mobile devices. That shift completely changes how we need to think about web design. The old approach, starting with a desktop layout and adjusting it for mobile, no longer works as it treats mobile users as an afterthought.

Think about a typical desktop design with three evenly spaced columns side by side. They look great on desktop but on mobile, those columns typically stack vertically, which on some sites might work fine but for most sites this leads to users endlessly scrolling, making for a frustrating user experience. Today’s users expect instant access to information and if they don’t get it, they’re gone. With platforms like TikTok setting the standard for fast, seamless content consumption, websites need to match that pace. If visitors can’t find what they need immediately, they won’t stick around scrolling, they’ll leave.

The Mobile-First Mindset

This is where mobile-first design comes in. This means, instead of shrinking desktop layouts, this approach starts with mobile usability in mind first (as most people are using their phone to view your site today). Wireframing, prototyping, and functionality are built for small screens first, ensuring a seamless experience from the get-go and then scaled up for bigger screens.

The Shift to Mobile-Optimised Web Design

This change to mobile-first responsive web design unlocks a world of creative possibilities. Instead of simply stacking elements like in a traditional responsive framework, mobile-optimised design introduces:

• Interactive carousels: Instead of stacking three columns, users are able to swipe effortlessly between them.
• Touch-friendly navigation: Buttons, sliders, and interactive elements that feel intuitive for finger based browsing.
• Smart animations: Subtle transitions and movements that enhance the user experience without overwhelming it or slowing it down.

These techniques reduce excessive scrolling and create a dynamic, user-friendly experience that feels modern and intuitive.

Frameworks and Flexibility

Many responsive designs rely on frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS to handle stacking and resizing. While these tools are useful, they often create rigid, outdated designs. Off-the-shelf site builders or pre-made themes, only make this worse, leaving brands with a generic design that fails to truly meet their needs.

By contrast, custom-built, mobile-optimised designs (which we happen to specialise in!) offer complete creative freedom. They allow designers to craft experiences tailored to the brand and audience, rather than forcing users into a one-size-fits-all template.

Responsive Design vs. Mobile Optimisation: The Verdict

So, is responsive web design still relevant in 2025? Yes, but not in its traditional form.

While all websites must be responsive, simply resizing and stacking elements isn’t enough anymore. Users expect fast, interactive, mobile-first experiences that cater to their needs, not just a squeezed down version of a desktop site.

For brands and designers looking to stay ahead, the choice is clear: don’t settle for “good enough.” Instead, embrace a mobile-optimised approach to create seamless, engaging experiences that keep users hooked in 2025 and beyond.

The post Is Responsive Web Design Still Relevant in 2025? appeared first on CreativeWeb.

Clutch Champion

We have been recognised as a 2023 Clutch Champion, which is Clutch’s newest award given to the top 10% of Clutch Global winners. It is a designation that recognises business service providers across the world for their industry expertise and ability to deliver exceptional results compared to other companies in the industry.

“The Clutch Champion designation is the newest award providers can earn on Clutch,”

said Sonny Ganguly, Clutch CEO.

“This year’s honourees represent the best of the best on our platform, and I am thrilled to celebrate and commend these champions for their ongoing achievements and dedication to consistently exceeding their clients’ expectations. The companies named to this list continue to set the bar high. Their devotion has not only enriched our platform but has also inspired others to strive for similar levels of distinction. We are grateful for their partnership and look forward to witnessing their continued success in the future.”

Clutch Global Leader

We are also a 2023 Global Award winner for web design services on Clutch, which is the leading global marketplace of B2B service providers. Winners are selected based on their industry expertise and ability to deliver. There is also a scoring system that is calculated based on thousands of client feedback and reviews published on Clutch. For the sixth consecutive year, Clutch has honoured its top B2B companies with the Global Award designation.

“We are thrilled to showcase the incredible success of leading companies worldwide on our platform.” said Sonny Ganguly, Clutch CEO.

“Their dedication to delivering outstanding services has not only contributed to their own success but has also empowered countless clients to thrive. We aim to highlight this year’s industry frontrunners and facilitate connections for Clutch users seeking top-notch services tailored to their specific needs.”

What is Clutch

Clutch.co specialises in B2B sectors, including IT and marketing and is a leading resource for choosing a web design agency, offering a data-driven, independent evaluation platform. As previously mentioned, it collects unbiased client feedback through detailed interviews and surveys, which allows for authentic and reliable reviews that future clients can read and determine whether they want to work with a particular web agency depending on their needs and the agencies reputation and capabilities. This makes Clutch.co’s an indispensable tool for making informed decisions when selecting web design services.

Thank you to amazing team and all our incredible clients and their continued support and work.

The post CreativeWeb Recognised as a Clutch Global Leader & Clutch Champion appeared first on CreativeWeb.

According to official gov.uk stats, 1 in 5 people in the UK have a disability of some kind.

When building a website the first disability I think most people would consider is visual impairments; however there are plenty of other disabilities that could be considered e.g., hard of hearing, colour blindness or neurological disabilities.

Making sure your website is accessible to your users is not only vital for their user journey, but also, failing to meet accessibility standards can be a breach of the law.

The Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been developed by individuals and organisations to provide a shared standard for web content and development. These standards are reviewed for accessibility support that meets international needs.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have been created through the same W3C process to explain to users how they can make their web content more accessible. Web content refers to text, imagery and sounds as well as the code that defines the structure of a website.

For the rest of this article we will refer to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as ‘WCAG’

Criteria

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 require websites to fulfill these four criteria:

If accessibility is an important consideration for your website build then you can ask your web designer or developer what they are doing to keep inline with the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

“A new study on Website accessibility found that 97.8% of 1 million homepages tested had detectable WCAG 2 failures.”

Below we have listed some of things you can do to make your website more perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. 👀 📖

Following these points will help your website to be as accessible as possible!

Perceivable

• Provide text alternatives for images, videos and other non-text content. This allows screen readers to crawl the site for those who are visually impaired.
• The addition of captions, audio description and/or sign language for videos and other media
• Make sure the content you create for your site can be adapted by different softwares without losing its meaning
• Make it easy for visitors to your site to see and hear your content. This can be done in a variety of ways, but important ones to note are:
  • Contrast! Presentation of text should have at least a ratio of 4.5:1
  • Try not to use images of text for information purposes.
  • Use readable fonts, eg sans serif for web content and a minimum of 14 pixels
  • Ensure there are mechanisms for pausing audio or closing additional content

Operable

• Make sure your website’s users have enough time to read all of your content.
• Avoid using content that may cause a seizure to users or a physical reaction.
• Help your users to navigate and find content, this can be done by making sure your pages are labelled
• Make website functionality available with a keyboard and other softwares and devices.

Understandable

• Make sure your website content is readable and understandable. You can do this by providing explanations of Jargon or expand on acronyms.
• Content needs to be provided in a predictable way. This can be quite simple, like not changing the order of menu items and using navigation for changing content.
• Help your users by notifying them and allowing them to correct errors, for example notifications if a submission is required and it is incorrect.

Robust

• Is your site compatible with current and future user tools?

Unfortunately there is not a lot you can do to make sure your site is robust yourself, this is up to your web developers to deliver. However, if they stick to the basic Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards you shouldn’t have a problem.

Since September 2018 accessibility regulations have been in place for all public sector bodies. While not every single website is required by law to follow these regulations, you must make “reasonable adjustments” to try to make sure your site abides to the regulations. As per the official government website:

“All UK service providers have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (in Northern Ireland).” – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps

We make sure the basics from WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are included with each site we build. If you are interested in a more in depth look at accessibility then contact the team for more information.

Lets #bemoreaccessible 👏

The post Website Accessibility And Why It Matters appeared first on CreativeWeb.

We’re very proud to announce that over the past year, we’ve been working with Gibraltar based marketing agency Wright Tech Media to create a brand-new, bespoke website to sell tickets & merchandise for the Gibraltar Nature Reserve.

🐒 About the Nature Reserve

The Upper Rock Nature Reserve in Gibraltar makes up over 40% of the countries’ land area, and is filled with a huge variety of wildlife & attractions.

Visitors can enjoy historic and cultural sites such as military batteries & siege tunnels, explore natural cave systems & take in the stunning views across the mediterranean, and observe the diverse range of animal & plant species that inhabit the island.

📃 Project Details

During the Discovery phase of the project, we looked at ways to highlight all that the Nature Reserve has to offer, both as an important conservation site and a tourist destination.

We looked at existing websites for other Nature Reserves both in the UK and internationally, to draw some inspiration and identify how we could create a really unique platform.

Designed from the ground up, we collaborated with the team at WTM to create an experience that showcased the extraordinary sights to see at the Nature Reserve, while preserving an easy to use UX for people wanting to purchase tickets or merchandise.

🧑‍💻 Development Spec

The site is built with a number of advanced features, including:

• Ecommerce store selling merchandise
• Ticket purchases with QR code integration for onsite verifications
• Timetable booking & purchase for attractions such as Caving, Private Tours & Dolphin Sightseeing
• Bespoke animation & interactive maps
• Live webcam feeds & social banners
• Permissions system to allow service providers to manage their bookings
• Full integration with WordPress Gutenberg Blocks, allowing easy Content Management

🚀 And it’s live!

The Gibraltar Government recently hosted a launch event to unveil the new platform, with ministers, journalists & site officials from Gibraltar attending to ‘cut the digital red ribbon’ – and ticket purchases have already started flooding in!

We’ve also kicked off SEO & PPC programs for the site, to ensure it gets maximum visibility online and becomes recognised as the Official website to learn about the Reserve & book tickets.

Feedback from both the Gibraltar Government and public has been fantastic. Christian Wright, CEO of Wright Tech Media, writes:

“The general population, 3rd party operators and the Government of Gibraltar have expressed their awe at the overall sleekness of the design and ease of functionality. CreativeWeb genuinely believed in what we were trying to achieve, and the final product spoke to this ethos. It was a thoroughly enjoyable project and the overall success of the launch proves that the expertise behind the website was top notch.”

You can visit the website via the link below to check it out, or even purchase some tickets for a visit yourself. We’ll certainly be over there in the summer!

Gibraltar Nature Reserve Website

The post Website Launch – Gibraltar Nature Reserve appeared first on CreativeWeb.

When we interact with things – we connect the dots on how it works and what we anticipate happening next, these processes are known as mental models.

Users have different concepts of how things should work on a website based on their experience from other platforms. Hotmail debuted in 1996 and is considered the first major email software. Its design elements consist of letters, symbols and paper aeroplanes which represent email workflows. Nowadays, all providers make use of this similar design system.

As designers, we need to recognize, understand and use past experiences and expectations for user interaction. The user’s preconceived ideas about the platform are an important part of the overall design process, these are the expectations that users have about how the system and the experience will work.

How do Mental Models relate to UX Design?

We all know that good UX is about making it as easy as possible for your user, not vice versa. It relies on the designer to create a website model that meets users expectations. The user should know how to encourage or discourage them from adapting to the platform. If the designer wants to do something exciting and original, the user should approach a new product or feature based on how they use the platform, it is called a mental model approach and the designer should work within the expectations of the user.

A mental model is what a user believes will work in the context of UX design. It is built in the user’s brain based on what they know from previous interactions with websites, mobile phones, and other interactive products.

Mental models are used by UX designers to develop a design experience that makes sense for users. In UX design, mental models are the way users believe the system should work.

Given that we have mental interaction models it is a good rule of thumb to assume that users build their mental models as much as possible on the basis of interactions with existing applications and websites. In short, users expect functionality that is consistent with previous experiences, and if standard patterns exist, they will mimic your design. Designers know that they can make wonderful mental models out of their own creations and lead them to believe that features will be easy to understand.

Examples of Mental Models

A great example of mental models is an iPad. Not all of us have an iPad or tablet but many of us do have an iPhone. Say for example someone gives you an iPad, Apple users will be well versed in how it should work. They will know that to use the device you will have to unlock it with your face, fingerprint or password. They will understand that an App will load if they tap the icon and they will probably need to lock the device again when they are finished.

As many of us have an iPhone we believe that we should know how to correctly use an iPad. We feel confident that we can use it and gain whatever information we require. It is because of the mental model associated with this kind of device that enables us to use it effectively without any prior knowledge.

A secondary example is the navigation of a website. Thanks to mobile browsing and a designer named Norm Cox, we often see a little icon known as a ‘Hamburger’, the three straight lines on thr top right of many website designs. Cox has said it was designed to “mimic the look of the resulting displayed menu list”. Over time however, this symbol has evolved. We can now see many variations, two lines, three dots, a more minimal ‘MENU’ as a four-letter word and in some cases a square.

Due to this associated mental model any symbol would suffice as long as this is positioned in the top right quadrant of the screen. Clicking it will display a series of pages that form the navigation. It is incredibly rare to see this icon anywhere else on the screen. If you dare move it you risk that a user will have a ahrder time using your platform.

The Importance of Mental Models

Whether or not a UX designer adapts to an existing mental model of the user, they ensure that their expectations are met and that the experience with the latest design is as smooth as possible. The system model works best when the interaction model interacts with the one already in use. In this way, everything works in accordance with the expectations of users, they understand what is used and it is not something they have to contend with.

If the designer’s conceptual product model does not take into account the user’s mental model, it is likely that the product will be difficult to learn and use. An example of this is a vehicle that has a good system model but a bad interaction model. If the conceptual model of the products does not match the mental model of the user, the user will find that the product is difficult to get to grips with.

If the conceptual model of the products is not a reflection of the underlying hardware, software or database, it will not match the mental model of the user and the user will find the device hard to learn and use. The primary goal of the designer is to get the user interface to convey to the user the fundamental nature of the system in the form of a precise and useful mental model. Personality is closely linked to reality because users base their predictions on systems like your website, and their mental model plans their future actions based on how it predicts the most appropriate course of action.

Designers can run into this problem when they try to reinvent the wheel in order to try something new. Of course, a good designer will be aware that if something is changed that is fundamental to a mental model it is likely to cause disruptions.

Take the basket icon on an e-commerce website, every single online shop has one. Without it, you cannot easily pay for your goods. If you cannot do that, zero sales. This basket icon will sometimes tell you how many items you have in the basket. They come in many different shapes and sizes but if you move the basket icon from where it usually is: top right, you will see a fall in conversions. This basket placement is now standard practice, and a straight-forward place to save your goods and pay for them or to simply come back to them later.

The Benefits of Mental Models

Models are our best way to understand complex behaviours and processes. Mental models are inherent in the user’s brain, and different users construct different mental models of the same user interface. While it is true that most people have different skills and their own particular prior knowledge, what makes each user unique and different is that designers can design different versions of the experience to suit specific users.

UX design is an integrated activity that requires designers to understand, read and understand many things about the customer. With respect to online experiences, users expect to see a certain sequence of events in the light of past encounters and their desired experiences. This helps us to develop a design strategy based on what the end-user expects.

A classic example of this pattern is the login to a website where users enter the required information, receive an activation link by e-mail and click on the link to activate their user account.

This in turn leads to a superior user experience, as the user can concentrate on his task, which is much more complex than learning a new model. This leads to the creation of a great user experience where the system behaves as the user expects it to.

Conducting research will enable you to help clarify existing mental models. If you are not testing, you are guessing. Task analysis, observations and simple A/B tests offer a range of different methods to acknowledge user behaviour and ultimately be in the front seat not only for enhancing your products or services but for creating exciting new ones as well. Reach out today to see how we can implement Mental Models within your project here.

The post The Purpose of Mental Models in Web Design appeared first on CreativeWeb.

When I first started my research into project management methodologies in website design, I couldn’t believe how many there were! I even tried to google exactly how many there were, but there wasn’t really a clear answer. There were however 5 or 6 popular methods that kept coming up, so those are the ones I am going to look at for this article.

What Are Project Management Methodologies?

Let’s start by asking the most important question…what does project management methodology actually mean?

A project management methodology is a collection of principles, methods, techniques, and processes that are used to initiate, plan, and execute a project. Sounds simple!

You may also read about the term framework though, which is a set of project management processes that are used to initiate, plan and execute a project. Now I’m confused!

It took a lot of reading 👀 to wrap my head around this one! But what I gathered is that methodology is a way to systematically solve a problem, whereas a framework is a foundation that is built upon to solve said problem. This will make a bit more sense when we get into some of the methodologies and frameworks below.

Just to add a bit of history into the mix before we move on…Project management activities have taken place over thousands of years! I wonder what methodology the Egyptians used when they built the pyramids 🤔. Henry Gantt invented the Gantt chart around 1910-1915 which revolutionised project planning, but it wasn’t until the 1950’s that we began to outline specific project methodologies and frameworks.

Project management methods and frameworks are constantly changing and evolving over time and new concepts appear regularly. During your life you will use more than one of the methods below, even if you don’t know you’ve been doing it!

What Are The Six Most Popular Methodologies And Frameworks?

There are a vast amount of methodologies and frameworks to choose from when web designing, so below I have picked 6 that I saw coming up time and time again.

Let’s get started then…

Agile (Methodology)

Agile Project Management is all about breaking up a project into several phases and working through those phases iteratively until the project is complete. The idea of the Agile methodology is to deliver the project in small bite sized pieces. This means as you move along you are constantly evaluating and improving your processes to deliver the project faster and with fewer headaches! 🤯

Lean (Methodology)

The importance of the Lean project management methodology is identifying the value to the customer and making sure everyone is working towards the same goal.

Image Source: projectcartoon.com

When using the Lean methodology, client communication is essential. Constant communication allows project managers to clarify anything that is unclear, resolve conflicts and collaborate on ideas. A more streamlined approach to project management eliminates waste and increases client satisfaction.

Scrum (Framework)

Now when you see the word scrum your mind might head straight to rugby…🏉 In rugby a scrum is a method of restarting play in rugby that involves players packing closely together with their heads down while they attempt to gain possession of the ball. We can see where Scrum got its name!

Scrum is a form of Agile project management, therefore we should consider Scrum to actually be a framework. It involves using a small self-managed multidisciplinary team, which is led by a Scrum master. The scrum master essentially runs the projects and makes sure to remove any obstacles that might slow the rest of the team down.

The project is broken down into short cycles or sprints and the team meets daily to discuss each sprint; the current tasks and discuss potential upcoming roadblocks. These meetings are usually called stand ups.

Kanban (Framework)

Kanban is another framework that falls under the Agile methodology, but its processes can also be used by those using the Lean methodology. Kanban was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, to manage their manufacturing process more efficiently. My Yaris and I thank you Taiichi!

Kanban is about visualising the project to see a breakdown of tasks that are outstanding, in progress and complete. Kanban usually consists of a physical or digital board with 3 or more columns with tasks illustrated as cards that can be moved between columns depending on status.

The main goal of Kanban is to increase knowledge of work in progress, limit multitasking and eliminate waste. This is why it is often used for the Lean methodology.

Scrumban (Framework)

I think we can probably take a wild guess at what Scrumban is, but just in case.. Scrumban is a combination of both Scrum and Kanban frameworks. Scrumban involves applying the visual elements of Kanban and the flexible approach to the structured scrum method.

Waterfall (Methodology)

Waterfall project management is another methodology. Waterfall is often described as the most straightforward way to manage a project! Sounds good to me!

The Waterfall method is where a project is broken up into distinct phases which are laid out sequentially, so the next phase doesn’t begin until the previous phase has been marked as complete.

Waterfall involved using a team, each with a defined role, to complete each phase. Usually with the waterfall method, the phases are set and unlikely to change throughout the project.

The waterfall methodology is actually what we use for most of our website builds! We split each of our builds into 6 distinct phases. A phase is marked as complete when it is signed off and we move onto the next phase. You can see more about our 6 phase approach here.

The post Project Management In Web Design: Methodologies and Frameworks appeared first on CreativeWeb.