You pay for a custom-painted site. Then you turn the key. No engine. A beautiful site that cannot be found is a brochure in a drawer.
Moodboards are fine. They should translate into the technical build. The tell is the live sites they promote as their work.
A basic check (must be Google AI Mode)
This is a sniff test, not a ranking score. The machine can be wrong.
- Open Google.
- Search: Is this website optimised for SEO & AEO then paste the URL (yours, or a site they say they built).
- Switch to AI mode. Ordinary results are not this test.
- Read what it knows, what it invents, and what it skips.
If AI mode cannot name the business, the services, or the town, the engine is missing.
Questions before a deposit
- Who owns the WordPress?
- Where is it hosted, and in which country?
- What schema will be on the public pages?
- Is getting found in the build, or a later upsell?
Five realities. One map: Getting found: Why a pretty website is not enough.
Book a yarn. Already on Squarespace or Wix? Existing sites.