WHAT THINGS COST
Why is my website slow, and what does it cost to find out and fix it?
Two different jobs with two different prices, and the first one is the cheaper way to avoid paying for the wrong second one.
Short answer · updated
Finding out why a website is slow is the $900 technical SEO audit: Core Web Vitals measured on real page loads, a full crawl and a fix list ranked by impact, in five days. Fixing it is separate: your developer works the list, or the $3,500 Website replaces the site.
Measure first, then decide what to pay for
A slow site can be slow for one reason or for several, and the reasons call for different spending. If the cause is a few heavy items on a few pages, a rebuild is the expensive answer to a small problem. If the cause is the platform the site stands on, tuning around it only postpones the question.
The audit exists to separate those cases before money is committed to either. It measures Core Web Vitals on real page loads, and it crawls every page, every redirect and every blocked resource, so the slow parts are located rather than guessed.
What the $900 returns, and what it does not
The deliverable is a fix list ranked by impact and written for a developer, with the measurement behind each item. Delivery is five days, counted from the first working day after payment clears and the brief is submitted, and it pauses while we wait for Search Console access.
The package lists Core Web Vitals as one part of a search audit. It does not list profiling of application code or tuning of a server, and it does not list carrying out the fixes: implementing them is quoted separately, and ongoing monitoring is the retainer. If what you need is somebody to rewrite a slow back end, say so through the quote form and it is priced as its own job.
Three ways to fix it, and what each one costs
Hand the list to your own developer. The cost of that work is theirs, not ours, and it can be the lower-cost route when the cause turns out to be a handful of items. Ask us to quote the fixes: there is no published price for that, because it depends on what the list contains. Or replace the site: the Website package is $3,500 for up to 7 pages in three weeks, built without a CMS, plugins or a page builder.
Building without a CMS is a choice about how the site is made, not a measured result. Neither the package nor the terms promise a particular speed score, so none is promised here. What you can hold the work to is the scope list on the package page.
When to skip the audit
If you already know the cause, fix it and keep the $900. A single oversized file or one broken script does not need a crawl. The audit earns its price when nobody can say what is wrong.
If the site is being replaced whatever the audit finds, its value changes rather than disappears: the measurements are a record of how the old site behaved, so the new one can be compared with something other than a recollection.
What nobody can promise
A score, or the position a faster site will take in search. Rankings depend on what other sites do and on what the searcher wanted, and our terms say plainly that we do not guarantee rankings, traffic or conversion rates. Speed is one input to those, not a way around them.
What is committed to is the list and the measurement that found each item, so your developer or anyone else can check the work afterwards and see whether a change moved a number.
Worked examples
| Package | Price | Delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Technical SEO Audit | $900 | 5 days |
| Website | $3,500 | 3 weeks |
| Website over Technical SEO Audit | $2,600 more | 16 days longer |
Both prices are the published ones on the package pages.
| The question | What answers it |
|---|---|
| How do my pages perform on real page loads? | Full crawl, index coverage and Core Web Vitals |
| Which fixes matter most? | A fix list ranked by impact, written for your developer |
| Who makes the changes? | Implementing the fixes. The list is written so your developer can, or we can quote it |
| What if the site itself has to go? | CMS-free, no plugins or page builder |
The right column is the package's own wording, copied from the price list and the package page.
Included and not included
What each package lists as included, and what its page lists as not included.
| Package | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| Technical SEO Audit$900 |
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| Website$3,500 |
|
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| Search Retainer$1,500/mo |
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What moves the number
- Adds to the total
- Having the fixes carried out, which is quoted separately, or replacing the site if the site itself is the cause
- Pushes it down
- Doing the work with your own developer from the ranked list. The audit price itself is fixed at $900
- Changes the timeline, not the price
- How soon Search Console and server log access arrive
Frequently asked questions
Do you fix the problems or just find them?
Find, rank and explain. Fixing is quoted separately, and the list is written so you can hand it to your own developer.
How is this different from a free audit tool?
A tool lists every warning it can generate. This tells you which four of them are costing you traffic, which requires reading your site rather than scoring it.
Can you guarantee this will get me to page one?
No, and nobody honest can. Position depends on what your competitors do, what the algorithm does next and what the searcher actually wanted, none of which is ours to control. What the audit guarantees is a list of what is wrong, ranked by impact, with the measurement that found each one so your own developer can check the work.
Why no CMS?
A CMS is a database, an admin panel, a login and a security surface, and a site that changes a few times a year does not need that. Leaving it out is why the site has no plugin to be attacked through and no admin login to guess. If you genuinely publish often, say so and we will price it in.
When does the delivery clock start?
A delivery time starts on the first working day after payment clears and the project brief is submitted, not on the day of payment. If we are waiting on content, access or feedback from you, the clock pauses for that time.
When do I pay?
Fixed-price work is paid in full before it starts. Monthly work is paid monthly in advance and can be stopped at the end of any paid month. Prices are in US dollars.
Where these terms are defined
- Web Vitals web.dev (Google)
The packages behind these numbers
Each one lists its full scope, what it excludes and how the work runs.
- Technical SEO Audit Every issue keeping your pages out of search, ranked by impact. $900
- Website A site of up to 7 pages with a real information architecture. $3,500
- Search Retainer Ongoing search work, measured and reported every month. $1,500/mo
The studio behind them: Search visibility, Web design & development.