I’m Kayla Sox. I run a small soap shop in Norwich. We sell bars, bath salts, and gift sets. I needed a site that didn’t scare folks away on slow phones. Sounds simple, right? It wasn’t.
Plenty of small businesses pour money into websites without realizing where the real value is—HubSpot’s practical breakdown of the most common budget traps is worth a skim if you’re pricing things up yourself: HubSpot’s breakdown of common budget traps.
I tried three routes. A cheap freelancer. A shiny big agency. And a local Norfolk team. I’ll tell you what I loved, what hurt, and the real numbers I saw.
(For readers who want every technical detail of the Norfolk build—from caching layers to the exact image-compression settings—I’ve logged the full, unfiltered case study right here.)
Try #1: The Facebook Bargain That Wasn’t
I hired a freelancer from a local group. It cost £350. Fast and cheap, they said.
- They used a pre-made theme. My home page took 7+ seconds to load on 4G.
- The contact form broke for a week. We lost 12 real enquiries. I found them stuck in spam.
- Checkout failed two times with Apple Pay. One customer texted a photo of the error. Ouch.
- No SSL for three days. The browser said “Not secure.” People bailed.
It looked fine. It worked… sometimes. But it wasn’t steady. Like a wobbly table at a café on the Market.
Try #2: The Big City Agency That Looked Great, But Felt Far
Then I went fancy. A London agency wowed me on a video call. The mockups were pretty. Price was £8,900 plus £180 a month.
- Timeline was 10 weeks. It slid to 16. My summer sale window got missed.
- They built a custom system. It ran fast (about 1.6 seconds). But I could not edit much on my own.
- To swap one photo, I had to open three screens. To add one product, I filled 12 fields. My team gave up.
- Support was kind, but slow. I waited two days for small changes.
It looked like a magazine cover. It just didn’t fit our day-to-day. I sell soap. I need simple.
If you’re curious how a slightly smaller, regional crew compared, I also documented my experience with a Bedford-based team in this separate review. Spoiler: different town, different lessons.
Try #3: The Local Norfolk Crew That Actually Delivered
I met a small team in Norwich. We talked over tea by the Market. They asked about carts, not just colors. They cared about calls, not just clicks.
Build: £4,200. Hosting: £120 a month. Care plan: £180 a month (updates, backups, two hours help).
They used WordPress and WooCommerce. Plain tools. Easy to train. We kept our domain. They moved us to fast hosting with a cache. (Think: a smart fridge for files.) They set Cloudflare so images load quick.
Here’s what changed, in real life:
- Load time went from 7.3 seconds to 1.9 seconds on 4G.
- Mobile score in Lighthouse hit 97. All Core Web Vitals were green.
- Conversion went from 0.9% to 2.4% in 60 days.
- Calls jumped from 19 to 41 a month. Forms went from 8 to 23.
- Sales rose 31% in two months. Not a miracle. Just good work.
Industry studies back up jumps like these—this MarketingSherpa case study on four successful website design changes shows similar double-digit lifts when speed, clarity, and mobile usability get fixed.
They set up Hotjar. We saw folks miss the free shipping bar. They moved it. They added a sticky “Add to Cart” on phones. Tiny things. Big lift.
They used Mailchimp for cart emails. Week one, we got back £312 from people who left the cart. Week two did about the same.
Photos? They did a quick shoot at my shop on Elm Hill. Soft light. Wood table. The bars looked like candy. Well, fancy candy you don’t eat.
Local SEO That Felt… Local
They made pages for our real areas: Norwich, Wroxham, Cromer. They added clear titles and simple words. They set my Google Business Profile right. Hours, photos, service zones, and fresh posts.
I moved from page three to the map pack for “handmade soap Norwich.” We showed up when people were nearby. That’s the whole game.
If you’d like to see how these local-SEO moves translated to a different tourist city, my take on hiring designers in Gloucester is over here.
Accessibility, But Not as a Buzzword
Big fonts. Good contrast. Clear alt text. Forms with labels. They used a screen reader to check. We caught two silly mistakes. We fixed them. That made me proud.
Simple Process, No Drama
- A Trello board with clear steps and dates.
- Two Loom videos each week showing changes.
- A Slack channel for quick questions.
- Six weeks, start to finish. We went live on a Tuesday. Orders came in before lunch.
Do they answer late at night? Not really. Fridays after 3, they go quiet. Beach time? Maybe. It’s Norfolk. I can live with that.
Real Things I Touched and Tested
- Booking test: I booked two sample surf lessons on a site they built for a Cromer school. The calendar was clear. I got an email and a text. The refund test worked too.
- Click-and-collect: I tried a farm shop build near Wymondham. The slot picker was smooth. My order was ready. The label had my note spelled right. Small win, big smile.
- B&B booking: A Holt B&B used their site. I tested a two-night stay. The pricing matched the desk rate. No surprise fees. My receipt looked neat.
I didn’t just look. I used them like a normal person on a normal phone. That’s how you find the truth.
What I Loved
- Fast site on slow signal. It held up on the A47 with one bar.
- I can edit text, prices, and photos on my own. No ticket. No wait.
- Clear data. Simple reports each month: sales, calls, top pages.
- Real talk. If a feature was fluff, they said so.
What Bugged Me (a bit)
- Their calendar was packed. I had to book shoot slots early.
- Friday support fades after mid-day. Plan ahead.
- They don’t do fancy 3D effects. I asked once. They shrugged. Then showed me a faster, cleaner way.
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Norfolk-Specific Stuff That Helped
- They knew we get tourists in summer. We set gift bundles to “featured” in May. We moved “Wedding favors” up in spring.
- They design for spotty Wi-Fi. Fewer big videos. Smaller images. It helps.
- They’ve worked with makers, farm shops, cafés, and B&Bs. So they speak our language. Like, “Can Gran read this?” Yes. Yes she can.
Costs, Plain and Simple
- Build: £4,200
- Hosting: £120 per month
- Care plan: £180 per month (updates, backups, two hours of fixes)
- Add-on photos: £350 half day
- Copy help: £300 for product pages (I did most myself to save)
No sneaky fees. No “surprise” plugin bill.
If You’re Hiring Web Design in Norfolk, Do This
I also grabbed a quick, free checklist from Bingo Web Design that helped me remember the boring-but-crucial bits like SSL, backups, and image compression.
- Ask to edit a test page yourself. If it takes more than five clicks, walk.
- Check speed on your phone, on 4G, outside. Not just on office Wi-Fi.
- Ask for three real sites and then use them. Book, buy,