AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Here's the uncomfortable truth I learned after watching countless businesses make the same expensive mistake: they're asking the wrong question entirely.
Last year, I consulted with a startup founder who'd just spent €15,000 on what he called "the most beautiful website you've ever seen." The design was flawless, the user experience was smooth, and the conversion funnel was optimized. There was just one problem: nobody could find it on Google.
Three months later, he hired an SEO agency for another €8,000 to "fix the traffic problem." Six months after that, he was getting traffic but his beautiful website was converting terribly because the SEO team had no understanding of his business or user journey.
Sound familiar? You're probably facing this exact dilemma right now. Your website needs work, you know you need more organic traffic, but you're stuck between hiring an SEO agency or a web designer. The industry wants you to believe you need to choose one or the other. I'm here to tell you that's exactly why most businesses fail at both.
Here's what you'll learn from my 7 years of freelance experience working with both types of providers:
Why the traditional SEO vs design approach is setting you up for failure
The red flags I've seen that cost businesses thousands in wasted budget
My framework for determining what your business actually needs first
How to evaluate providers who understand both sides of the equation
Real case studies from my projects where this decision made or broke the results
Let's dive into why most businesses are approaching this completely backwards - and what actually works in practice.
Industry Reality
What most businesses are told about the SEO vs design choice
Walk into any marketing conference or browse business forums, and you'll hear the same conventional wisdom repeated like gospel: "Design is for conversions, SEO is for traffic. Pick your priority and hire accordingly."
Here's what the industry typically recommends:
If you need traffic: Hire an SEO agency first. They'll audit your site, build backlinks, create content, and drive organic visitors. Deal with design later when you have budget.
If you need conversions: Hire a web designer first. Get your funnel optimized, improve user experience, then worry about getting people to see it.
If you have budget: Hire both separately and hope they communicate well together.
If you're bootstrapped: Pick the one that seems more urgent and figure out the other later.
DIY approach: Use templates for design and follow SEO checklists yourself.
This advice exists because the industry has created artificial silos. SEO agencies position themselves as traffic experts who "don't do design." Web design agencies focus on "user experience and conversions" but treat SEO as an afterthought. Everyone stays in their lane, and businesses are forced to choose.
The problem is that this conventional wisdom treats your website like it has multiple personalities instead of recognizing a fundamental truth: your website is a marketing asset that needs to be both findable and convertible from day one.
Where this approach falls short is in the real world, where your beautiful website sits empty because no one can find it, or your SEO-optimized site gets traffic but converts terribly because it was built for search engines instead of humans. I've seen both scenarios destroy businesses, and that's exactly what happened to me when I started as a freelance web designer.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started as a freelance web designer, I was firmly in the "design first" camp. I believed that if I could create beautiful, conversion-optimized websites, businesses would succeed. My clients loved the designs, the user experience was smooth, and the conversion funnels were mathematically perfect.
But I kept running into the same frustrating pattern with every project.
I'd deliver what I genuinely believed was an incredible website - every pixel perfect, every user journey optimized, every conversion element strategically placed. The client would launch it, excited about their new digital presence. Then crickets. No traffic, no leads, no sales.
The reality hit me hard: I was essentially training world-class sales reps to work in empty neighborhoods. I was building what I now call "digital ghost towns" - beautiful websites that nobody ever visited.
One particular project crystallized this for me. A B2B SaaS client had me rebuild their entire website. We spent weeks perfecting the onboarding flow, optimizing the trial signup process, and crafting conversion-focused copy. The site looked professional, loaded fast, and had clear value propositions.
Three months after launch, they had 127 total organic visitors. For a SaaS trying to reach product-market fit, that wasn't just disappointing - it was business-threatening.
That's when I realized the fundamental flaw in how I was approaching projects. I was treating design and SEO as separate concerns when they're actually two sides of the same coin. A website that can't be found is useless, no matter how well it converts the few people who stumble upon it.
This realization forced me to completely restructure my approach - and led to the framework I now use with every client.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that expensive lesson, I developed what I call the "Foundation-First Framework" - a systematic approach that integrates SEO and design thinking from day one rather than treating them as separate projects.
Here's exactly how I now evaluate what a business needs and in what order:
Phase 1: The Foundation Audit
Before recommending any provider, I run a comprehensive audit that most agencies skip. I analyze three critical factors:
Traffic Foundation: Current organic visibility, keyword rankings, and search intent alignment
Conversion Foundation: User experience, funnel performance, and design effectiveness
Content Foundation: Whether the site is built for search discovery or just pretty presentation
Phase 2: The Decision Matrix
Based on the audit, I categorize businesses into four scenarios:
Scenario A - SEO Priority: Good design, zero visibility. These businesses need traffic before anything else. Their conversion elements work, but nobody sees them.
Scenario B - Design Priority: Getting traffic, terrible conversions. They're wasting their organic visitors because the site doesn't convert.
Scenario C - Complete Rebuild: Both traffic and conversions are broken. This requires an integrated approach, not sequential fixes.
Scenario D - Optimization Mode: Both foundations are solid, just need fine-tuning and scaling.
Phase 3: The Integration Strategy
Here's where my approach differs from industry standard: instead of hiring separate providers, I help businesses find professionals who understand both sides. This might be:
A design agency that includes SEO-first architecture in their process
An SEO agency that considers user experience in their recommendations
A freelancer like me who bridges both disciplines
A coordinated team where both providers work together from day one
The key is ensuring whoever you hire treats your website as a unified marketing asset, not separate design and SEO projects that happen to live on the same domain.
Phase 4: The Implementation Reality Check
Most importantly, I help businesses set realistic expectations. An SEO-optimized design takes longer than a pretty website. An effective SEO strategy requires understanding user behavior and conversion goals. Anyone promising quick fixes in either area is setting you up for disappointment.
Foundation Assessment
Audit your current traffic and conversion performance to identify the real bottleneck
Content Architecture
Structure your site for both search discovery and user experience from day one
Provider Evaluation
Look for professionals who understand the relationship between traffic and conversions
Integration Timeline
Plan for 6-12 months of coordinated work rather than sequential quick fixes
The results of this integrated approach have been consistently stronger than the traditional "choose one" method. Instead of businesses spending money twice to fix the same problem, they invest once in a solution that addresses both traffic and conversion challenges.
For the SaaS client I mentioned earlier, we completely restructured their approach. Instead of just redesigning for conversions, we rebuilt with SEO-first architecture while maintaining conversion focus. Six months later, they went from 127 monthly organic visitors to over 3,000, with a trial signup rate that actually improved despite the increased traffic volume.
More importantly, this framework has helped dozens of businesses avoid the expensive mistake of hiring the wrong provider first. The businesses that follow this integrated approach typically see results in 3-6 months rather than the 12-18 month timeline that comes from sequential fixes.
The most significant shift is in how they think about their website investment. Instead of viewing SEO and design as separate budget line items, they see them as integrated components of a single marketing asset. This change in perspective alone has saved clients thousands in duplicated effort and conflicting recommendations.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I've learned from 7 years of helping businesses navigate this decision:
The question itself is flawed: You're not choosing between traffic and conversions - you need both to succeed.
Sequential fixes are expensive: Hiring an SEO agency to fix a designer's oversight (or vice versa) costs 2-3x more than doing it right initially.
Communication is crucial: If you do hire separate providers, ensure they're collaborating from day one, not working in silos.
Audit before you hire: Understanding your current foundation prevents you from investing in the wrong solution first.
Integrated providers exist: Despite industry silos, there are professionals who understand both traffic and conversion optimization.
Timeline matters: Real results from either SEO or design changes take 3-6 months. Anyone promising faster results is likely cutting corners.
Context is everything: The right choice depends entirely on your current situation, not generic best practices.
The biggest lesson? Stop asking "SEO agency or web designer?" Start asking "Who can help me build a website that both attracts and converts my ideal customers?"
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this approach:
Prioritize SEO-first architecture if you're pre-product-market fit
Focus on trial signup optimization with organic discovery
Use programmatic SEO for feature and use-case pages
Build content systems that scale with your product development
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores using this framework:
Balance product page optimization with category-level SEO
Implement conversion tracking that informs content strategy
Structure product catalogs for both browsing and search discovery
Use collection pages as primary SEO landing pages