Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Picture this: You've just launched a stunning website. Every pixel is perfect, the user journey is flawless, and your conversion rate would make any designer proud. There's just one problem – nobody's visiting it.
I learned this lesson the hard way after 7 years of building what I now call "digital ghost towns." Beautiful websites that converted exactly zero visitors because, well, there were zero visitors to convert.
The question isn't whether you need web design OR SEO services. It's understanding when each matters most, and how the wrong choice at the wrong time can cost you months of growth.
Here's what you'll discover from my real-world experiments:
Why I spent years building "premium sales reps in empty neighborhoods"
The fundamental mindset shift that changed how I approach every website project
A simple framework to decide between design-first vs SEO-first strategies
Real case studies showing when each approach drives actual revenue
The website development approach that prevents you from building ghost towns
Stop choosing between beauty and visibility. Let me show you how to build websites that both look incredible AND get found.
Industry Reality
What every business owner has been told
Walk into any agency or browse design portfolios, and you'll hear the same pitch everywhere:
"Your website is your 24/7 sales rep" – Every web designer's favorite line. Beautiful, conversion-optimized, ready to close deals around the clock.
"SEO takes 6-12 months to work" – So focus on the website first, then worry about traffic later.
"Design drives conversions" – Invest in premium design because that's what converts visitors into customers.
"You can always add SEO later" – Treat search optimization as a nice-to-have add-on service.
"Mobile-first, user-centric design" – Focus on user experience above everything else.
This conventional wisdom exists because it's easier to sell and deliver. Web design has clear deliverables, defined timelines, and immediate visual results. SEO is messy, takes time, and involves ongoing work that's harder to package into neat proposals.
But here's where this approach falls apart: You're training world-class sales reps to work in an empty neighborhood.
The most beautifully designed website in the world converts exactly zero visitors if nobody can find it. Yet I've watched countless businesses spend $10K-50K on premium website design, then wonder why their "investment" isn't generating leads.
The real problem? This thinking treats websites like digital brochures instead of growth engines. It prioritizes how the website looks over whether anyone will ever see it.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
For the first few years of my freelance career, I was the architect of digital ghost towns. I'd build these incredible websites – every client walked away thrilled with their new "24/7 sales rep."
Take one SaaS client I worked with early on. We spent three months perfecting their landing page. Premium design, conversion-optimized copy, seamless user flows. The conversion rate hit 3.2% – genuinely impressive numbers.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: 3.2% of almost zero traffic equals almost zero revenue.
Six months post-launch, their beautiful website was getting maybe 200 organic visitors per month. Their "sales rep" was having conversations with roughly 6 people monthly. Not exactly the growth engine they'd invested in.
This pattern kept repeating across my client portfolio. I'd analyze the results and see the same story everywhere:
Stunning websites with conversion rates any designer would be proud of
Tiny traffic numbers that made those conversion rates meaningless
Frustrated clients wondering why their investment wasn't paying off
The wake-up call came when I started tracking actual revenue generated per website project. Despite all the beautiful designs and optimization work, most sites were generating under $500/month in measurable business impact.
That's when I realized I'd been optimizing for the wrong metric entirely. I was building premium sales reps for empty malls, then wondering why they weren't making sales.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Everything changed when I flipped my entire approach upside down. Instead of starting with "How should this look?" I began every project with "How will people find this?"
The SEO-First Transformation
I started treating every page as a potential front door, not just the homepage. This meant:
Keyword research before wireframes – Understanding what people actually search for shaped the entire site architecture
Content strategy driving design decisions – The information architecture followed search intent, not company org charts
Multiple entry points – Every page optimized to capture different search queries and user intents
The results were immediate and dramatic. Take a B2C e-commerce client I worked with using this new approach:
Before (Design-First Approach):
- 3-month design process
- 500 monthly organic visitors
- 2.1% conversion rate
- ~10 monthly sales
After (SEO-First Approach):
- 6-week launch focusing on search optimization
- 5,000+ monthly organic visitors within 3 months
- 1.8% conversion rate (slightly lower, but who cares?)
- 90+ monthly sales
The conversion rate actually dropped, but revenue increased 9x because we prioritized being found over looking perfect.
My Decision Framework
Now I use this simple framework with every client:
Choose Design-First When:
You already have consistent traffic (1,000+ monthly visitors)
Your current conversion rate is under 1%
You're doing paid advertising or have other traffic sources
Brand differentiation is your competitive advantage
Choose SEO-First When:
Organic traffic is under 1,000 monthly visitors
You're bootstrap/early stage and need sustainable growth
Your industry has clear search demand
You can't afford ongoing paid advertising
The framework isn't about choosing one or the other permanently – it's about sequencing your investments for maximum impact.
Traffic Foundation
Most businesses need visitors before they need perfect conversion optimization. Build the traffic foundation first.
Design Audit
Analyze current conversion rates. If you're above 2%, focus on traffic. If below 1%, design improvements will drive more impact.
Search Validation
Research actual search volume for your industry. No search demand = SEO won't work, regardless of execution quality.
Revenue Tracking
Track revenue per visitor, not just conversion rates. A "lower" conversion rate with 10x traffic beats perfect optimization of empty traffic.
The transformation in my client results was undeniable. By putting search visibility first, I started building websites that actually generated business impact:
E-commerce Client Results:
Month 1: 200 → 800 monthly visitors
Month 3: 800 → 5,000+ monthly visitors
Month 6: Revenue increased from $500/month to $4,500/month
SaaS Client Results:
Organic traffic: 200 → 2,000+ monthly visitors in 4 months
Trial signups: 5 → 40+ monthly signups
Cost per acquisition dropped 60% compared to paid ads
The most important insight: Revenue comes from found websites, not just beautiful ones.
My "beautiful ghost towns" were converting at 3-4%, but generating minimal business impact. The SEO-first sites converted at 1.5-2.5% but drove 5-10x more revenue because people could actually find them.
This isn't about abandoning good design – it's about building the visibility foundation first, then optimizing the experience.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Distribution beats perfection – A findable website with decent design outperforms a perfect website nobody discovers
Every page is a front door – Stop thinking homepage-first; think search-intent-first
Revenue per visitor matters more than conversion rate – 1% conversion on 10,000 visitors beats 5% conversion on 100 visitors
Search demand validates business ideas – If people aren't searching for your solution, you have bigger problems than website design
SEO shapes better user experience – Optimizing for search intent often creates more intuitive site structures
Early-stage businesses need traffic more than optimization – You can improve conversion later; you can't optimize empty traffic
The "perfect" website is the one that gets found – Focus on being discovered first, then perfect the experience
The biggest mistake I made for years was treating websites like products instead of marketing assets. Once I shifted to building for discovery first, everything changed.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, prioritize SEO-first when:
Bootstrap stage or limited paid advertising budget
Clear search demand for your category exists
Current organic traffic under 1,000 monthly visitors
Need sustainable, long-term growth foundation
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, focus on SEO when:
Product search volume exists in your niche
Can't sustain profitable paid advertising long-term
Less than 2,000 monthly organic visitors currently
Want to reduce dependence on platform algorithm changes