Every question we hear — answered honestly.

No. We work with clients across South Africa — Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and beyond — and internationally in the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, England and New Zealand. Most work is done remotely with clear communication every step of the way.

We’re a Google Certified Partner — a status the team maintains by writing annual exams and staying current with Google’s ranking criteria through its podcasts and documentation. We reverse-engineer every website from the commercial result. Before a single pixel is designed, we ask what the business needs — leads, sales, or subscriptions — and shape the design, user experience and page speed around the perfect client. Templates are generic. Our sites are built around your business, your customers and your growth goals.

Yes, but the rules of the game have changed. AI engines look for structured facts and citations, not just keywords. We build sites that are machine-readable so AI can confidently quote your business. Three layers we use to make a site AI-ready: (1) atomic answers — clear 50-word definitions at the top of each topic, easy for AI to lift; (2) JSON-LD schema markup — tagging your prices, services, locations and How-To steps so the AI knows exactly what it’s reading; (3) topical authority and FAQ blocks — giving AI the exact Q&A pairs it needs for conversational queries.

Yes. Our Website Care Plans cover security updates, backups, performance monitoring and content changes — keeping your site fast, secure and current.

Every project is unique — there is no fixed turnaround we quote off a list. The first meeting is for listening: who you serve, what the site has to do commercially, where the gaps are. From there, we shape a brief we can honestly cost and timeline. Once the brief is locked, the schedule is locked in writing — and you always know where the project stands.

Nova-Web — our own platform, built in-house and used across every site we ship. It is not WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or any other open-source CMS. We deliberately don’t build on open-source systems, because the security discipline, the performance discipline and the SEO discipline we hold ourselves to on Nova-Web isn’t possible when the platform is a plugin marketplace anyone can edit. eCommerce builds run on Shopify or Nova-Store, depending on the use case. Read more about Nova at /it-design-2026/ai.

Yes — no worries. We rebuild regularly from WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Wix, Squarespace, custom builds and older platforms onto Nova-Web. The rebuild includes 301 redirects to preserve search rankings, so the SEO equity earned over years on the old site is carried through to the new build, not lost. Losing rank in a replatform is the most expensive mistake a business can make — we engineer the migration so it doesn’t happen.

Nobody can — and Google says so itself. Google’s own documentation states that "Google doesn’t guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page" and that "Google doesn’t accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher." Any agency that promises specific rankings or specific timelines is making a claim Google itself does not back. What we can guarantee is the strongest possible technical foundation — Core Web Vitals, schema, mobile-first, fast — so when content and authority compound, the site is ready. We anchor every Google-related claim to Google’s own documentation. That is what being a Google Certified Partner means.

Yes — every site is mobile-first by default. Over 70% of South African visitors and 60% of UK shoppers arrive on mobile. We design for the small screen first, then scale up.

Yes. You own the site, the hosting, the Google Analytics account, the Search Console account and every credential we touch. No middleman, no filtered dashboards. The clients in our 110+ five-star reviews all keep their own data — it is non-negotiable for us.

We start with one question and only one: how do we get you found, connect with your real buyer, win the rank, and turn that into sales and leads. Every design decision, every page, every form, every call-to-action gets measured against that single yardstick. Nothing on the page exists unless it serves it.

Both. We pick the platform that fits the brand — but for most builds, Nova-Store delivers everything Shopify does, with less complication, a cleaner admin, and a more user-friendly experience for your team. Shopify is the right call when you specifically need a Shopify-marketplace app, or you’re joining an existing Shopify-native ecosystem. Either way, you get the same engineering discipline, the same SEO foundation and the same end result — a store that sells. See Nova at /it-design-2026/ai.

All of them. We install whichever gateway your market expects to see at checkout — Stripe, PayPal globally; Payfast, Peach, PayGate for South Africa; Bancontact, Mollie, iDEAL across Europe; Worldpay, GoCardless in the UK; any local gateway your buyer trusts. We’ve built stores serving SA, UK, EU and US buyers simultaneously (see the RAM Mount NL · FR · ZA case study). The store flexes to wherever you sell — no restriction by country.

Yes. Product images are the single biggest conversion lever in eCommerce. We coordinate the product shoot with HLB Photography — our seven-year vetted partner — and integrate the shoot directly into the store build, with consistent lighting, edited-for-retail outputs and the right dimensions for every product card, hero and ad placement.

Yes. We migrate from WooCommerce, Wix, BigCommerce, custom builds and older Shopify themes. The migration includes 301 redirects to preserve search rankings — because losing your rank in a replatform is the most expensive mistake an eCommerce business can make.

That is the engineering we do, and there is one honest caveat: no agency — including ours — can promise a specific Google ranking. Google states plainly that "Google doesn’t guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page." What we control is the technical foundation: every product page is built with proper schema, optimised titles, FAQ blocks and content that AI search engines can quote. We don’t ship a store and walk away — we ship a store engineered to compete for the buyer searching today, in Google and in ChatGPT. If you need immediate traffic from launch, we pair the store with Google Shopping ads (CPC) so paid visibility is live while the organic ranking compounds underneath.

A website is a multi-page information hub for anyone browsing your business — SEO-optimised, navigation-rich, designed to inform across many intents. A landing page is a single-purpose conversion tool, paired with a specific ad campaign and engineered for one outcome — the lead, the booking, the sale. Both do real work. They are not interchangeable. Most serious advertisers run both: the website for organic discovery, the landing page for every paid campaign.

Every page is bespoke — quoted against the campaign, the audience, the offer and how many variants you need. We come back with a clear scope and a transparent price after the brief call. There are no fixed-price packages we have to bend your campaign to fit into.

Less than a full website, and we know paid campaigns can’t wait for a six-month roadmap. The first meeting is for listening — what the campaign is, who the audience is, what the offer is. From there, we shape a brief we can honestly cost and timeline. Once the brief is locked, the schedule is locked in writing, and you always know where the page stands.

Yes — and most clients ask us to. Landing-page copy is where the conversion is made or lost: message-match against the ad, headline that speaks the visitor’s pain, social proof in the right place, a CTA that names the outcome. Our copywriting is built around the four jobs every page on your site is doing: visibility, connection, ranking and the conversion. If you have copy already, we will review it against the ad and the offer before we build.

Yes. GA4 and Google Ads conversion tracking is wired before launch and tested with live test events. You see every conversion the day it happens, and the conversion data flows back into the ad account so the campaign keeps getting smarter with every lead.

Yes — we build with split-testing infrastructure so you can run A/B variants on the headline, the hero, the CTA, the form length and the social-proof block. Nova AI helps interpret which variant is winning and why, so the page keeps improving long after the initial build.

Message-match between the ad and the page. Speed — under three seconds. One clear CTA, not five. Social proof you have actually earned. A form that does not fight the visitor. Mobile-first design, because the majority of paid traffic is mobile. The 10-element checklist on this page is the framework — the discipline is removing everything that is not the conversion.

Google’s own position is that no one can promise a specific timeline. Their documentation states plainly that "crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks" and that "Google doesn’t guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page." Once indexed, ranking depends on content quality, technical foundation, trust signals (E-E-A-T) and competition in your niche — all of which compound over time. In practice we typically see indexing and early Search Console signals settle in the first weeks. Long-tail impressions build over the months that follow. Primary commercial keywords stabilise over longer periods as authority earns its place. Every market is different. If you need traffic from day one, before SEO has had time to compound, that is exactly what Google Ads (CPC) is built for. We run both side by side for most clients — paid for immediate visibility from launch, organic to compound underneath.

Generative Engine Optimisation makes your business visible in AI-powered search — Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. As more people search through AI assistants, GEO is what gets your business recommended in those answers.

No, and neither can Google itself. Google’s own documentation states that "Google doesn’t accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher" — rankings are determined by an algorithm influenced by a million factors no agency controls outright. Anyone promising page-one rankings in 30 days, or guaranteeing a specific position by a specific date, is misleading you. What we promise is to do our best, always — technical engineering, content strategy, schema, internal linking and the authority signals Google does measure, defended by eighteen years of studio practice. Several of our clients currently dominate organic search and sponsored listings in their niches — we are proud of that work and happy to walk you through specific examples on a call. But "they dominate" is never the same sentence as "we guarantee yours will." We anchor every Google-related claim to Google’s own framework, and we set honest expectations from day one.

Because it is not possible the way they imply — and Google says so itself. Google’s own documentation states that "Google doesn’t accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher" and that crawling alone "can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks." Ranking after indexing depends on content quality, competition and trust signals that take longer still. An agency promising same-day or 24-hour Google rankings is either redefining the words narrowly (a single low-competition long-tail phrase, a Maps-pack-only result, or paid Google Ads positions dressed up as organic) or making a claim they cannot honestly deliver. If immediate visibility is genuinely critical to the business, the honest answer is a Google Ads (CPC) campaign — paid placement is available the day the campaign goes live. We are happy to set it up alongside the SEO work so short-term traffic and long-term organic equity build together.

Yes. Direct access to Search Console and GA4 — your data, no middleman. We show you exactly what we’re seeing, every week. The 110+ five-star reviews on our Google profile all come from clients who get the same access.

Yes — this is the GEO half of the service. Buyers are increasingly asking AI engines for recommendations, and AI engines quote the sites built with the right schema, atomic answers and entity clarity. We engineer your pages to be the answer that gets quoted.

It means our team writes Google’s annual certification exams and meets spend + performance benchmarks every year. It’s a quality control loop most agencies skip — and it’s the reason Riaan, the lead and the team have been recertified ten times and counting.

Google Ads starts delivering click data and learning signals from the day the campaign goes live — that is exactly what paid traffic is built for, and exactly why we recommend it for businesses that need immediate visibility. Real conversion optimisation then compounds as the account accumulates data and the bidding algorithms settle into a stable pattern, which is faster on some accounts than others. We commit to a clear plan with you upfront, agree the milestones that matter, and report against them transparently. As a Google Certified Partner, we anchor what we promise to Google’s own framework — no timeline guesses pulled out of thin air.

No. We’re certified across Search, Shopping, Display, Video (YouTube) and Performance Max — and we recommend the mix based on what your business actually needs, not what we want to sell you.

Yes. We build or work inside your own Google Ads account. You keep ownership, access and historical data — always. If we ever part ways, your data stays with you. The 110+ five-star reviews on our Google profile come from clients who get and keep their own access.

Nobody honest can. What we guarantee is the work itself — a Google Certified Partner running your account weekly, real conversion tracking connected to your sales data, qualified intent at the centre of every campaign, and a transparent reporting cycle. We don’t tell you what you want to hear. We tell you what the data actually says.

Yes. We currently run active Google Ads accounts in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, France, Australia and New Zealand alongside our South African client base. UK clients include JSC Chambers (barristers), Dr Nerys Owen (medical) and UKD Apparel & Accessories (Shopify retail). Timezone is never the issue — we work to your calendar, not ours.

Hendrik-Louis Boshoff — known to everyone as Doei — and his studio, HLB Photography. HLB is our seven-year photography and video partner and our only vetted third-party vendor of any kind. The reason for that is simple: Doei holds the same professional standard and the same work ethic we do, on every shoot, every brief, every deadline. We treat him as part of the team, and clients consistently can’t tell where IT Design ends and HLB begins. The brief, the shot list, the on-site coordination, the post-production review and the integration into your site are all IT Design. The camera, the lighting and the eye are Doei. The result is one project, one standard, one bill of work.

Yes. HLB shoots on-location across South Africa — Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, anywhere in the country where the brand lives — and internationally where the brief calls for it (Doei has shot multi-day industrial work as far afield as Ghana and Tema). Factory floors, restaurants, project sites, offices, dealerships, outdoor venues — wherever the work happens.

Yes — and it usually should be. A coordinated website build plus brand shoot delivers a stronger end product than either done in isolation. We plan the shot list around the page structure, so every hero, every product card and every social asset is captured to spec the first time.

Every shoot is unique. Once the brief is locked, we agree the shoot date and the post-production timeline with you in writing, and we stick to it. You always know what is coming and when.

That is the point. The deliverables come web-optimised with proper file naming, alt-text inputs and the right dimensions for hero, product, social and ad placements. Real imagery captured on-location consistently outperforms stock — both in conversion rate and in how AI search engines read the entity behind your brand.