Red Box web design review


In this review, we share Spotted Lizard Prints' personal experience working with Red Box Web Design Stafford and how the issues encountered also impacted our sister company, DHG Services. We discuss the challenges we faced, the level of service we received, and why we believe our concerns were not handled appropriately. This review reflects our own experiences and opinions, highlighting what we believe could have been managed far more professionally. Our aim is to provide an honest account of our journey, helping others make informed decisions when choosing a web design and digital marketing partner.

Our Experience with Red Box Web Design Stafford As Spotted Lizard Prints continued to grow, we made the decision to invest in professional digital marketing to increase our online visibility and drive more sales. We chose Red Box Web Design, a Stafford-based web design and digital marketing agency, to manage both our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Google Ads campaigns, trusting their expertise to help grow our business. Like many businesses, we understood that SEO is a long-term investment, and we were prepared to give the strategy time to deliver results. Alongside this, we were also paying Red Box to manage our Google Ads campaigns, expecting both services to work together to improve our rankings, website traffic and ultimately increase sales. Unfortunately, our experience did not meet these expectations. Over the course of our contract, we raised several concerns directly with Rob, the owner of Red Box. These concerns related to the performance of both the SEO work being carried out and the overall results we were seeing. Despite multiple conversations and attempts to resolve the issues, we felt that our complaints were never fully addressed or satisfactorily resolved. As recognition that our concerns had merit, Red Box ultimately provided Spotted Lizard Prints with two months of complimentary SEO services as compensation. Whilst this gesture was appreciated, it did not resolve the underlying issues we had experienced, nor did it provide the improvements we had originally invested in. The graph below demonstrates the SEO performance during the period that Red Box managed our optimisation. Based on our interpretation of the data, we believe there was little evidence of sustained organic growth that could be directly attributed to the SEO campaign. Despite ongoing monthly payments for both SEO management and Google Ads, we did not see the level of measurable improvement we expected from a professional digital marketing agency. Our experience also had an impact on our sister company, DHG Services, which relied on similar digital marketing support. We believe the same issues affected its online performance, further reinforcing our concerns regarding the services provided. This review reflects our own personal experience with Red Box Web Design Stafford and is intended to provide an honest account of the service we received. Every business relationship is unique, and others may have different experiences. We encourage anyone considering SEO or Google Ads services to carefully monitor performance data, request regular reporting, and ensure that measurable results are being delivered for the investment being made. The following graph provides the data that formed the basis of our own conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the SEO campaign.

No growth

The SEO performance graph shown below is available for any independent SEO professional or digital marketing agency to review and interpret. It provides a clear record of our website's organic traffic during the period when Red Box Web Design Stafford managed both the SEO and Google Ads campaigns for Spotted Lizard Prints. Based on our interpretation of the data, we did not see any significant or sustained increase in organic traffic while these services were being provided.

After we raised our concerns directly with Rob, the owner of Red Box, he offered two months of complimentary SEO as a gesture of goodwill and an opportunity to resolve the issues and retain our business. We accepted this in the hope that improvements would follow. However, in our opinion, the additional two-month period produced no meaningful change in organic performance, and our concerns remained unresolved.

We encourage any qualified SEO specialist to examine the graph independently and draw their own conclusions from the data presented. This review reflects our personal experience and opinion based on the performance metrics available to us during the time Red Box managed our digital marketing.

Our Experience with Red Box Web Design on the DHG Services Website Alongside the work Red Box Web Design carried out for Spotted Lizard Prints, we also commissioned the company to design a new website for our sister business, DHG Services. The cost of the website design alone was £4,000, excluding any ongoing SEO or marketing services. At the time, we were led to believe the website would be SEO ready, a term that also appears within Red Box's own marketing and website when describing their web design services. As business owners, we expected that an SEO-ready website would provide a strong technical foundation capable of achieving organic visibility once launched. However, the performance of the website did not reflect those expectations. It was only after questioning Red Box about the work completed and the lack of online performance that Rob, the owner of the company, explained that the £4,000 fee was for what he described as a basic entry-level website. This came as a surprise, particularly given both the cost involved and the earlier expectations surrounding the project. In our opinion, a £4,000 investment for what was later described as a basic website is difficult to justify. We believe that many independent web designers and digital agencies would be surprised to hear that this level of investment resulted in what was characterised as an entry-level website with very limited organic performance. The traffic graph shown below illustrates the website's organic search performance following its launch. Based on our interpretation of the data, despite being presented as SEO ready, the website generated virtually no organic traffic. We believe this raises important questions about the effectiveness of the website's search engine optimisation foundations and whether the final product met the expectations created at the outset of the project. As with our experience at Spotted Lizard Prints, we encourage any independent web design or SEO professional to review the available data and form their own conclusions. This review reflects our own experience and opinions based on the services we purchased, the communications we received, and the website performance we observed over time.

DHG Services web traffic

The graph below illustrates what we believe is one of the most concerning aspects of our experience with Red Box Web Design. The DHG Services website was sold to us as an "SEO-ready" website, leading us to expect that it had been built on strong technical SEO foundations capable of achieving organic visibility in search engines. However, as the data shows, the website attracted virtually no organic traffic after launch.

What makes this even more disappointing is that Red Box didn't just design the website—they were also retained to manage the ongoing SEO campaign and Google Ads. Despite paying separately for these services, we saw little to no improvement in website traffic or search performance over time.

After we raised our concerns directly with Rob, the owner of Red Box, he acknowledged our dissatisfaction by offering two months of complimentary SEO. We understood this as an opportunity for the company to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work, resolve the issues we had experienced, and rebuild our confidence in their services. Unfortunately, in our opinion, the additional SEO period failed to produce any meaningful improvement in organic traffic or overall website performance.

The graph below reflects the data available to us during this period. Based on our interpretation, it demonstrates that neither the original SEO-ready website nor the subsequent SEO and Google Ads management delivered the level of performance we had reasonably expected from our investment.

Throughout the development of the DHG Services website, we found ourselves repeatedly raising issues with Red Box Web Design regarding the quality of the work being delivered. In our opinion, many of these issues should have been identified during the company's own quality assurance process before the website was made live. One of the most obvious examples was that the website was published with placeholder Latin text (Lorem Ipsum) still visible on live pages. This suggested to us that the site had not been thoroughly checked prior to launch. Within just a month of going live, we requested a complete redesign of the website's appearance because we were unhappy with its overall presentation and believed it did not reflect the professional image of our business. Over the following months, I regularly received unsolicited calls from SEO companies who had reviewed the website. Many told me they believed the site would struggle to perform well in search engines because of its technical and structural foundations. Initially, I dismissed these calls, assuming they were simply sales tactics designed to win new business. However, my perspective changed after speaking with CTO Digital. Their assessment echoed many of the concerns that had previously been raised, helping us understand why the website had failed to gain meaningful organic visibility. This conversation prompted us to investigate further and reassess the quality of the website and the services we had received from Red Box.

CTO Digital tranforming our business

After months of disappointment, we eventually decided to listen to CTO Digital. Like many business owners, we had initially ignored the numerous calls from SEO companies because we assumed they were simply trying to win our business. However, after speaking with the team at CTO Digital, we felt they genuinely understood the issues affecting both the Spotted Lizard Prints and DHG Services websites. Rather than making unrealistic promises, they asked for the opportunity to prove what they could do.

Looking back at the previous traffic graphs, any noticeable increase in website traffic from that point onwards is the direct result of the work carried out by CTO Digital. For an SEO investment of just £100 per per website as a one off fee, they generated more organic traffic within a single month than we experienced during the entire period our SEO was managed by Red Box.

The improvements didn't stop there. CTO Digital also completely redesigned the DHG Services website for around half the cost of what we originally paid Red Box for the design alone. More importantly, the new website was built with modern SEO best practices in mind, significantly improving its technical compliance, structure, speed and overall optimisation for search engines.

Throughout the project, CTO Digital were approachable, transparent and genuinely invested in helping our businesses succeed. They took the time to explain what they were doing, welcomed feedback and worked collaboratively with us rather than simply delivering a finished product and moving on.

Based entirely on our own personal experience, we have found CTO Digital to provide outstanding customer service, excellent communication and measurable improvements in website performance. We would have no hesitation in recommending CTO Digital to other businesses looking for honest advice, effective SEO and a web design company that is committed to delivering real results.