About Digit
More than 25 years around the web, technology and design has shaped how I approach digital work today: understand the business first.
Tools come and go. Understanding what a business actually needs is still the important part.
Where It Started
My route into websites started with visual communication.
I came from a Graphic Design background, before the internet became part of everyday business. When the web arrived, it opened up an entirely new place for design to work.
Websites weren't the starting point. Graphic Design was.
Before websites became a normal part of running a business, my background was in Graphic Design — thinking about communication, layout, typography and how information is presented to people.
Then the internet came along.
Suddenly design wasn't confined to something static. A website could be explored, interacted with, searched, changed and connected to everything around it. That combination of design and technology was what caught my attention.
I began working with the web in its earlier years and later studied Internet Technologies at university, adding the technical side of the web to an existing design foundation.
Visual communication, typography, composition and learning how design helps people understand information.
Design became interactive. Information could connect, respond and reach people in completely new ways.
Formal study added a deeper understanding of the technology and systems behind the web.
Two sides of the same work — understanding what needs communicating and how digital technology can deliver it.
The technology kept changing. Websites became more capable, search became critical and digital marketing became part of how businesses compete.
The work grew beyond building websites. So did Digit.What It Adds Up To
Different disciplines taught me to look at different parts of the problem.
Design, engineering and web technology may look like separate careers. In practice, each changed how I think about the work I do for businesses today.
Graphic Design taught me that good design isn't decoration. It's about hierarchy, communication and helping people understand what's in front of them.
Working as a LAN and WAN network engineer developed a different mindset: diagnose the problem, understand how the pieces connect and don't guess when something goes wrong.
A BSc in Internet Technologies added the formal technical foundation behind the web — giving me an understanding that goes further than how a website looks in a browser.
Today those backgrounds meet in one place: websites and digital growth that need design judgement, technical understanding and a clear reason for existing.
You don't need someone to make every project more technical. You need someone who understands enough to know what actually matters.
Different disciplines gave me different ways to solve problems. All paths led to Digit Web Design.What Digit Became
After 25+ years around the web, I've learned to look beyond the page itself.
Businesses rarely have isolated website, search or advertising problems. The pieces affect each other — and the strongest digital work connects them around what the business is actually trying to achieve.
Design is where it started: understanding hierarchy, presentation and how to make information clearer for the person looking at it.
Engineering and Internet Technologies added the systems thinking underneath the design — how things connect, behave and work together.
A good website has limited value if the right people never reach it. Search, advertising and now AI discovery became part of the same commercial problem.
That's the question that now connects everything: website, visibility, advertising and AI working together around meaningful business growth.
I started in design. I learned the technology. I spent decades working with the web. As the web changed, the work expanded with it.
Today, Digit brings those things together around digital growth.Working With Digit
The person you talk to is the person doing the thinking and the work.
Digit is intentionally independent. There aren't layers between your business and the person designing the website, looking at the search data or deciding what might make sense to do next.
You don't need to explain the same problem through several layers before it reaches the person actually working on it.
Website, SEO, advertising and AI visibility can be considered together instead of being handed to completely separate teams.
The relationship can change with the business — from a specific project to ongoing improvements and digital growth.
I like knowing the businesses I work with, understanding what we're trying to achieve and being close enough to the work to see when something needs changing.
Digit stays deliberately closeYou aren't hiring a chain of people between your business and the work.
The experience you've just read aboutBehind Digit
Digit Web Design is my business — and I'm still very much part of the work.
I've spent more than 25 years around design, technology and the web, but I still enjoy the part that started all of this: taking a problem, working out what could be better and turning that thinking into something useful.
Today that might mean designing a new website, improving how a business appears in Google, looking at advertising, understanding how AI search is changing discovery — or connecting several of those things together.
I don't think every business needs everything. I'd rather understand where you are, find the useful opportunity and concentrate our effort there.
I enjoy working directly with business owners, getting to know what they're trying to build and having enough continuity to see the work develop over time.
Staying independent lets me keep that relationship close, remain hands-on and bring in the right tools and expertise without turning every project into a large agency process.
What That Looks Like In Practice
SQ1i is a good example of why I don't think in isolated digital services.
The relationship has grown across the website, search visibility, advertising and newer forms of discovery — with each part supporting the same commercial objective: helping more of the right customers find the business.
As SQ1i's business and market have developed, the digital work has developed with them.
That means looking beyond individual tasks and asking what will make the biggest difference next — whether that's the website, organic search, local visibility, paid campaigns, content or how the business is being understood by AI search.
Whatever you've been doing on the website recently, keep doing it.Max Faulkner · Director, SQ1i
Improve the experience, strengthen key service pages and turn more attention into enquiries.
Build visibility around the services and locations that matter commercially.
Reach people already searching and connect campaigns with the right landing experience.
Structure the business and its expertise so emerging search systems can understand and recommend it.
A noticeable increase in enquiries as visibility and the website have improved together.
Customers are finding SQ1i through traditional search as well as newer AI-driven discovery.
Search data, enquiries and customer behaviour help decide where the next improvement should be made.
No single channel gets all the credit. That's precisely the point.
The opportunity is often in how the pieces work together.A Good Fit?
The best projects usually start with a business owner who wants more than something that simply looks good.
You don't need to know whether the answer is a website, SEO, Google Ads, AI visibility or a mixture of them. Working that out can be part of the conversation.
Looking good matters, but so do clarity, trust, visibility and what happens when the right person arrives.
You'd rather talk about what the business needs than decide in advance which digital service you're supposed to buy.
You like being able to talk directly with the person thinking about, building and improving the work.
You see launch as a starting point when it makes sense — something we can learn from rather than something we immediately forget about.
You don't need a finished brief, a list of features or a marketing plan before getting in touch.
Tell me about the business,A useful conversation doesn't have to begin with “I need a new website.”
It can simply begin withABOUT DIGIT
From how Digit works to what happens after launch, here are some of the questions that often come up before we start.
You'll work directly with me, Stuart, throughout the project. Digit is an independent business, so there isn't an account manager between you and the person thinking about, designing and working on your digital presence.
Website design is an important part of what I do, but Digit has developed into something broader. I work across website design, Local SEO, Google Ads and AI visibility, looking at how those areas can work together to support the growth of a business.
I've been working with the web for more than 25 years. My background began in graphic design before moving into IT and network engineering, followed by a BSc in Internet Technologies and decades of practical website and digital work.
No. In many cases that's something we can work out together. Tell me about your business, what's happening now and what you'd like to improve. From there, I can help identify whether the opportunity sits with the website, search visibility, advertising, AI discovery or a combination of them.
No. Digit is based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, but I work with businesses in other parts of the UK too. Being local can be useful when it matters, but most projects and ongoing digital work can be handled directly online.
Yes. In fact, ongoing work can be particularly valuable because we can learn from real search data, enquiries and customer behaviour. That might lead to website improvements, SEO work, advertising, new content or other opportunities as the business develops.
Yes. A new website isn't automatically the answer. If the existing site provides a good foundation, it may make more sense to improve what is already there and concentrate effort on the areas most likely to make a difference.
You don't need a formal brief. Tell me a little about the business, where you are now and what you'd like to improve. We can start with the problem rather than assuming the solution.
Ready When You Are
You don't need to know exactly what you need. That's something we can work out together.
Tell me where the business is now, what you'd like to improve and what's getting in the way. We can start there.
Start a Conversation →