Frequently asked
Eighteen real questions.
Every question we get asked on the audit call, answered in public. If yours isn't here, the answer is on the call.
Live within ten working days of brief lock, or the second half of the invoice waits until it is one 20-minute call and we do the rest price fixed in writing before anything starts
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How much does a Lucent website cost?
One monthly figure, and we give it to you on the audit call once we have seen the job rather than printing a number here that may not fit it. It covers the site designed and built, live in ten working days, your Google Business Profile run properly, local SEO across the towns you cover, and hosting, security, backups and content changes. The only choice is how you start: pay the launch fee and leave any month, or commit for 12 months and we waive it. The monthly is the same either way and nothing is ever discounted.
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How long does a build take?
Ten working days from kickoff, not from contract signature. Kickoff happens within seven days of signature, subject to quarterly capacity.
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Where is Lucent based?
Leeds, West Yorkshire. We work with clients across the UK, with most engagements run remotely on a daily Loom-video cadence. In-person kickoff sessions are available for Yorkshire-based clients on request.
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Who actually does the work?
David. Design, copy, build, SEO and paid search are all his, brief to launch, and so is the behavioural-psychology call on what the surface needs to do. There are no subcontractors, no account managers, no juniors translating between you and a senior: the person you brief is the person who builds it.
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What do clients get after launch?
Every Lucent client gets a private members' portal for life: your site's live performance (traffic, rankings, enquiries) in one place, updated daily, plus first access to services we don't sell publicly. It's included with every build, not an upsell.
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Do you offer payment plans?
The whole thing is a payment plan: one monthly figure, in advance, invoiced in pounds. The only lump sum anywhere is the launch fee, and that is optional: pay it and you can leave any month, or commit for 12 months and we waive it entirely.
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What platform do you build on?
WordPress with Bricks Builder for marketing sites, WooCommerce for e-commerce. We chose this stack because it is editable by non-developers, performs well at scale, and is not locked to a hosted SaaS that can change pricing or shut down. You own the site you paid for.
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Can I edit the site myself after launch?
Yes. Bricks Builder is the easiest visual editor in WordPress; we leave you a Loom walkthrough and a printed cheat-sheet at handover. Most clients edit text and images themselves and leave anything structural to the monthly.
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Will my site rank in Google?
On-page SEO and a Google Business Profile run properly are inside the monthly, which is enough to rank for local-intent searches in most service categories within 30–90 days. That work continues every month rather than stopping at launch, which is the part a one-off build never covers. National competitive head terms need a deeper content programme, quoted separately.
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Do you offer free quotes?
We offer a free 30-minute audit call, on which we look at your current site live and name the three things costing you leads. You get the figure on that call, and it is the same for everyone: no proposal, no discovery process, no three-day wait.
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What if I need something not in the price?
We quote it in pounds, in writing, before any contract is signed. There are no 'from £X+' phantom prices and no scope-creep invoices once a build starts. If your brief needs more than the ten-day shape, we will tell you that on the audit call and either scope a custom engagement or refer you to a studio that builds in that shape full-time.
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Do you work with clients outside the UK?
Rarely. We have shipped one project in Ireland and one in Portugal. The studio is calibrated for UK service businesses and the regulatory, language, and search-intent context that comes with that. We do not actively market overseas.
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Why ten working days?
Because the constraint is what makes the studio work. Builds longer than ten working days either need a larger team (defeats the no-handoffs principle) or they accumulate scope creep (defeats the fixed-price principle). Ten working days is the natural cadence for our model.
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Do you have a portfolio?
Yes. See the Work page. Four shipped projects with real metrics, real client quotes, and full decision logs. We publish lessons learned ("what we'd do differently") on every case, which is unusual for an agency but matches how we run engagements.
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Can I see who the other clients in the queue are?
We don't share active client identities until the work is shipped and the case study is co-approved. The Work page reflects everything that has been published with permission.
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Do you offer hosting?
We don't resell hosting. We set you up on Cloudways or SiteGround at cost, and we transfer ownership of the hosting account to you on launch. You pay the host directly. We make zero margin on hosting because we don't think agencies should.
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What is your refund policy?
We do not start a build until both sides have signed. Cancellation within seven days of signature, before kickoff, is refunded in full. Cancellation during the build is invoiced pro rata on the work shipped to date.
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Will my site be accessible?
Every build targets WCAG 2.2 AA. Contrast, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, alt text, reduced-motion fallbacks are non-negotiable. If your sector requires AAA (e.g. public-sector healthcare), we will tell you on the audit call whether your brief and timeline allow it.
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What's the catch with the price?
There isn't one. The price covers a defined deliverable list, shipped in a defined timeline, with the work continuing every month after it. The reason this is possible is the model: one principal, a ten-day cadence, one figure agreed up front, four engagements per quarter, no proposal-pad overhead. Most agencies spend 30–40% of their time on pitches that don't close; we don't, so the price reflects it.
Question not answered?
30 minutes on the audit call covers anything not here.