The person behind the pixels
I'm Ian, and I've spent 25 years making small businesses impossible to miss.
Founder of Northern Web Dev. I got into this because I couldn't stand watching good businesses get ripped off, and I've stayed in it because the people I work with stopped feeling like clients a long time ago. They feel like family.
My story, short version
I didn't come up through a marketing agency. I came up as the person actually building the thing, late at night, figuring out why a layout broke and how to make a page load faster. That's still who I am.
Being deliberately small is the point, not a limitation. The person you talk to is the person doing the work. No account managers, no handoffs to a junior team you never meet, no game of telephone with your project.
I take on fewer clients and go deeper with each one. When your site launches, it's fast, it's yours, and it's built to keep earning its keep for years, not to look busy for a month.
Ian
Founder & Lead Developer
- ✦ 25+ years in web design & SEO
- ✦ Building Northern Web Dev for 15+ years
- ✦ Works remotely, with businesses everywhere
- ✦ Still the one who answers your emails
More than a vendor
When you work with me, you're family.
I don't collect clients. I build relationships that outlast the launch. Here is what that actually means for you.
You get me, not a queue
Your project never gets passed to a junior you never meet. You get my direct line, and when something matters, I answer.
In it for the long haul
Most of the businesses I work with have been with me for years. I learn how yours really works and I stay in your corner as it grows.
Your win is personal
When your phone rings more because of something we built together, I feel it too. Your success is the whole reason I still do this.
Unlike most SEO companies
I learn how your business actually works, first.
Most SEO companies run every client through the same template and hope it sticks. I do the opposite. Before I set anything up, I take the time to understand how your business really runs: how you actually make money, who your best customers are, and what a genuinely good lead looks like to you.
That is the only way to do this properly. Skip it, and you rank for things that never turn into customers. Understand the business underneath the website, and every decision after it is aimed straight at the people who matter to you.
Years designing & ranking sites
Years as Northern Web Dev
Person doing your work, start to finish
Yours: code, content, and data
How I got here
Twenty-five years, one throughline.
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How it started
A hobby that wouldn't let go
Twenty-five years ago I built my first website just to see if I could. I taught myself the hard way, one broken layout at a time, and I was hooked. What started as tinkering after hours turned into the thing I thought about all day.
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The turning point
I got tired of watching people get burned
Over the years I watched too many good businesses hand real money to SEO outfits that sold them nothing but jargon and empty promises. It got under my skin. So I started quietly fixing it for a couple of businesses on the side, doing the work honestly and showing them exactly what they were paying for.
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Going pro
Northern Web Dev became a real company
Word got around, because honest work travels. More than fifteen years ago the side projects turned into a company with a name. Same principles, just full time: build it fast, rank it fairly, and never talk down to the person paying the bill.
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Today
Still building, still allergic to snake oil
Now I build fast, striking websites and get them found on Google and in AI search, for businesses everywhere. The tools have changed a hundred times. The promise hasn't: you get straight answers, real results, and a site you actually own.
Why I still do this
The web should work for the small business, not against it. Every fast page, every honest ranking, every site someone actually owns is a little proof that you don't have to be the biggest to win. That's the whole job, and I still love it.
Serving businesses everywhere, remotely
What I stand on.
Plain language, always
No jargon tax. I explain what I'm doing and why, in words that respect your time and your intelligence.
Speed is a feature
Every build is fast by default. I treat a slow site as a bug, not a trade-off you have to live with.
You own everything
Your site, your code, your data. I build leverage for you, not lock-in for me.
Honest about SEO
No promises of overnight number one rankings. Just consistent, measurable work that compounds over time.
If your site should be doing more, let's fix that.
Tell me about your business and where you want it to be. You'll get honest first thoughts within one business day, from me, not a sales team.
Ian
Founder, Northern Web Dev