★ About Whelan Web Design

British Web Design,
Built for Real Results.

We're a Cambridgeshire-based team of designers, developers and strategists with a simple belief: a website should earn its keep. Here's who we are, how we got here, and why ambitious UK businesses keep choosing us.

Our Story.

Whelan was founded on a frustration we kept hearing: British businesses were paying agencies thousands for websites that looked smart but didn't bring in a single new lead. Pretty pictures, padded invoices, no accountability.

We started Whelan to do it properly — pairing senior designers with developers who actually understand performance, SEO and conversion. Every site we ship is measured against a simple test: is it winning the business work?

Seventeen years on, we've delivered over 200 projects from our base in Cambridgeshire — for high street retailers, exporters, professional services firms and ecommerce brands across the UK.

See Our Work →

Years' experience

Specialists on the team

Projects delivered

UK-based delivery

What We Stand For.

The principles that shape every project, every conversation, and every line of code we write.

🎯

Results Over Vanity

A beautiful site that doesn't convert is just expensive art. We measure success in enquiries, sales and rankings — not awards.

🤝

Plain English, Always

No jargon, no smoke and mirrors. You'll always know exactly what we're building, what it costs, and what it'll do for your business.

🇬🇧

British Through & Through

UK-based team. UK-based hosting. UK-based support. When you need us, you're talking to someone in Cambridgeshire — not an outsourced ticket queue.

⚡

Built to Last

We don't ship sites that fall apart in six months. Clean code, regular updates, and care plans that keep your investment performing year after year.

🔍

SEO From Day One

Every site we build is engineered to rank. No bolt-ons later, no upsells. Search-engine fundamentals are baked into the foundations.

📞

Pick Up the Phone

We answer calls. We reply to emails. We turn up to meetings. Old-fashioned, perhaps — but it's why our clients stay with us for years.

How We Got Here.

From a one-man shop in Cambridge to a 20-strong team serving clients nationwide.

2009

Whelan Web Design founded

Started in a spare room in Cambridge with one client and a stubborn belief that small businesses deserved websites built like enterprise ones.

2013

First in-house team

Brought designers, developers and project managers under one roof. No more freelancers, no more outsourcing.

2017

Studio move to Cambridgeshire HQ

Outgrew the spare room. Opened a proper studio with space for the team, our clients, and far too many whiteboards.

2021

100th website delivered

Crossed our hundredth launch — and rebuilt our process around the lessons we'd learned along the way.

2026

Serving clients across the UK

200+ projects delivered, 20-strong team, and clients from Penzance to Inverness. Same principles, same Cambridgeshire HQ.

Meet the Team.

The designers, developers and strategists who'll actually be working on your project. No middlemen, no offshore handovers.

James Whelan

Founder & MD

Seventeen years building websites that earn their keep. Still answers his own phone.

Sarah Hartley

Creative Director

Leads design across every project. Award-winning brand identity work for UK SMEs.

Tom Richards

Head of Development

Lead engineer on our biggest builds. WordPress, Shopify and custom platforms.

Emma Carter

Head of SEO

Gets our clients onto page one and keeps them there. Ten years in technical SEO.

Daniel Morris

Senior Developer

The one your custom integrations will go to. APIs, automation and clever back-end work.

Priya Lakhani

Project Manager

Keeps every project on time and on brief. Your day-to-day point of contact.

Rachel Kumar

UX Designer

Turns user research into screens that actually convert.

Michael O'Brien

Digital Marketing Lead

Runs Google Ads, Meta and email campaigns that pull their weight.

Like What You've Read?
Let's Have a Chat.

Whether you've got a clear brief or just a hunch your current website is letting you down, we'd love to hear from you. No pressure, no hard sell — just a proper conversation.

Request a Free Audit →

British Web Design,Built for Real Results.