I'm Michael. For five years I've designed websites and apps for companies such as Sky Bet (including Super 6 and ITV7), Angstrom Sports, and Age Partnership - where every design decision had to earn its keep: more sign-ups, better performance, or it got cut. I built Kestrel to bring that same thinking to local businesses, at a price that makes sense for them.
Kestrel is run from the Aire Valley - Silsden, Skipton, Keighley, Ilkley, Bradford and the wider West Yorkshire area. Working locally means turning around quickly, meeting in person when it helps, and knowing the businesses the work is for.
Nothing to break, nothing to update. Static sites are fast and secure, and they don't need a developer on call every time something changes. No plugins going out of date behind the scenes, no security patches to chase - and if you don't need a content system, you don't have one.
Designed by hand means custom code written for your project - not a page builder, not a template with the colours swapped. The result is a site that loads instantly, ranks well, and looks like it was made for you, because it was.
Static sites also happen to be exactly what search engines and AI tools want to read. Your services, prices, location and contact details sit right there in the page, not buried inside a plugin or a widget a search engine has to fight through. That means Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity and the rest can read your site properly and understand what you do, where you do it, and why people can trust you. No jargon, no hype - just clean code that says the right things in a way machines and people can both follow.
Most single-page sites are live within a week of the brief being signed off. Multi-page sites typically take two weeks. The timeline depends on how quickly content and feedback come back - and which add-ons are included. The build itself is fast.
A completed brief (a short form covering what you do, who you're for, and what you want the site to achieve), any logo files you have, and a general idea of what pages you need. Michael handles the rest - copy, design, and build. If you don't have a logo, that's worth a conversation before the build starts.
WordPress is powerful, but it comes with ongoing maintenance - plugins to update, security patches, hosting that needs managing, and a CMS that can break. Most small businesses don't need any of that. A static site does everything a local business needs: looks great, loads fast, handles enquiries, and shows up in search. And if you need the things WordPress is known for - booking requests, newsletter sign-ups, content editing, social feeds - those are all available as add-ons. Nothing to break, nothing to update - and no nasty bill six months later.
It depends on the build you need. If you need to update content yourself regularly - like a blog, news section, gallery or something similar - we include a Sanity CMS add-on, which gives you a clean editing interface without touching any code. Standard static sites are updated by Michael on request - that's what the retainer options are for. Either way, it's what suits you and your business needs.
Every build includes custom design, a contact form with spam protection, mobile-responsive layout, privacy policy, privacy-friendly analytics, SEO foundations, and deployment to Netlify. It's also built so search engines and AI tools can read it properly - clean, well-structured code that tells Google and the like exactly what your business does and why people can trust it. Two rounds of revisions are included as standard. Domain connection guidance is included. Domain registration and hosting are not included as standard but I can walk you through the process - this is done intentionally so that you retain full control over your domain name and site. If you want Kestrel to take care of this for you, we can set it up for a fee. Netlify's free tier covers most small sites, and domain costs are typically under £15 a year.
A handoff document covers everything you need to know: how the site works, where things are, and how to get in touch for changes. After that, the site is yours. There are retainer options if you want ongoing support - updates, SEO checks, new sections - but there's no obligation. Plenty of clients just take the handoff and run with it.
Yes - the work is done remotely, so location isn't a barrier. If the brief is a good fit, get in touch.
50% deposit upfront to start the build, 50% on launch. Payment by bank transfer. Invoices sent at each stage - no surprises.
Designed by hand, not dropped from a template.
Most of the work that matters happens after launch. The sites that bring in business are the ones that kept improving - month after month, season after season.
When the build is done - that's the platform. The retainer is how you use it. Most businesses who invest in a good site and then don't maintain it see the same results six months later as they did before the launch. The sites that actually work are the ones that keep moving.
Best for: Established businesses with a stable site that just needs to stay tidy and accurate.
Best for: Growing businesses whose site needs to keep pace with the work.
Best for: Businesses treating the site as a lead channel and wanting visible momentum.