About Northstar
Independent advice for websites that need to earn their keep.
Northstar is a web consultancy for growing businesses. We help teams see clearly what their website is doing, decide what matters most, and improve it with confidence.
01Why we exist
Most website decisions are made without a map.
Redesigns get approved because the old site feels tired. Plugins get added because a competitor has one. Budgets go to traffic when the real problem is what happens after people arrive.
We started Northstar to offer something different: an independent view of what your website is actually doing, grounded in evidence, explained in plain language, and ranked so you know what to tackle first.
Because we do not sell builds, hosting or software, our only incentive is to recommend what will genuinely help. Sometimes that is a rebuild. Far more often, it is a handful of well-chosen fixes.
02Principles
Four principles behind every engagement.
01
Evidence over assumptions
We start from what visitors actually do—analytics, recordings, testing—before anyone's opinion, including ours.
02
Clarity over complexity
Findings are written so a busy founder and a senior developer can both act on them. No jargon walls.
03
Outcomes over deliverables
A long report is not the goal. A site that works better for your visitors and your business is.
04
Collaboration over handoffs
We work alongside your team and partners, and stay involved while the work is being delivered.
03Working relationship
What working together feels like.
- Who you work with
- A senior consultant from first call to final review—no hand-off to juniors.
- How we communicate
- Short written updates, a shared findings document and scheduled check-ins.
- Who we work alongside
- In-house marketers and developers, freelancers and agencies.
- What we need from you
- Access to the site and analytics, and an hour of your time each week.
04Scope
What we do, and what we deliberately do not.
We do
- Independent website reviews and audits
- Strategy, positioning and information architecture
- Prioritized roadmaps and developer-ready recommendations
- Design and implementation reviews
- Measurement planning and analytics guidance
We do not
- Sell platforms, plugins or hosting on commission
- Promise search rankings or guaranteed conversion lifts
- Lock you into long contracts
- Recommend a rebuild when targeted fixes will do
Next step
A clearer website starts with a better question.
Tell us what you want your website to achieve. We will help you work out what is getting in the way, and what to do about it first.