About, Run by Sean Inglis, Ampleforth
Founder-led.
Twelve years in.
Copper Lane is the small web design and local SEO agency I built around what twelve years in the industry taught me. I lead every project and stay your point of contact, with plain advice about what your site needs, and what it doesn’t.
Sean Inglis · Ampleforth
Founder-led.
Twelve years in.
Just getting started here.
Sean Inglis
Founder and lead designer
Twelve years building websites for small businesses, now leading Copper Lane full time from Ampleforth. Works with trades, service businesses, and local companies across Yorkshire and beyond.
Why this exists.
I am Sean, and Copper Lane is my agency. We are in Ampleforth, in the Howardian Hills, building websites and running local SEO for small businesses across Yorkshire. I lead every project myself and I stay your point of contact, so you are never handed to an account manager or left talking to someone who was not in the first conversation.
I have been building websites for around twelve years, alongside a long career in operational management. Over those years I have built sites for plumbers, electricians, funeral directors, mechanics, joiners, roofers, cleaners, hauliers, bars and restaurants, retail shops moving online, construction firms, and a few artists. Different trades, the same job each time: a clear, professional site that explains the business, works on a phone, and makes it easy for customers to get in touch.
A few years ago I developed a heart condition, which made me think hard about how I wanted to spend my working time. Web design has always been the part of my career I love most. I moved from Scotland to England to be closer to my children, who live down here, and Copper Lane is the studio I have built around that life. It gives me the time to be near my kids and the chance to do the work I should have been doing all along.
This is not a side project or a stepping stone back to something else. Copper Lane is young as a business, but the skill behind the work has been twelve years in the making, and I am not going anywhere.
'A small business website should look professional, explain the offer clearly, and make the next step obvious. Twelve years of doing this has only made me believe that more.'
WHAT WEBELIEVE.
01
A site should earn its keep.
It should help customers understand the business and take the next step, not just sit online looking finished.
02
Local search matters.
Trades and small businesses win work when customers nearby can find them, trust them, and contact them quickly.
03
Simple is usually better.
Most businesses need clear pages, a fast site, and good contact routes before they need complex features.
04
Honest beats clever.
Copy does not need to sound expensive to work. It needs to be accurate, direct, and useful.
THINGS WEWON’T BUDGE ON.
Boundaries keep affordable work clear.
- 01
Clear scope before work starts. Pages, revisions, timescales, and costs are all written down before a single thing is built.
- 02
Mobile first, because that is where most local customers will find you.
- 03
Basic SEO foundations from day one: page titles, metadata, local signals, speed, and sensible structure.
- 04
Plain English copy. No inflated agency language and no vague promises.
- 05
Honest advice when a simpler option is enough, even when it costs me work.
- 06
You always talk to me. No account handlers, no being passed around, and no work disappearing to someone you never speak to.
- 07
Care after launch if you want hosting, support, and small changes handled properly.
Why the agency stays small.
Copper Lane stays small on purpose. Twelve years of building websites alongside a corporate career taught me that small businesses do not need layers of account management. They need clear decisions, direct access and a founder who stays involved in the work.
That means clear, honest pricing: a one-off fee to design and build the site, then a simple monthly plan that keeps it fast, safe and found. If you need more than the plan covers, I'll quote it before the work starts. No vague extras, no surprise invoice, no pretending a small website includes everything a larger project would.
Twelve years of work. The founder looking after yours. That is the whole point.
NO BLACK BOX.
Every project has a plain client view: decisions, blockers, next actions, launch checks, and what is waiting on whom.
PLAINLY PRICED
Want me to look at your website?
Tell me what kind of site you need. I come back within a working day with a clear price, scope, and next step, straight from me, the person who’ll be doing the work.
A one-off £1,200 to design and build it. Then £199 or £299 a month to keep it working.