Our History

From our Founder Nick Abear

When I first launched Cool Breeze back in the Autumn of 1998, I was fascinated by search engines. At the time, many businesses were told they needed a website but didn’t really know where to go to get one built. The perception was that most web designers were students working from their bedrooms — and while that might not have been entirely true, there was some truth in it. Larger internet companies existed, but they charged thousands of pounds for even simple sites. With little competition, they could name their price.

Many small and medium-sized businesses turned to their trusted printers and graphic designers instead. These people knew how to produce brochures and leaflets, but the web was foreign territory. Eventually, demand forced them to adapt. To keep their clients from going elsewhere, they pulled in young developers — sometimes reluctantly — and crowned them “company web designer.”

The problem was, the old model didn’t translate. With print, the process was simple: the SME provided content, the designer created materials, and the printer delivered them. But once delivered, it was the SME’s job to get those materials into people’s hands. When the same mindset was applied to websites, businesses ended up with sites that looked fine but went unseen. If you don’t optimise for search, nobody finds you.

That’s where my fascination came in. With the rise of Google (which, coincidentally, launched the same year as Cool Breeze), I quickly realised a website’s true value only came when people could find it. I studied search engines obsessively, tested constantly, and learned how to push sites to the top of results. That knowledge changed everything.

The websites we built weren’t necessarily more beautiful than others, but they performed. Some of the companies we worked with grew from small outfits into major players, purely because people could discover them online. Many of those clients are still with us today — some relationships have lasted 25 years — which says more about the value of effective SEO than any sales pitch ever could.

Back then, the web was smaller. In 2000, there were only 17 million websites. Today, there are over 1.2 billion. Ranking at number one for a broad search term is now almost impossible unless you’re incredibly niche. And I’ve always been upfront about that. I don’t make promises I can’t keep. Some prospects didn’t like that and went elsewhere — but those who stayed have built lasting, sustainable success.

So what matters now? Google rewards sites that follow its rules. A responsive design (working seamlessly on mobiles, tablets, and desktops) is non-negotiable. If your site is more than five years old, chances are it isn’t, and that’s costing you. There are dozens of other factors that influence ranking — which I’ll share with clients — but responsiveness is the foundation.

And let’s address design. It matters, of course — first impressions always do. But a beautiful design won’t bring in customers if no one ever sees it. In fact, overly complex designs can even hurt rankings. A good site should be clean, professional, easy to navigate, and provide clear product and contact information. Beyond that, it’s not about bells and whistles — it’s about function and findability.

That’s been my philosophy from the start: experience, honesty, and results. If you value working with someone who won’t oversell, who’ll tell you the truth, and who genuinely loves what they do, get in touch. Even if we don’t end up working together, the conversation will be worthwhile. And who knows — if it does work out, we might still be working together (and laughing about this story) in 2050.