Riverforge
0118 242 2555Book a call

Oxfordshire

Web design agency in Oxford

Riverforge is a web design and digital marketing agency serving Oxford: website design and development, SEO, Google Ads and paid social, led by Peter Claridge from Reading. We are about 45 minutes away and happy to meet in person.

  • 45 minutes from our Reading base
  • A fixed price from a written specification
  • Websites from £5k, typically 5 to 16 weeks
Book a callSee the services
The Radcliffe Camera and surrounding colleges seen from above
Oxford. Photo: Julian Herzog (Website), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Web design and marketing for Oxford businesses

Science and technology spin-outs

Research-led firms who need to explain complex products clearly to investors, partners and customers.

Education, training and cultural organisations

Schools, course providers, museums and societies with several audiences and a lot of content to organise.

Professional services and publishers

Firms and publishers selling to specialist audiences who expect depth, accuracy and good structure.

Riverforge is a web design and digital marketing agency for Oxford organisations. Whether you are a new business setting up your first website or an established firm replacing an old one, a website is the start. These services help it get found, bring in enquiries and keep working, and you can use one or all of them together.

Website design and development in Oxford

Oxford buyers are well informed and often academic, so the site needs depth as well as polish: clear structure, careful copy and good evidence.

Strategy, design and build for organisations that need to be taken seriously. A written specification, a fixed price and one senior lead from the first call to launch day.

  • A fixed price agreed from a written specification before we start.
  • A site your team can edit on WordPress or Webflow, with training at launch.
  • Search built in structure, schema and every old address redirected, so you keep your rankings.
  • Typically 5 to 16 weeks from £5k to £30k, depending on size.
More about website design
The SavvyIQ homepage, a website we designed and built

SEO agency in Oxford

In a city with many agencies, we win on specific, expert pages that specialist buyers and AI assistants recognise as authoritative.

SEO for organisations whose buyers search before they call. We fix what stops you ranking, build the pages people search for, and give AI assistants what they need to recommend you.

  • Technical fixes Speed, indexing, broken links and the problems Search Console keeps flagging.
  • Research What your buyers type into Google, and what they ask ChatGPT and Gemini.
  • Pages that rank New service and location pages, and rewrites of the ones that should already be ranking.
  • AI visibility Clear information about who you are and what you do, in a structure AI assistants can quote.
More about seo and ai visibility
Google’s AI Overview naming B3 Designers first for restaurant designers, and ChatGPT ranking StreamAlive first for Zoom engagement tools.

Paid social and Meta Ads agency in Oxford

Campaigns for awareness, enquiries and sales, with audiences built from your customers, creative made for each placement, and tracking you can trust.

  • Strategy Which goal each campaign serves, and how much budget it needs.
  • Audiences Lookalikes of your best customers, interests and retargeting lists.
  • Creative Static and simple motion ads sized for every placement.
  • Tracking The Meta pixel and Conversions API, so results still count when browsers block cookies.
Meta Ads LinkedIn Ads Social ads
Example Instagram feed and Stories ads for a café brand, with orders by placement in Meta Ads Manager.

Content marketing agency in Oxford

Articles, guides, case studies and newsletters that answer your buyers’ questions, rank in search, and keep you in mind until they’re ready to talk.

  • Planning Topics chosen from what your buyers search for and ask.
  • Articles and guides Useful, specific writing that answers real questions.
  • Case studies Your best work written up so buyers can picture working with you.
  • Newsletters Regular emails people open, because they’re worth reading.
More about content marketing
Example cost guide on a client’s website, the newsletter that promotes it, and the guide ranking on Google.

Email marketing and CRM set-up in Oxford

We connect your website forms to a CRM, build the follow-up that happens automatically, and set up newsletters people actually open.

  • CRM set-up Contacts, companies and a pipeline that matches how you sell.
  • Form connections Every website form landing in the right place with the right details.
  • Automation Welcome emails, reminders and follow-up that run on their own.
  • Newsletters Templates in your brand, and sending that stays out of spam.
More about email and crm
Example Brevo deal pipeline, a website quote form, and the automated follow-up that runs when the form is sent.

WordPress maintenance and hosting in Oxford

Hosting, updates, backups, security and monitoring, plus small changes when you need them. The quiet upkeep, handled, so you can stop worrying about the website.

  • Hosting Fast, secure hosting for WordPress, set up and managed for you.
  • Updates WordPress, theme and plugin updates, tested so nothing breaks.
  • Backups Regular backups kept off the server, and restores when needed.
  • Security Firewall, malware scanning and sensible logins.
More about wordpress maintenance
Example WordPress dashboard with updates, backups and security all checked, and 30 days of uptime monitoring.

Google Workspace and Zoho Mail set-up in Oxford

Professional email on your domain, shared drives and calendars, and the security settings most organisations never get round to.

  • Set-up Workspace configured for how your organisation works.
  • Migration Email, calendars and contacts moved from Microsoft 365 or another provider.
  • Email delivery SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up, so your emails stop landing in spam.
  • Shared drives Files organised by team, with the right people able to see them.
Google Workspace Zoho Mail
Example Gmail inbox on yourcompany.co.uk, with MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records all passing.

Web design portfolio for Oxford businesses

Software launches, a consultancy and restaurant groups. Each one looks like the organisation it is for, and none uses a template.

The SavvyIQ website
SavvyIQHospitality consultancy
The StreamAlive website
StreamAliveSoftware for live sessions
The SendDeck website
SendDeckSoftware for proposals and decks
The Cedro website
CedroRestaurant group concept
The Chowk website
ChowkRestaurant group concept
The Harvest & Hive website
Harvest & HiveCafé brand concept
See more of our work

SEO and AI search results for our clients

Screenshots from Google and ChatGPT for searches our clients care about. Click any of them to see it full size.

Google search for restaurant designers, with the AI Overview naming B3 Designers first
Google’s AI Overview names B3 Designers first for “restaurant designers”.Google, October 2026
ChatGPT recommending B3 Designers first for a new London restaurant
ChatGPT recommends B3 Designers first to someone opening a London restaurant.ChatGPT, October 2026
ChatGPT naming StreamAlive its first choice for audience engagement in Zoom
ChatGPT puts StreamAlive at number one for Zoom engagement tools.ChatGPT, October 2026
Google AI Overview for word cloud in Zoom, citing StreamAlive
Google’s AI Overview cites StreamAlive for word clouds in Zoom.Google, June 2026
B3 Designers ranking first for restaurant interior design london
First on Google for “restaurant interior design london”, with the AI Overview and map.Google, October 2026
B3 Designers Glasgow page ranking first for dining room designers glasgow
B3’s Glasgow page, first for “dining room designers glasgow”.Google, September 2026
A restaurant bar with shelves of bottles, flowers and an arched doorway, designed by B3 Designers

Google Ads agency case study: four times the enquiries

How we rebuilt B3 Designers’ Google Ads around the searches that become restaurant and hotel projects.

Read the case study

4×the enquiries

70%lower cost per enquiry

4 daysa week of advertising, down from 7

January to September 2026, compared with the same months of 2025. Photography by B3 Designers.

Web design and marketing agency reviews

“StreamAlive has seen a real improvement in visibility across both Google and AI search since working with Riverforge. They’re like an extension of our team and really got to know our business. We didn’t have huge budgets like other tech companies but they worked within that constraint to bring in quality traffic, with #1 Google results and AI tools recommending us over our competitors - visitors arriving through ChatGPT and Gemini convert at around 20%. For us, the value has been in turning visibility into actual product signups.”

Lux NarayanFounder, StreamAlive. Google review.

“You came in, quickly understood the problem, cut through the noise and focused on the things that would make the biggest difference. The results speak for themselves, but what I’ve really valued is how clearly he explains what needs doing and why.”

Mark BithreyFounder and Director, B3 Designers

Web design prices in Oxford

Every project is quoted at a fixed price from a written specification. Most websites fall into one of these ranges.

£5k to £8k

A focused site

For firms with a clear offer that need to look established and be easy to find.

  • Up to about 15 pages
  • 4 to 6 page designs
  • Enquiry forms and Google search basics
  • A content system your team can edit

About 5 to 7 weeks

£8k to £12k

An established firm

For organisations with several services, sectors or locations to explain.

  • About 15 to 50 pages, plus news and case studies
  • 6 to 10 page designs
  • One or two custom features, such as quote forms or location pages
  • Content moved across and old addresses redirected

About 7 to 10 weeks

£12k to £30k

A corporate site

For larger organisations with several divisions, libraries of projects or products, and more people signing off.

  • 50 pages to a few hundred
  • 10 to 15 page designs
  • Up to two custom tools, such as a finder, calculator or filtered library
  • Migration from another platform, with ranking pages protected

About 10 to 16 weeks

Sites with online ordering, live data feeds or hundreds of location pages are scoped separately. Care plans, search and ads are billed monthly. See prices for every service.

Web design, SEO and Google Ads searches in Oxford

You do not need to be in the map pack to win these searches. A clear page that says what you do and who for can rank in the ordinary results, and it is the same page AI assistants read when someone asks them to recommend a firm. Typical searches:

  • web design agency Oxford
  • web designer Oxford
  • SEO agency Oxford
  • digital marketing agency Oxford

Meet a web design agency near Oxford

Oxford is about 45 minutes from Reading by car, and trains between the two take around half an hour. We can meet at your premises or near the station. Most of the work happens over email and video, so you will not be asked to travel, and there is no account manager between you and the person leading the project.

Book a call

Web design and marketing agency FAQs for Oxford

Something else? Ask us.

Oxford has lots of agencies. How do you compete?
By being senior, specific and honest. You work directly with the person leading the project, and we are clear about what will and will not move the needle for your organisation.
Can you explain a technical product on a website without dumbing it down?
Yes. We aim for clear, accurate pages that a specialist respects and a non-specialist can follow, with the detail available for those who want it.
How much does web design cost in Oxford?
Every website is quoted at a fixed price from a written specification. Most fall between £5k and £30k, depending on size and complexity, and the price does not change with where you are. Marketing services such as SEO and Google Ads are a monthly fee, quoted on scope.

New company registrations in Oxford

If you're one of the 1,405 new businesses that registered in Oxford in the last 12 months, or an established business wondering how many new competitors and customers are arriving, here is what the numbers look like. They tell us who is looking for a website, search visibility and advertising in the area.

1,405companies registered in Oxford in the last 12 months

123a month on average over the last two years

158in Sep 2025, the busiest month of the last two years

Companies registered per month in Oxford

Companies incorporated each month with a registered office in Oxford, October 2024 to September 2026.
Show the monthly figures
Oct 2024151
Nov 2024123
Dec 202499
Jan 2025113
Feb 2025133
Mar 2025135
Apr 2025138
May 2025106
Jun 2025132
Jul 2025131
Aug 2025124
Sep 2025158
Oct 2025133
Nov 2025113
Dec 202585
Jan 2026126
Feb 202697
Mar 2026147
Apr 2026110
May 2026112
Jun 2026105
Jul 2026124
Aug 2026120
Sep 2026133

Most common sectors for new companies in Oxford

  • Professional services12.4%
  • Retail11.1%
  • Hospitality9.1%
  • Property8.9%
  • Software and IT8.8%

Share of all companies registered in Oxford between January 2024 and September 2026, by main SIC code.

Software and IT companies registering in Oxford

76January to September 2024

97January to September 2025

123January to September 2026

123 software and IT companies registered in Oxford in the first nine months of 2026, against 97 in 2025 and 76 in 2024. They now make up 11.5% of new companies in Oxford, up from 7.1% in 2024. New software and IT companies need a credible website and search presence quickly. It is work we do for software firms such as StreamAlive and SendDeck.

Source: Companies House company records, grouped by the town in each company's registered office address. Registered offices can be accountants' or formation agents' addresses, so these are companies registered in Oxford, not all trading there.

Web design agency in nearby towns

Talk to a web design agency near Oxford.

  1. A 30-minute call with Peter Claridge, who leads every project.
  2. A written specification and a fixed price.
  3. A start date that suits you.
Book a call hello@riverforge.io

Powered by