Write the standard before you test
A standard that can be accepted names the pages, the metrics, the checklist and the address rules. For speed, name each page, the metric, the device and network profile, the number of runs and the threshold. For accessibility, name one flow, its screens and the WCAG 2.2 criteria, noting that W3C applies conformance to a whole process when a page is one step of it. For addresses, name the list of old addresses and the rule that each makes one permanent redirect. Put the standard in writing and have the client sign it off.
- Ten pages and one flow is a section; a whole site is a programme.
- Real-visitor figures update over 28 days and cannot be a handover condition.
Choose the size of purchase
Each part can be bought alone: a metric on a page (from £495), a flow against a checklist (from £595) or up to 300 addresses (from £395). A layout defect list on one page is £195. If you want the three agreed and finished together, with one results table, that is the section project (from £2,950, quoted after we run the pages and agree the standard; up to ten pages, three speed fixes and one flow). Afterwards a monthly service (£295 a month) re-measures up to five pages. Prices are untested and paid only after sign-off. None is a legal compliance statement, a certificate or a ranking promise.
- Third-party widgets that you will not change are named in the table, not hidden.
- We are a new service with no client delivery record to show.
What to give us, and what to keep
Give the section and ten page addresses, the reason the work is needed now, any reports you hold and the name of the person who accepts changes. After agreement, a repository or fork you control, a staging address with test data and the signed-off standard. Keep the hosting, DNS, redirect application and production deployment. Do not send client credentials or client data in the first enquiry. Reports from audit tools are welcome as text; the results table replaces them with a result for each item you agreed.
- An enquiry does not start work or charge you.
- The client sees evidence, not an assurance.
When to say no
If the section is built in a closed tool whose output nobody can edit, if the main failures sit in a third-party component the client will not replace, or if the client wants a certificate, say so early. We say so too, and we stop rather than promise something the evidence does not support. A smaller written standard that can be met is worth more to a client than an open commitment that cannot.
- Agree what counts as out of scope in the same document as the standard.
Sources and limits
- W3C: Understanding conformance Checked 2026-10-11.
- Conformance applies to full pages and, where a page is a step in a process, to all pages in the process; third-party content outside the author's control can force a partial conformance statement.
- web.dev: Why lab and field data can be different Checked 2026-10-11.
- Lab and field data differ, and field reports cover a 28-day period.