This year marks 21 years since Red Web Cambridge built its first website. A lot has changed since 2004 — we were designing for 800x600 screens, Flash was king, and “mobile-friendly” wasn’t even a concept. But one thing hasn’t changed: our commitment to helping Cambridge businesses make the most of the web.
How it started
Red Web began as a one-person operation, building websites for local businesses who were just starting to realise they needed an online presence. Back then, having a website at all put you ahead of the competition. The bar was low — if it loaded and had your phone number on it, you were doing well.
How it’s going
Today we work with organisations ranging from Cambridge startups to NHS research teams and multi-academy trusts. We build with modern frameworks like React and Astro, deploy to global CDNs, and optimise for Core Web Vitals scores that didn’t exist a decade ago. Our hosting infrastructure spans multiple servers, and we manage ongoing maintenance for dozens of clients.
What we’ve learned along the way
Twenty-one years of building websites teaches you a few things:
- Technology changes fast, but good design principles don’t. Clear navigation, readable typography, and fast load times have always mattered — the tools just keep getting better.
- The best website is one the client can actually use. We’ve always prioritised giving our clients control over their own content, whether that’s through WordPress, a headless CMS, or a simple Markdown-based system.
- Relationships matter more than projects. Many of our earliest clients are still with us today. That kind of longevity only happens when you genuinely care about the work.
What’s next
We’re investing heavily in performance, accessibility, and the kind of structured content that helps businesses get discovered — not just by Google, but by the AI-powered search tools that are reshaping how people find information online.
If you’ve been thinking about your own website, whether it’s a refresh, a rebuild, or your very first site, we’d love to chat. Twenty-one years in, we’re still as passionate about great web design as we were on day one.