FormFollowsFunction.

Empirical is a small collaborative practice — digital strategy, SEO and web development. Remote-first, based in Edinburgh, operating globally. Generalist, with specialisms in technical SEO, e-commerce, and tourism, hospitality and the visitor economy. Three decades across the public sector, enterprise and SMEs.

Form follows function means the shape of the thing is determined by what it has to do. For a website, that's your business objective — and we work backwards from there. When we build, we tend towards open standards and open source: the assets are yours, with no vendor lock-in and no dependence on proprietary platforms.

Each client and every project is different, and we meet you where you are. Understand where you are and where you want to be. Agree the strategy. Plan the route. Your rich content is the differentiator; code and design are the view onto it. Usable from day one, for humans, search engines and agents alike.

All engagements start with the same question: a year from now, what does success look like? Once we know that, everything else — strategy, plan, content, code, design — has something to be judged against. We measure what matters, refine what isn't working, and keep going until you've hit the objective or set a new one.

Success shows up in the numbers: impressions, traffic, conversion rate, revenue, and profit.