[ The fine print, in plain English ]

Saltline Studio Terms & Conditions

Welcome to Saltline Studio. By engaging our services or using our website, you agree to the following terms and conditions.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By engaging Saltline Studio for SEO, website design, or digital consultancy, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

2. Services

Saltline Studio provides digital marketing consultancy, specialising in:

  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
  • Website Design and Development
  • The Found Report (website, Google Business Profile and online visibility audits)
  • The Full Picture (page-by-page website audits)

I perform these services with reasonable care and skill. I focus on organic growth strategies and do not guarantee specific search rankings, as these are subject to third-party algorithm changes beyond my control.

3. Payment Terms

All payments are due within 7 days of the invoice date. I reserve the right to pause work on any project if payments are overdue.

  • Website Build: A deposit of 50% is required upfront before work commences. The remaining 50% is due immediately once the site is live.
  • The Found Report: Payable in full on ordering. The report is delivered within five business days of payment. If a report cannot reasonably be produced for the business as ordered (for example, where no active website exists to audit), the fee is refunded in full.
  • The Full Picture: Payable in full on ordering. The report is delivered within one week of payment. If a report cannot reasonably be produced for the website as ordered, the fee is refunded in full.
  • Organic Website Growth and Optimisation: Invoiced on a monthly basis. The initial partnership runs for a minimum term of six months. After the initial term, the service continues month to month and can be adjusted, paused or cancelled with thirty days' written notice. For websites not built by Saltline Studio, the partnership begins after a Found Report and completion of its website fixes, so the monthly work starts on foundations that can support it.

4. The Audit Reports: Recommendations and Results

The Found Report and The Full Picture are diagnostic and advisory services. The fee covers the individual checking of your online presence or website and the delivery of findings and recommendations; each service is performed in full when your report is delivered. Whether and how you implement those recommendations is entirely your decision, and implementation is carried out by you or your chosen developer, not by Saltline Studio, unless separately engaged.

My recommendations reflect what can be observed about your online presence on the date of checking and represent my professional judgement about what is most likely to improve your visibility. Outcomes such as search rankings, appearance in AI-generated answers, website traffic, enquiries and revenue depend on factors outside my control, including the quality, accuracy and completeness of implementation, competitor activity, changes to third-party platforms and algorithms, and the time organic visibility naturally takes to build, often several months. For these reasons, I do not guarantee any particular commercial result from implementing either report, and no refund is available on the basis of business outcomes after delivery. This does not limit any rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law.

5. Free Resources

Saltline Studio provides free downloadable guides, checklists and tools, such as The Edit articles, the Found Score checker and the Afternoon Kits. These are general information, prepared with care and checked against current platform guidance at the time of writing, but they are not advice for your specific circumstances, and platforms change their rules and features without notice. You use them at your own judgement, and no liability is accepted for actions taken based on them. This does not limit any rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law.

6. Hosting, Domains and Third-Party Services

Standard website builds include hosting on modern third-party infrastructure at no monthly cost, set up in an account owned by you. Where a project requires additional third-party infrastructure (databases, payment processing, authentication or similar), these costs are disclosed in the project quote and billed to the client at cost. Saltline Studio adds no margin to third-party infrastructure. Hosting platforms, domain registrars, and any integrated services you choose (such as ecommerce, bookings, event ticketing, course platforms or CRM tools) are provided by third parties under their own terms. Any fees charged by those providers, including your annual domain renewal, third-party subscriptions, and any usage beyond a hosting platform's free tier, are payable by you directly. While I select reliable, reputable providers, Saltline Studio does not control and is not liable for outages, changes or pricing decisions made by third-party platforms.

7. Professional Indemnity

Saltline Studio maintains professional indemnity insurance. I am committed to professional standards, but Saltline Studio's liability is limited to the extent permitted by Australian law.

8. Intellectual Property

  • Client Materials: You retain ownership of all content, data, and intellectual property you provide to me.
  • My Deliverables: Upon full payment, ownership of the final deliverables created specifically for your project, including your website files, transfers to you. Saltline Studio retains ownership of any pre-existing methodologies, proprietary tools, or templates used in the creation process.

9. Confidentiality

I acknowledge that during our engagement, I may have access to confidential information regarding your business. I agree to maintain the confidentiality of such information and will not disclose it to any third party without your express consent, except as required by law.

10. Termination

Either party may terminate the agreement with 14 days' written notice if the other party commits a material breach of these terms and fails to remedy that breach within the notice period. If you terminate a project mid-progress for convenience, you agree to pay for all work completed and any non-refundable costs incurred up to the date of termination.

11. Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. Any disputes arising from these terms will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales.