Terms of Service

These are the terms for working with Searchlight SEO. They're written in plain language on purpose. If something here is unclear, email hello@searchlightseo.org and I'll explain it before you agree to anything.

1. Who we are

Searchlight SEO is a trade name of 15101344 Canada Inc., a corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada and based in Ontario. In these terms, "we", "us", "I" and "Searchlight" mean that company. "You" means the business or person using our services.

2. When these terms apply

These terms apply when you ask us to build a free website, subscribe to hosting, buy a file handoff, or engage us for any other service. You agree to them by sending us your intake answers, by paying for a service, or by continuing to use a service after we've pointed you to this page. If we sign a separate written agreement with you, that agreement wins where the two conflict.

You must be at least 18 and have the authority to bind the business you're acting for.

3. The free website

What you get

When you send us the intake answers (business details, services, service areas, logo, colour preference and a short description), we build a website from one of our standard layouts. It includes a home page, an about page, a contact page with a lead form, a page for each service and each service area you gave us (up to the limits we state at the time, currently nine of each), and privacy and terms pages for your business. We publish it on a temporary preview address so you can review it.

What it costs

Building the site is free. There is no obligation to buy anything afterwards. If you don't want it, tell us or say nothing, and the preview comes down.

The preview period

The preview address stays live for about seven days. We may extend it if you ask. After the preview period, the site is taken down unless you've chosen the hosting plan or the file handoff. We'll try to remind you before that happens but aren't obliged to.

Standard layouts

The free site uses one of our existing layouts, set in your colour with your logo and content. It isn't a custom design. We'll make reasonable fixes to errors in the copy and content you point out during the preview period. Larger changes, new features and redesigns are outside the free offer and can be quoted separately.

Our right to decline

We can decline to build a site, or take one down, if the business or content is unlawful, misleading, outside the kinds of business we build for, or if the intake answers are incomplete or we believe they're inaccurate. We can also pause or end the free offer at any time for new requests; a site already promised to you will still be delivered.

4. The hosting plan

If you choose to keep the site with us, the hosting plan costs the monthly fee stated on our website at the time you subscribe (currently $49 per month, in Canadian dollars for Canadian clients and US dollars for US clients unless we agree otherwise). It includes:

• hosting the site on your own domain name, with an SSL certificate;
• the lead form, delivering submissions to the email address you give us, with a stored backup copy;
• reasonable content updates when you ask, such as changes to hours, services, service areas, photos and contact details. "Reasonable" means the kind of small updates a business needs from time to time, not ongoing content production or a redesign;
• keeping the site's underlying software and security up to date.

The plan is month to month. There is no minimum term and no contract beyond these terms. You can cancel at any time, effective at the end of the billing period you've already paid for.

Hosting is provided through third-party infrastructure (currently Netlify). We choose reliable providers and monitor the site, but we don't control their networks and can't guarantee uninterrupted availability.

Your domain name is registered in your name, with a registrar of your choosing, and remains yours. We'll help you point it at the site. We don't register or hold domains on your behalf.

5. Taking the files

Instead of hosting, you can take the site's files. The files themselves are free. If you want us to move the site onto hosting you control and connect your domain, that's a one-time fee stated on our website (currently $200). It covers setting up the hosting account with you, uploading the site, connecting the domain and confirming it works. It doesn't include the hosting provider's own charges, which you pay them directly, or ongoing support after the handoff.

If you'd rather do the move yourself, we'll send you the files as a download at no charge, along with a short note on how they're organised. A static site is designed to run on most ordinary web hosts.

6. Local SEO and other services

After your site is live, we may offer additional services such as Google Business Profile management, automated review requests, and an AI answering service. Each is quoted separately, in writing (an email counts), before any charge. Unless the quote says otherwise, each is month to month and can be cancelled at the end of any billing period.

Some of these services send messages to your customers (for example, a text asking for a review). You're responsible for having the right to contact those customers, including any consent required under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or other laws that apply to you. We build the systems to follow Google's and the messaging carriers' rules, and we'll stop or change any message you ask us to.

7. Your content and your responsibilities

You're responsible for the accuracy of what you tell us: your business name, contact details, services, service areas, licences, insurance, years in business and anything else that ends up on the site. Our writing system is built to leave out claims you didn't make, but you should read every page before it goes live and tell us about anything that's wrong.

You confirm that you own or have permission to use any logo, photo, text, review or other material you send us, and that publishing it doesn't infringe anyone's rights. You'll cover us for claims that arise because that turns out not to be true.

You won't use a site we build or host for anything unlawful, deceptive or harmful, and you won't use it to send spam. We can take a site down without notice if we reasonably believe it's being used that way.

8. Who owns what

Yours: your business name, logo, photos, reviews, the text written for your site from your intake answers, and your domain name. Once the site is delivered (whether hosted by us or handed off), the site as a whole is yours to use, copy, move and change as you like.

Ours: the layouts, code, templates, tools, prompts and processes we use to build sites. Delivering your site gives you a licence to use the code in your site for that site, and to have anyone you like modify it. It doesn't transfer ownership of the underlying system, and you can't resell it or use it to build sites for others.

Stock images: some sites include licensed stock photos. They're licensed for use on your site. If you move the site elsewhere, that licence continues for the same use, but you can't extract the photos for other purposes.

We may show your site as an example of our work (a screenshot and a link) unless you ask us not to.

9. Payment, renewals and refunds

• Monthly plans are billed in advance and renew automatically each month until cancelled.
• One-time fees are due before the work starts unless we agree otherwise.
• We'll give at least 30 days' notice before changing a monthly price. The new price applies from the next renewal after the notice period.
• If a payment fails, we'll let you know and try again. If it stays unpaid for 14 days, we may suspend the site until it's paid, and after 30 days we may cancel the plan.
• Refunds: monthly fees aren't refunded for a partial month once the month has started. A one-time handoff fee is refunded in full if we haven't started the work, and in proportion to what's left if we've started but can't finish for reasons on our side.
• Prices don't include applicable taxes, which are added where required.

10. What we don't promise

We don't promise a number of leads, calls or customers. We don't promise a position on Google or any other search engine, map or directory. Nobody can, and you should treat anyone who does with suspicion. Search results depend on your competitors, your reviews, your location and rules that Google changes without telling anyone.

What we do promise is to deliver what's described here, to tell you plainly what we did, and to show you the numbers we can see.

Beyond what's written in these terms, services are provided "as is", and we disclaim any implied warranties to the extent the law allows.

11. Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for anything arising out of our services, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, is limited to the amount you paid us in the three months before the claim arose. If you've paid nothing (for example, a free site only), our liability is limited to $100.

We're not liable for indirect or consequential losses such as lost profits, lost business, or losses caused by third-party services (hosting, email delivery, search engines, domain registrars) we don't control.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law.

12. Ending the relationship

You can cancel any monthly service at any time by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

When hosting ends, for any reason, you can ask for the site's files within 30 days and we'll send them at no charge. After 30 days, we may delete the site and its backups.

We can end a service with 30 days' notice for any reason, or immediately if you breach these terms. If we end a hosting plan without cause, we'll refund any unused part of the month you've paid for and send you the files.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Any dispute will be resolved in the courts of Ontario, though we'd both rather sort it out by email first.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top shows the latest version. For changes that matter to an existing paying client, we'll email you at least 30 days before they take effect. Continuing to use a service after that date means you accept the updated terms.

15. Contact

Searchlight SEO
15101344 Canada Inc.
Ontario, Canada
hello@searchlightseo.org