Terms of Service

These terms govern any free preview, subscription plan, consultation or service you receive from Search Box Strategies (“we,” “us,” “our”). By subscribing to a plan or engaging us for services, you agree to these terms.

Free preview

Before you subscribe, we may build a draft of your website and send you a report comparing your current site with local competitors (the “Preview”). The Preview is free and you have no obligation to continue.

• The draft is shown on a private link, is hidden from search engines, and is removed after 7 days unless you subscribe.
• We build it from information that is publicly available about your business and anything you tell us. You must confirm that content is accurate before anything goes live.
• Until you subscribe, we own the Preview, including its design, code and materials. You may not publish, copy or reuse it.
• If you ask us to stop contacting you or to remove a Preview, we will do so promptly.

Plans and fees

Our website plans (Foundation, Growth and Scale) are billed monthly in advance by card, in Canadian dollars. There is no setup fee. Plan features are as described on our pricing section at the time you subscribe.

Term and cancellation

Each plan has an initial minimum term of twelve (12) months, starting on the date of your first payment. After the initial term it continues month-to-month until you cancel.

• During the initial term: you may give notice of cancellation at any time, but it takes effect at the end of the initial term, and the monthly fee remains payable through that date.
• After the initial term: you may cancel at any time with at least 30 days' written notice to support@searchboxstrategies.com.

Payment

Fees are charged to the card you provide when you subscribe. If a payment fails, we will notify you and allow a 7-day grace period; after that we may pause your site until the account is brought up to date. If an account stays unpaid for 30 days, we may end the subscription. Amounts due for the initial term remain payable. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law. Prices are fixed for your initial term, and we will give at least 30 days' notice before any change takes effect afterwards.

Hosting

Websites built under a subscription plan are owned by us and hosted on our managed infrastructure, and you rent them for as long as your subscription is active. This is what allows us to bundle hosting, security updates and ongoing edits into a single flat monthly rate. When a subscription ends, your site is taken offline 30 days after the end of your last paid billing period, following written notice to the email on file. Your domain stays yours the whole time.

Your domain name

You own your domain name. It is registered in your name, and we can help you register it and connect it to your site, but we never hold it on your behalf. You are responsible for renewing it.

Buying your site

If you would rather own your website than rent it, you may buy it at any time for a flat $3,500. Monthly fees you have already paid do not reduce this price.

• After payment we send you the website files and images. We remove our own tracking script and any password protection first.
• You receive a permanent licence to use everything we built for your site. We keep ownership of our general tools, code components and design methods, and may reuse them for other clients.
• From then on the site is provided as is. You are responsible for hosting, security, updates and your domain. We provide no further support, edits or SEO unless you ask us.
• Our help with hosting setup or changes is $100 per hour. One hour of handoff help is included.
• The buyout covers the website only. It does not include third-party services or automations such as the voice assistant, missed-call text-back or the review engine.

Edits

“Unlimited minor edits” means reasonable changes to your existing site, such as text, images, contact details, hours and small layout tweaks, requested by email. We aim to complete them within five business days. New pages, redesigns, new features and integrations are separate unless your plan states otherwise. We may limit edits if the volume is clearly unreasonable.

Basic SEO

“Basic SEO” means page titles and descriptions, search-friendly markup, a sitemap, fast loading, and help setting up your Google Business Profile. It does not include a guarantee of rankings, traffic or enquiries.

Client Referral Reward

• Who qualifies: the business you refer must be new to us and sign a twelve-month agreement. You must be an active paying client.
• When you earn it: once the new client's first payment has cleared and 30 days have passed with no refund or dispute. If the new client's payment is refunded or disputed, the credit is never added.
• The reward: a $197 credit. It is the same on every plan, whatever your monthly fee is. It comes off your next monthly bill, and if it is bigger than the bill, the rest carries to the following bill. For example, on a $397 plan the credit takes $197 off and you pay the remaining $200. It is not paid in cash and cannot be transferred.
• How to claim: the new client must name you when they sign. A referral cannot be added after signing.
• Limits: no referring your own business, and no referrals between businesses with the same owner. The reward is capped at 6 credits per client per year.
• Buyout clients: a client who has bought the site has no monthly bill, so the $197 credit comes off our hourly help instead, which is $100 per hour.

Your responsibilities

You're responsible for providing accurate business information, timely feedback on drafts and edit requests, and for making sure any content or assets you provide don't infringe on a third party's rights. We publish your site only after you sign our Website Approval Form, or confirm your approval in writing by email.

Intellectual property

You retain ownership of your brand, business content and any assets you provide us. We retain ownership of the website, its underlying code, design system and infrastructure, licensed to you for as long as your subscription is active, or permanently if you buy the site as described above.

AI voice assistant

The AI-powered voice assistant is a conversational tool that answers general questions and helps with scheduling. It is not professional advice, and responses should be verified for anything business-critical. If a voice assistant is installed on your site, you are responsible for making sure visitors are told that they are speaking with an AI and that conversations may be recorded or transcribed, and for complying with applicable privacy laws. We provide a notice in the widget to help.

No guarantees of results

We work to deliver fast, well-built, search-friendly sites, but we do not guarantee search rankings, website traffic, enquiries or revenue. Our services are provided with reasonable care and skill, without a guaranteed level of uptime.

Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, Search Box Strategies is not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from use of our services or website. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid us in the three months before the claim arose.

Written agreement

Before work goes live, we ask you to sign a short written agreement and to initial its key points: the monthly price, the twelve-month minimum term, ownership of the site, the buyout price and what happens if payments stop. If the signed agreement and these terms differ, the signed agreement applies.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change affects an active subscription, we will give you at least 30 days' notice, and you may cancel before it takes effect if you are past your initial term.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email support@searchboxstrategies.com.