In every state in the United States of America, you must be licensed before you can cut someone’s hair.
Unfortunately, there are no laws that prevent a non-competent individual from building websites for small businesses. This transposes into “web design and SEO” services being offered to small businesses by small firms with no inhouse web developers. Any “web design” work is often outsourced to some India based freelancer or firm, unbeknown to the company that hired the web design firm.
SEO is a natural entity and should cost next to nothing to implement
.I only know that the term “web design and SEO” are generic terms used for sales tactics. If they specialized in some aspect of web design and had staff in house, they would likely display those service on their website. Squarespace, WordPress, and Wix developers, for example. The term “web design” is a catch all phrase and allows anyone that does not understand web development to find their website and then hire them, even if they do not have the in house staff to support the work.
If the speaker you are bringing in does not have experience, as a web developer, or do not have in house staff that are web developers, they are likely outsourcing to shady freelancers in foreign countries. If they are charging high monthly fees for “SEO” services without writing professional articles, they are also likely being dishonest.
If you found this page as a result of searching for web design – please be careful who you hire. Ask the organization if they outsource. Research what web or software developers they have hired in house and what technical stack and/or programming language is the developers focus.