Kit Digital: you got a free website. Now what?
Thousands of SMBs received a website through Spain's Kit Digital programme in 2022-2023. Today, most of those websites are dead: no updates, no SEO, zero clients. Here's why, and how to fix it.
Key Points
Between 2022 and 2024, the Spanish government’s Kit Digital programme handed out grants so that small businesses could go digital. Thousands of businesses received a “free” website. Problem solved, right?
Not quite.
What happened to Kit Digital websites
The scheme was simple: an agency built a website, collected the subsidy (up to €2,000), delivered the website, and moved on to the next client. No maintenance contract. No SEO strategy. No content plan.
The result? Thousands of websites that work technically but do absolutely nothing for the business. They’re alive, but dead.
Your Kit Digital website probably has these problems:
- Generic WordPress template that looks identical to hundreds of other businesses
- Slow loading speed (PageSpeed score of 30-50 out of 100)
- Zero new content since the day it was delivered
- No Google ranking for your keywords
- No structured data or SEO metadata
- Outdated plugins and security vulnerabilities
- No integration with your business tools (CRM, billing, shop)
Why “free” costs you money
A website that doesn’t bring clients isn’t free. It’s an expense. Every day your website doesn’t appear on Google, you’re losing clients who are searching for exactly what you offer. They go to your competitor because they show up and you don’t.
Imagine you run a renovation company. Someone searches “renovation company near me” on Google. If your Kit Digital website doesn’t appear (and it won’t), that client calls the first result they see. Which isn’t you.
A single lost client can be worth more than an entire year of serpixel subscription.
The model that actually works: website as a service
Kit Digital proved one thing: building a website is easy. Making it work is hard.
A website needs:
- Fresh content every week. Google rewards living websites
- Strategic SEO. Keywords, structure, internal links
- Technical maintenance. Updates, security, speed
- Continuous adaptation. Services change, the website must reflect that
With the Kit Digital model, none of this existed. With serpixel, everything is included.
What to do if you have a Kit Digital website
You have 3 options:
1. Do nothing (cost: lost clients every day)
Your website stays online, but Google keeps ignoring it. Every month without new content, you lose rankings. In 12 months, your website is effectively invisible.
2. Try to fix it yourself (cost: time + frustration)
You can learn WordPress, SEO, content writing, speed optimisation, web security… Or you can spend that time doing what you’re good at: running your business.
3. Turn it into a living website with serpixel (monthly subscription)
We don’t fix your old website. We create a new one. Better, faster, optimised for your market. And every week we publish content that ranks you higher on Google.
In 3 months, Granja Natura, a nature centre near Barcelona, increased organic traffic by 280%. Salesly, a sales SaaS platform, reached 90+ daily active users. Neither had anything to do with Kit Digital.
The website is yours. Always.
One of the traps of Kit Digital websites was agency dependency. If you wanted a change, you had to pay extra or wait weeks.
With serpixel it works differently: the website is your property. If you cancel, you keep the website, the domain, and all the content. No tricks, no lock-in. We earn your trust every month, not with contracts.
If your Kit Digital website hasn’t brought you a single client, it’s not your fault. It’s a fault of the model. Talk to us and in 15 minutes we’ll show you what a website that actually works can do.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Because Kit Digital subsidised creation, not maintenance. The agency built a website, delivered it, and moved on. Without fresh content, SEO, or maintenance, the website dies within 6 months. It's not your fault. It's a flaw in the model.
In most cases, it's better to start fresh. Kit Digital websites are typically built with WordPress using slow templates, no SEO, and outdated code. Rebuilding on a poor foundation costs more than creating a solid new one. At serpixel we create a new optimised website for less than it would cost to fix the old one.
With serpixel, a monthly subscription that includes professional website creation and ongoing maintenance with content and SEO. If your website brings you a single high-value client, it's already paid for itself. Contact us for a personalized quote.
Currently there's no programme comparable to Kit Digital for website maintenance. But investing in a living website pays for itself: a single new client can cover months of subscription. serpixel works without subsidies because the return is real and measurable.