Web design
It's not the design
You've probably been told you need a new website. Maybe it looks dated. Maybe people say they couldn't find what they needed. Maybe it just feels like it's not pulling its weight.
Nearly every time, the layout isn't the cause. The business never decided what it was going to say, so the site says a little of everything and none of it lands. You can redesign that four times and it will feel the same on the fifth.
So we start with the decision. You can't design something before you've decided what it's for.
What the work is
Custom web design
A blank canvas, not a theme with your logo dropped in. We work out what your business should say first, then build the pages around that decision, in an order somebody can actually follow.
That order matters more than the pictures. A visitor reads one thing, then the next thing, and every section only has to earn the one below it. Most sites ask people to jump.
Website redesign
If you already rank for things, a redesign is the easiest way to lose it. Pages get renamed, URLs change, nobody maps the old ones to the new ones, and traffic that took years to earn goes away in a weekend.
We keep the rankings you already have. Every retired URL gets pointed at its closest living relative before launch, not after somebody notices.
WordPress, done properly
A custom theme, few plugins, and a site that stays fast on a phone. No page builder bloat, because a page builder writes markup you can't take anywhere and can't hand to the next person.
I've been building on WordPress since 2011. It's still the right answer for most businesses that need to publish, and the wrong answer for some — and I'll tell you which one you are.
Photography and video
Stock photos tell a visitor you had nothing real to show. So we plan the pictures the build needs: your people, your place, and the work while it's happening.
The main photo gets planned before anybody picks up a camera. The page design decides where the headline sits, so the shot needs open space on that side. Frame it tight and centered and it can never hold a line of text, however good it looks.
Video stays short. A welcome video of fifteen to thirty seconds with your face, who you are, what you do, and why somebody should call. It warms a stranger up before they read a word.
Every file gets compressed and named for what's in it before it goes on a page, so a phone loads it fast and a search engine knows what it's looking at. You keep the originals.
What you own
Your domain, your hosting, your accounts, in your name, from the first day. Not in mine, not in a reseller account, not in a plan you can't log into.
Nobody should be able to hold your website hostage. If we stop working together, you take everything and you never pay me a fee to get it.
- Domain registered to you
- Hosting billed to you
- Analytics and Search Console in your account
- The code, with no license to buy back
How it goes
01
Decide
What the business stands for, who it's for, and the line it leads with. Written down, because everything after this reads from it.
02
Structure
The page order, the URLs, and what each page has to do. This is where a redesign either keeps its rankings or throws them away.
03
Build
Custom, from a blank file. Fast on a phone, readable by a screen reader, and legible to a search engine.
04
Run it
Updates, backups, patches, and somebody who notices a form stopped sending before you do.
Questions people ask
- Do I need a new website?
- Often, no. If the site is reasonably fast and you own it, the problem is usually what it says rather than how it looks, and that's a much cheaper problem to fix. I'll tell you if that's your situation.
- Will a redesign hurt my search rankings?
- It will if nobody plans for it. Rankings attach to URLs, so every page that changes address has to be redirected to its closest replacement before launch. We map that first and verify it after.
- Do you use WordPress or something else?
- Both. WordPress when the business needs to publish and edit constantly. Custom when the site is really an application wearing a website. The decision comes out of what you need it to do, not out of what I prefer to build.
- Do I own the website when it's finished?
- Yes, all of it. The domain, the hosting, the accounts and the code are in your name from day one, and there's never a fee to hand over your own assets.
- How long does a build take?
- It depends on how much has to be decided before anybody designs. The deciding is usually the long part, not the building. You get a real schedule after we scope it, not a number before.