Website Design & Modification
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My specialty is building (or refreshing) affordable websites for small businesses. Every website designer/builder has their own system of how they go about designing/refreshing, and what prices to charge. I am a designer, not a developer. Developers are typically more expensive, and so is going to an agency, versus freelance like I am. You can expect double or even triple the price going to an agency/developer. There are elements I feel all website owners should get, not just the big companies. That's why all my clients get the same top-tier website elements, whether they are a small business or a big one.
All websites created by me WILL INCLUDE:
- Be built on the WordPress framework - My opinion is WordPress is simply the best* - a robust platform with unlimited customization, reliability, great functionality and full scalability. Plus no matter what you hear, you, the owner of the website can learn to make small changes - I can provide a library of how-to videos, right in the dashboard of your site. I'll even walk you through making your first update.
*Here's another reason I don't recommend Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, etc > WordPress is open source software, not proprietary to a particular company. The reason open source is better is because it has hundreds of thousands of programmers contributing to WordPress' codebase, making it better every day. Being so well supported, WordPress will stay up to date with Google's ever-changing requirements better, and much faster than any proprietary platform will. Plus, your website would never be at the whim of proprietary software should they go out of business, sell off their business. Did you know that most of the proprietary software website-building companies do not allow for portability? You can't take your website with you if you ever want to move it. All of these reasons also make it much easier to implement technical SEO enhancements. - Premium (child) theme put on top of the widely-popular Beaver Builder (parent) theme. All of this is placed on top of WordPress. This protects the styling of your pages, even after theme updates.
Built-in Mobile-Responsive software; that means they will look great on mobile phones, tablets, and laptops (automatically responds and resizes according to the device). See the image to the right - adapting to the device.- Page Content (what's on the pages) must be provided by you - I can refer you to copywriters if you need it (but I can help!). I will edit and format the content provided.
- Images must be provided by you, but I will prep and optimize your images. I can provide additional images as needed, at an additional cost.
- Your website can have page sidebars and/or extended footer areas (these are generally known as widget areas). I'll ask questions to find out what would be best for these areas., and make suggesions.
- Contact form going to your email address; includes a Submissions folder.
- Adding social media icons and setting up your links (creating the social media accounts is at an extra charge, if this step hasn’t been done yet).
- Customization with your colors, or I can suggest a color palette for you.
- Includes SSL Certificate installation - For security. Must be hosting-company compatible for free certificates. Ask me about this if unsure. Some hosting providers (like Godaddy) charge an annual fee.
- Email creation (must be hosting company compatible). Or I can configure for using Google Workspace or MS Office/Outlook.
- All standard plugins for extended functionality, as needed.
- Favicon - this is the tiny icon or logo that shows on the tab next to your website name within browser windows.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Friendly Software will be installed, and it's easy for you to add SEO elements at any time. However, if supplied ahead of time, I can add page titles and meta descriptions as I build out your site. See my SEO Page for available packages.
- Business Coaching - I can't help myself. I find myself coaching small businesses all the time.
- For 30 days after launch (after going live), I will include my 'Essentials' Maintenance Care Plan - that's right, I'm here for you afterward with continued management and maintenance of your site.
More Options!
(extra charge may apply)
- Logo Creation - using my Canva Pro account
- Google Analytics GA4 account set up so Google can start tracking statistics (whether you have time to deal with SEO right away or not).
- Google Business Profile set up - See Packages on my SEO page.
- Accessibility Widget - see the black icon of a person in a wheelchair at the top of my website? Click on it to see what it does.
- Booking/Scheduling Widgets (like Calendly, Acuity)
- Badge or Image Carousels
- Blog
- Top Bars
- Photo Galleries or Sliders
- Hero Images at top of all pages
- Maps
- Weather Box
- Social Media Account setup
- Logo-Matching Social Media covers
- SEO Page Titles and Description guidance. I can enter your list into your site if you provide during creation, or entered later as a secondary project.
My goal is to see you and your business succeed. Your site will be built to current technology, and with Accessibility and SEO guidelines in mind. Actual SEO work can be prepaid and completed so as to be added while the site is being built. Let's have a brainstorming session about this! Questions? Contact me!
Hosting of your Web Files
I am not in the hosting/reseller business, but I can recommend who to use, and help get you set up.
You will need a registered domain name (URL) and a hosting provider (where your website files get stored on the web). Your domain registration and your hosting account should be set up in YOUR name (not mine). I am not in the hosting (reseller) business; I have always felt it was cleaner and safer for clients to have direct access to their host company. If you don’t have one or the other, I will help you get these set up.
Shared Hosting is fine for most small businesses, and generally costs $5 - 20/month (and up). No hosting company is perfect but I have MDD Hosting to be better than most, in performance, cost and ease to work with.
MDD Hosting pretty much guarantees 100% uptime, and super fast servers. Plus each Turbo plan includes unlimited domains, email addresses, and bandwidth, and included cPanel, plus free SSL. Very, very good features for an economical price. MDD Hosting offers a huge discount to new customers. I recommend getting hosting for 3 years to maximize your investment, especially at the promo price.
There are a zillion Domain Registrar companies out there, but I recommend Namecheap for registering your domain. Namecheap has good prices, FREE privacy and has an easy dashboard for use. Domain registration typically costs about $10-20/year for .com and .net extensions (specialty extensions can sometimes cost more, depending on the domain registrar). Placing the Privacy feature on your domain protects you from scammers sending you emails and letters to renew, Namecheap includes domain privacy for free!
I do NOT recommend the ever-popular GoDaddy, for a variety of reasons. In fact, I do not recommend GoDaddy for ANYthing.
Please note: I have affiliate links with the companies listed above because I do a lot of research to find the balance between affordable, with truly great features. In the interest of full transparency, by clicking/purchasing through the links above, I will receive a small compensation for the referral.
What does it cost to build a website?
My price range for the average small business is $800-$1,400. The range for larger sites is $1,500-$2,000. Ecommerce sites are $1,800-2,800, and up. Remember, I'm a free-lance website designer, not an agency or web developer. My prices are lower, but your website will still be what the big agencies will provide for you.
I offer free custom quotes; many times I can give you an idea of cost over the phone, then fine-tune the quote after learning exactly what you'll need. You will get a lot of bang for your buck.
Don't worry, you don't pay all at once. I take a one-third deposit to get started. The second payment is due at roughly the middle, and the final payment when your site goes live/launches. All payments are due within 10 days of the emailed invoice. For larger projects, I will provide a timeline of scheduled payments.
The website creation process works like this:
- We talk about what you need and expect the site to do. What is the purpose of the website? I will sometimes share a Google Docs link containing a questionnaire. It contains the comprehensive information I like to get to prepare an extensive quote. Often, I can give you at least a ballpark figure while talking on our first phone call.
- The next step is I prepare the quote, and email it to you, along with my Work Agreement. If all is a go, I collect the deposit (one-third) and you start working on collecting content (images, text for the website pages, etc). I accept cash, checks, and credit cards. [The second payment is due when I have you review the site for work done so far. The last payment is needed to go live/launch. Payment is required within 10 days after issue of emailed invoices.]
- The next step is I design the site. I will have you review at certain points to be sure I’m on track.
- The next step is to have you fully review the site and I’ll fine-tune pages, posts, images, etc.
- The next step is the website goes LIVE on the web. Final testing is done. Final payment is collected.
- The last step is your site will be set up for one month on my ‘Essentials’ Website Maintenance Care Plan. At the end of that month, I will provide a full report of everything the Care Plan did for you. You will have had this free month to evaluate whether you’d like to continue the service.
For ongoing work and maintenance, I bill at my hourly rate, which is $68/hour.
Ready for the next step?
Let's schedule a call or Zoom meeting to see what you need.
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