Whose name is on your website? It should be yours.
Most small-business sites are built on the agency's platform, in the agency's hosting account, behind the agency's login. Leave, and you start again. We build fast, simple sites on a platform you can log into, on your own domain and hosting. Then we hand over the keys, record a walkthrough, and get out of the way.
Who asks for this, and why
"I need the phone to ring."
Not a brochure. A site with one job per page, the number on every screen, and a form that lands in your inbox. If you run ads, this is the page the clicks land on, so it has to be quick and clear.
"I can't log into my own site."
You've asked for the login and been told it's "proprietary", or the developer has stopped replying. We rebuild on something you can log into and help you get the domain back into your name. If the domain can't be recovered, we tell you before you pay for anything.
"I built it myself, and it shows."
A template site from a weekend three years ago. Slow on a phone, copy out of date, booking button nobody can find. Sometimes a tidy-up is enough. We'll say if it is, and quote that instead of a rebuild.
Six things a small-business site has to do
None of these are fancy. Most sites we're shown fail at least three of them, usually because they were built to look good in a pitch rather than to work on a phone at 7pm.
- ✓One clear job per pageHome: who you are, where you are, what to do next. Each service page: one service, one call to action. No page exists because "we should probably have one".
- ✓Phone number visible on every screenIn the header, tap-to-call on a phone. Not in the footer, not behind a "Contact" menu.
- ✓Fast on a phoneCompressed images, no page-builder bloat, no slider. We check Core Web Vitals in PageSpeed Insights and test on a real phone on 4G before handover.
- ✓Booking or contact that worksA form we've tested to your inbox. A booking link to the system you already use. Nothing that emails an address nobody checks.
- ✓Tracking wired inGA4 installed. Form sends and call taps recorded as events. If you run Google Ads, conversion tracking too. How we do tracking.
- ✓Written for people, in your wordsPage titles and headings that say what you do and where. The suburb named. No keyword stuffing. Basic on-page SEO is part of the build; the ongoing kind is a separate service.
No 40-page sites. No e-commerce catalogues unless quoted separately, in writing. No custom web apps, member portals or booking systems built from scratch; we plug into the one you already pay for. No logo or brand design. No stock-photo subscription; we use your photos, or tell you what to shoot with your phone.
If you need any of those, we say so at the brief and either quote it or tell you who to call instead.
Four accounts. Your name on all of them.
A website depends on four things: the domain, the hosting, the login, and the content. If any one of them is in someone else's name, you don't own your site. You rent it. Here's how ours are set up, next to the usual arrangement.
- Registrar login. The domain is registered in your name, on your card.
- Hosting login. Your account with the host, about $15–30 a month, paid direct.
- Site admin login. You're the administrator. We're a user you can remove.
- Content and images as files. Everything on the site, also handed over in a folder.
- A recorded walkthrough. Twenty to thirty minutes on screen, showing you how to edit every page.
- A one-page "where everything is" sheet. Which account, which login, what it costs, when it renews.
Brief, build, review, handover.
Four to six weeks, and most of the waiting is for words and photos. We tell you exactly what we need in week one so nothing sits.
Brief
A 45-minute call. What the site has to do, which pages, who it's for. We send back a page list, the words and photos we need from you, and a written quote. Nothing starts until you've said yes to the number.
Build
We set up the domain and hosting with you on a call, in accounts in your name. Then we write and build the pages. You get a private link to watch it grow, and a change log of what was done when.
Review
Two rounds of changes. We test the form to your inbox, the booking link, the call button, and load time on a real phone. Tracking is checked in GA4 before anything goes live.
Handover
Live. You get every login, a recorded walkthrough of how to edit each page, and the one-page sheet of where everything is. We can stay on as a user you can remove, or leave that day.
How agency sites are usually set up, and how ours are
None of this is secret. It's just rarely written down where the client can read it before signing.
From $2,900. Quoted in writing first.
A typical five-to-eight page site for a local business. The exact number is in the quote after the brief, and it doesn't move unless you add pages. Bigger sites and e-commerce get their own written quote, or an honest "not us".
Get a quote →- Page list and the words for 5–8 pages
- Build on a platform you can log into
- Contact form and booking link, tested
- GA4 and conversion tracking wired in
- Tested on a real phone before launch
- Two rounds of changes
- Recorded handover walkthrough
- Every login, in your name
Hosting is about $15–30 a month, paid by you to the host. The domain is usually under $50 a year, paid by you to the registrar. Neither goes through us. If you want changes after handover, it's an hourly rate quoted before we start. There is no care plan, and nothing breaks if you don't buy one. Scope: up to eight pages of copy and build, two rounds of revisions, tracking wired in, a recorded handover and 30 days of launch support. Content migration, integrations, e-commerce and ongoing maintenance are quoted separately, in writing, before we start.
Before you ask for a quote
What platform do you build on?+
It depends on the site, and the quote names it. The test we apply is simple: can you log in as the administrator, can you export it, and could another developer work on it without us. Usually that means WordPress with a light theme and no page builder, or Squarespace or Webflow for simpler sites. We tell you why we picked it.
I already have a site. Can you fix it instead?+
Sometimes. If it's on a platform you can log into and the problem is speed, words or structure, a tidy-up is cheaper and we'll quote that. If it's on a proprietary platform you can't log into, rebuilding is nearly always cheaper than fighting for access, and you end up owning the result.
How long does it take?+
Four to six weeks. The slow part is almost always the content coming back from you: the photos, the list of services, the bit about who you are. We send the list in week one, and the clock mostly runs on that.
What happens if we stop working together?+
Nothing happens to the site. You remove our user, and everything stays where it is: domain in your registrar, hosting in your account, pages in your login. Nothing about your site runs through us, so there is nothing to switch off.
How much of this is automated?+
The platform handles backups, security updates and image compression on its own, and none of that costs you anything extra from us. The brief, the page list, the words, the build, the testing on a phone and the walkthrough are done by a person. If we use a tool to draft a first version of any copy, we say so in the change log, and it's edited by hand before you see it.
Will it rank on Google?+
A well-built site is the floor, not the ceiling. Page titles, headings, the suburb named, a fast load: all included. Ranking for what people in your area search is ongoing work, and it's a separate monthly service with its own price. We don't promise positions on either.
Get a website quote
We reply within one working day with a fit check. If it suits you, the reply has the invoice, the access steps and a delivery date. If it doesn't, it says so.
Don't put passwords, customer or patient details in this form. Access, where needed, is granted inside the platform after the fit check. How we handle your information.
From $2,900Get a quote →