Starting from nothing
No site yet, or one old enough that starting again costs less than unpicking it. I agree what the site is for, write the pages, then build them — usually four to eight of them.
Websites
One page for every thing you want to be found for.
Nobody searches for “a company that does several services.” They search for the one thing they need today. I build a page that answers exactly that, then repeat it for everything else you sell.
How it is built- A page for the serviceWritten for the phrase people actually type, not the one you call it internally /service
- A page for the placeIf you work in a specific area, that belongs in its own page rather than a footer line /area
- A page for the questionThe thing customers ask before they buy, answered properly and linked from everywhere /guide
- All of it cross-linkedSo a visitor who lands on one page can find the other two links
Two starting points
Some people need a site built. Others already have one that is nearly right and is quietly losing them enquiries. The first conversation is about which of those you are.
It loads too slowly
Eleven plugins, a four-megabyte header image and a theme doing work nobody asked for. A good share of visitors leave before they have seen anything.
Heavy theme
Unused plugins
Oversized images
Usually fixable in days, without rebuilding anything.
It does not say what you do
The words were written for you rather than for the person searching. This is the cheapest thing on the site to change and usually the thing that moves the most.
Vague homepage
No service pages
I rewrite the pages before touching the design.
You cannot change it yourself
Every edit means emailing whoever built it and waiting. When the person who holds the logins stops replying, that stops being an inconvenience and becomes a risk.
Logins held elsewhere
No access to the code
I either hand you the keys to what you have, or move it somewhere you control.
What your site has to do
Four jobs. A site that does the first two badly is decoration; a site that does the last two badly becomes someone else’s asset.
A page for each thing you sell
Someone searching for one specific service should land on a page about that service, not a homepage that mentions it third. It ranks better, it converts better, and you can tell which ones are working.
Pages that earn their placeOne job each
/the-service
/the-area
/the-question
- Written for
- One search
- Linked from
- The other two
Written in the words people search
You call it reactive maintenance; they type “emergency plumber”. When the two differ, the page uses theirs. The trade language can stay for the people who already know you.
Accessible is not a bolt-on
Real headings, visible focus states, AA contrast, and a site that works from a keyboard. A site a screen reader can follow is a site Google can follow, so it is never a separate line on the invoice.
The technical part, done quietly
Sitemap, canonical tags, structured data, one main heading per page, descriptions written rather than generated. None of it is clever and all of it is missing from most small business sites.
One obvious next step per page
Ring, book, or send a photo of the problem — pick one per page and make it the loudest thing on it. Pages offering four equal options get fewer of all four.
This page wantsOne action
Request a quote
Call instead
- Above the fold
- Always
- Repeated
- At the end of the page
The answer before the objection
Roughly what it costs, how long it takes, what is included, what happens if it goes wrong. People who cannot find those answers do not email to ask — they leave.
Contact that works on a phone
A number that dials when tapped, an address that opens a map, and a form short enough to finish one-handed on a bus.
Proof you actually have
Photographs of your own work, reviews with real names attached, the trade bodies you are genuinely a member of. No stock photos of people in headsets, and no logos of companies you once quoted for.
Hand-built, not assembled
No theme to fight, no builder to outgrow, no plugin that stops being maintained in two years. The page that reaches the visitor is close to the page that was written, which is why it arrives before they have decided to leave.
What loadsDeliberate
No plugins
No tracking by default
- Page weight
- Kept deliberately small
- Third-party scripts
- Only ones you ask for
Secure by having less
Static pages with no database and no admin login remove most of what gets attacked. Security headers, enforced HTTPS and a locked-down content policy come as standard, not as an upgrade.
Images that are not four megabytes
Resized to the size they are shown at, converted to a modern format, and loaded late if they sit below the fold.
Nothing loaded that you did not ask for
Every third-party script is a request to someone else’s server, a privacy question and a thing that can break. Analytics, chat widgets and embeds go on because you decided they should, not because a theme shipped with them.
Built to be handed over
The domain, the hosting and the analytics are registered in your name from day one. If you ever want someone else to take it on, they get working code and a written explanation rather than a locked account and an invoice.
In whose nameYours
- Domain
- You
- Hosting
- You
- Analytics, if any
- You
- Lock-in
- None
Edit what actually changes
Opening hours, prices and news change; the layout does not. I connect a simple editor to the parts that move and leave the rest as code so the site stays fast.
No monthly fee to me
Hosting a site like this costs nothing or a few pounds a month, billed to your account. Ongoing care is separate, optional and easy to stop.
Leaving is possible
A site you cannot take elsewhere is a subscription with a homepage attached. Yours is plain files in a repository you can hand to any developer, which is the difference between owning it and renting it.
The build
Four stages, and you see the site at each one.
Brief
One question first: what should someone do after reading this? Ring you, book a slot, send a photo of the problem? Everything after that is in service of the answer. Sites drift when nobody decides this at the start.
Project briefAgreed
Scope signed off
6 pages
- Primary action
- Request a quote
- Pages at launch
- Agreed up front
- Things deliberately left out
- Written down too
Words
The copy is written before the layout, because a design drawn around placeholder text falls apart the moment real sentences arrive. This is also where the search work happens — using the phrases your customers use, not the industry ones.
Search languageCopy first
What they search
What you call it
- “emergency plumber”
- Their words
- “reactive maintenance”
- Yours
When those two differ, the customer’s version wins.
Design
Designed in the browser on the real text, at the sizes people actually use, including the small phone with the cracked screen. What you review is the site itself rather than a picture of it, so there are no surprises between approval and launch.
Reviewed atReal widths
375px
768px
1440px
- Reviewed on
- The real site
- Content used
- Final copy, not filler
Launch
Domain pointed, HTTPS enforced, security headers set, sitemap submitted, uptime monitoring switched on. Then a walkthrough of how to change the things you will want to change, and the keys to everything.
Launch checksPassed
- HTTPS
- Enforced
- Security headers
- Set
- Sitemap
- Submitted
- Accounts
- In your name
What it costs
Both numbers are on this page rather than behind a discovery call. If what you need falls outside this shape, you get a fixed quote before anything starts — still a number agreed up front, never an hourly meter.
Website build
$1,500CAD · one-time
Designed, built and launched. You do not pay until it is live and it matches what was quoted. Five to eight pages and two rounds of design revisions, set out in the terms.
- Designed and hand-coded around your business, not a template
- A page for each thing you want to be found for
- Fast and readable on a phone, which is where most of your visitors are
- Domain, hosting and logins in your name from day one
Looking after it
$250CAD · per month
Optional. The build is yours either way — this is for not having to think about it afterwards.
- Same-day edits — message me and it is live
- New pages as the business grows
- Hosting and uptime monitoring
- Backups, and someone to call when something breaks
Where people usually start
You do not have to commit to a whole site to find out whether I am the right person for it.
A look at what you have
I go through your current site and tell you what is costing you enquiries, in what order to fix it, and which parts are fine as they are.
One page
A single landing page for the one thing you most want to be found for. It proves the approach before you spend anything on the rest.
A full site
Four to eight pages, written first and built second, with a page for each service you actually want work from.
Ongoing
New pages as the business changes, plus monitoring and updates. Month to month, and easy to stop.
Quoted per scope after the first call, as a fixed price rather than an hourly rate.
Questions worth asking
The ones that decide whether a site is an asset or a subscription.
Why separate pages instead of one long homepage?
Because people search for one specific thing. A page that answers exactly that question is more likely to be found and far more likely to convert than a homepage that mentions eight services in passing. It is also easier to tell what is working, because each page has one job.
Do you use WordPress or a page builder?
Only when a site genuinely needs one — frequent publishing, a shop, several editors. Most small business sites are faster, safer and cheaper to run as hand-built pages with no plugins to update and no login to attack.
Will I be able to edit it myself?
Yes. If you want to make routine changes, I connect a simple editor to the pages that change often and leave the rest as code so the site stays fast. You will not need to learn anything to change your opening hours.
How long does it take?
A single landing page is usually a week or two. A four-to-eight page site is typically four to six weeks, and the slow part is almost always the words rather than the build — agreeing what each page is for takes longer than making it. If you already know what you want to say, it moves faster.
What do you need from me?
An hour on a call, photographs of your own work if you have them, and someone who can answer questions about how the business actually operates. You do not need to write anything; I draft the copy and you correct it, which is far easier than starting from a blank page.
Is there a monthly fee?
Not to me. Hosting for a site like this is usually free or a few pounds a month, billed to your own account. Ongoing care — changes, monitoring, new pages — is optional, separate, and easy to stop.
Start here
What should someone do after reading your site?
If the answer is not obvious today, that is the first thing worth fixing — and it does not always need a rebuild.