Website Design and Development

This is the site someone lands on when they look your business up, and we take it from a first conversation to a live address: structure, design, build, content, launch, and the first stretch of care afterwards. Responsive layouts, speed, accessibility and search foundations are part of that work rather than extras on a quote.

We build against an agreed page list. Every page has a job, and the navigation and internal links get settled before any visual design, so you end up with something people can find their way around and your team can keep up to date.

Not every project is a set of pages. When the job needs a booking system, a customer portal, a marketplace or an application with real data behind it, we build that too, on modern frameworks and a proper database. The approach is the same either way: work out what it has to do, then build the smallest thing that does it well.

Launch is a careful cutover rather than a reveal. Redirects, domain, security and the pages that take inquiries all get checked on the live site. After that we stay on for snagging, then move you to a care plan so updates and small changes have somewhere to go.

Before we draw anything we need to know what the site is for, who it is for, and what should happen after someone clicks. We look at the current site, the analytics if they exist, and the pages that already bring you work. We like to talk to the people who answer the phone as well as the people who approve the look, they usually know different things.

The practical constraints surface here too: the domain, who hosts it, the existing pages that need to keep working, who will be editing afterwards, and any wording that has to stay exact for legal or regulatory reasons. If you run three service lines across a service area, those become pages. If there is a booking tool or a portal in the mix, we decide together whether to embed it, link to it, or build you a better one.

You come out of this with a page list, a note of what each page is for, and a clear split of what we will write versus what you will supply. Design starts once that is agreed, because changing the shape of a site after the templates are built is what pushes dates.

You review real pages rather than a deck of flat images. We design in the browser at phone, tablet and desktop widths using the type, color and components the finished site will use. Where a decision genuinely benefits from a still frame, we make one.

Rounds are named and bounded so everyone knows where they are. Round one is structure and type: can you find what you came for, and does it read on a phone. Round two is the look, color, imagery and the components that repeat. Round three is correction rather than a second invention. If a decision needs someone who has not been in the room, we would rather wait than guess.

Components get designed once and reused: header, footer, forms, service rows, article layouts. A one-off treatment for the home page is fine. A one-off for every interior page is how a site becomes hard to maintain, so we will usually push back on decoration that fights the template.

Staging is a real address you can open and try. Templates match the page list, images and fonts are kept lean, and scripts only appear where a page genuinely needs them. We measure page speed on the templates before we start talking about launch.

Most sites ship with a CMS, and we shape it around your content rather than around the layout, a service page gets the fields a service page needs. Your team changes copy and images without having to think about design. Some projects are better served by a custom admin built for the job, and a few genuinely do not need an editor at all. We will tell you which one yours is.

Where the project is an application rather than a set of pages, this is where the real work sits: the data model, the accounts, the integrations with whatever you already run, and the screens your team will use every day. We build on well-supported frameworks and databases so the next developer, whoever that is, can pick it up.

We set up the accounts, set the permissions, and train the people who will actually use it. Drafts, previews, and the difference between saving and publishing are part of that session. If only one person has the password, we sort that out before launch.

We handle navigation, page titles, descriptions and the pages you bring us in to write, usually home, services, contact and the legal shells. You supply photos, prices, staff details, and any claim that would matter if it were wrong. We stick to what is true about your business rather than filling space with things that sound good.

Length follows the page. A service page needs enough for a stranger to decide whether to get in touch; it does not need an essay. Headings are real headings, and every page gets its own title and description. If a page has nothing to say yet, we would rather leave it out than ship a placeholder.

Moving content from an old site is a mapped exercise rather than a hopeful one. We list the old addresses, point them at the new ones, bring across the pages still earning their keep, and agree with you what happens to the rest. It is all in place before the domain moves.

We freeze the templates, run the redirect map and prepare the domain settings ahead of the change. Launch day is a sequence: security certificate in place, the site answering on your domain, both the www and plain versions agreeing, forms delivering, error pages working, analytics collecting, and the site submitted to Google. If a step fails we stop and fix it rather than announcing a launch.

Redirects get tested from the real old addresses rather than ticked off a spreadsheet. The pages that take inquiries or payments go first: contact, your main service, the location page if you have one. We keep the old site on standby until the new one has been quiet and correct for a while.

You get a written note of everything that changed: domain records, where the site is managed, who can publish, where the backups live, and how to reach us during snagging. That note is part of the job.

The first two weeks are for snags: a heading that wraps awkwardly, a redirect we missed, a form that needed a second inbox. We work from a shared list so you can see what is outstanding. New scope gets treated as new scope rather than quietly folded in.

After that a site needs hosting, updates, backups and someone keeping an eye on it. That is what a care plan covers, along with a monthly allowance for small copy and image changes. A new service line or a redesign sits outside it, and we will tell you which side of the line something falls on when you write in.

If a care plan is not for you, we hand over the code, the editing tools, the domain and the backup notes. Your site does not live anywhere only we can reach. You should be able to take it to another firm with everything you need, even though we would rather you stayed.