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Web design

Your website is old

Seven things that make a site feel old. Most of them you can check yourself in ten minutes, and not all of them need a rebuild.

Email me Call me starting at $3,850

Palm Beach Gardens, and across Palm Beach County, Broward County and the Treasure Coast. Anywhere by video.

In short

Old is not usually about how it looks. It is about whether it works on a phone, whether you can change a word without calling someone, whether Google can read it, and whether the first screen says what you do. A site can look dated and still earn its keep. A site can look modern and fail all four. Below is how to tell which one you have, because the answer decides whether this costs a few hundred dollars or a few thousand.

Where to look first

It could be any of these

Run these on your own site before you talk to anyone, including me. Two of them mean a rebuild. The rest are cheaper than that.

It does not work properly on a phoneOpen your site on your phone, on cell data rather than wifi. Try to tap a button, read the text without pinching, and fill in a form. Most people who find you will only ever see this version.Speed and mobile fixes, below
You cannot change a word without calling someoneTry to edit one sentence right now. If you cannot get in, or you can get in and are scared to touch it, that is a real cost every month you own it.A CMS, quoted with the build
The first screen does not say what you doShow your homepage to someone who does not know your business. Give them five seconds, then hide it and ask what you sell. That answer is what a visitor leaves with.Messaging, then copy
It is slowOn that same phone, count how long until the first thing appears. People leave while a page is loading, and you never see it happen.Speed and mobile fixes, below
Google cannot read it properlySearch site:yourbusiness.com. If your pages are missing, or far fewer than you expect, the site is not competing at all.SEO and local search
You are not certain you own itFind out whose name the domain is registered in, and who can get into the hosting. If the answer is a person who stopped answering, deal with that before spending anything on design.Ownership and access audit
It was built on something you have been locked out ofLog in to the platform it was built on. If nobody has the account, a rebuild is often cheaper than the recovery.Rebuild, below
Starting price

$3,850 is where this one starts

Not a fixed price. What it actually costs depends on the list on the right, and you get that number in writing after a short call, before anything begins.

The starting price covers

Initial meeting, sitemap and section order meeting, design meeting, two revision rounds, technical SEO, Analytics and Search Console, domain and hosting setup, privacy and terms pages, 404 page, launch checks, written handover

What adds to it
  • Pages beyond five
  • Copywriting, if I write it
  • Photo preparation
  • A CMS so you can edit it
  • Keyword research and semantic SEO
  • A form connected
  • Booking or Calendly connected
  • Video
  • More revision rounds
What it is

Four different jobs get called web design, and they cost very different amounts.

Fixes. The site is sound, parts of it are not. Speed, phones, a page that does not load. Hundreds, not thousands.

A redesign. The content is broadly right, the structure and the look are not. Rebuilt on what you already have, with a redirect map so the rankings you have now survive the move.

A new website. Starting from the structure up. What pages exist, what each one is for, and what someone does next on each of them.

Moving platforms. Off one builder onto another, or off a builder into code. With a redirect map either way.

I do not build one page sitesIf one page is genuinely all you need, a website builder will serve you better and cost you less, and you can do it yourself in a weekend. What you would be paying me for is two meetings and two rounds of revisions, and that costs more than the page is worth to you. If you want a second opinion before you build it, the checklist is free.
Structure comes before designThe order is sitemap, then page purposes, then design, then build. Structure is the part that decides whether Google can rank you and whether a visitor can find anything, and it is the part that survives when you redesign again in five years. Colours and layout can be changed in an afternoon. A site built on the wrong structure gets rebuilt.

This is the honest reason hand coded and a website builder are not the same job. A builder lets you skip the structure step, and most people do, because nothing stops them.
Why it matters

Your website is the one thing you own outright. Social accounts can be suspended, a Google profile can be edited by strangers, and a platform can change its rules. The site is yours.

It is also what an AI assistant reads when someone asks it for a recommendation. Your Google profile puts you on the map. Your website is what gets quoted back.

What a rebuild does not do on its own is get you found. That is search work, and it is a different job. Anyone selling you a website as an SEO plan is selling you two things and doing one.

Scope

What is included, and what is not

Included
  • A call first, and the offer, goal and message worked out before any design
  • Sitemap and page structure, page by page, with what each one is for
  • Design and build, hand coded or in Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Framer or Carrd
  • Internal linking, and each page mapped to what people search for
  • Built for phones, and checked on real ones
  • Alt text on your images, always, never billed separately
  • Titles, descriptions, schema, canonical tags, sitemap.xml and robots.txt
  • Google Analytics and Search Console connected
  • Hosting set up in your name, on your account, at no extra charge. The bill is yours and stays yours
  • Draft privacy, terms and cookie text for a lawyer to check
  • A 404 page, which counts as one of your pages
  • A redirect map on any rebuild or platform move, so the rankings you have now survive it
  • Two rounds of revisions, because one is usually not enough
  • Launch checks, then a written handover of every account and login
Not included
  • The words. Copywriting is a separate service, because understanding a business well enough to write for it is its own job
  • Photography or filming. Bring your own
  • Preparing your photos. Cropping, compressing, converting and renaming is priced per photo
  • A logo. Branding is separate, and an AI logo is an add-on there
  • Brand work. Colours, type and guidelines belong on the branding page
  • Blog posts beyond setting the section up
  • An online store. That is its own build, quoted separately
  • A CMS on a coded site, so you can edit it yourself. That needs its own conversation about what you want to change
  • Keyword research. Coded sites get technical SEO as standard. Researching what people actually search, and a meeting about it, is more
  • A form connected, or booking and Calendly connected
  • A booking system connected. That is its own setup
  • Ongoing changes after launch, unless you want maintenance
  • Your domain and hosting fees. Those are yours, in your name, and they stay yours if we stop working together
What moves the price
  • How many pages
  • Whether you write the copy or I do
  • Whether you want a CMS so you can edit it yourself
  • How much content moves across from the old site
  • Whether you have the logins to what exists now
  • An online store, or booking, connected to it
  • How much motion and animation you want
  • Working inside your builder rather than in code, which is slower
Working together

How this one runs

More on how working together works.

Questions
Who writes the words, you or me?

Either. If you write them, the build is cheaper and usually slower, because a build stalls waiting on copy more often than anything else. If I write them, that is quoted as copywriting on top of the build. What I will not do is fill your site with placeholder text and call it finished.

Who provides the photos?

You do. I resize and compress what you have, and I will tell you plainly if what you have is hurting the site. Photography is not something I offer.

What if I do not have a logo?

A site can launch without one. Branding is separate work, and an AI generated logo, vectorized so it works at any size, is an add-on there. It is not the same thing as hiring a logo designer, and I would rather say that than let you assume otherwise.

What are the ongoing costs?

Your domain, usually $10 to $20 a year, and hosting, which varies. Both are registered in your name on your accounts, and you pay them directly. I do not mark them up and I do not hold them. If you want me to keep the site updated after launch that is maintenance, quoted monthly.

Will my Google rankings survive a redesign?

That is what the redirect map is for. Every old address points at its new one, so anything that ranked keeps its place. Sites lose rankings in a redesign when nobody does that step. What no one can promise is that rankings improve, because a redesign is not search work.

Can you work with the brand I already have?

Yes. If you have colours, type and a logo, the site uses them. If you have them but they are inconsistent everywhere else, that is a separate job on the branding page.

Will it work properly on phones?

Yes, and it is checked on real phones rather than by resizing a browser window. Most of the people who find you will never see the desktop version.

What about people with disabilities?

Alt text, keyboard navigation, colour contrast and readable structure are part of the build, not an extra. I am not going to claim a legal certification, because that is a specialist audit and a different profession.

Do I own it?

Yes. The domain is registered in your name, the hosting is your account, and the files are yours. You get a written list of everything and where it lives. Licensed things stay under their own terms, so fonts, stock photos and paid plugins belong to whoever sells them.

Do you build one page sites?

No. If one page is all you need, a website builder will do it better for you and cost you less. What you would be paying me for is the meetings, and on a single page that is not worth your money.

What counts as a page?

Every page you can navigate to, including the 404 page. Privacy and terms do not count and are included, because that is your policy text being placed rather than a page being designed.

How many revisions do I get?

Two rounds, included. One is usually not enough, which is why it is two rather than one. After that each round is quoted before it happens, based on what is actually changing.

Do you work in WordPress?

No. If you are on it and staying on it, I am not the right person, and I would rather say that now than take the job.

Related
Tell me about it

Send me the details

Four lines. Your answers arrive with the page you were reading, so I know what this is about before I call.

What is this about?

Pick at least one. More than one is fine.

or call ___ ___ ____

Got it.

I will look you up before I reply, so the first call is about your situation and not about basics.

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. In person across Palm Beach County, Broward County and the Treasure Coast. Anywhere by video.

I will search for your business

Seven searches on Google, Maps and an AI assistant. Screenshots, dated. No charge and no call needed.

Where else should I look?

Fill in the ones you have. Handle or link, either is fine.

No newsletter, no list. You get the screenshots either way.

Got it.

I will run the searches and send you what comes back, with the dates on them. If anything looks urgent I will say so.

Get a quote

Four lines. I read every one myself.

What is this about?

Pick at least one. More than one is fine.

I reply within one business day.

Got it.

I will look you up before I reply, so the first call is about your situation and not about basics.