For businesses that have outgrown their website, or never had one that did the job. Here’s how I build them, what goes into each stage, and why some cost more than others.
A cheap site is usually a template with your logo on it, and if you only need to exist online, that’s fine. If the website is meant to bring in enquiries, quotes or bookings, the design is the last and smallest part of the job.
Every website I build goes through the same five stages before it launches. Here they are, with examples from real builds.
I’ve built for a plasterer on the Gold Coast, a pizza bar in Casuarina, a mortgage broker in North Perth and a venue finder that works worldwide. Their customers have nothing in common, but the same five things decided whether each site brought in work, and all of them get sorted before anyone picks a colour.
Who needs to find you, what they need to know, and what happens next. A builder checks crew capacity and documentation before sending plans. An EA booking a conference wants someone to trust with the decision. Someone looking for a broker wants to know exactly who they'll deal with. Get the buyer wrong and no design will save it.
"Quality you can trust" is on every trade site. "The specification comes first" tells a builder exactly what kind of subcontractor Coastside is. "The right venue isn't searched. It's sourced." says what CVBS does that a search box can't. I keep cutting generic lines until the site sounds like the business and nobody else.
Google has to understand what you do and where you do it. For a trade that means services and service areas, structured and connected. For CVBS it meant a page for every destination from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, each linked to the services behind it. That’s why search gets planned with the structure of the site instead of added at the end.
Every site has one next step, and it's different every time. Send the plans. Submit a brief. Book a table. Book a chat. Every section either builds the case for that step or it comes out. Nothing sits on the page without a reason.
A builder checks it on a phone on site. An EA checks it between meetings. Someone books a table from the couch. Pages that load fast, forms that send, layouts that hold at every screen size. It’s the part nobody notices until it doesn’t work.
Every business is different, so every quote is too. Tell me what you need the site to do and I'll tell you what it takes, including when the cheaper option is the right one.
Tell me what you needI'll go through it the same way I go through every build and tell you plainly what's costing you enquiries. If a new site isn't the answer, I'll say so.