Grow your business
You already
started.
The site exists. The logo exists. Something about it has stopped doing its job, and you can feel it even if you cannot name it yet. Naming it is the first thing.
The business grew. The website did not grow with it.
This is the most common thing I see. A site that was right for the business three years ago is now describing a company that no longer exists: old services, old prices, a photo of a van you sold, a page nobody has opened since it was built.
It is not a sign that you did anything wrong. It is a sign the business moved. The site just needs to catch up, and sometimes catching up is a smaller job than you are expecting.
The diagnosis
What "it's just not working" usually turns out to mean.
People rarely arrive with a diagnosis. They arrive with a feeling. In almost every case it is one of these five.
People land on it and leave.
Usually the first screen does not say what you do in words a customer would use. They are not rejecting the business. They cannot tell what it is fast enough to care.
Nobody can find it.
Sometimes a real search problem. Just as often the site is built in a way search engines cannot read, or it never told anyone where it operates.
It looks fine on a computer and bad on a phone.
Most of your visitors are on a phone. If the phone version is the desktop version squeezed, they are seeing your worst layout, not your best.
It is out of date and I cannot change it.
The person who built it is gone, or the tool is locked, or nobody wrote down the password. Extremely common, entirely fixable.
It works, but it does not look like us anymore.
The business got better and the brand stayed where it was. This one is real, and it is usually the cheapest of the five to fix.
Tell me which of these sounds like you, and I will tell you whether it is a repair or a rebuild. Sometimes it is neither, and I will tell you that too.
Three ways to grow
Repair, rebuild, or push. Not always in that order.
The right one depends on what is actually broken. That is the whole reason the first conversation exists.
A repair
For when the site is fundamentally fine and the problem is specific. The cheapest honest answer, and often the right one.
- Rewrite the pages that are not pulling their weight
- Fix the phone layout properly
- Update photos, services, hours and prices
- Get you back in control of your own content
A rebuild
For when the structure is the problem. Rearranging a site that is organized wrong costs more than building it right.
- Reorganize around what customers actually came for
- New design on your existing brand, or a refresh of both
- Built to be found, and built to be edited
- Nothing lost: old content, links and email carry over
A push
For when the site is doing its job and the problem is that not enough people are seeing it.
- Campaign creative for social and search
- Landing pages built for one specific offer
- Printed material, signage and vehicle graphics
- Motion and video for the places that reward it
No prices here either. What this costs depends entirely on which of the three you need, and I cannot know that until I have looked at what you have. Looking is free.
Also under Grow
When the site is fine and nobody is seeing it.
Sometimes "it is not working" is not a repair or a rebuild. The site is doing its job and there is simply not enough traffic reaching it. That is a different problem with a different conversation, and it has its own page, including the five things I want to be true before I would take your ad budget.
Performance marketing + paid media →Sometimes
the site
is not the
problem.
A website cannot fix an offer nobody wants, a price nobody understands, or a phone nobody answers. If that is what is going on, a new site will cost you money and change nothing, and you deserve to hear that before you spend it.
I would rather tell you that than take the job. It has happened, and the conversation is short and free. A designer who says yes to everything is not a good sign.
When the site genuinely is the bottleneck, you will know within one conversation, and so will I.
How it works
It starts by looking at what you already have.
-
01
Send me the link
The site, and a sentence about what is bothering you. You do not need to diagnose it. That is my job.
-
02
I tell you what I would change
Repair, rebuild or push, what it would cost, and what I would leave alone. Within 24 hours, in writing, and specific enough to act on even if you hire someone else.
-
03
We do it without going dark
Your current site stays up while the new one is built. Nothing goes offline, and your email keeps working throughout.
-
04
It launches, and it stays current
Hosting, backups and updates stay with me if you want them, so the next three years do not end up in the same place.
Two rebuilds
Both of these had a website already.
Website redesign, UX
Whittier Uptown Association
Everything Uptown does, in one place people can use. The old site had the information and no way through it.
Read the case study →
Website redesign, UX, campaign
GameMine
From corporate website to entertainment brand. Six years on, the structure is still there.
Read the case study →Before you ask
The questions that keep people from calling.
I do not know who built my site or where it lives.
Very normal. I can usually work out where a site is hosted and who registered the domain from the outside, and tell you what you would need to take it back.
Will my site go down while you work on it?
No. The new one gets built alongside the old one and switched over when it is ready. Your email is untouched throughout.
Do I have to move my hosting to you?
No. It is usually simpler and cheaper if you do, and I will explain why, but a rebuild does not depend on it.
I like my logo. Does it have to change?
No. Plenty of rebuilds keep the logo exactly as it is. If I think it is holding you back I will say so once, and then respect your answer.
Will I lose my search rankings?
Not if it is done properly. Old addresses get pointed at the new pages so links and search results keep working. This is the step cheap rebuilds skip.
What if I only need a small fix?
Then ask for the small fix. Not everything needs to become a project, and I would rather do a good hour of work for you than sell you a rebuild you did not need.
Start here
Send me
the link.
One sentence about what is bothering you is enough. I will look at what you have and tell you what I would change, what it would cost, and what I would leave alone.