// how it works

From first chat
to long after launch.

Every business is different and so is every website. The process isn't, and it's built so you always know what happens next. For a static site, the best part is this: you'll see a real, working draft of yours before you pay a penny. Here it is, start to finish.

// first chat free · a working draft in days · price fixed before the build · live in weeks, not months

01 · the first chat

Free, no obligation, and your questions come first.

A video call, usually, or a phone call if you'd rather. Half an hour to an hour. It's there to answer whatever you want to ask, and for me to understand the problem you're trying to solve rather than which pages you want. Are you promoting or selling? Is the audience local or everywhere? What should the website do for you in a year, not just next month? We'll also look at websites you like and which bits you'd want to take inspiration from. That conversation decides whether a static site or WordPress suits you, and whether I'm the right fit at all. If I'm not, I'll say so.

Afterwards, for a static site (the route most people take), the next step is better than a quote on paper. Send me whatever you've already got and I build you a real, working draft from it, completely free (more on that below). The fixed written quote comes once you've seen it. For a WordPress build, a formal written quote follows the call instead. Either way there's nothing to commit to on the call. If professional photography or video would help (and if you don't have any, it usually would), I work with a photographer and videographer and can fold that into the overall price.

cost: free
format: usually a video call · 30–60 min
afterwards: a free draft, then a fixed quote
obligation: none, questions welcome

02 · what I need from you

Send me everything. However messy.

I don't know your business. You do. If you run a restaurant, I don't know what you serve, what you're proud of, or what regulars come back for. So for a static site, before I build the draft, I ask for whatever already exists: photos, your Facebook page, the old website, any documents you've got lying around. Once we've agreed to go ahead, we do the fuller pass: text, images, logos, branding, anything you'd want the world to know. One document or ten, and it doesn't matter how well it's written. I want information and assets, not prose.

Already have a website? Even easier. I'll go through it and pull across everything worth keeping.

Turning that raw material into pages is my job: deciding what leads, what supports, and how it reads to a person skimming on a phone, a search engine, or an AI assistant summarising you to a potential customer.

03 · the build

Two routes to a first version.

Which one we take is decided in the first chat. Both end the same way: conversations back and forth over a real website until it's right.

// static site · the usual recommendation

A free first draft, then refine.

The heart of how I work: you see a real, working draft of your site, free and with no obligation, before there's ever a quote to sign.

01
I start from what we discussed
The first chat already covered what the site needs to do, the websites you like, and which bits you want to take inspiration from. Add whatever you've already got (photos, your Facebook page, the old site) and I go straight to work.
02
You get a real first draft, fast and free
Not a mockup: an actual working website, built from whatever you've given me, usually within a couple of days, and it costs you nothing. Everything on it is placed deliberately: for readers, for search engines, and for the AI assistants that increasingly read websites on people's behalf.
03
You decide where it goes
We go through it together on a call. Happy with the direction? We refine it into the finished site. Want to start the design fresh? We can. Not feeling it at all? That's fine too: you walk away owing nothing. Only once you're happy do I send a fixed written quote and a simple contract: 50% to start, 50% on completion.

Theme first, then make it yours.

No free first draft on this route: a static site is quick enough to build that I can show you one for nothing, but WordPress isn't. So here we start from a theme shortlist and a written quote, and shape it together from there.

01
I shortlist themes, you pick
The most cost-effective way to build a WordPress site is to start from a well-made theme rather than from zero. Working from what you told me in the first chat, I research themes that match what you're after and send you a shortlist to choose from, or we go around again if none of them land.
02
First iteration with your content
I build the site on your chosen theme with as much of your content as you can give me: your first real look at the website you're getting.
03
Polish it, or change direction
Then we decide together: refine this version, or go a different way? Better to answer that early than late. From there it's the same rhythm: review, revise, repeat.

Once you're happy with how it looks, I make it launch-ready.

This is the checklist most people don't know exists until they've built a website without it, and a fair summary of why you hire a developer instead of doing it yourself.

Every screen size
Checked and tuned on phone, tablet, laptop and desktop. For most local businesses, mobile isn't the edge case. It's most of your visitors.
Speed
Image optimisation, load times, how things arrive on the page. A slow site loses people before it says a word, and Google notices too.
SEO
Page titles, descriptions, structured data, heading hierarchy: the groundwork search engines actually reward, done page by page.
AI readability
AI assistants increasingly answer "find me a…" questions by reading websites. I structure yours so they describe you accurately. (No AI running on your site; this is about being legible to it.)
Accessibility
Built to WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard navigation, screen readers, colour contrast. Everyone can use the site, which is both right and good business.
Legal pages
Privacy policy, cookie policy and the rest: the unglamorous pages every business site legally needs, written and in place.

05 · launch & after

You sign off. It goes live. The measuring starts.

Nothing launches until you've signed it off. Then the site goes live on your domain, and I wire up Google Analytics and Google Search Console so you can see who's visiting and what they searched to find you. It's also when we talk about a Google Business Profile and anything else that helps people find the site.

After that: hosting keeps it online for a monthly fee, and on a static site it includes up to an hour of changes every month. Bigger work, like a new page, is quoted first or billed at £55/hour in 30-minute increments, with no retainer and no minimum.

The whole thing, in one sentence: a free chat, a real working draft to react to before you commit, a fixed written quote once you've seen it, and nothing goes live without your sign-off.

// and how long does all of that take?

Weeks, not months.

Static sites are quick to build, and that's most of the answer. From agreeing to go ahead, a small static site is typically live within one to two weeks; larger builds and WordPress take a few. One caveat: you set most of the pace, because how quickly content and feedback come back is what moves the clock.

So treat these as the typical shapes, not a promise. Your written quote comes with a target date for your project: a real one, agreed before work starts.

free first draft: a couple of days
small static site, live: typically 1–2 weeks
larger or wordpress build: a few weeks
the real variable: how fast you get back to me

From first chatto long after launch.

Free, no obligation, and your questions come first.

Send me everything. However messy.

Two routes to a first version.

A free first draft, then refine.

I start from what we discussed

You get a real first draft, fast and free

You decide where it goes

Theme first, then make it yours.

I shortlist themes, you pick

First iteration with your content

Polish it, or change direction

Once you're happy with how it looks, I make it launch-ready.

Every screen size

Speed

SEO

AI readability

Accessibility

Legal pages

You sign off. It goes live. The measuring starts.

Weeks, not months.

See your site before you pay for it.

From first chat
to long after launch.