Willcocks Web // freelance web developer

// how it works

From first chat
to long after launch.

No client is the same and no website is the same — but the process is, and it's built so you always know what happens next. And for a static site, the heart of it 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 before you commit · price fixed before the build

01 · the first chat

Free, no obligation, and your questions come first.

Usually a video call, sometimes a coffee. Half an hour to an hour, and the point of it is to answer whatever you want to ask — and for me to understand what problem you're trying to solve, not what 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 honestly, 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: I build you a real, working draft first, completely free (more on that below), and the fixed price comes once you've seen it. For a WordPress build, a formal written quote follows the call instead. Either way there is 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 · once we've agreed to go ahead

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 once the project's agreed, this stage is about collecting as much as possible: text, images, logos, branding, anything you'd want the world to know. One document or ten, I genuinely don't care 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: meetings 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 is ever a quote to sign.

  1. 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 — so I go straight to work with that.

  2. 02

    You get a real first draft, fast — and free

    Not a mockup — an actual working website, built from your content, 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.

  3. 03

    You decide where it goes

    We sit down and go through it together. 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.

More on static sites →

// wordpress · when you need a cms

Theme first, then make it yours.

No free first draft on this route — a static site can be stood up fast enough to preview for nothing, but WordPress can't. So here we start from a theme and a written quote, and shape it together from there.

  1. 01

    I shortlist themes, you pick

    The most cost-effective way to build WordPress is starting 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.

  2. 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 — the first honest look at what your website will actually be.

  3. 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.

More on WordPress →

04 · the finishing pass

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 the majority 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 actually find the site.

After that: hosting keeps it online for a monthly fee, and changes are £55/hour in 30-minute increments — no retainer, no minimum. Most clients change a handful of things a year.

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.

// next step

Got a project? Let's talk.

A free call to talk through what you need and whether I can help. No follow-up sales pressure if it isn’t a fit.

Book a call See the work