Who it is for
You have no website, or one you would rather not send people to. You sell your time or your expertise, and you need somewhere that explains what you do and lets people get hold of you.
What you end up with
A live site on your own domain: fast, readable on a phone, usable with a keyboard and a screen reader, and with an enquiry form that reaches your inbox.
What is included
- The full written guide — every step from an empty screen to a site that is live.
- A tailored recommendation: which tool to build on, how to structure your pages, and what to write on each, for your business specifically.
- A costed comparison of the main website builders, so the choice is made on facts rather than whoever advertises hardest.
- Copy prompts for the five pages nearly every small business site needs.
- A launch checklist, and the short list of things worth checking every month afterwards.
The contents
All 16 chapters, listed.
This is the whole guide for this tier.
Part one — Building the site
16 chapters
- 01
Decide what the site is for
One page, one job. Working out the single action you want a visitor to take, before a word is written, is what separates a site that produces enquiries from a brochure nobody reads.
- 02
Your address on the internet
Choosing and registering a domain, what a fair price is, which of the upsells at checkout are worth taking, and which are pure margin.
- 03
Getting mail at your own domain
Why an address at your own domain matters more than the site design, the difference between forwarding and a real mailbox, and how to set one up without breaking the other.
- 04
Choosing your tool honestly
Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Shopify, Framer, or code. What each is genuinely good at, what each costs over three years, and how to tell which one your situation actually calls for.
- 05
The five pages, and what goes on each
Home, services, about, contact, and the one most people miss. What each page has to accomplish and the order to build them in.
- 06
Writing the words
The hardest part of the whole project, and the part no tool does for you. How to write a headline that says something, what to cut, and how to stop sounding like everyone else.
- 07
Images without hiring a photographer
Where to get pictures you are legally allowed to use, how to size and compress them so they do not make the site slow, and why the photo of your actual premises beats the stock shot every time.
- 08
Design restraint
Why homemade sites look homemade, and the small number of rules — one typeface, few colours, consistent spacing, generous whitespace — that fix most of it.
- 09
Building the pages
Sitting down and doing it: the order of operations, what to get right first, and the traps that cost an afternoon each.
- 10
The enquiry form
Getting a form that works, making sure it lands somewhere you read, keeping spam out, and — most importantly — making sure a failed send never silently loses somebody's message.
- 11
Accessible by default
What accessibility actually requires, why it matters legally and commercially, and how to test yours with free tools in about twenty minutes.
- 12
Making it fast
What makes a site slow (it is almost always images), how to measure it properly, and what a good score is worth chasing versus where to stop.
- 13
Getting found
The search work that genuinely moves the needle for a local business, in order of return: Google Business Profile, page titles, real content. And the expensive things that do not.
- 14
The legal minimum in Canada
The privacy policy you need and what it has to say under PIPEDA, when cookies oblige you to ask permission, and the anti-spam rules that apply the moment you email anyone.
- 15
Launch
The checklist to run before you point the domain at it, in order, including the ones people only discover they missed after going live.
- 16
The month after
What to check, what to ignore, how to make changes without breaking things, and the signals that tell you it is time to get help.
Not just a document
A plan written for your business.
The guide tells you how everything works. The recommendation tells you what to do, given what you actually sell and who you sell it to.
You fill in a short form after you buy, and it comes back within five business days.
What the recommendation covers
- Which tool to build on, named, with the reasoning and what it will cost you a year.
- Your site structure: the pages to build, in the order to build them.
- What each page needs to say, and the one action it should be pushing towards.
- What to skip — the features you are considering that would not earn their keep.
- Where you are most likely to get stuck, given the path you have chosen.
Foundation — $500
Credited in full against a build if you decide you would rather we did it, within 90 days.