In Web Design, the research process is referred to as “Discovery.” I will need all the details about your business, including your wants and needs, in order to provide a cost estimate of your project. All of this information is also essential for me to strategize a plan for your brand and website – the design, how to market your business successfully and how you will connect with your audience. I’ll be asking lots of questions! This deep dive is necessary in determining the elements and functionalities that will be most beneficial to enhancing your particular business’ online presence!

My Brand and Web Design Onboarding Questionnaires help us get started by asking some of these questions. They can be completed & submitted online, or to review these prompts and start thinking about your responses, you can use my printable versions as well. 

Some businesses may want to use an industry-specific web designer or agency. As a freelance web designer, I design websites for any business. When you hire me for services, your business is my business for the duration of your project. 

Absolutely! We'll talk about what, if any, of the information and content from your existing website is still accurate or relevant as well as what you like and dislike about it. This is a great help in determining what functionalities you currently utilize or wish to have that your website lacks. 

For any potential customers who are on the fence about whether their site needs to be updated or redesigned – I offer free verbal reviews of your website, under 3 pages. 

For a small fee, I offer written reviews of websites between 1-10 pages and websites with 10-50 pages which includes a detailed copy of my site analysis, along with problems and solutions, in pdf format.

Whether we redesign your current site or start from scratch depends on several factors such as, age of the site, validity of the existing content and information, the website platform and cost. It may be more cost effective to start from scratch or there may be a CMS platform that is a much better fit for your website.

I offer a variety of other business services in addition to web design. 

BRAND DEVELOPMENT: Whether you are an existing business that needs to rebrand or a newly formed business that is seeking professional branding for the first time, my brand development packages offer everything from logo design/creation, brand patterns, brand icons, typography and a custom color palette to business card design and custom QR codes.

SOCIAL MEDIA: I will set up your Facebook or Instagram accounts with custom URL’s, all your business contact information including description and mission statement. For Facebook accounts, I include your cover design and upload your logo as your profile pictures. For Instagram, I can design on-brand highlights to feature hot topics that tell your visitors about your business, the services you provide, your process, reviews and more. All highlights include highlight covers.

I also offer social media content creation on an hourly basis or on a monthly retainer. This is great for businesses who want to have on-branded content regularly to stay connected to their audience, build their client base and ensure important messages are posted in a timely manner. My retainer options allow you to obtain dedicated professional services each month without the overhead of hiring another employee.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING DESIGN: I have designed a wide range of advertising and marketing materials for both digital and print, including but not limited to: newspapers, magazines, programs and playbills, banners, signage, postcards and flyers, brochures, posters, full catalogs and even billboards.

BUSINESS PHOTOGRAPHY: This service has been added based off a regular client need. I have done product photography (professional images for your e-commerce website of all your products), location photography (on-site shots of your brick-and-mortar store or special events photos for use on your website, social media accounts and advertising), headshots, and website content photography.

CONTENT WRITING: Writing isn’t everyone’s favorite – that is why I offer this service in addition to web design. Some examples are articles, blog posts, product descriptions, email newsletters, social media posts, video & image descriptions and marketing copy. The goal of content writing is to inform, educate, or persuade readers. I research topics, write in a clear and concise style that is in my client’s brand voice and ensure correct grammar and spelling.

Once I have a complete picture of your needs, I’ll be able to provide you with timeline or schedule for completion. For web design, we’ll nail down important dates for your revisions and launch. Things that factor into the timeline are whether it’s a basic, informational site or a larger e-commerce site. Another consideration is how much content you already have prepared and ready.

Collaboration is key and schedules must be respected on both sides. It is just as much your responsibility to be available for meetings, content review, feedback and revisions so that a project does not drag out or become delayed.

What will be required from you varies depending on the services you need. Completing my onboarding questionnaire(s) is a start. If you already have branding, it is great to send any related files pertaining to your brand. Content is the big one for web design. For larger projects, I try to request your content in stages, when possible, so as to not overwhelm you. You will need written content and any photography you think is applicable to your website. For all the details, a great resource is my blog: Starting Your Web Design Project: Preparation & Tips.

What if I don’t have much content? For any size site, I am happy to do the content writing and photography. How much content you can supply or need me to do will be factored into the overall project cost.

I have yet to outsource any of my projects. As a freelancer, I have skills in many different areas on a proficient level. With that said, it is impossible to be an expert in any and every area where a client may have a need. If this should be the case, I am very transparent with my clients in what my capabilities are and would certainly discuss outsourcing a particular portion of a project if I felt it was in their best interest. I would still handle everything for you and be your point of contact. I only shine when you do!

A website builder platform is used to build and manage a website without having to code it from scratch or know how to code at all. It’s not often a website is coded from scratch, unless your developer is creating enterprise-level websites. 

Here are the benefits and why I use website builder platforms to build your site:

It handles the infrastructure of your site so as a designer I can focus on the content, layout and user experience which results in more conversions and leads.

It allows for built-in and typically customizable user roles and permissions so I can train my clients on various aspects of website maintenance and updates that they'll handle themselves on a daily basis after launch – giving them some power and control over their own website.

It has SEO features and extensions that allow me to optimize your site for search engines in the following ways: customizing page titles and meta descriptions, creating URL structures that are SEO-friendly, adding image alt text, creating 301 Redirects and customized 401 Pages.

They also have multiple plug-ins and features to optimize functionality of your website in regard to things like Blogging or Content Scheduling, for example.

Depending on the plan, it can include content management systems for helping you grow and manage your business and content all in one place.

The two I prefer are Wix Studio and Ionos Website Creator (this version not available to the public). Which platform I’d recommend for your business depends on what your goals are, how you intend to handle maintenance and updates after launch, your budget for annual website maintenance and hosting fees is and the type of functionalities you hope to achieve. Largely, clients depend on me to recommend a platform for their website but if you have a particular one in mind or that you’re currently using, let me know!

YES and YES.

Responsive refers to the ability of your website to still look great when the layout becomes adjusted due to the device screen size it displays on. I love Wix Studio because it allows for responsiveness in all three device screen sizes: desktop, laptop and mobile. Some have yet to include seamless responsiveness on tablet sizes. I optimize each web design for different device screens to ensure everything displays optimally before going live.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This question, more simply stated, is asking if I make sure there are things in your website that help your business get found more easily on search engines like Google. Some of the SEO strategies I implement are: logical navigation and page titles, adding meta description, keyword research, image optimization, alt tagging and proper URL structure. These things are essential in web design. While I want your website to be user friendly, on brand, informative and “look pretty,” the main point of your website is to also reach your target audience and increase conversion rates.

This is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I can tell you FOR CERTAIN, it’s not even close to a million dollars! 

I wish I could provide an answer – but the cost of your site depends on so many variables: how many pages, how much content, whether I’m doing the writing and photography, whether you are supplying all the content, if it’s an informational site or an e-commerce site and so on…I can tell you to start your budget at $750.00