Fixed-price websites for small Niagara businesses

Nobody buys a transport truck to carry two ladders and a compressor around Ridgeway. You buy a half-ton, you get the box and the hitch you'll actually use, and you get back to work. It has to start on a cold February morning and it has to be paid off. That's the whole spec, and anybody who's ever priced a work truck understands it without needing a meeting about it.

A website can be bought the same way. That's what this is. A small, plain, working site, sized to a small business, at a price I'll give you before I start rather than after.

Most small business sites here start from $1,800.

What $1,800 gets you

A handful of pages, which for most shops means a home page, a page about the work, a page or two for the services people actually phone about, and a contact page. It works properly on a phone, because that's where nearly everyone will see it. Your phone number, your address, and your hours sit in the first screenful where people go looking for them. And the basic local search setup gets done, so Google has a clear idea of where you are and what you sell.

That's the starting point, and for a lot of businesses it's also the finish line. If you need more, say online booking, a store with real products, or twenty pages because you've genuinely got twenty services, the price goes up and you'll have that number in writing before any work starts. I'd rather have the awkward money conversation on day one than on invoice day.

How the work goes

The call comes first, and it takes about twenty minutes. What do you sell, who buys it, and what do you want somebody to do when they land on the site.

The quote comes next, in writing, with a number and a scope you can read in one sitting. If the number doesn't work, say so and we'll cut the scope until it does, or you can walk away owing me nothing.

The build follows. You'll see it while it's still rough, and we'll fix what wants fixing before it goes anywhere near the public.

The handover is the part most people forget to ask about, and it's the part that matters five years from now. The domain and the hosting stay in your name, you get the logins, and I'll show you how to change your own hours and prices so you can update a holiday closure yourself on a Sunday night.

Who's behind this

Me. Christopher Ross. I've been building things on the web since 1996 and working in WordPress since 2007, and I live in Fort Erie, so most of Niagara is a short drive and a familiar map. The bigger, more complicated projects run under my own name at thisismyurl.com. This brand is the small end of that work, done properly and priced plainly.

Call 905.682.4642. If I miss your call, I'll call back the same day.

Common questions

Do I own the site when it's done?

Yes. The domain gets registered in your business name, the hosting account is in your name, and the logins are yours. If you ever decide to move the site to somebody else, you can, and I'll help you pack it up.

I already have a Facebook page. Do I need a website too?

A social page is ground you rent, and the landlord changes the rules whenever it suits them. Your own site is ground you own: it turns up in search, it says exactly what you want it to say, and it's still sitting there the quarter a platform decides to bury business posts. Most shops run both, and that's the sensible answer.

What does it cost to keep running?

Hosting and the domain renew every year, and they're small. Budget something in the range of a phone bill, not a truck payment.

Tell me what you sell and I'll tell you what a site for it costs. Call 905.682.4642, or email [email protected] if that's easier.