Web design agency: sites planned from search data, built to book calls

What is the difference between web design and web development?

Web design is what a visitor sees and reads: the layout, the type, the colors, the images and the words on each page. Web development is the code underneath: the pages themselves, the forms, the speed, the connections to other systems and the markup that search engines read. Website design and website development are the same two jobs under longer names.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics draws the same line: digital designers create and test a site’s layout, functions and navigation, and web developers create and maintain websites, including technical parts such as performance. We do both, and we start a step earlier: with which pages the site should have and what each one has to say, decided from what your buyers search for.

What does good website design work look like?

To judge an agency’s work, open a few sites it has built and check them for these:

• Each page has one job: it answers one main search or one buyer’s question, and the site has a page for each search worth winning.
• The words answer buyers’ questions: what the service is, who it suits, what it costs to run and how it starts, in the words buyers use and with facts that can be checked.
• Machines can read it: structured data, a sitemap, descriptive addresses and robots rules that let search engines and AI crawlers in.
• It works on a phone: pages load quickly and read well at phone width, with nothing to pinch or zoom.
• It’s measured from launch day: analytics and Search Console are connected when the site goes live, so there is a record of what it does from the first visit.
• Enquiries reach a person: forms are tested, protected from spam and sent to someone who will answer them.

A site can look polished and still miss most of these, so ask the agency to show you each one on a site it has built.

What should you ask a web design agency before you hire one?

Ask every agency the same questions and compare the answers side by side. Google’s own guide to hiring search help suggests asking to see past work, how success will be measured, what experience the agency has in your industry, and whether it will tell you every change it makes and why. For a website, add these:

• Who writes the words: if it’s you, plan the time it takes; if it’s the agency, ask what they write from and who checks the facts.
• Where the page list comes from: ask to see the research behind it, the searches and competitors it rests on, and why each page exists.
• What happens to your old addresses: on a rebuild, each old page that has visitors or links should redirect to its new one.
• What you own and what they run: get in writing, before you sign, what you own (your domain), what the agency builds and runs for you, and what happens if you leave. With us, your domain and the material you give us (your words, photos and logo) stay yours, and we design, build, host and run the site.
• What the site costs to run: ask what the monthly plan covers, what costs extra and who answers when something breaks.

Be wary of anyone who promises a position in Google. Google’s guide says no one can promise a top ranking, and it advises caution with anyone who won’t explain what they plan to do. Our guide on how to choose a web design company goes further.

Which kind of web design work do you need?

Most website work starts from one of a few situations. Find yours, then read the page for it.

If more than one row fits, the 15-minute call sorts out which comes first. The industry pages below cover how buyers in each industry search, and what we would build for them.

How does a web design project run with us?

It begins with a 15-minute call about what the site has to do. When the work fits, we write a proposal scoped to your site: the pages we would build, the price, and how the site is looked after once it is live. You approve it before any work starts. Then come the research and the page plan, the words and the design, and the build on a private preview, where you review the site and send us one list of changes. At launch we redirect the old addresses and connect analytics, Search Console and Bing. From then on, a monthly plan keeps the site running.

We build in our own system: recent sites run on Astro, and some on Next.js. We don’t build on WordPress, Shopify or Webflow, host sites on your own server, design a logo or brand identity on its own, or make app-store apps. We don’t move your domain’s registrar or nameservers either. If what you need is one of those, we’ll say so on the call, and if a website builder would serve you better, we’ll say that too.

The one site we name is the Alvy Logistics website. Its 70 pages were rebuilt on Astro in our own system, and we still run the site with Alvy. Alvy is owned by our co-founder Noah Alvarez, and DSI is an Alvy company.

What does it cost to keep a website running?

A website keeps costing money after launch: it needs hosting, and its software, backups and security need regular attention. Agencies sell that upkeep as a monthly maintenance or care plan, and what a plan covers varies. At Websults, the entry plan covers monthly updates, a monthly backup, uptime monitoring, basic security checks and 30 minutes of content or design updates. Newmedia’s maintenance retainer has three parts: routine updates to the software, an automatic backup every day and continuous monitoring of the site’s security.

The market’s range for an established local business is $99 to $350 a month (Websults, WebFX and Newmedia), and for a national business $1,000 to $3,000 a month (Newmedia and WebFX). For a multi-location or regional business it is $350 to $1,000 a month (WebFX and Newmedia), a thin range: few of the price pages we read give a figure for that level.

The scope of our own monthly plan is set in your proposal. Website maintenance explains the monthly work, and website design cost sets out the market’s build ranges at each level. To find out what your site would need, and what it would take to run, book a 15-minute call.