WEB 101
Prerequisites: none. Bring your logo and your best photos.
Web design for Davidson businesses
What a hand-coded site includes, how the build runs and how the price is set.
Outline
A drive-thru ban means Davidson customers park and walk. Your site should make that trip feel easy.
Picture someone standing on the Green with a phone, searching for a bakery, a dentist or a plumber who can come out Thursday. The first result that answers them quickly gets the visit or the call. A slow, vague page loses them, no matter how good the business behind it is.
Course description
We build small-business websites from a blank file, in plain code, one business at a time. There is no theme underneath and no page builder. That keeps pages light on a phone signal, and it lets every page be shaped around the one thing a visitor came to find.
The biggest difference from a typical small-business site is the page plan. Rather than squeezing every service onto the home page, each thing you sell gets a page of its own, written in the plain words customers type. That page answers the common questions, shows proof such as reviews, licenses and photos of real jobs, and keeps a way to call or book in reach the whole time.
Outcomes
Search groundwork is the start. Ranking over time is what SEO 201 covers.
Learning outcomes
By launch day your business will have:
- An original design in your colors, built around your own photos.
- A page for every core service, each aimed at a search people really make.
- A phone-first layout with one-tap calling and forms that fit a thumb.
- Search groundwork done at launch: page titles, descriptions, structured data, a sitemap and Google Search Console.
- Tracking on calls and form sends so you can see what the site produces.
- Every form tested with real submissions before hand-off.
- Full ownership of the domain, the words, the images and the code.
Why hand-coded matters here
A downtown shop in a National Register district has a look people already recognize. A template made for a thousand other businesses rarely fits it. A hand-built site can borrow the real character of your storefront, your menu board or your finished work, and it stays quick because nothing unneeded ships with it.
It also changes what happens after launch. Plain files have no database to break and no stack of add-ons fighting each other, so site care is mostly small edits rather than repairs.
Sessions
Three rounds of changes are included in every quote.
Course schedule
Session 1
The consult
A half-hour call or a coffee. What you sell, who buys it, where they come from, and an honest read of whatever site you have now.
Session 2
The outline
Roger drafts the page list and a written quote. Nothing is built until you agree to both.
Session 3
Drafts and markup
You see the real site on a private link and mark it up. Three rounds of changes are included.
Session 4
Launch and hand-off
The site goes live on your domain, forms are tested with real submissions, and everything stays in your name.
Fees
Three build sizes, and each project gets a fixed quote in writing once Roger knows the page count and features. How quotes are worked out covers the rest, including care plans and payment terms.
| Size | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Unit A · Website builds, one fixed quote each | |
| Starter | Up to 5 pages. For an established business that mostly needs to look credible on a phone and be easy to call or email. |
| Growth | 8 to 12 pages. Every main service gets a page of its own, so each one has its own chance to be found in a search. |
| Custom | 12 pages and up. Long service menus, more than one location, or features that need extra planning and code. |
Case study
A labradoodle breeder in Mount Gilead came in with a few thin pages and families who couldn't find the waitlist. The rebuilt site opens with what puppy owners say and gives each litter its own form. Read the project notes.
FAQ
Office hours: websites
Questions owners ask before they sign up.
Can you fix my current site instead of replacing it?
Sometimes, and Roger will say so when a repair is the better deal. If the site lives inside a builder where every change takes an evening of fighting the editor, a rebuild usually costs less over a couple of years.
What do you need from me?
A half-hour conversation, your logo if you have one, the best photos of your work or space, and quick answers when the drafts arrive. Roger writes the copy.
Is the design a template?
No. Each site starts from an empty file and is shaped around one business, its customers and the way they decide.
Who writes the words?
We do, based on the consult and your notes. You read every page before it goes live and can change anything you like.
Sign-up sheet
Not sure your site needs rebuilding?
It might not. Send the link and Roger will tell you plainly whether a few fixes will do or a new build will pay for itself.