Build · WordPress
We work in your CMS, not around it.
If somebody on your side changes a price or posts a photo every week, moving platforms is a cost with nothing on the other side of it. We work in the CMS you already know.
The short answer
What a WordPress web design company actually does: builds inside your CMS instead of replacing it.
A WordPress web design company builds your site inside WordPress rather than on its own proprietary system, so the people who already publish there keep publishing there. The work itself is the same as any build: structure, speed, conversion. What changes is where it lives and who can edit it afterwards.
The case for staying is boring and it is usually right. A migration buys you a redirect map, a learning curve, plus a month of small breakages. For a team that already knows where the editor is, that is spend with no return attached.
What we change sits underneath. Page structure, internal linking, the markup that tells Google and the AI assistants what each page is about: none of that arrives by installing a theme, and none of it is a property WordPress gives you for free.
The honest limit: WordPress is not always the right answer. A five-page site with nobody on staff to publish anything is carrying a database, a plugin stack and an update schedule it does not need. Static hosting is faster and cheaper in that situation.
The other honest part is upkeep. Core releases, plugin patches, a backup somebody has actually restored once. Left alone for a year, a WordPress site becomes the security problem, and that is a real running cost rather than a scare tactic.
What arrives
What you get: 6 deliverables that survive the handover.
- 01
A build on your own hosting
The site ships into accounts in your name, with the domain, the database plus the admin login all yours. No proprietary page builder only we can open, and no hostage arrangement if you ever decide to leave.
- 02
An editor your team can use
Blocks and templates set up so somebody non-technical can change a price, swap a photo, or add a service page without calling anyone. That ability is the entire argument for staying on WordPress.
- 03
A plugin stack kept short
Every plugin is code somebody else maintains and a door somebody else can leave open. We build with the fewest we can get away with, and we write down what each one is there to do.
- 04
Search structure built in
Titles, headings, schema markup, internal links: set at the template level so every new page inherits them. An SEO plugin hands you a set of empty fields. It does not fill them in, and neither does the theme.
- 05
A speed budget on mobile
WordPress gets slow through images nobody resized and plugins nobody removed. We set a page-weight target and build against it, measured on a mid-range phone rather than a desktop sitting in an office.
- 06
Update discipline with a name on it
Somebody has to run the updates, hold a backup, then check the site still works. Either that is you and we hand over the checklist, or it is the Care Plan at $99 a month. We will not leave it undecided.
Fit
Who this fits: 4 signs it is you.
WordPress earns its keep when somebody on your side actually publishes. If nobody has logged into the admin in eight months, the platform is not what is holding the business back.
This is you if:
- Your team already writes posts or updates pages in WordPress.
- You have content, forms or plugins you would rather not rebuild.
- You want an in-house person able to edit without a developer.
- Your current WordPress site works but converts badly.
This is not you if:
- You have a five-page site and nobody who publishes. Static hosting is faster and costs less to keep alive.
- You want WordPress because you heard the word, not because anyone in the business uses it.
- Nobody will own the updates and you do not want the Care Plan. An unpatched site is not a finished one.
- You need a storefront with heavy custom checkout logic, which is usually a different platform and a different quote.
How the work runs
How it runs: 4 steps from audit to handover.
- 01
Audit what exists
A free Snapshot first, back in a few business days, then the fuller 300+ point teardown if you want the whole picture. Plugins, speed, structure, whatever is already ranking: recorded before anybody touches a theme.
- 02
Decide stay or move
If WordPress is genuinely wrong for your situation, we say so here, before you have paid for a build. That answer costs us the bigger invoice often enough to be worth stating.
- 03
Build the templates
Design plus the block set your team will actually use, structured so adding a new service page is a ten-minute job rather than a support ticket.
- 04
Hand over the keys
Logins, hosting, a written record of what every plugin does, then a short walkthrough. You own it outright whether or not you keep us on the Care Plan.
Proof, not a pitch
Built by people who ran the truck first.
We ran a fence company across three states on a website we had to update ourselves between quotes. A CMS a busy operator can actually drive is the difference between a site that stays current and one that quietly ages into the next redesign.
- 300+
- Points in the Deep Audit, worked by hand
- 36
- Hyperlocal pages shipped in one build
- 14
- Categories in the Deep Audit, worked by hand
Every point listed in the report appendix
6 service areas × 6 services, same engagement
300+ points, $1,500
Build
What it costs: published, not quoted.
WordPress builds price on the build ladder from $1,500 for the Starter site, $2,500 for Growth, or larger custom work from $3,000. A rank-safe migration line item gets added wherever an existing site has rankings that have to survive the move. What moves the number is page count, how much of the writing falls to us, plus whether we rebuild inside your current install or start clean.
Every build price, on one page| Tier | Price | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Starter site The core site a local operator actually needs: services, service area, proof, plus a phone number that is never more than a thumb away. | $1,500 one-time | Page count, and how much of the content we write for you. Not included. Per-city page sets and published pricing pages are the Growth site. Ongoing search work is a separate monthly engagement. |
| Growth site The Starter site plus the pages that earn search traffic on their own: per-service and per-city pages, published pricing, and the proof library. | $2,500 one-time | How many service areas you need covered, and how many services get their own page. Not included. Custom application work sits in the Custom tier. Moving off an old site that already ranks? Rank-safe migration attaches to any build as a $400 line item. |
| Custom builds Larger builds and custom work, plus migrations where an existing site has rankings that have to survive the move. | from $3,000 one-time | Whether there are rankings to carry across, and how much of the build is bespoke rather than assembled. Not included. Rank-safe migration off an existing site attaches as a $400 line item where there are rankings to carry across. |
Objections and questions
Questions we get asked: 6 answers.
These are the questions that come up on a first call about WordPress, including the two where the honest answer is not the one that sells a build.
Ask us something else How much does a WordPress website cost?
The Starter site is $1,500 and the Growth site is $2,500, both one-time, both handed over in your own accounts. Larger custom work starts at $3,000. A migration that has to carry existing rankings across can attach to any of those tiers as a rank-safe line item, so the floor is $1,500 rather than the top of the ladder. Separately, WordPress needs upkeep: hosting, core and plugin updates, backups, uptime. That is either your own time against a checklist we give you, or the Care Plan at $99 a month. What moves the price inside a tier is page count and how much of the writing falls to us rather than to you.
Should I move off WordPress?
Usually not. If your team publishes in it every week, a migration buys you a redirect map, a training curve, plus a month of small breakages, and the site is often no faster afterwards for reasons that had nothing to do with WordPress. Move when there is a specific reason you can name: a five-page site nobody edits, a security history you cannot clean up, or a plugin stack so tangled that rebuilding costs less than untangling. We will tell you which one you are. If the answer is stay, we say stay.
Is WordPress good for SEO?
WordPress does not rank anything on its own. It is a publishing system, and it will happily let you publish a site with no headings, duplicate titles and a sitemap full of tag archives. What helps is that it gives you full control of what search actually reads: URLs, headings, structured data, redirects, page speed. Plenty of platforms do not. Installing an SEO plugin gives you a set of empty fields rather than rankings, and somebody who knows what belongs in them still has to fill them in.
Who is responsible for keeping WordPress updated?
Somebody has to be, and it needs writing down. Core releases, plugin patches, PHP versions, a backup that has been restored once to prove it works. Most WordPress sites that get hacked were never targeted. They were running a known hole that had a patch available for months. If you have someone in-house who will do it on a schedule, do that. If not, the Care Plan at $99 a month covers hosting, updates, backups, uptime monitoring, plus the small edits that otherwise sit on a list for a year.
Can I edit the site myself after you build it?
That is the reason to build in WordPress at all. We set up page templates and blocks so changing a price, adding a service or swapping a photo is a five-minute job for somebody non-technical. At handover you get the admin logins, the hosting account plus a short walkthrough. The failure we build against is the site where every small change needs a developer, because those sites go stale inside a year and the stale site becomes the excuse for the next redesign.
Should I use a page builder like Elementor or Divi?
They make a site quick to assemble and slow to load, and they lock your content into their own markup, so leaving one usually means rebuilding every page. We build with the block editor that ships with WordPress instead, which keeps page weight down and keeps your content in a format that outlives any single plugin. If you already run a builder and your team is comfortable in it, we will work inside it rather than force a rebuild you did not ask for. We will just be straight about what it costs you in speed.
Related services
What this pairs with: the rest of the stack.
Every one of these is sold on its own, and none of them needs the others to work. WordPress Web Design sits inside Small Business Web Design, which is where the whole line is laid out side by side.
- 01 Small Business Web Design A site built around how customers actually find and choose you, handed over in full when it ships. Read more
- 02 Website Redesign Rebuilt on modern architecture without losing what already ranks. Read more
- 03 Website Maintenance Updates, backups, speed fixes, plus the small edits you never get to. Read more
- 04 Technical SEO Crawl, index, speed, schema. The plumbing under the rankings. Read more
- 05 Conversion Rate Optimization Find where the traffic you already have quietly leaks away. Read more
- 06 On-Page SEO Titles, structure, copy. All of it answering the query outright. Read more
Trades
Who we do this for: named by trade.
A remodeler posting a project gallery every week needs a different WordPress setup than a roofer who changes one price a year. We scope the editor around whoever actually logs in.
- 01 Contractor Website Design A site that reads like a firm homeowners trust with a six-figure job. Read more
- 02 Remodeling Marketing Long consideration cycles need proof published, not promised. Read more
- 03 SEO for Roofers Storm-season demand is won in the map pack, not the phone book. Read more
- 04 HVAC Marketing Emergency calls, maintenance plans, and the seasons that pay for the year. Read more
- 05 SEO for Landscaping Weekly maintenance and $50k installs need separate routes in. Read more
- 06 Cleaning Company Marketing Residential and commercial are two funnels, not one page. Read more
Free snapshot · paid teardown
Send us your site: 300+ points, worked by hand.
A short, sharp look: the top handful of findings, scored, delivered by email. What's broken, in plain English.
Want the full punch list? The Deep Audit is $1,500: the same crawler and link indexes the top-tier agencies run, plus live map-pack checks town by town and AI-assistant citation checks almost nobody local does. 300+ points across all 14 categories, plus a prioritized 90-day plan. Credited in full toward your first month if you hire us within 60 days.
Snapshot delivered in a few business days
It's yours either way. Hand it to your own developer, or your own AI, and it still pays for itself. If you hire us, it costs you nothing.
Site & search audit · what we check
300+ points
- Crawl, indexation and site security 30 pts
- Duplicate signals, structure and internal links 39 pts
- Speed and Core Web Vitals 28 pts
- The experience on a phone 14 pts
- Money pages: content, depth and freshness 24 pts
- Structured data and the trust surface 20 pts
- Search demand and the keyword map 20 pts
- Google Business Profile 20 pts
- Reviews and reputation 16 pts
- Local presence: map results and directories 20 pts
- AI search and assistant citation 22 pts
- Link profile and authority 20 pts
- The operators beating you 22 pts
- Turning visits into calls, and counting them 24 pts
The Snapshot is the top handful of these, free. The Deep Audit is all 14 categories, 300+ points, scored, with a 90-day plan and the full point-by-point appendix. No account, no card either way.
Ready to stop losing customers to the guy with a better site?
Fifteen minutes, no discovery deck. We'll tell you what we'd build, what we'd rank, and what it costs. And if we're not the right fit, we'll say that too.