Frequently Asked Questions

Most businesses invest between £800–£3,000 for a complete WordPress website. A simple 5-page brochure site starts from £800, while larger builds with ecommerce, booking systems or more complex functionality are usually £2,000–£5,000+. The range exists because a sole trader who needs five pages and a small business site that has to generate leads are genuinely different jobs. You’ll get one fixed number before anything starts.

Because there are no account managers, no office overheads and no layers of project management built into the price. Agencies often start at £5,000–£10,000+ for work in the same shape. Working with me you deal directly with the person designing and building the site. If you like the way an agency works but not the invoice, that’s usually the gap I fill — and it’s the same reason other studios use me for white label web design.

50% upfront and 50% on completion. That protects both sides and keeps the project moving. If cash flow means you’d rather stage it differently, say so at the quote stage and I’ll usually work something out — it’s a conversation, not a policy document.

Page count, whether the design is bespoke or built from an existing structure, functionality like bookings or payments, how much content and photography needs creating, and how much SEO work is in scope. A builder’s five-page site and a law firm site with twenty service pages sit at opposite ends of that for good reason.

Only the ones you choose. Managed hosting starts at £10/month. A care plan, which is a separate thing, starts at £30/month and covers updates, monitoring and content changes. An SEO retainer starts at £250/month if you want ongoing search work. None of them are mandatory and none of them hold the site hostage.

Yes — that’s what the free mockup is for. I’ll design a homepage concept for your business before you’ve paid a penny, so you can judge the direction rather than a promise. If you’d rather understand what’s wrong with the site you already have, there’s a free audit too.

Sometimes. Below £800 there usually isn’t a version of the job worth doing, but a tighter build with fewer pages now and room to grow later is often the sensible answer. Tell me the budget at the start and I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s realistic for what you’re describing.

No. There’s no meeting allowance and no clock running. Most projects settle into four to six proper check-ins plus whatever ad hoc calls and emails come up. The quote is for the finished website, not for my time in hours.

A straightforward 5-page site is typically 2–3 weeks. A professional service site with more depth runs 4–7 weeks. An ecommerce build is usually 6–10 weeks, and a genuinely complex project can be longer. You’ll get a specific timeline in the quote, before anything is agreed.

Content, almost every time. Copy, photographs and the bits only you can supply — staff names, service details, price lists. Design and build rarely hold a project up. If writing isn’t your thing, say so early and I’ll structure the pages so the writing job is small and specific rather than a blank page.

I do — the same person who designs and builds it. You get my direct number and email, and you’re never passed between departments or handed to a junior once the contract is signed. More about how I work is on my about page.

Not unless you’d like to. Most projects run entirely over video calls, email and shared previews. I’m Brighton-based, so if you’re nearby — Worthing, Lewes, Haywards Heath, Horsham — meeting for a coffee is easy enough.

Yes. You’ll have a private preview link from early on and you can look whenever you like. Feedback comes in rounds rather than in a drip, which keeps it coherent, but nothing is hidden until a big reveal at the end.

Enough to get it right. In practice most sites settle after two or three rounds on the design and a tidy-up pass before launch. I’d rather spend an extra afternoon than launch something you’re quietly unhappy with.

I point the domain, install the SSL certificate, set up redirects from your old URLs so nothing you’d earned in Google is lost, submit the sitemap, and check the forms actually deliver. Then I watch it for a few days. Launch is the part where a rushed job shows up fastest, so it doesn’t get rushed.

Small tweaks and minor updates are included for the first month. After that you can either handle them yourself, ask for a one-off quote, or put a care plan in place from £30/month so changes are just part of the arrangement.

Ownership and headroom. Builders look fine at the start, then you hit the ceiling — restricted design, weaker technical SEO control, and a subscription you can never stop paying without losing the site. WordPress powers a large share of the web, runs on any host you like, and you can take it elsewhere whenever you want. I’ve written up the Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress comparison with actual test results.

Yes — if you have more time than budget and you’re testing whether an idea has legs, a builder is a perfectly sensible place to start. It stops being sensible once the website has a job to do: generating enquiries, ranking, and looking like an established business rather than a side project.

Yes, and most clients do. Adding a page, swapping a photo, changing opening hours or writing a blog post are all straightforward, with no code involved. You get training at handover plus written guides and short videos to refer back to.

Completely. The domain, the hosting account, the WordPress installation, the design files — all yours, in your name, once the final invoice is settled. If you want to move to another host or another developer next year, you can, and I’ll hand over the logins without any friction. That’s the whole point.

Every site is fully responsive and tested on iPhone, Android, tablet and desktop before launch. Most local searches now happen on a phone, so mobile isn’t a version of the site — it’s the main one. There’s more detail on responsive web design if you want it.

Nearly always. Accounting software like Xero, QuickBooks and Sage; CRMs including HubSpot and Salesforce; booking tools like Calendly and Acuity; email marketing through Mailchimp or ConvertKit; payments via Stripe and PayPal. Tell me what you run before the build starts and I’ll confirm compatibility rather than guess.

Yes, when it’s maintained. Security problems on WordPress sites are almost always neglect — outdated plugins, weak passwords, no monitoring. SSL, regular updates, malware scanning, sensible hosting and two-factor authentication where it’s warranted cover it. Plenty of law firms, medical practices and financial advisors run on it.

Yes — WooCommerce on WordPress. Product catalogue, card payments plus PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, shipping rules, tax configuration and stock management. See ecommerce website design for how those builds are scoped.

Yes. I can register and manage it for you, usually through Namecheap or 123 Reg, and I’ll handle the DNS, hosting connection and email routing. If your domain is already with someone else, that’s fine — it can stay there. For .co.uk names the registry is Nominet, and most registrars go through them.

Yes, and it’s often the better order of operations. Logo design and variations, colour palette, typography, brand guidelines, business cards and social assets — then the new brand applied across the site so everything is consistent from day one. A combined branding and website project typically runs 6–8 weeks and costs less than doing the two separately.

Usually. If it’s already WordPress I can adopt it, tidy up what needs tidying and look after it from there — that’s what WordPress support covers. If it’s on a builder platform you’re renting, a rebuild often costs less over two years than continuing to pay the subscription.

Yes — managed WordPress hosting from £10/month on UK servers, with daily backups, an SSL certificate and uptime monitoring included. It’s tuned for WordPress rather than being generic shared space, which is most of why sites on it load quickly.

Hosting is the server your site sits on — from £10/month. A care plan is the ongoing work of keeping it healthy and current — from £30/month. They’re two different products and I never bundle one into the other’s price. You can host with me and skip the care plan, or take a care plan while your site stays on hosting you already have.

WordPress core and plugin updates, security scanning and malware removal, performance checks, backup management, small content changes each month, direct phone and email support, and a monthly report. Plans start at £30/month and scale with how much the site needs. The WordPress maintenance checklist covers what that work involves if you’d rather do it yourself.

No. There’s no mandatory retainer and no contract holding your site hostage. Plenty of clients handle updates themselves and just call when something breaks. The plan exists because for most people it’s cheaper and calmer than dealing with it ad hoc, not because the site stops working without it.

Within four hours on a working day for support clients, and most issues are sorted within twenty-four. A site that’s actually down gets dealt with immediately, whatever time it is. You’re contacting me, not a queue — get in touch and it lands directly with the person who’ll fix it.

Yes. If your current host is decent I’m happy to build and maintain on it. If it’s slow or oversold I’ll tell you plainly and give you the numbers, but the decision is yours and nothing is conditional on moving.

Every project includes it. A walkthrough of adding pages, editing content, managing images and using whatever specific features your site has — plus written guides and short videos so you’re not relying on remembering a single session six months later.

Support is remote wherever you are, but if you’d like the local version there are pages for Brighton, Worthing, Crawley, Horsham, Chichester and Eastbourne, among others.

The foundations are, always. Clean site structure and URLs, schema markup, page titles and meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, fast loading, responsive design, and Google Search Console and Analytics set up and verified. It isn’t sold back to you as an upgrade. What isn’t included is the ongoing work — content, links and refinement over months — which is what an SEO retainer covers.

From £250/month. Larger agencies frequently charge £1,000–£3,000+ a month for the same category of work, much of it delivered by a junior account manager. You’d be working directly with me. There’s a fuller breakdown on what SEO costs in the UK.

Three to six months for meaningful movement on competitive terms, sometimes faster for local searches where the field is thinner. Anyone promising page one in a fortnight is either targeting phrases nobody types or isn’t being straight with you. The small business SEO guide sets out realistic expectations.

For most local businesses the map pack matters more than the classic blue links. Profile setup and optimisation, consistent citations, review prompts and location-specific pages all feed it. The local SEO checklist walks through it step by step.

Not if it’s handled properly. The risk in any website redesign is losing URLs without redirecting them, so every old address gets mapped to its new equivalent, the sitemap is resubmitted and rankings are watched for weeks afterwards. Done right, sites usually improve after a rebuild because the technical foundation is better.

Yes. Plenty of clients came to me with a site someone else built and only wanted the search side improving. Start with a free audit so the problems are on the table first, then ongoing SEO or SEO in Surrey covers how the monthly work runs.

There are dedicated pages for most of the towns I work in, including Worthing, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Eastbourne, Hove and Lewes. If yours isn’t listed, it doesn’t mean I don’t cover it — just ask.

Brighton — Main Floor, Clarendon Mansions, 80 East St, Brighton BN1 1NF. Most work happens over video calls and email regardless of where the client is, but if you’re local you’re welcome to come in, and I’m happy to travel for a first meeting.

Yes — a large share of my clients are nowhere near Brighton, and distance has never been the thing that determines whether a project goes well. Communication does. There are regional pages for Sussex, Surrey and freelance WordPress work, plus towns including Crawley, Chichester, Eastbourne, Burgess Hill and Shoreham-by-Sea.

No. Sole traders make up a good portion of the 55+ businesses I’ve worked with, and a one-person operation with a clear offer is often a more satisfying project than a large company with six people in the approval chain. See small business web design.

I work across a lot of them, with pages covering the ones that come up most — construction, accountants, therapists, interior designers, charities, estate agents and plenty more. The full list is on the sectors page.

No. GDPR-compliant forms and data handling, accessibility standards, cookie consent and careful claim-checking on regulated copy are all part of the build for sectors that need them — medical practices, mortgage advisors, insurance brokers and care providers among them.

The portfolio has a broad selection, and there are 51 five-star Google reviews from the people who commissioned them. If you’d like to speak to a past client in your sector, ask and I’ll arrange it.

Usually within a couple of weeks, occasionally sooner for a small build. Because I’m one person, I take on a limited number of projects at a time deliberately — it’s the reason the ones I do take get proper attention. Ask about current availability and I’ll tell you honestly.

Ask it. Use the form below or get in touch directly — I reply personally within one working day, and there’s no obligation attached to asking. There’s also a fair bit written up on the blog if you’d rather read first.