Web design

Web design that starts with your customers, not with colours

Most web design projects begin with the question "what should it look like?". I start with a different one: what does a customer need to see before they pick up the phone? A homeowner in Calgary comparing three contractors wants to know the price range, the service area and whether you have done similar jobs. A patient looking for a clinic in Mississauga wants available hours and a booking button. The design follows from those answers.

That's why every website I build begins with structure and copy. I write the headlines, the service descriptions and the answers to typical doubts myself, based on a short interview with you. Only then do I draw the wireframe and the final look. You end up with a site where every screen has a job.

Hand-coded or custom CMS: how I build

I don't use page builders or rented templates. Sites are either written by hand in clean code or built on a custom CMS I develop for the project. Both routes give you the same practical benefits:

• No builder subscription. You pay for the work once; hosting and domain are agreed individually.
• Fast pages. No pile of plugins and scripts nobody uses, so pages load quickly on mobile data.
• Full SEO control. Titles, descriptions, headings, schema and redirects are set exactly the way search needs them.
• Integrations without plugins. Forms go to your CRM, WhatsApp or email directly.
• Ownership. Code, content and domain are registered in your name.

A hand-coded website suits landing pages and compact sites that change rarely. A website on a custom CMS fits businesses that update prices, projects or posts every week and want an admin panel that speaks their language.

Which type of website do you need?

If you are not sure, that's what the free 30-minute call is for. Often the honest answer is "start smaller": a strong landing page and an ad campaign can bring the first leads in two weeks, and a full site follows once the offer is proven.

What Canadian businesses should plan for

A few things come up specifically on Canadian projects, and I plan for them from the first sketch:

• French. In Quebec, French must be at least as available as any other language on a commercial website. I build English-language websites only, so if your business needs a French version, it comes from your own team or translator and sits outside my work. Elsewhere in Canada French is optional.
• Accessibility. Ontario organizations with 50 or more employees must meet WCAG 2.0 AA under AODA. I build to those standards by default; details are on the website accessibility page.
• Privacy and consent. Contact forms collect personal information, so the site needs a clear privacy policy, and Quebec Law 25 adds consent rules for cookies and tracking. Newsletter checkboxes have to follow CASL.
• Time zones and seasons. A snow removal company and a patio builder need different homepages in November. I build sections you can swap yourself when the season turns.

Common mistakes I fix in new builds

The most expensive mistake is a site that looks modern but has no clear next step. Others I see often: one generic "Services" page instead of a page per service (which also kills SEO), stock photos of smiling strangers, no prices at all, and a contact form that emails a forgotten address. Each of these is cheap to avoid at the planning stage and costly to fix after launch.

I don't patch websites built by someone else. If your current site has these problems, I build a new one, keep your domain and move the content that is worth keeping, with redirects so you don't lose Google rankings. More on that under website redesign.

After launch

A website is the start of the funnel, not the end. Once it is live I can connect Google Ads, local SEO and a CRM so every enquiry is tracked from click to sale. See the full website pricing or send me a short website brief and I'll come back with a plan.