Design and build, by hand
No template, no page builder, no theme somebody else made. Your site is written as code, which is why it loads in about a second on the kind of signal you actually get out past Nisswa.
What you get
Everything, including the parts people forget to quote.
This is the whole list. There is no second invoice for the things below.
The words, if you want
Hand me your copy and it goes in. If you would rather not write it, I write the first draft from a conversation about the business and you correct it. That is in the number, not extra.
A form that reaches you
Wired to your inbox and tested, not a contact page that silently drops messages. Most of the broken sites I get sent have a form that has not worked in a year and nobody knew.
Your Google Business Profile
Set up or cleaned up, because the map results sit above the search results and take most of the clicks. A website alone does not put you there. More on that here.
The domain, in your name
About $15 a year, paid by you, registered to you. I will not hold your domain, and you should not let anybody else hold it either. That one rule will save you more grief than anything else on this page.
The source code
Yours at the end, on every job, without asking. If you fall out with me, or I get hit by a truck, another developer can open your site and read it.
Which size
One page, or a page per service?
The honest test is whether people search for the thing you do, or search for you by name.
One page is enough when…
People find you by name or by word of mouth, you do one main thing, and the site's job is to prove you are real and make you easy to call. A shop, a single trade, a two person operation with a full order book.
You want a page per service when…
People search for the job rather than for you: drain cleaning Brainerd, furnace repair Baxter. A page per service is what gives Google something to rank, and one page mentioning six services ranks for none of them properly.
If you are a trade, the Ridge North Roofing case study is the one to read: it starts from the three situations a homeowner actually turns up in rather than from a service menu.
Not sure? Tell me what you do in the form and I will tell you which one I would build, including when the answer is the cheaper one.
Questions
What people ask before starting.
How much does a website cost in Brainerd?
A one page site is $595 and a custom site with a page per service starts at $1,495. Size and depth decide where yours lands, and you get the number in writing before you agree to anything. The same prices are published on swansonx.com, because they are the same person's prices.
How long does it take?
A one page site is usually live within a week of getting your words and photos. A custom multi page site is closer to two or three weeks. The slow part is almost never me: it is waiting on the text and the pictures, which is why I write the first draft myself if you would rather not.
Do I have to write the words?
No. Hand me what you have, or tell me about the business and I will write the first draft and you correct it. Nobody has ever had to give me finished copy. Writing is included in the number and the quote says so.
Want the number for your job?
Tell me what you do and roughly what you need. A fixed price within 24 hours, free whether or not you hire me.