Questions

Keep using Instagram: it is a great way to show your work and to be found by word of mouth. A website does a different job. It is what appears when someone searches your name, it opens for people who do not use Instagram, and it is the one place that is fully yours. Many customers look a business up before they call, and a simple page with your services, photos and phone number is what they find.

You pay once for the website: design, build, setup and launch. A simple website is $499, add-ons are added to that when you need them (Showcase $249, More pages $149, Google Business Profile $99), and a custom website starts at $2,500. Then you pick how much looking after it gets, month to month: Lights on at $9.99 a month or $100 a year, or Looked after at $29.99 a month or $300 a year. Paying yearly means you pay for ten months and get twelve. Prices are in Canadian dollars. Installments for the website are available on request.

Yes, on request. Get in touch and we will agree a plan that suits you.

Interac e-transfer is the easiest way, for the website, the monthly or yearly plan and any changes. If you would rather pay by credit card, I can send you an invoice with a card payment link. For a simple website, or a move of up to 5 pages, you see the first version before you pay, and payment is due when you approve it. For a custom website, half is due to start and half before launch.

I will get in touch first. If it is still unpaid after 30 days, your site is paused, not deleted, and I send you your files. Nothing is removed without notice.

No hidden fees. The website price covers the design, build, setup and launch. After that you only pay the monthly or yearly price you chose. Your domain is a separate yearly cost paid directly to your registrar.

No. Your domain is yours, and prices vary, usually about $11 to $24 a year, so I do not include it in my prices. If you already own one, I connect it to your new site. If you do not, I help you choose and register one, and you pay the registrar directly. The .ca ending needs a Canadian presence, so clients elsewhere get a .com. Premium names that someone else is selling, and special endings such as .io or .ai, cost more.

The use of my platform: fast, secure hosting with HTTPS on a global network, security and software updates, your contact form with spam protection, and a fix if something breaks. Your domain stays with you and renews at your registrar.

Both keep your site online: hosting, security updates and a fix if something breaks. Looked after adds small changes, such as text, photos and prices, and email help with your questions. If you rarely change anything, Lights on is enough, and you can move up or down any time.

Text, photos and prices: the everyday changes. With Looked after they are part of your monthly price, up to five a month; if you need more, we talk. With Lights on, small changes are $20 each, or 3 for $50. Anything bigger, such as a new page, a new section or a redesign, is a fixed price for the result, quoted before I start.

A simple website uses a look chosen from my palettes, fonts and effects, with my proven page layouts, so it is clean, professional and quick to launch. Add-ons raise its limits, for example more pages, or projects and products. A custom website is designed from scratch around your brand, page by page, including your own project pages. If you can describe your site in a sentence, such as what you do and how to reach you, it is probably a simple one. If the design itself helps you sell, it is a custom one. Many custom projects start as a simple website and grow.

A simple website is usually ready to review within a week of me receiving your text and photos, and it goes live as soon as you approve it. What sets the pace is how quickly your content and your feedback come back, so the faster you reply, the faster you launch. Moving an existing site of up to 5 pages is usually about the same, since the content already exists. A custom site takes longer, and the proposal gives you a date.

Yes. A site of 3 pages and one of 5 pages cost the same, so you never pay per page. A gallery counts as a page, and one is included. If you need more room, add More pages, which gives you about 10 pages including up to 3 galleries. A much bigger site is quoted. A shop, member logins or a more custom design is a different kind of site.

An add-on adds one thing to the simple website, with room for a normal-sized portfolio or catalogue; a bigger one is quoted. Showcase gives each project or product its own page, with room for about 20 in total, mixed any way you like. Products get a price and an Enquire button or payment link. These pages do not count toward your page limit. More pages gives you room for about 10 pages instead of 5, including up to 3 galleries. Google Business Profile sets up your listing on Google Maps and a link to ask customers for reviews. Each one is added to the $499 and paid the same way.

Ask. A small thing, such as a booking or payment button, is quoted before I start, and you decide then. If what you want is a different design, with pages laid out around your brand, that is a custom website.

Your site is connected to Google Search Console, which shows how people find you on Google, and that is included. The Google Business Profile add-on sets up your listing on Google Maps and a link to ask customers for reviews. If you want Google Analytics or Google Ads tracking, I can add your tag, but those use cookies, so they need a cookie notice and are quoted separately.

Not on my platform. It is made for brochure, portfolio and catalogue websites, where I make the changes for you. If you need a blog you publish yourself, a shop with a cart and shipping, member logins or comments, Squarespace is the better home. Ask me if you would like help with it.

Yes. The add-ons cover the usual needs. If what you want is not listed, ask and I quote it first. If you want the pages themselves designed around your brand, that is a custom website.

Yes, any time. There is no contract. A site on my platform needs one of the two care options while it is hosted with me. If you stop, I hand over the site's files and you host them anywhere you like. Your domain is already yours, so it stays with you.

Yes. Once it is built and paid for, the design and content are yours, and your domain is in your name. If you leave, you take the site's files with you.

Then there is no hosting to choose, because you pay Squarespace directly for the platform. If you would like me to make your changes and be your Squarespace person afterwards, Looked after works there too: $29.99 a month, or $300 a year, for small changes and support.

On these plans you ask and I make the change. That is the point: you never have to log in to anything. If you would rather edit your own site, Squarespace is the better fit, and I can help you with it if you ask.

They are good tools, and Squarespace is the right choice if you want to edit the site yourself or need a shop or memberships. A site built the way I build most of them loads faster, has no Squarespace or Wix plan to renew, only a small month-to-month or yearly care option, and is not tied to one company's tools, but you ask me for changes instead of making them yourself.

A site of up to 5 pages starts at $499, once, priced like a new simple website. What your site has beyond that, such as more pages, a portfolio or a catalogue, is added the same way as for a new site (see the add-ons). A design with unusual layouts or effects that must be copied exactly gets one fixed price after a free review, so you know what moves across and what does not. Afterwards hosting and care is from $100 a year, and you stop paying your website builder.