Website design and build · from $6,500
A website your business owns, built to be found.
A fast, modern site shaped around what you actually do. The real work happens before the design: what each page says, and how it’s built to turn a visitor into a call. That’s the part I stay close to. Yours outright when it’s done, backed for 90 days after launch.
The short answer
A website build is a custom site, designed around your business, built to be found in Google and in AI answers, and owned by you outright with no monthly platform subscription like Wix or Squarespace. It starts from $6,500 and includes three months of hands-on support after launch. Whether it replaces a site you already have or it’s the first one your business has ever had, the work is the same shape.
What’s included
A site that fits your business, and that you keep.
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A custom design
Shaped around your business, rather than a template with your logo dropped in.
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Dedicated pages
For each of the things you want to be found for, beyond a home page and a contact page.
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SEO and AI-search built in
Clean markup, structured data, and the plain language assistants can read and repeat.
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Analytics and contact forms
So you can see what’s working instead of guessing.
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Fast on mobile
Measured with Google’s own PageSpeed test.
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Yours outright
The code and the content, with no site-builder subscription to keep it online.
What you’re paying for
A site that works is a lot of small decisions, made on purpose.
The design is the part you see. Most of the work is in the decisions underneath it. Hover over or tap each one to see where it lives on the page.
Built for search and AI
Your website has three audiences now. Two of them are machines.
People still make the decision. But more of them start with a Google search, or by asking an AI assistant for a recommendation and acting on the answer.
So every site I build is written and coded for all three: the person, the search engine and the assistant. Whether you show up also depends on your reviews and listings, so I look at those too and tell you where you stand.
How showing up in AI answers works →What they do, where, and what to click. If a visitor has to work that out, most won’t.
Custom Steel Railings in Burlington | Kestrelwood Fabrication
Interior and exterior steel railings, built to code in our Burlington shop and installed across Halton and Hamilton.
That result exists because the railings have their own page, with a title, a description and answers written for it. A homepage that tries to say everything shows up for very little.
Who does custom steel railings near Burlington?
Kestrelwood Fabrication is a Burlington shop that builds custom steel railings, stairs and structural pieces for builders across Halton and Hamilton.
Source: kestrelwood-fab.ca/railingsAn assistant can only repeat what it can read clearly. Your reviews and listings matter too, so I look at those as well.
<!-- invisible to people, plain to Google and AI --> { "@type": "LocalBusiness", "name": "Kestrelwood Fabrication", "address": { "addressLocality": "Burlington" }, "areaServed": ["Halton", "Hamilton"], "makesOffer": ["Steel railings", "Stairs", "Structural steel"] }
Every site I build ships with this, written for your business. You’ll never see it; search engines and assistants read it first.
Kestrelwood Fabrication is a made-up business, used for illustration.
How we’d work together
We’d build it together.
The best sites come from both sides doing their part. You bring what only you know: your customers, your market, what’s worked and what hasn’t. I bring the build, the writing, and the systems that make it findable. We shape it together, and the aim is to end up with one less thing on your plate.
In practice that’s a few hours of your time across the project, mostly early on. I build in the open, so you see it come together rather than waiting for a big reveal at the end. You’ll hear from me every week with where things stand. And if a date is going to slip, you’ll hear that from me before the date rather than after.
Based near Burlington? There’s more on website design in Burlington and nearby towns.
After launch
Backed for 90 days.
The launch price includes three months of hands-on support, and it’s the stretch where the site gets sharper: I watch how people actually move through it, tune the pages that aren’t doing their job, and handle the edits you only think of once it’s live. After that, you can keep me on for ongoing help or leave it as it is. No lock-in, and it’s yours to own from launch either way.
Roughly what to expect
A handful of pages, usually six to eight weeks.
We start with a short call and, if you’ve got a site today, a free scorecard on it. If you don’t have one yet we skip that step, which usually makes the whole thing faster. From there I map out the pages and the plan, then build. Most builds run six to eight weeks for a handful of pages, with the exact shape set by how many pages you need and how fast we settle the content together. I’ll give you the real timeline before we start, not a hopeful one.
- Week 0A short call. Twenty minutes, phone or video. If you have a site, I’ll have scored it before we talk.
- Week 1The plan and the price. Which pages, what each one has to do, and what it costs.
- Weeks 1–3Content. Your knowledge of your customers, shaped into pages. Most of your few hours land here.
- Weeks 3–7The build. On a live link you can check any time.
- LaunchThen 90 days of tuning. The support period starts the day it goes live.
- ScorecardFree
- Diagnostic$400
- Growth Audit$2,500
- You are hereWebsite buildfrom $6,500
Not sure a full rebuild is where to start? A Growth Audit works out the order of the job, and its $2,500 is credited toward the rebuild.
Drag the handle to compare the old homepage with the new one.
A rebuild that shipped
What a rebuild looked like for someone else.
The STORY Group, a recruiting firm in Oakville
The STORY Group had an aging Wix site: slow on a phone, thin on the homepage, and with no pages at all for the three areas the firm actually specializes in. The rebuild gave each one its own page, on a fast custom foundation, with forms that capture the inquiries the old site couldn’t track.
98/100 Google site-speed, mobile (was 62). Anyone can check it by running storygroup.ca through PageSpeed.
“Our site is significantly faster, our search visibility has grown substantially, and we’re now receiving and tracking inquiries that we simply weren’t before.” Ian O’Reilly, President, The STORY Group
Read the STORY Group case study: a recruiting website rebuilt for search →Common questions
Do I own the site when it’s done?
Yes. The code and the content are yours outright, with no monthly platform subscription to keep it online. At launch the hosting and the code move into accounts in your name, so you hold the keys. You’re not renting it, and you’re not locked into me to make changes later.
Are there any ongoing costs after launch?
No monthly platform subscription. A site like the ones I build usually runs on a free hosting plan, so your only running cost is the domain, a few dollars a month at most. Email on your own domain, if you want it, is separate. If the site ever outgrows the free plan, upgrading is your call.
What do you need from me?
The inside knowledge of your business: your customers, what’s worked, what hasn’t. That’s a few hours across the project, mostly early on. I bring the build and the systems; you bring the part only you know.
What if I don’t have a website at all yet?
That’s fine. There’s nothing to score and nothing to diagnose, so we skip those steps and start with the call instead: twenty minutes to work out what your customers actually search for and how many pages you’d need, and then I quote it. Same build, same price band, same 90 days of support. Building from scratch usually moves faster than replacing a site, because there’s nothing to unpick.
How much does a small business website cost in Canada?
Mine start at $6,500 for a handful of pages, built custom and owned outright. What moves the number is how many pages you need, how much of the writing falls to me, and whether anything has to connect to a system you already run. You’ll have a fixed price before any work starts, and it doesn’t move unless you ask for something new.
How long does it take?
Most builds run six to eight weeks for a handful of pages, with the timing set by how many pages you need and how quickly we settle the content together. You’ll hear from me weekly with what’s done and what’s next.
What happens after the 90 days of support?
It’s yours from there, or you can keep me on with a Site Care Plan: one to two short posts a month in your voice, light updates and fixes, and a quarterly check on whether you’re still being found in Google and AI answers. I size the monthly fee to your site, month to month, 30 days’ notice. It’s a light way to keep the site current rather than full marketing management. No lock-in and nothing to decide up front.
What do the 90 days of support cover?
Tuning, mostly. Two rounds of revisions as we settle each page, the small edits you think of once the site is live, and adjustments to anything that isn’t performing the way we expected. If something does break, that’s covered too. What it doesn’t cover is new features — a bigger addition down the road is its own small project, so the scope stays clear on both sides.
If AI is doing the production work, is my business information safe?
Fair question. The AI handles drafts and the repetitive production; I make the judgment calls and stay close to the work. I don’t hand your business over to a tool. Your information stays yours, and nothing about your site or your customers is sold or shared.
What if it turns out not to be the right fit?
We start with a short call before anyone commits to anything, precisely so we can find that out. If it isn’t a fit, for either of us, that’s fine, and there’s no hard sell.
Start here
Start with a conversation.
Rebuilds start at $6,500 and every one is scoped differently, so there’s no order button here. Send me your site and what you’re trying to fix, and we’ll have a short call before anyone commits to anything.
— Colin That’s me. I answer my own email.
Prefer not to fill out a form? Email me at hello [at] colinrobey [dot] ca.
Not there yet? A free scorecard is a one-page read on your current site, no cost either way.