How a project runs

Before stage one: the quote

You send an enquiry, we reply by email and, if the work suits us both, we ask a few questions and send a written quote. It lists the pages, features and checks in the job, what we need from you and the price. Work starts once you accept the quote and pay the deposit described on the pricing page.

The four stages

1. 01

   Brief and structure

   Together we settle which work you want to attract, where you work and which pages that calls for. You get a site plan listing every page and what it is for. If you are replacing a site, this stage also produces the inventory of old pages and the first draft of the redirect map.

2. 02

   Design and build

   We draw page layouts for the home page, a service page and a project page, using your photos. Once you approve them, we build the site and draft the words with you. You see each page on a private preview address before anything goes live.

3. 03

   Check and test

   We go through a written checklist: phones, keyboard use, forms, titles and descriptions, images, broken links and, for a redesign, every redirect. You get the checklist with results.

4. 04

   Launch and handover

   The site goes live on your hosting. We check it again in place, submit the sitemap and hand over login details, the redirect map if there is one and written notes on adding projects and editing pages.

Your part at each stage

Brief and structure. Your list of services and areas, honest views on which jobs you want more of, and access to your current site and hosting if there is one.

Design and build. Photos and notes for your projects, comments on the layouts and answers to questions about your work. Draft wording comes back to you to correct; nothing goes live that you have not approved.

Check and test. A look through the preview on your own phone. You know your business, and you may spot something we miss.

Launch and handover. Access to your domain settings or hosting on the agreed day.

How long it takes

Each quote includes a timeline for that job. The biggest variable is how quickly the project photos, notes and approvals come together, so the timeline shows where we are waiting on each other. We do not publish standard durations, because they would mislead more than help.

What we check before launch

The checklist covers:

• every page on a phone, a tablet and a desktop screen
• every page with a keyboard alone, with visible focus throughout
• forms sent and received, with error messages tested
• page titles and descriptions within our length limits, and none duplicated
• images with alt text, sized for phones and desktops
• no broken internal links, and the sitemap matching the live pages
• for a redesign, every old address landing on its new page in one step

We build to WCAG 2.2 level AA as our working target. Google indexes the mobile version of a site, so the phone layout carries the same content, structured data and alt text as the desktop one.

After launch

You own the site, the domain and the hosting accounts. The handover notes explain how to add a project and edit a page, so you are not dependent on us. Work we do for you later is quoted separately, or charged at NZD 160 an hour plus GST where applicable.

For a redesign, Google's guidance on site moves explains that search visibility can fluctuate while pages are recrawled. We tell you this before launch and keep the redirect map with your handover notes.