Website process
How a website build runs, from the free read to a trained handoff.
Each step ends with something you can check: a dated read, an approved scope, accounts in your name, a preview link, a site tested on its real domain, and a person on your team who has made a real change to it.
The steps
Every step, and what you get from it
The scope you approve at the third step covers the pages, the content plan, and any functionality, like a quote form that feeds your quoting process. New pages or features after that approval are scoped separately, so both sides know what the build includes.
OP 010
Free written read
You getA dated, written read you can check yourself
We go through your current site in a real browser, on a desktop and a phone, and write down specific problems with the date we found each one. If the site is already strong, the read says so.
OP 020
Conversation and source intake
You getA page-by-page inventory with a decision for every URL
We talk through what the site should do for the business: which requests it should take in, which documents buyers need, where that information goes next, and who on your team will keep the site current. Then we inventory the current pages, documents, forms, images, and domain settings, and give every URL a decision: keep, rewrite, merge, redirect, or retire.
OP 030
Approved sitemap, content plan, and functionality
You getA written scope and quote you approve before production starts
We propose the smallest sitemap that covers your real audiences and services, with one home for each topic, and write down what each form and feature does and where its data goes. Your approval sets the scope, there’s no page cap, and the quote is written against that plan.
OP 040
Accounts in your name
You getAccounts and a repository your company owns
Your company holds the domain, the hosting account, and a GitHub organization for the code, and your people keep the admin and billing control. You grant us access to build, and we never ask for a password.
OP 050
Research and writing
You getWritten pages with every company fact confirmed by you
We keep the useful material you already have and research and write what’s missing. Company-specific facts and technical claims go back to you to confirm before anything is published.
OP 060
Build and private preview
You getA private link to the working site
We build the pages, forms, and any agreed functionality in your repository, with the instructions, facts file, templates, and checks in place from the start. You review the site at a private link that search engines are told to skip, while your current site stays live and untouched.
OP 070
Revisions
You getA reviewed site that matches the approved plan
We gather your feedback in the revision rounds set in the quote, apply it, and send any changed facts back for confirmation. New pages or features after approval are scoped separately.
OP 080
Launch and search setup
You getA live site tested on its real domain
Useful URLs stay where they are and anything that moves gets a redirect. We test every form, leave your email records alone, switch the domain with a rollback path ready, and test the live site before the old one is retired. Then we submit the sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and send IndexNow notifications.
OP 090
Training and handoff
You getA documented handoff, proven by a change your people made
We train your Champion, or whoever you choose, on your own site: describing a change to an AI assistant, making small edits in GitHub’s web editor, and reading what the checks say. The handoff is done when one of them has made a real change on their own, start to finish.
At handoff
What your team takes over
The site is set up for your people from the first day of the build, in accounts your company owns. At handoff your Champion has the pieces that let them change it, and the training to use them.
The handoff includes
- The repository in your GitHub organization, with the written instructions an AI assistant follows
- One facts file for your address, hours, certifications, and other company details
- Page templates that write the search markup, and checks that stop a page from publishing without it
- Form delivery and the Google and Bing search tools set up under your company’s accounts
- A written process for adding a page, and the operating documentation for the site
- Training on your own site for your Champion, or whoever you choose
Later work
If you later want something new built, like a customer login or a connection to a new system, that’s a new project, scoped and quoted on its own. Everyday changes stay with your people, and we don’t take on ongoing website maintenance.
Outside the build
What a build doesn’t include
Some of these can be scoped as separate work. The others depend on search engines or your hosting provider, so we don’t promise them.
- Custom applications, e-commerce, or databases, unless the approved scope includes them
- A visual page editor. The self-serve setup is the default, and an editor can be scoped on its own if your team wants one.
- Advertising, social media publishing, Google Business Profile, or YouTube channel management
- Ranking promises. Search engines and AI answer engines decide what they index, rank, and cite.
- An uptime guarantee or emergency response. The site runs on your hosting provider’s service, in your account.
During the build
The What We Noticed note stays small
While we learn your services, forms, and quote paths, we sometimes see process opportunities worth mentioning, and we write those down in a short note. It covers only what we could see from your content and our conversations.
A baseline of how the process runs today and a written scope you approve belong to the AI work, which is its own engagement. If something in the note interests you, the next step is a free conversation, and if there’s a real path from there, it’s usually a working session with the people who do the work, which is typically free too. If nothing in the note interests you, the website work carries on as agreed.
Start with the free read.
Send us the address of your current site and we’ll send back dated findings you can check yourself.
Conversations are always free.