Custom Web Design
Fast, SEO-Friendly Websites That Convert
Hello, I’m Bryan. And here at Storyteller Media, we create fast, SEO-friendly WordPress sites. If you want to sell more, reach more people, and generate more leads, we can help.
Web design for businesses, creators, and publishers is one of the services we offer.
- Who this is for: Our web design service is for small and medium-sized businesses.
- What we do: We build fast, beautiful, and well-structured websites. We focus on speed and user experience, two factors favored by search engines.
- How we work: We build custom sites on WordPress. We use a select set of premium plugins and tools to add function, speed, and conversion optimization to every site.
Web Design: Fast WordPress Sites
We custom-build all sites on WordPress. Every site is fast, responsive, and SEO-friendly. And built to accomplish specific objectives.
Objective Determination
What’s the purpose of your new site? It’s critical to determine its specific objective(s).
A lead-generating site looks very different from an ad-supported site and from an e-commerce store.
Once the objective is determined and clearly identified, we can move to the site design pillars.
5 Pillars of Site Design
We follow five pillars of site design. As you’ll notice, these are related and must be developed together. Each design pillar focuses on the specific site objectives.
Site Speed
Site speed is required for a site that converts well and ranks well in search. The majority of visitors won’t wait for a slow site to load.
We employ caching, minification, image optimization, and lazy loading to improve site speed. And we develop clean, light code for the fastest sites possible.
SEO
Organic search traffic is valuable for every business. Every site is created with search engines in mind. This includes technical, on-page, off-page, schema, and metadata. Plus, every site is integrated with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Bing Webmasters Tools.
UX
While speed is a factor, it is just a small part of the user experience. We build with logical navigational and contextual links, readable font (size and color), and no content shift.
Every site is designed with mobile-first experience in mind.
Appearance
While often the first detail that comes to mind, site appearance must be chosen with other factors in mind.
Images, videos, pricing tables, and other site features must be carefully chosen and designed.
Updateability
Many sites are beautifully designed but can be almost impossible to update. We build sites that can be updated and changed by your staff or other developers. We know that you don’t want to call us every time something needs to be updated or added. We follow best practices for layout and design, making it easily updatable.
To accomplish these goals, we are careful when choosing the tech stack that your site is built on.
We always build as lightly as possible, avoiding needless plugins and custom code that don’t contribute directly to the site objective. We avoid excessive plugins, resource-heavy widgets, sliders, and features.
Other factors affecting site design include security, user intent, content plans, and site architecture.
The Design Process
We follow the following steps in every new site design.
Strategy Call
The first step to a new project is determining specific objectives for the site.
In a 30-minute Zoom call, we’ll determine needs and answer your questions.
Design & Develop
Next, we’ll get to work creating some layouts and drafting site structure.
In this phase, you’ll prepare the text and images you want included on the site.
Revise & Optimize
In this stage, we’ll present our draft design for your review. We’ll review any adjustments.
Once approved, we’ll optimize the site for speed, SEO, and user experience.
Go Live
With the site approved and optimized, it’s time to go live.
We’ll transfer the site to your hosting and make it live. Once launched, we’ll make the final CRM and SEO integrations.
All Packages Include
Every Storyteller Media site design package comes fully equipped with the following features:
How Much Does a Custom Website Cost?
Our web design packages offer a fully custom and managed website. The cost ranges from $1400 to $3200 for a custom-built, SEO-friendly website, and it is dependent upon several variables.
Web Design Packages by Storyteller Media
Here are our three popular site design packages.
Single Page
$1400
The single-page site is perfect for businesses with a concise message.
- Strategy Call
- Single Page Site
- Fast, Responsive Design
- Lead Generation Form
- Features: Map, Contact Form, Gallery
- SEO-friendly design
- SEO optimization
- 2 Rounds of Revisions
While the site is minimalist, it has all the features of a larger site and new pages can be easily added in the future.
Starter Site
$1800
Our starter site is great for new and small businesses.
- Strategy Call
- Up to 10 Pages
- Fast, Responsive Design
- Lead Generation Form
- SEO-friendly design
- SEO optimization
- Integrations: Email List, CRM
- Extra Pages: $150 each
- 2 Rounds of Revisions
The most common pages include products, services, FAQ, blog, home, about, gallery, contact, and privacy.
Empire Builder
$3200
This robust site package is the foundation for your growing business.
- Strategy Call
- Up to 25 Pages
- Fast, Responsive Design
- Lead Generation Form
- SEO-friendly design
- SEO optimization
- Extra Pages: $150 each
- Keyword Research
- 4 Rounds of Revisions
This design allows for many product, service, and sales pages.
*Prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD). Canadian clients are subject to sales tax.
Site Package Add-ons
Here are features and add-ons for our site design packages.
SEO Optimization: Free
Every page is optimized for search engines, allowing them to understand the content and intent of the page.
Extra Pages: $150 each
Add additional pages to your design package. Includes inserting content (text, photos, video) and integrating to site navigation.
Content Writing: $165/page
We’re happy to help create compelling, SEO-friendly content for your new site.
Site Maintenance: $90/month
We also offer site maintenance plans. This includes WordPress and plugin updates, and daily backups. If something glitches, we quickly get it back online.
CRM Integration: Free
We’ll connect your web form to your CRM, so your new leads and inquiries auto-populate.
Ecommerce Function: From $2000
We’ll add ecommerce functionality to your site. Your new website will become an online store, generating direct sales and payments.
Migrating to WordPress
We can migrate your Wix, Joomla, Drupal, Squarespace, or any other platform to WordPress. Contact us for a quote, based on your specific site.
Email Marketing Integration
We’ll integrate your email marketing service to your website, so you can build your list from your new site.
Strategy Call
In a 30-minute Zoom call, we’ll determine needs, site objective, and answer your questions.
Need something different? Get in touch, and we’ll create a custom plan for your new website.
Web Design FAQs
What Our Clients Say
How We Work
We build from scratch and do full site rebuilds. And we can migrate your site from one platform to another.
Custom Built Website
We’re happy to build your site from scratch. In many cases, the cost will be the same (or even less) to start from scratch.
We can usually import your site database (page content) and put that into the new page and site structure.
After an interview or questionnaire, we’ll draft your site structure.
You’ll be involved in each step, approving site colors, fonts, and images.
Site Rebuilds
If you want your site to remain the same, we can adjust page and site structure as part of optimizing for search engines, page speed, and user experience.
We’re also happy to rebuild your existing site. We can even migrate your site from another content management system.
The development process is similar to a fresh build, with client involvement at each stage.
Here’s how our pricing works.
Next Steps
Ready to Grow Your Business?
We are eager to help you grow your business by developing a fast site that generates leads and sales.
The next step is to schedule a strategy call.
Schedule a Call
Design & Develop
Revise & Optimize
Go Live
About Storyteller Media
At Storyteller Media, we focus on creating and optimizing web properties for traffic and conversion.
Dena and I are long-time creators operating several large authority sites (in tech and travel). Our content reaches about 300,000 monthly readers.
We’ve been web designers since 2007 with our first online business – a promotional products company based in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. I’ve also covered online business for a New York Times property for four years.
About Bryan and Dena
We are both Nova Scotians. We were both born here and after some years abroad, we returned to our home province and put down roots.
We’ve been doing web design in Nova Scotia for many years.
