Web Design & Development for Small Businesses
I build small business websites that load fast, work on a phone, and are readable by both Google and AI systems from the day they launch. Fixed fee, from €1,500. Based in Porto, working across Europe.
The Problem
Your website looks fine. It just isn’t bringing anyone in.
Most small business websites aren’t broken. They’re just invisible.
They were built by a template, a cousin, or an agency that disappeared after launch — and nobody ever asked the only question that matters: when someone looks for a business like this, does this site show up, and does it explain itself well enough to be chosen?
You probably recognise at least one of these:
- People find you on Instagram or by word of mouth, almost never through search
- The site takes a few seconds to load on mobile, and you’ve stopped noticing
- You can’t update anything yourself without worrying you’ll break it
- You’ve asked ChatGPT about businesses like yours and someone else came up
Definition
What does a small business website actually need?
Everything beyond that — animations, sliders, chat widgets, video backgrounds — costs you load time and gives you nothing back. A small business site with five well-built pages outperforms a twenty-page site nobody can navigate, every time.
What I build into every site
- A page per service. One page, one thing you sell, one question it answers. This is also what makes you findable — a single “Services” page listing six things ranks for none of them.
- A real structure. Headings in order, a navigation that matches how customers actually think, internal links that connect related pages.
- Mobile first. Not “it also works on mobile.” Designed on a phone screen, then widened.
- Speed. No page builder bloat, no font that shifts the layout while it loads, images compressed and sized.
- Contact that works. A form that arrives in your inbox, a phone number that dials when tapped, an address that opens in maps.
The Difference
Built to be found — by Google and by AI systems
This is the part most web designers don’t do, and it’s the reason I do this work at all.
My main job is technical SEO and AI visibility — making sites legible to search engines and to the AI systems people increasingly ask instead of Google. So when I build a website, that work isn’t a phase-two upgrade you pay for later. It’s how the site is built in the first place.
That means, at launch:
Structured data is already in place
Your business, your services, your location and your opening hours described in a format machines read, not just humans.
Nothing important is trapped in an image or loaded by JavaScript
If a crawler or an AI system can’t read it, it doesn’t exist.
The site passes the technical checks
Core Web Vitals, accessibility, clean indexing, a working sitemap and robots file.
To be clear about what this is and isn’t: building the site right gives you a foundation. It does not, on its own, put you at the top of Google — that takes content, time and ongoing work, and it’s a separate service — the 6-month SEO strategy. What it does mean is that when you do that work, nothing in the site’s construction is fighting you.
Fit Check
Is this right for your business?
- You run a small business, a studio, a practice or a local service and need a site between 3 and 10 pages
- You want to own your website — the domain, the hosting, the files
- You can supply the text and photos, or you have someone who can
- You want the site built properly once, not patched every quarter
- Your budget for this is €1,500 or more
- You already have a site and want it rebuilt on solid foundations
- You need a large e-commerce catalogue, a booking engine, a membership area or a custom web application
- You want someone to run your marketing for you month to month
- You need brand identity, a logo, or a photoshoot — I don’t do those
- You need it live next week
- You’re comparing quotes and price is the deciding factor
- You already have a good site and just need the technical side fixed — that’s a different service, the SEO strategy audit
If you’re in the right-hand column
Saying no to the right-hand column is how I keep the left-hand column good. If you’re in it, say so on the call and I’ll point you somewhere useful.
Deliverables
What you get
Real files and access, not a slideshow of mockups.
| Deliverable | What it is | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Layouts for every page type, designed on mobile first, reviewed with you before anything is built | ✓ |
| Build | Hand-built WordPress site — no page-builder plugin bloat | ✓ |
| Content structure | Page-by-page outline: what goes where, what each page has to answer | ✓ |
| Technical setup | Structured data, headings, metadata, internal links, sitemap, robots, analytics and Search Console | ✓ |
| Performance | Compressed images, no layout shift, Core Web Vitals checked before launch | ✓ |
| Accessibility | WCAG 2.2 AA pass, keyboard navigation, real alt text | ✓ |
| Launch | Domain, hosting and DNS set up or migrated, SSL, redirects from old URLs | ✓ |
| Handover | A short written guide and one walkthrough call so you can update the site yourself | ✓ |
| Copywriting | You write the words; I give you the structure, the length and what each page must cover | ✕ |
| Logo, brand identity, photography | Bring your own, or I’ll recommend someone | ✕ |
| Ongoing maintenance and updates | Yours after handover, or quoted separately | ✕ |
| SEO, content and AI-visibility work after launch | Separate services | ✕ |
Process
How the build works
1 · Call
30 minutes, free
You tell me what the business does and what the site has to achieve. I tell you whether I’m the right person. No deck, no pitch.
2 · Fixed quote
A written scope and a fixed fee, agreed before anything starts. If the scope changes later, it gets re-quoted — never quietly absorbed.
3 · Structure and design
Weeks 1–2
We agree the pages, what each one has to say, and how it looks. You approve before I build.
4 · Build and technical setup
Weeks 3–4
The site gets built, the structured data goes in, the performance and accessibility checks get run.
5 · Launch and handover
Weeks 5–6
Domain, redirects, analytics, Search Console. Then a walkthrough call and a written guide, so the site is genuinely yours.
Typical total: 4 to 6 weeks, depending on how quickly text and photos arrive. That’s usually the only thing that slows a build down.
Investment
What does a small business website cost?
Fixed fee, never hourly
From €1,500
That covers:
- Up to 8 pages
- Design and build
- Full technical setup
- Launch
- Handover
- One round of structural revisions and one round of detail revisions
What changes the price: more pages · an online shop · more than one language · migrating a large existing site · custom functionality · a rushed timeline · me writing the copy.
How it works: 50% to start, 50% before launch. Fixed fee, never hourly. You get the quote in writing before any work begins, and you own everything at the end — the files, the hosting account, the domain.
Platform
Which platform do you build on?
Not because it’s fashionable — it isn’t — but because it’s the only common platform that leaves you in full control of the two things that decide whether a site is findable: the HTML it produces, and the speed it produces it at. Website builders like Wix or Squarespace make the first month easy and the third year hard: you can’t fix what you can’t reach.
I build without heavy page-builder plugins. That’s the difference between a WordPress site that loads in under two seconds and the ones that gave WordPress its reputation.
WordPress, built properly
The HTML is yours. Headings, structured data, the markup a crawler actually reads — all of it can be changed, by me or by anyone you hire after me.
The speed is yours. Nothing loads on your pages that you didn’t choose to put there.
The site is yours. Files, database, hosting account, domain. You can move it anywhere.
A website builder
The HTML is theirs. You get the settings they chose to expose, and nothing underneath them.
The speed is theirs. Their scripts, their fonts, their loading order — on every page, whether you use them or not.
The platform is theirs. You rent it. Leaving means building the site again.
If your business genuinely fits a simpler platform, I’ll say so on the call rather than sell you a build you don’t need.
Existing Sites
Already have a website?
If your site works and looks the way you want, and the problem is that it doesn’t show up in Google or in AI answers, you probably don’t need a rebuild. You need the technical layer fixed — structured data, headings, crawlability, page speed, indexing.
Why Me
Why me
I’m an AI Visibility & Technical SEO Consultant who builds websites — not a designer who picked up some SEO. That order matters: it’s why the technical foundation is in the base price instead of an upsell.
The clearest example is a tour operator in Rome whose pages I rebuilt: bookings up 89%, revenue up 115%, and pages that now get cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s AI Mode.
How the pages changed
The qualifier
Year over year, same 8-month window. No backlinks bought, no ads run, no agency involved — one person, technical work only.
FAQ
Questions people ask before hiring me
Price — what it costs, and why
Why not just use Wix or Squarespace for €20 a month?
If you need four simple pages and nothing else, do that — genuinely. The trade comes later: builders limit what you can change in the underlying code, which is exactly where findability lives. You’d be paying me to remove that ceiling before you hit it.
Why does this cost €1,500 when someone offered me €500?
A €500 website is a template with your logo on it, built in a day. That can be the right choice for a business that just needs an address on the internet. Mine is a site designed around what your customers actually search for, built to be readable by search engines and AI systems, and handed over with the technical work already done. Different products with the same name.
The work — what I do and don’t do
Do you write the content?
No. You know your business better than I will after two calls, and small business copy written by a stranger reads like it. What I give you is the structure: what each page has to cover, roughly how long, and what questions it must answer. Most clients find that’s the hard part solved.
Do you design logos?
No. If you don’t have one, I’ll point you to someone who does that properly.
Will my site rank on Google after this?
It will be built so that nothing gets in the way — that’s not the same as ranking. Ranking comes from content, time, and ongoing work. I’d rather tell you that now than promise it and disappoint you in month three.
Can you build an online shop?
Small ones, yes — a handful of products, straightforward checkout. Large catalogues, multiple markets or complex inventory need a custom quote, and sometimes a different specialist.
How we work — the practical side
What happens after launch? Do you maintain it?
The site is yours: you get the hosting account, the domain, the files and a written guide. Maintenance isn’t included, and I don’t sell a monthly plan for it. If something needs doing later, ask me and I’ll quote it.
Do you work with businesses outside Portugal?
Yes. I’m based in Porto and work remotely across Europe. Everything happens over calls and email; almost none of my work has ever required being in the same room.
How much of my time will this take?
A kickoff call, two review rounds, and getting me your text and photos. That last one is the whole job on your side — and it’s the reason builds slip from four weeks to six.
Next Step
Let’s talk about your website
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. You tell me what the business does and what the site needs to achieve, and I’ll tell you whether I’m the right person for it — and roughly what it would cost.
Book a 30-minute call