Web design and development for Birmingham, England businesses

Start with your editing needs. WordPress suits a team that publishes often and wants to change most of the site itself. It also offers a large choice of plugins, although someone will need to keep it updated for security. A custom Next.js site is another option when your requirements call for a custom build. We recommend a platform after learning how your team works.

For a small site you intend to run alone, a hosted builder such as Wix, Squarespace or Webflow is worth considering. You give up some control over code and speed, and moving away later can mean rebuilding. A custom design fits a specific brand, audience or content need; an adapted template can fit a simpler brief if it is reworked around your actual content.

A headless setup pairs a custom front end with a separate content editor. It suits a site that needs speed alongside substantial editing, but gives you more moving parts to host and maintain.

If your business is a UK limited company, its website must show its registered number, registered office address, place of registration and limited-company status. We make space for those details in the site layout, so you can supply and check them before launch.

Organisations providing services through a website must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. We agree an accessibility target in the brief and use it to guide the page designs and build. WCAG offers A, AA and AAA levels, and the W3C encourages use of its latest version.

Bring what you have; note anything still to be gathered.

• Logo files in SVG, AI or EPS, plus your brand colours and fonts.
• A few sites you like and dislike, with a sentence explaining each choice.
• Access details for your domain, hosting, email, analytics and Search Console, or the person who holds them.
• Real photos of your team, premises and finished work; book photography ahead if needed.
• A folder of case studies, permitted client logos, testimonials, certifications and memberships.

• !

  Designing with placeholder copy

  Use real headings and paragraphs early, so the layout fits the content you plan to publish.

• !

  Reviewing only on a large screen

  Check every page on a phone before approving the design.

• !

  Leaving search checks until launch

  Check page titles and the sitemap, and remove any indexing block left from development.

• !

  Putting accounts in an agency’s name

  Hold your own domain and hosting accounts, then grant access to the people doing the work.