Website design & development company in New York

Start with editing. WordPress suits a team that publishes frequently and wants to change most of the site without a developer. Its choice of plugins gives you room to add functions, but someone needs to keep it updated to help maintain security. Think about who will take responsibility for that work after launch.

A custom-coded site in Next.js suits a design that needs to move beyond template limits. It is a good fit when fast pages and security are priorities and you are comfortable asking a developer to make structural changes. A custom site can still have a content editor, so your team does not have to hand over every routine text change.

We recommend an option after learning how your team works. Tell us what you expect to publish, who will edit it and which changes you would want to make yourselves. That conversation gives us a practical basis for choosing WordPress or Next.js before the design and build begin.

For a business open to the public, US guidance says the ADA covers goods and services offered on the web and identifies WCAG as helpful guidance. We set an accessibility target in the brief and use it to guide page design for desktop and mobile. WCAG groups its criteria into A, AA and AAA; we discuss which level to aim for and use the latest version as the reference for the work.

Gather what you have, and note who holds anything still missing.

• Your logo in a vector format, plus brand colours and fonts, or a note that these need creating.
• A ranked list of the services or products you want the site to feature.
• Examples of websites you like and dislike, with a short reason for each choice.
• Account details for your domain, hosting, email, analytics and Search Console, or the name of the person who holds them.
• Your main goal, such as quote requests or applications, and who handles each enquiry.
• A folder of case studies, permitted client logos, testimonials and relevant certifications.

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  Choosing a platform too early

  Decide who will update the site and how often before settling on the technology.

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  Using placeholder copy until the end

  Bring real headings and paragraphs into the designs so the layout fits the content you will publish.

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  Letting someone else register your accounts

  Hold the domain and hosting in your business's name and grant access to the people working on the site.

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  Leaving search setup until later

  Check page titles, the sitemap and any development indexing block before the site goes live.