Web design and development in San Francisco

WordPress suits a team that publishes often and wants to edit most of the site itself. It offers a wide choice of plugins, although someone will need to keep them and the site updated for security. Before choosing it, think about who will publish content and who will take responsibility for those updates.

A custom-coded site in Next.js suits a design that needs freedom from template limits, with fast pages and tight security. The trade-off is that structural changes generally need a developer. It is worth discussing how often you expect the layout itself to change, as distinct from the words and images on a page.

A hosted builder such as Wix, Squarespace or Webflow suits a small site that an owner wants to run alone. You have less control over code and speed, and moving away later can mean rebuilding. We recommend WordPress or Next.js after learning how your team works, so the editing arrangement is part of the decision.

For businesses open to the public, ADA Title III covers the goods and services offered on the web. WCAG provides helpful guidance for the build. We set up desktop and mobile page designs around an accessibility target agreed in the brief, with the success criteria and level identified before design work begins.

Commercial email, including business-to-business email, needs a valid physical postal address and a clear opt-out under the CAN-SPAM Act. We set up your email at launch; have the address ready and decide who will handle opt-out requests before sending messages.

Bring what you have, along with a note of anything still to be prepared.

• Your logo in vector format, plus brand colours and fonts.
• A ranked list of the services or products you want to feature.
• Your main goal, such as quote requests or calls, and who handles each enquiry.
• A few sites you like and dislike, with a reason for each choice.
• Photos of your team, premises and finished work, or a plan to arrange them.
• A folder of case studies, permitted client logos, testimonials and relevant credentials.

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  Choosing a platform too early

  Decide who will update the site and how often before selecting the software.

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  Letting someone else register your accounts

  Hold the domain and hosting accounts in your business name and grant access to the people doing the work.

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  Reviewing only on a large screen

  Check every page on a phone before approving the design.

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  Leaving search setup until launch

  Check page titles and the sitemap, and make sure an indexing block has not been left on from development.