Cost
What a high-end website costs in Chicago and the suburbs
The four ways to get a site, what each costs and the questions to ask any designer before you sign.
Website guides for business owners
Plain-English guides for owners of high-end independent businesses who are deciding what kind of website to get, who should build it and whether the one they have is good enough. They're grouped by the question you're trying to answer, and each one is useful even if you hire someone else.
What will it cost, and how long will it take?
The two questions every owner asks first, answered with published prices and real timelines.
Cost, med spas
What a med spa website costs
Market prices, what drives the price, a worked first-year example and the patient-privacy line items.
Timeline
How long a custom website takes
The stages, what each one waits on, what adds weeks and a checklist to get ready.
Which platform should we build on?
Builders, WordPress and custom code each suit a different kind of business.
Platforms
Wix, Squarespace, WordPress or custom
How the four options compare on cost, speed, editing and ownership, with what we found on local business sites.
Platforms
Squarespace or a custom website
What Squarespace does well, where custom code pulls ahead and what each costs over three years.
How do we choose who builds it?
What to settle in writing before you sign, and how to recover if a designer disappears.
Hiring
Questions to ask a web designer before you sign
Fourteen questions, what a good answer sounds like, the red flags and how we answer each one.
Ownership
What to do if your web designer disappears
Find out who holds your domain, hosting and logins, get each one back and keep a handoff list.
Is our current site good enough?
How to judge the site you have before you spend money on a new one.
Research
The western suburbs website report, 2026
What we found when we checked the websites of independent businesses in the Hinsdale and Oak Brook chambers.
Redesign
Website redesign or refresh: how to tell which you need
A scorecard you can run on your own site, and what each answer means for cost and timing.
Design
What makes a website look high-end
The details that make a business site look expensive or cheap, and a five-minute test you can run.
How do local customers find us?
Search, maps and the details that turn a visit into a call.
Local search
Local SEO for a boutique in the suburbs
Your Google Business Profile, reviews, the pages worth having and the small fixes that make a phone ring.
Ready to talk about your site?
Projects start at $3,000. See pricing and process →