Handmade is a boutique web designer, we're small (just 10 digital artisans) but we are passionate about good websites.
As a key pillar of any marketing strategy, your website needs both beauty and brains. It has to look amazing and work effectively to deliver on your goals.
Research in the Behaviour & Information Technology journal shows that visitors to business websites can make up their minds about you in just 50 milliseconds. And it’s the design that captures them in this ‘blink’ moment, not your compelling product or service. As they say, it's the sizzle, not the sausage.
A carefully crafted layout, colour palette, spacing and imagery create an immediate, instinctive response to want more instead of returning to the search results to take a look at one of your competitors. Appearances, and user experience matter. That's why we take web design seriously.
We are also experts in the other ways a website should support your business and processes, whether that is with an easy admin experience, Search Engine Optimisation or Conversion Rate Optimisation.
Right from the first conversation we have with you, we will consider how to make your site look great and work hard. Read this executive summary on what a good web design includes.
You get what you pay for
An essential investment for your business
Paying for a poorly designed or built website is money down the drain. Invest in something that will last for several years which you can update yourself, and draw customers to your business.
Whether the right look is contemporary or vintage, minimalist, corporate or quirky, our stunning user-friendly designs are gorgeous, just ask us (or look for yourself).
All our websites work on phones and other devices, with responsive designs for all screen sizes. Essential today both for web users and search engines, your site has to be thumbable!
It's no good having a website that nobody can find in a quick Google search. We're knowledgeable about keywords, website page hierarchies, content, imagery, code and all the other arcane ingredients that search engines love.
Whether your aim is to generate enquiries, sales, awareness, new members or just customers through the door, a Handmade website will be optimised to convert customers effectively.
Almost all our websites are built using the powerful WordPress content management system, so you can save money by updating the site yourself if you want to.
But not all WordPress sites are made equal (in fact, some are made like Frankenstein's Monster!) so, we're really quite picky about how a website should work for the administrator. You'll immediately feel the difference behind the scenes with a Handmade site.
Website packages
Meeting your needs from start-ups to corporates
We cater to most types of project, where we think we can deliver a great result. Take a look at some broad categories below for what you can expect to pay.
For start-ups or those requiring a simple web presence, a single-page website with multiple sections to showcase who you are, what you offer and examples of your work may be what you need. You can expect to pay around $2500 - $3500 for a beautiful Handmade single pager.
Ideal for most start-ups, small businesses and non-profit organisations, delivering beautiful design with strong search performance and conversion. The specific price depends on several factors, including the number of pages, design style, and functions you need, such as online booking, basic e-commerce or event management. You can expect to pay from $6000 - $10,000 for a handcrafted masterpiece from Handmade. Does it seem too expensive? Annualise the investment over 5 years and think about how much money it'll bring you over that timeframe.
Suits more established businesses and organisations who have more sophisticated requirements. This might include showcasing a large and varied portfolio of work in a unique way, e-commerce, managing online reservations for different parts of a hospitality business, or the administration of memberships and members-only content for a non-profit association. You can expect to invest $10,000 - $20,000 for a super-clever, bespoke Handmade website.
For medium-sized businesses and associations who have complex requirements. These projects may incorporate customer-centred design techniques such as contextual research, personas and usability testing. The websites might involve powerful e-commerce solutions, unique interactive tools/calculators, or large amounts of written and visual content. You're likely going to need to put aside $20,000 to $60,000 for something that is a website built-for-the-big-time.
Yes, we certainly do e-commerce. But, we don't use Shopify. That's not because we don't think Shopify is good, because for lots of people with straightforward needs, it really is. However, we find that when you want to bend it in any kind of unusual direction it starts getting expensive fast. Say you want to offer wholesale pricing, offer membership, event tickets, or do something that's just not quite how Shopify does things... prepare to pay the big bucks.
We are specialists, so we work with WordPress WooCommerce for those sites that need a flexible e-commerce solution. Some think that WordPress isn't powerful enough for a big e-commerce store, but we beg to differ. We have clients doing thousands in revenue every day, processing hundreds of orders, all on humble WordPress WooCommerce.
Unless you have only one or two products, you should be ready to invest at least $12,000 on a Handmade e-commerce site. But if your needs are slightly complicated, it can head north of $30,000 quite easily. Let's talk about it, we can let you know where we can tailor our approach to fit your budget.
Why choose us?
Flexibility and adaptability for your business
There's no substitute for quality. We know what we're capable of and have a portfolio of work to prove it. We're not showing all our work on this site, so ask us if you don't see something similar to what you're after. Chances are we've done something like it in the 11 years we've been in business.
Here are some important reasons you should work with us instead of the other guys.
Our websites last for at least 4-5 years before they might need a refresh, representing great value for money. It may feel like a big expense up-front, but if you consider that conventional wisdom is that you should spend 5-10% of your annual revenue on marketing, then investing $2k – $5k a year in your key marketing pillar doesn't seem so bad... like, not bad at all!
And when you are ready to revamp your site, we offer a 5% discount to all returning clients! We also offer a 10% discount for not-for-profit clients.
We’re passionate about what good design can do for your business, so we always deliver a top-quality product that really works. We're pretty sure you won't get a better website product for the price, when you consider all that a website should be, not just for your customers, but for you to maintain and update too.
Our Sydney and Melbourne clients in particular love that they can get a top quality website done with us, without having to pay a "big city" price tag.
Our designs are bespoke for every project, created to appeal to your particular target market; we don’t trot out the same look time and time again. From cool retro/vintage looks to cutting-edge ‘mobile-first’ designs, to web-app interfaces, we make sure the unique personality of your business shines through.
If you want discerning customers to appreciate the quality of your products or services, you need to impress them within seconds of arriving at your website. This is what good design does in a 'blink' moment.
Our professional, friendly team guide you every step of the way, making sure you know what we need from you to get started, that you're happy with the bespoke design we create, and exactly what content you need to provide.
We understand that you're not a web developer, and sometimes you're not even that great with computers. That's totally fine, we are and will hold your hand through the process to get you an awesome website going.
Don't have time to draft text? Haven't got professional photographs? We can connect you with trusted copywriters, photographers and videographers who will help you make sure your new website has content that gives the best possible impression to your target customers.
We pride ourselves in being adaptable so that we can work with a broad range of businesses, from start-ups to corporates and community not-for-profits.
Primarily our websites are custom-built in the WordPress content management system with bespoke designs. This gives us the flexibility to design a site that both looks fantastic yet is scalable to suit your evolving needs.
It has to be said, we can't compete on price with one-man-bands and offshoring sweatshops, but that's because our team live and work here in our community, getting paid the skilled Australian workers that they are. But, we know we deliver a better product and service than those guys, so if your budget can stretch beyond the bare bones, you will get what you pay for, we promise.
Because we use WordPress, if for whatever reason your business needs to change down the track and you need to find another web developer to help you with your site, or you want to move your site to a different hosting service, you're free to do so.
WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world with a 64.2% market share (Search Engine Journal, June 2022) so you will always be able to find a developer who is familiar with it.
Be wary of other agencies who use their own unique CMS – this is a risk for your business as only that agency can ever work on your website, locking you into an arrangement with them. Your website would only be supported as long as that agency remains operating and we've heard a lot of horror stories over our 11 years in business where clients are left high and dry by their developer and they are facing a complete do-over. In addition, you will pay ongoing license fees to use their proprietary system, whereas WordPress itself is open-source and has no licensing fees. You will have to pay some ongoing fees for quality plugins that extend WordPress. But because you will be one of millions of customers, you can expect those plugins to be maintained.
Need something extra or a little different? No problem. Take advantage of working with our multi-disciplinary team to incorporate branding, more technically challenging functions or digital marketing into your project.
- E-commerce
- Wholesaling
- Membership administration
- Branding and logo design
- Digital marketing including email newsletters and social campaigns
- Ongoing search engine optimisation
- Maintenance retainers
After a free initial consultation, we put together a detailed quote tailored exactly to what you need, with comprehensive inclusions and exclusions so you know exactly what you are getting.
Our Process
Frequently Asked Questions
The turnaround time for website design and development will vary greatly depending on the specific website requirements and complexity, as well as client readiness and engagement in the process. As a general indication, one page websites with multiple sections may take around 4 weeks from sign off to launch, simple multipage websites may take between 6-8 weeks, while more complex sites can take several months to complete.
We create beautiful, high-performing custom-designed and built sites that are an investment in the success of your business. As a bespoke web design and development agency, we do charge more than an agency using template websites.
Single-page websites with multiple sections start at $2,500, small business websites with 6-12 pages start at $6,000, while more complex websites may cost between $7,000 and $60,000 depending on requirements and complexity. eCommerce sites start from $12,000.
Payments are progress-based, with up to 50% up front, followed by additional progress payments until the launch is completed.
There are several components to ongoing costs of a website, including domain costs, hosting fees, third-party software licences, and maintenance.
Domain costs can vary depending on how may domain names you wish to acquire. You can expect to pay around $30+ GST per year for each domain name registered. We can manage your domains on your behalf or you may choose to purchase yourself.
Hosting is the online storage space used to “host” the files associated with your website, including your web pages, images and content management system. We offers and encourage our clients to utilise our hosting services which are great value, fast, secure, reliable and managed. By hosting with us, we are able to stay on top of any technical issues that may arise with your website from time to time. Read more about our Hosting Services.
Whilst the WordPress content management system itself is free, most website will utilise a range of 'plugins' or third-party software to assist them to function as required. While many of the plugins we use are free, premium plugins may attract an annual license fee which will be passed on to you as the client. All purchases of premium plugins will be included in your quote, or approved by you as the client, prior to installation.
We enjoy a great ongoing relationship with our clients, and are on hand to support you in maintaining your website. Support can be offered on an ad hoc basis, or if you require regular support, it is preferable that you undertake a maintenance retainer contract.
Our team is on hand to assist with maintaining your website. If you choose to host your website with us, a level of maintenance is built into your chosen hosting package. We also provide ad hoc support or offer a monthly support retainer for those clients needing ongoing website maintenance.
We specialise in Wordpress websites with WooCommerce as the e-commerce platform as it provides flexibility on design and functionality.
Research published by Search Engine Journal in June 2022 indicates that WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world with a 64.2% market share. Its closest competitor is Shopify with 6.2% – more than ten times less than WordPress.
We provide our clients with access to their website's content management system, which allows you to make changes to your own website should you wish. We can provide training as well as training documents on request, to support you or a member of your team in making adjustments to your website. We also offer support on an ad hoc or regular basis, should you prefer to leave it to the professionals.
We will fix any issues that arise with your new website within 60 days of launch, free of charge. Beyond this time, technical issues that arise outside of our Hosting arrangements may incur a fee.