Building websites for Kingston businesses

Kingston runs on a different calendar than most cities. A website built for that calendar earns its keep. One built without it goes quiet at exactly the wrong time of year.

Kingston runs on its own calendar, and a build that ignores it is the mistake I'd want to avoid on your behalf.

Three schools set the rhythm. Queen's University, the Royal Military College, and St. Lawrence College bring tens of thousands of people to town who arrive in late August knowing nothing about where to eat or who fixes a laptop when it breaks. Every fall you get a fresh crowd of customers who have no idea you exist and who will find you almost entirely through a phone. Then there's the other Kingston: government offices, hospitals, the correctional and defence employers, the people who live here year-round and aren't going anywhere.

And on top of both, the tourists: the waterfront, the limestone downtown, the Thousand Islands boats. Summer is loud, February is not.

So a Kingston business is usually serving two or three different audiences on two or three different schedules, and the website has to work for all of them without anybody rewriting it four times a year.

What actually matters on a small local site

Speed comes first, and it's not a technical vanity thing. A slow site is a locked door with a handwritten sign that says back in five minutes. Nobody waits. They walk to the next shop on the block, which online means the next result on the page.

The phone. Most people finding you are standing outside somewhere with one hand full. Your phone number should be tappable, your address should open in maps with one touch, and your hours should be correct, including the seasonal ones. In my experience, stale hours cost more customers than bad design does.

Plain language up top. If you're an electrician who does residential panel upgrades in Kingston and Amherstview, the page should say that in those words, because that's roughly what somebody types into Google.

One clear next step per page. Call, book, order, visit. A page that offers six options usually gets none of them taken.

Downtown storefront or service business, the site is not the same

If you're downtown, your site is mostly answering: are you open, where do I park, what does it cost, is this the sort of place I want to walk into. Photos matter, hours matter, and being findable on maps matters more than almost anything else.

If you run a service business from a truck or a home office out toward Amherstview, Gananoque, or Napanee, the questions are different. Do you cover my area, are you licensed and insured, how fast can you come, and can I reach a person today. Put those answers high on the page where people will actually find them.

Same city, two very different builds.

A local resource worth knowing

If you're getting established here, the Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce is a genuinely useful place to start. It's been operating for well over a century and represents several hundred member businesses in the region. Membership gets you into the room with people who already know the local market, which is worth more early on than most marketing spend. The Downtown Kingston BIA is the equivalent if your business lives in the core.

I mention them because they're useful to you whether or not you ever hire me.

Questions I get asked

Are you actually local?

I'm Ontario-based and I run this personally. Kingston is a new market for me, so I'm not going to show you a wall of local logos I haven't earned yet. What I have is thirty years of building on the web, since 2007 in WordPress, and a consulting practice at thisismyurl.com working with universities, media, and government clients, priced for that scale. This site is the same person, built specifically for local businesses, at a price that fits one.

What does a website cost?

There are three sizes. Starter runs $1,800, Grow runs $3,200, and Complete runs $5,500, with the full breakdown on the home page. Most Kingston businesses only need Starter. It depends on how many pages you need and whether you're selling or booking online. Call me, describe the business, and I'll tell you which size fits.

Do you offer financing?

Yes. If spreading the cost works better for your business, say so when we talk and we'll set up a plan that fits.

Do I own the site when it's done?

Yes, at every size. The domain gets registered in your business name, the hosting account is in your name, and the logins are yours. If you ever decide to move the site to somebody else, you can, and I'll help you pack it up.

I have a Facebook page. Do I need a website too?

You need something you own. A social page is rented ground: the rules change, the reach changes, and one day the account gets locked and you're calling a support address that doesn't answer. A website is yours. Use both, but let the one you control be the one your customers can always find.

What happens after it launches?

Websites need the same attention as anything else with moving parts. Software updates, backups, the odd broken link, hours that change in October. I'd rather set that up properly at the start than get a panicked call in July.

Talk to me about your site

Tell me what your business does and what you want the site to do for it. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.

Call 613.480.1345, or email [email protected] if that's easier.