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Your business is unique, and it deserves a bespoke website to represent it online. We provide branding, UX, and functionality solutions that you just can’t find on DIY platforms.
Get started by contacting us online or calling 705-712-3235
To help us give you as realistic an estimate as possible before our discovery call, we built this Website Design Calculator for your convenience.
Give it a try, or call (705) 712-3235 to connect with an expert directly.
Already have a website, or thinking ahead to when we finish building your new one? Enjoy peace of mind knowing that we will take care of your ongoing website management needs.
In addition to the services included in our website management packages above, you can also rely on Countdown to take care of the day-to-day maintenance on your site.
Our web designers have experience with a range of CMS (Content Management System) platforms, but we specialize in building with two; WordPress and Shopify.
Shopify – Quick to set up, easier to self-manage, but less customizable. Also has a monthly fee.
WordPress – Very customizable, no platform fees, but a steeper learning curve.
If you have a preference on which of these two platforms we use, then we are happy to go with that, but otherwise, we will determine which will work best for you during our discovery call.
Note: A Content Management System, or CMS, is a software application that allows you to control your own website without needing to know how to code.
The advantage of us building on a CMS is that you can make small changes and add pictures/text after we hand the website over without having to call an expert (though we love to hear from you!)
Every business has unique needs, which is why our web design services are tailored to suit your brand. Whether it’s customizing features, integrating third-party software, or creating a one-of-a-kind layout — we can do it all and more!
Here’s a bit about what we will include in your new website:
Your website needs a strong visual identity to succeed. We work with you to create every page of your site, ensuring that it has an unforgettable design to help convert your visitors into customers.
While design customization and complexity exist on a spectrum, we generally try to group a new website into one of three categories:
Your brand’s colours, fonts, and images are applied to one of our dozens of existing templates. This is the most budget-friendly option, and it also results in a faster turnaround, meaning your new website can start generating revenue sooner.
Just because your website uses a template doesn’t mean it’s not completely unique, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s any less effective.
Unless you have a specific layout or advanced features already in mind at the start of your project, we often recommend aiming for a “Simple Template” website. Then, as your needs expand as you get new customers, we can interatively update your website over the course of a few months.
At this level, we design bespoke layouts for several of your core pages, such as the Home, About, and Blog pages. This lets you have total control over exactly how things look and work on the majority of your website pages, with the exception of a few advanced pages that require extensive coding to change.
The design and development processes take a little bit longer at this level, as we will make a series of mockups for your to get a sense for your specific style and requirements. Once approved, we will start implementing your totally bespoke designs.
For “Complex Custom” websites, we customize everything, including advanced layouts for the Product pages, Checkout, and Cart (for E-Commerce stores).
This allows you ultimate control over every aspect of your website design, which in some cases is necessary in order to implement complex functionalities. Keep in mind, though, that this is a premium option.
While all websites must have a home page, the other pages are determined by your unique business needs. Our Web Design Calculator allows you to select which pages you think you’ll need, which helps us to give you a more accurate estimate before you even pick up the phone to call us.
Below are a few of the most common page types that we are experienced in making, but if you need a page that isn’t included in the calculator, you can let us know here.
Besides the pages and design layouts, another critical component to an effective website is the add-on features it needs to include.
By far the most economical way to add powerful and secure features into your new website is to integrate third-party software. This does often mean paying a monthly fee, but fortunately, we have partnerships with several industry-leading platforms to get you better prices when you pay through us.
Below is a list of our tried-and-true partners for add-on features. If there is a feature (or a software) that is missing from this list that you want in your site, contact us here to ask about it.
In addition to designing and coding your website, we optimize it for search engines by implementing technical SEO best practices.
A higher ranking in search results can mean greater visibility among users and potential customers. With better rankings for relevant searches, your website will be able to attract more clicks from high-value users who are interested in visiting a certain page or purchasing an item.
Our team of digital marketing and SEO specialists will work together with our designers to ensure your website not only looks great but also ranks well in search results.
Note: “Technical SEO” describes one-third of Search Engine Optimization as a whole. It refers to activities like making your website faster, optimizing for mobile, and creating site-maps to help Google find you quicker.
The other two categories of Search Engine Optimization are “On-Page SEO” and “Off-Page SEO.”
Off-Page SEO involves activities like guest blogging, Social Media Marketing, and asking other websites to link back to your website.
On-Page SEO involves writing high-quality relevant content to help you answer more of peoples’ questions. When your content answers a question really well, Google shows it first, which means more people click on and see your website.
If you are interested in ranking higher on Google with great content, check out our Content Writing and Blogging services.
If you choose to have us build your website with WordPress (because you want more customizability, extra features, etc.) then you will need to choose a web host.
To streamline the optimization and maintenance of your website, Countdown Creative offers a Managed WordPress Hosting service. This means we will host your website on our own servers, which drastically improves how quickly and effectively we can help you should anything ever go wrong with your site.
If you would prefer to host with a third-party, we can certainly help set that up for you, but we don’t offer retainer plans for managing third-party hosted websites. That means that website security, updates, SSL certificates, and backups will be your responsibility once we hand your new website off to you.
Countdown Creative’s Managed WordPress Hosting starts at $50 CAD per month.
Note: Shopify hosts websites built with Shopify on their own servers, so you don’t need to worry about choosing a host. If you ever encounter a problem, the Shopify support team will be there to help.
In many cases, we can work directly with the Shopify support team at an ad hoc rate if you need advanced assistance.
High-quality photography is one of the most important types of content for any website, but this is especially true for E-Commerce websites.
For everything from thematic photos (images of your team at work or your products in use), to team headshots, to product photography, we can help you with all of it. Our on-staff photographer, Summer Alvarado, is an expert in taking beautiful headshot and product photos to boost your site’s overall return on investment (ROI).
Thematic photos are photos that help tell a story of what your business is about.
While Countdown Creative doesn’t offer thematic photography as a service, if you are unable to provide your own, we will help curate the perfect stock photos for your website.
In many cases, we can find free stock photos available for commercial use, but if we can’t, you can expect to pay roughly $5-10 CAD for the licence to use a particular stock photo.
We usually curate both free and paid options for you to choose between.
We provide professional headshot photography that’s perfect for representing your team and your brand in the best light possible. This comes highly recommended if you have an “About Us” page.
Our per-photo pricing ranges from $175/headshot for 1-5 people, to $100/headshot for teams of 20+.
For a cost estimate based on your specific team size, use our web design calculator here.
By far the single most important pieces of content on an E-Commerce website are the product photos. Without being able to physically touch a product as they would in a store, customers rely on high-quality product photos to make a buying decision.
If you are unable to provide your own professional-quality product photos, we are more than happy to help out! We recommend between 3 and 7 photos per unique product, in order to demonstrate scale and dimensions.
Again, our pricing is per-photo, ranging from $20/photo for 1-10 photos and $10/photo for 600+ photos.
For a cost estimate based on your number of products and how many photos you need of each, check out our Web Design Calculator.
Maximize the effectiveness of each of your pages with professional copywriting.
At Countdown, we work with writers experienced in creating optimized, high-value content in a variety of industries. Our team crafts copy based on your input and extensive secondary research into your industry and offerings, then we send it to you for approval before laying it into the website mockups.
We also produce SEO-optimized, conversion-focused product descriptions for each of your products, balancing the needs of both Google and your customers.
Page content refers to any sales or informational copywriting on the main pages of your website. This could include the Home Page, the About us Page, and more.
We charge a per-page rate of $150 for each page that we write content for.
If you choose to have us write copy for every page of your website, please note that we do not charge the full amount for pages with minimal writing (e.g. a photo gallery page). Depending on the extent of the copy needed, we will charge a variable reduced rate instead.
Second only to Product Photos in terms of importance, your Product Descriptions must walk a thin line between enticing customers and appealing to search engines. Luckily, we have become experts in helping you do just that.
High-quality product copy will pay for itself quickly by converting your website viewers into customers.
Our per-product pricing for descriptions ranges from $15/description for 1-10 products, to $7/description for 100+ products. You can get an accurate estimate based on your number of products with our Web Design Calculator.
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