The studio
The Better Website is a one-person(for now) web design and development studio in Raleigh, North Carolina. We design and hand-code every site we build, we look after it once it is live, and the person you talk to is the person who writes the code.
Who you're working with
The
studio.
Who we are
A small studio run by developers is not a stage we are trying to grow out of. There is no account manager relaying your question to someone else, no junior quietly picking up the build after the pitch, and no production team you never meet.
The design, the code and everything after launch are the same person's job. If a team is required, help is source from developer-vetted partners, not the cheapest contractor we can find overseas. We are based in Raleigh and work across the Triangle and with clients nationwide.
What we do
Four things come with every build, and they are the same four whether the site is five pages or fifty.
Motion
Custom scroll-driven motion that stays fast and fully indexable.
Speed
Sub-second loads that actually rank, because nothing loads that isn't doing a job.
Access
Accessibility considered from the first line, not audited at the end.
Search Engine Optimized
Our sites are made to give you a leg up on competitors on search engines at no additional cost. We provide proof it works before selling SEO, AEO, or GEO services.
That is the floor, not the ceiling: a build climbs as far as it has a reason to, and every rung of it is hand-coded website development. The full system is a page of its own, and so is the motion. We work within all industries, but our personal taste is best for luxury, bold, or experience-based brands. Our work shines within architecture practices, landscape architects, art studios, travel companies, and venues. We also build just because we love the work. You think a theme specifically for haunted attractions is a big seller? Nope! I just had some fun with that one. To contrast, minimalist websites are one of our more popular client choices.
See our premium themesHow we work
It starts with a conversation, not a questionnaire. Your work is one of a kind, and a questionnaire treats you like one of everyone.
We want your goals for the site, your target market, your current pain points, and your “in a perfect world” description. From there, we begin the research before touching a line of code. Once we're comfortable with our knowledge of your work, industry, goals and market, we develop your content and your theme.
Talk
Goals, market, pain points, and the perfect-world version
Research
Your work, your industry and your market, before any code
Content and theme
The backbone feel of the site, developed once we know the work
Build with you
Section by section, previewed live on a staging server
Launch and after
Hosting, updates and whatever comes up, same person throughout
The starting point
We develop this way because much of our work cannot be translated onto a two-dimensional plane without movement, and we'd rather build the site with you than hand you something that, once you see it live, isn't what you wanted. A Photoshop or Figma file isn't made with website capabilities in mind.
What you get is a section by section preview to sign off on or give feedback about, and you get to watch your site take shape live on a staging server. We're a partner, not a contractor.
The human part
We are easy to deal with, and it is on purpose. There is nobody here who needs managing: no discovery deck, no account manager working from a script, no meeting held to justify the last meeting. The profits go to the people doing the real work
We don't believe in toxic professionalism. We won't dress things in corporate or tech jargon, and we have this crazy belief that people should act like people. Our skills speak for themselves and being genuinely comfortable with the material and conversation is what makes it possible to say “that is a bad idea, and here is why” instead of retreating behind process to close a sale and meet an arbitrary number. Every claim on this site is one we can show you, from the speed scores measured on the page you are reading to the complete reduced-motion fallback.
"I've had a lot of clients become real friends through the build process. That may be what I'm most proud of out of all of this" - The Better Website (Guy)
Say helloWhere this came from
I spent years doing accessibility remediation and WordPress work before noticing that both problems had the same root: sites assembled out of software nobody involved fully controlled and nobody controlling really cared about. The accessibility half of that is a longer story and I have told it properly in why website accessibility matters. The short version is that it permanently changed how I build.
The Better Website itself started as a WordPress agency site I was finished with. Its replacement had one job beyond replacing it: the site had to be the pitch. The motion, the scrolljacking, the performance, the compliance, and a new slide-deck mode you can switch on in the nav. The full case study covers what I set out to build, what broke, and what actually shipped.
One person, and your “account manager” is the developer building your site. (Yes, developers can have social skills.) From introduction to the launch and every update after it. Nothing gets passed to a designer, a junior or a production team, because there aren't any. Associates are brought in as needed from a pool of amazing professionals I have on retainer.
Better... just so much better. And fun! We started working this way due to productivity metrics, but continue this practice because everyone loves it! Watch your site come to life instead of being handed 34 pages to review just to be disappointed by how much our vision drifted from what you imagined.
There really isn't any. Honestly. We develop this way because we've seen the standard agency approach fall flat over and over. Working together from start to finish means no loss of translation between marketing and design, no friction between design and development, and expectations are always met.
Say so, as early as you like. We'll work together on a solution. Because you are watching it come together, changes happen while the site is still being built instead of turning into a list of regrets after launch.
You do. Your domain and your content are yours throughout, and if you ever decide to leave you get a copy of your site files that any developer worth your time can pick up and host. They just may not be as talented, attractive, charming, or modest as us.
Yes, and how is decided with you rather than fixed in advance. Some clients want to post their own updates; others would rather send them over and have them handled. The cost is subjective. Building a CMS takes time, but constant edits may make the decision financially responsible. We build for you, not for maximum profit.
Cost, timelines, ownership
Still
curious?
So that's the studio: one person, hand-coded, and still here after launch. If you want the detail, the system is how it all works, the portfolio is what it looks like finished, and the blog is why I keep writing about it. The FAQ handles the practical questions, cost and timelines included, and home is the whole pitch on one page. Want to talk about a project, or just tell me the motion is too much? Say hello.
The Better Website
The Better Website is a one-person web design studio in Raleigh, NC, serving the Triangle and clients nationwide. Every site is hand-coded in plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript — not built on WordPress, a page builder or a CMS.
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