Straight answers
Real questions, phrased the way people actually ask them: what a build costs, how long it takes, whether moving your site costs you rankings, and who owns it when it ships. Jump to a chapter, or read straight through all twenty-five.
If yours isn't here, ask me directly, you'll get me, not a ticket number.
Four chapters, twenty-five answers
Every line is written by a person, not generated by a page builder or bent out of a bought theme. Usually that means plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no platform underneath, so nothing stands between your content and the code that renders it. When WordPress suits a business better, it means a WordPress theme I write myself.
For most sites it is more than the job needs. WordPress makes a CMS and a plugin stack the whole system, sitting between you and your visitors: more to break, get hacked, or slow down. A hand-coded site isn't built on that, and if a job needs a CMS it usually goes in as one part, not the platform. Hand-coded websites versus WordPress has the reasoning.
When it is the better fit, yes, and a store is the usual reason. Every WordPress build starts from the same bare-bones theme, plus Advanced Custom Fields if you want to edit your own content and Gravity Forms for forms; anything else goes in only when the job needs it. A plain hand-coded site is still faster and safer, so the build type is never decided ahead of time: I look at what you need and recommend the approach that fits. Custom WordPress development has the detail.
Yes. How you update your site 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. We settle that together, early, and it is scoped like everything else about the build.
Yes. A hand-coded site loads only what it needs, so nothing slows the page down but the page itself. This site's own web development page runs 97 to 100 on mobile in PageSpeed Insights (August 2026): a lighter footprint than a typical plugin-heavy WordPress build, measured rather than promised.
Yes, and the site is built for it on purpose. Being found now means three things: ranking in a list of search results, being the answer a search engine shows, and being the source an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Perplexity cites. All three read plain HTML on a real URL, so a hand-coded site starts ahead. Every word is in the page at first paint, headings and structured data say what the page is, and this site ships an llms.txt for the crawlers that use one. The full method is in how to get your website into AI answers.
It's actually easier: a site that isn't built on a CMS has no core, plugin stack or theme to keep updated, and no security patches to chase. Fewer dependencies means fewer things that can break on their own.
Yes, design and code both, start to finish. The Better Website is a one-person studio, so the person you talk to about your project is the person who builds it. When a build needs another specialist, I bring in a vetted partner, and you still deal with me.
It depends on pages, custom features, and content, so every build is scoped individually and you get a fixed quote in writing before any work starts, not a generic package price. Care after launch is one of three plans. Reach out with your project for a real number.
Timeline depends on scope: a focused site is faster than one with custom interactions or lots of content to migrate. Once we've talked through what you need, you get a real timeline, with a launch date in writing.
Not right now. As a one-person studio I take on a small number of builds at a time so each one gets my full attention, and the current list is full. If you have a project coming up, get in touch anyway: I'll tell you honestly when I could start, with a date.
Your goals for the site, any existing content or branding, and a sense of what you don't like about your current site, if you have one. Everything else gets worked out together.
No, that can be sorted out as part of the build if you don't have it yet. If you already have a domain, it can be pointed at the new site with no downtime. Either way the domain is registered in your name, which is the catch behind most “free” websites.
Not if the move is planned, and planning it is part of the job. Every page you have now either keeps its address or is permanently redirected to its new one, the content that earned your rankings carries over, and the new site is checked in Google Search Console after launch. A short wobble while Google recrawls is normal; losing what you have built is not.
Yes, you'll see real, working pages as they're built, not static mockups. What you preview is the actual site, so there's no gap between design and what ships.
I keep it running myself: hosting, maintenance, and any update you need, on one of three care plans. Nothing gets passed to an account manager or a production team.
A pre-built starting point (real code, not a mockup) that can launch as-is or grow into a fully custom site. Every theme is a live page you can click through.
Yes, a theme can launch close to what you see, with your content and branding dropped in. What it saves you is the design phase, not the build: the look is already settled and proven, and the work is expanding it into a full site.
Yes, every theme is a real foundation, not a locked template, so it can expand into a full custom site whenever you're ready. It never boxes you in.
You're never locked in, and your domain and content are always yours. I host and maintain the build so you never have to touch it, and if you leave, you get a copy of your site files any developer can put online, plus a grace period to move hosting.
Yes, themes are a starting point, not a fixed package. Colors, layout details, and content are typically adjusted to fit your brand.
A site-builder template still runs on that platform's CMS underneath. A theme here is hand-coded, standalone code: no builder, no plugin stack, and no platform that can change the rules on you.
Scrolljacking is when a site takes over your scroll to drive its own behavior: stepping through sections, scrubbing an animation, or holding a panel in place until it finishes. This site uses a gentle version, where sections pin and animate as you scroll, and a full slide-deck mode is a choice you can switch on in the menu. The what-is-scrolljacking post explains it fully.
Not if it's built right: this site keeps real, crawlable URLs for every page, so scrolljacking only changes the transition, not what search engines index. See the scrolljacking & SEO post.
Yes: full keyboard navigation, screen-reader-friendly markup, and a complete fallback to normal scrolling for reduced-motion users. See Is scrolljacking bad for accessibility? for the full answer, including which WCAG criteria an ADA review would reach for.
The next question is yours
Ask
me.
Twenty-five answers and I still probably haven't covered yours, that is usually how it goes. If something is still open, ask me; you'll get me, not a ticket number. Everything else is back through the tour: how I build, what I've built, why I work this way, and who is behind it, or start again from the top. Or take the rail below; it loops right back round to the conversation.
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: plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript by default, or a custom WordPress theme when that is the better fit.
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