Will the site actually rank in Derby search results?

The build handles what is technically controllable: crawlable HTML, correct headings, structured data, fast pages, a clean sitemap and Search Console set up on day one. Ranking also depends on your competitors, your domain's age and the links pointing at you, which no developer controls. Anyone guaranteeing a position is guessing or lying.

What happens if I am not happy with the result?

Work is delivered in milestones against a written scope, and you review each one on a staging URL before it is paid for. If the delivered milestone does not match the scope, it gets corrected before anything moves forward. That structure exists so disagreement is resolved at the stage it happens rather than at the end when it is expensive.

Do you build on WordPress or something custom?

Whichever the project justifies. WordPress when you need to edit content constantly and want a familiar admin. A static build when speed and security matter more than a plugin ecosystem. Custom PHP and MySQL when the logic is genuinely yours. The choice is explained in the quote with its trade-offs, not presented as a foregone conclusion.

Can you migrate my Derby site without losing rankings?

Yes, and the redirect map is the whole job. Every existing URL is mapped to its new equivalent with a 301 before launch, and anything with no equivalent goes to the closest relevant page rather than the homepage. Sites lose rankings in migration because that mapping was skipped, not because migration is inherently risky.

How long does a Derby project actually take?

Three days for a business site, seven for a store, ten for a custom application. That holds because the process is fixed rather than improvised and because your content exists on day one. What stretches a build is almost never the code — it is waiting for copy, logos and photographs, so those are requested before the clock starts.

What hours will you be available to us in Derby?

My standard day lands at 05:00–14:00 your time — about 5 hours of genuine overlap with a normal Derby working day. That is enough for one reliable daily window rather than constant back-and-forth, so Derby projects run on written updates plus one scheduled call a week.

Can you fix my existing site rather than rebuild it?

Often, yes, and it is usually the cheaper answer. Speed problems, a broken mobile layout, a form that silently fails or missing structured data are all fixable on the site you already have. I will tell you which of the two you need after looking, and a rebuild only gets recommended when the fix would cost more than starting again.

Midlands · United Kingdom

Website maintenance and support in Derby

Almost every website emergency I get called into was preventable and cheap to prevent: an expired domain, an unpatched plugin, a backup nobody had ever restored. Maintenance is not a subscription for reassurance — it is the specific set of checks that stop those three things from happening to you. For Derby businesses, quoted in GBP from $45, typically live in ongoing monthly.

What website maintenance and support includes for a Derby business

Fixed scope, agreed in writing before development starts. From $45, typically live in ongoing monthly.

Core, plugin and dependency updates applied on staging first, then live
Offsite backups taken on a schedule and test-restored quarterly, because an untested backup is a hope
Security patching, plus header and SSL certificate checks
Uptime and certificate-expiry monitoring, with alerts that reach a human
Domain and hosting renewal watch — the single most common cause of a site going dark
A monthly allowance of small content and layout changes, with anything larger quoted separately
Search Console and analytics checked monthly for coverage errors and traffic anomalies
A short written monthly report: what changed, what was found, what needs a decision

The terms for a British client

Starting price	From $45, quoted and invoiced in GBP
Typical timeline	ongoing monthly once content is supplied
Tax position	VAT at 20% once you are registered — my invoices are outside the scope of UK VAT and you account for them under the reverse charge
Data protection	UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 — resolved by a pre-signed DPA with a completed UK International Data Transfer Addendum
Payment rails available	Stripe, GoCardless for Direct Debit, and Klarna or Clearpay where basket sizes justify it
My day in Derby time	05:00–14:00 — about 5 hours of overlap

Why this matters for United Kingdom specifically

UK local search is the most saturated in the English-speaking world, so a merely competent site does not win the job — the quote form does. Every UK build I ship is specified around the enquiry step first and the homepage second.

How a Derby build is scoped before anything is written

Scope is fixed in writing before development starts, and the number in that document is the number on the invoice. For Derby projects that document lists every page, every form, every integration and every third-party account the site will touch — priced in GBP, not converted at the end from something else.

The reason this matters more than it sounds: almost every dispute in web development is a scope dispute wearing a different hat. "Can you just add" is how a three-day build becomes a three-week one. Fixing scope up front does not stop you changing your mind; it makes the cost of changing your mind visible before you commit to it, which is the only honest way to run a fixed price.

Professional services in Derby

Accountants, solicitors, consultants and agencies sell judgement, which cannot be photographed. What converts instead is specificity: the sectors you actually work in, the size of client you actually serve, and named people with real biographies. A professional services site full of stock imagery and the word "bespoke" is indistinguishable from every competitor in Derby.

Practically, the site's job is qualification rather than lead volume. Publishing your minimum engagement size loses you enquiries and saves you hours, and almost every practice I have built for concluded afterwards that it should have done it sooner.

Structured data that is missing, wrong, or quietly lying

Schema markup is how a search engine reads what a page means rather than only what it says. Missing it costs you rich results. Getting it wrong is worse: marking up review stars you do not have, or a LocalBusiness at an address that is not yours, risks a manual action rather than a ranking.

Every page I build carries schema matching what is actually on it and nothing beyond that. The restraint is deliberate — this page uses Service and areaServed rather than LocalBusiness, precisely because there is no physical presence in Derby to assert.

What I am not claiming about Derby

I have no office, postal address or phone number in Derby
I cannot meet you in person, and if that is a requirement you should hire locally
I am not claiming existing clients in Derby specifically — my live work is listed on the work page and you can check it
Nothing on this page is a guarantee of search rankings, which no developer can honestly offer