Owner-operators
Starter site
$1,590–1,990
- 4–6 pages
- Quote or contact form
- Google listing set up
Web design for small US businesses
See your new homepage before you pay a cent.
For trades, home services, restaurants and professional firms. I draw a free mockup of your new homepage first. Like it? We build it. Don’t? You owe nothing.
- Your domain, in your name
- Buy it or rent-to-own
- Built to WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines
Concept site shown: a demo, not client work.
How it works
Four steps. You only pay once you’ve seen it.
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1
Free mockup
I draw your new homepage from what’s on your current site and your Google listing, and send you a private link. No charge, no commitment.
When: before anything is signed
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2
A call
We go through the mockup by phone, WhatsApp or video at a time that suits you. You get a written, itemized quote, valid 30 days.
When: whenever suits your day, Eastern Time
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3
Build
Every page, your photos, your forms, your Google listing. You see it as it grows and ask for changes along the way.
When: one to three weeks for most small-business sites
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4
Launch
Live on your own domain, with a one-hour walkthrough. Replacing a rented site? We time the switch for the day the old one goes off.
When: the day you approve it
Work
Five concept sites. Drag to see the difference.
These are demo sites I built to show what a small business gets, not client work. The businesses, prices and contact details are made up, and the sites are in French because I built them for the French market first. The “before” side is an illustration of a typical dated page, not anyone’s real site.
Before (illustration)
After (concept site)
Pricing
Clear prices in dollars. Pick how you pay.
Every site is on your own domain, mobile first, with a privacy policy and an accessibility statement, built to WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines. The exact figure is on your written quote.
Trades
Redesign, trades
$2,690–3,390
- 8–12 pages
- Captioned project gallery
- Trade-specific estimate form
- One interactive feature
Practices & B2B
Redesign, practices / B2B
$3,190–3,890
- 11–14 pages
- Wording for licensed professions (vets, dentists…)
- Or bid and pre-qualification pages for commercial contractors
Several offices
Multi-location site
$3,990–5,900
- One page per office
- Office map
- Requests routed to each office
Larger sites: $5,900–9,500. Extra work: $75 an hour, always quoted beforehand. Full price list, options and terms →
Three ways to pay
Buy it
Site price, in 3 parts
30% when you sign, 40% when you approve the design, 30% at launch. Card or ACH through Stripe, invoiced in USD. Then a hosting plan below.
Yours after the last payment.
Rent-to-own
$0 upfront · $159/mo × 36
A full trades site, then $59/mo hosting only. Faster: $209/mo × 24. Starter site: $99/mo × 36, then $45/mo. Billed by me directly, never through a finance company.
Your domain from day one, the site at the last payment. To finish early, pay the remaining site balance.
Site included
$0 + $49 or $79/mo
Essential $49/mo: one page or 3 short pages from a template, contact form, Google profile at launch, 15 min of edits a month. Visibility $79/mo: up to 5 pages and a gallery, estimate form with photos, 1 mailbox, a Google post a month, reviews kit, 30 min of edits.
12 months, then 1 month’s notice. Buy-out $590 in year 1, $290 in year 2, free after 24 months.
Buy vs rent-to-own, side by side: a $3,190 trades site bought outright plus 36 months of $59 hosting comes to $5,314. Rent-to-own over the same 36 months is $5,724: about 8% more, for nothing upfront.
Hosting & care plans
Hosting, SSL, updates, backups and uptime monitoring in every plan. 12-month commitment, then cancel with 1 month’s notice. Billed on the 1st by card or ACH.
| Plan | For | Monthly | Paid yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Starter sites | $45 | $450 |
| Standard | Basic + up to 30 min of edits a month | $59 | $590 |
| Plus | Licensed practices or more pages; yearly content and license check; monthly results report | $79 | $790 |
| Multi-location | Routed forms, 45–60 min of edits a month; monthly results report | $99–129 | $990–1,290 |
Paid yearly: 12 months for the price of 10, non-refundable, renews yearly unless cancelled with 1 month’s notice.
Calculator
Is your website contract ending?
If you pay a vendor every month for your website, put that figure in and compare it with a site you own. The math runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
You send the photos. I make them work.
No photo or video shoots: your own photos of your own jobs beat stock pictures. Every client gets a free one-page phone-photo guide so the crew can shoot jobs themselves.
First photo batch: $90. Up to about 30 of your photos, sorted, cropped, captioned and placed on your site and your Google profile.
Tools for your business
Add-ons that keep working after launch.
Built once, set up for your business, running on your own site. Try the small demos: nothing is sent.
Review engine
$390 setup + $49/mo
A review page on your own site with two equal choices side by side: leave a Google review, or tell the owner directly. A personal link per customer, a QR card for the counter or the van, your latest Google reviews shown on the site, and a monthly count.
Demo · the message you’d send
How did we do?
Everyone is asked the same way: no star filter, no rewards. That’s what Google’s review policy and the FTC’s rule on consumer reviews require.
Guided request builder
$590 · $990 · $1,490
A form that replaces the back-and-forth phone call: it asks the right questions for your trade, shows what’s still missing, and sends you a clean summary. Simple, Guided (multi-step, photo upload, estimate ranges) or Connected (hands off to your booking system).
Demo · a plumbing request
Still missing:
No Social Security, date of birth, license or bank numbers in any form.
Results report
$19/mo · included in Plus
A one-page summary in your inbox each month: page views, calls tapped, forms sent, review requests, clicks to your booking or ordering page, and your Google rating. No third-party analytics, no cookies.
Demo · random numbers, not real data
Page views–
Calls tapped–
Forms sent–
Review requests–
Booking-page clicks–
It reports what happened. It never promises traffic, leads or reviews.
About
Hi, I’m Mike.
Michael Klingensmith. I’m originally from the US (I studied at the University of Pittsburgh), and I’ve lived in France for about 30 years. I’ve written software for 25 of them and have been independent since 2007.
I build websites for small businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. I work remotely from France, so there’s no office to visit and I don’t come on site: we talk by phone, WhatsApp or video at times that suit Eastern Time. France is 6 hours ahead, so my afternoon is your morning.
What you can count on: a mockup before any money changes hands, prices in dollars on a written quote, your domain and accounts in your name, and plain answers to your questions.
Also in French: it-mike.fr
Will I own my domain name?
Yes. The domain is registered in your name, in your own account, and the renewal (about $15–25 a year for a .com) is billed to you at cost. If you don’t have one yet, domain, a professional email address and the technical setup for search engines cost $220. The site itself is yours once it’s paid for, or at the end of a rent-to-own term.
I’m on Wix or Squarespace. Can you move me?
Yes. Your text and photos come over to the new site, and the domain moves to an account in your name if it isn’t already there. If your email runs on the same domain, only the website records change, and the email records are checked before and after the switch so mail keeps flowing ($220–350). Moving old mail to a new mailbox is $190.
My site is with Hibu or Thryv. What changes?
While your contract runs, nothing has to change. What matters is the timing: find the end date and notice period in your contract, ask the vendor in writing for the domain transfer code if they hold your domain, and plan any mailbox move first. The new site is ready for the day the old one goes off, at the same address. The exit plan ($290) covers this: a read-through of your contract, a notice letter template, a domain and mailbox inventory and a switch-over checklist. It’s credited against your new site if you order it within 60 days. It isn’t legal advice; for a dispute, talk to a lawyer.
Where is the site hosted?
On a hosting plan from $45 a month that covers hosting, SSL (the padlock), updates, backups and uptime monitoring. Higher plans add monthly edit time and the results report. Plans run 12 months, then you can cancel with one month’s notice.
What’s included in a website?
The pages in your quote, written with you, designed from the mockup and built mobile first; your contact or estimate form; your Google listing; a privacy policy and an accessibility statement; launch on your domain and a one-hour walkthrough. Options such as a review engine, extra service-area pages or a logo are listed separately on the price list.
How long does it take?
The mockup comes first and costs nothing. Once you’ve said yes and sent your photos and details, most small-business sites take one to three weeks to build. The schedule is written in your quote.
Do you take photos or videos?
No. You send your own photos, and a free one-page guide shows how to take good ones with a phone. The first batch (up to about 30 photos sorted, cropped, captioned and placed) is $90.
How do I pay?
By card or ACH through Stripe, invoiced in US dollars. A site you buy is paid 30% at signing, 40% at design approval and 30% at launch. Rent-to-own and the site-included plans are billed monthly.
Contact
Ask for your free mockup.
Tell me about your business and send your current site if you have one. You’ll get a private link to a draft of your new homepage. No cost, no obligation.
- Email[email protected]
- WhatsApp+33 6 66 15 11 92
- US phone(724) 236-2707
Calls at times that suit Eastern Time. If you’d rather not hear from me again after a reply, just say so.