The No-Nonsense Guide to Getting Your Website Built Right

If you’re a service business owner—whether you’re a locksmith, contractor, or any other local pro—you already know your website is one of your most powerful tools. But getting a site built (or rebuilt) can feel like a headache. Too many moving parts, too much tech jargon, and often, no clear process.

That’s why we’ve made it simple.

Here’s exactly what happens when we build your website, from start to finish—no back-and-forth, no wasted time. Just execution.

Step 1: The Website Buildout Process

🚀 Hosting & Domains Explained: How It Actually Works

A lot of people think websites just “exist” on the internet for free. But websites need two things to function:

1️⃣ A domain (your website name, e.g., yourbusiness.com). Think of this as the address of your condo where you live—it’s what people type in to find you.
2️⃣ Web hosting (the place where your website actually “lives”).

Think of Your Website Like a Condo in a Building

Imagine your website is a condo you own:

• Your domain name is the address of your condo where you live—it tells people where to find you.
• Web hosting is the building itself—it provides the structure, utilities, and security to keep your website running.

You can’t just have an address with no building, and you can’t have a building with no address—you need both to function.

✅ Why We Handle Hosting For You

❌ Many businesses try cheap shared hosting (like a budget apartment complex)—it’s slow, insecure, and overcrowded.
✅ We provide private hosting (like a well-managed condo building)—fast, secure, and fully maintained.

One of the biggest problems we see? Clients losing access to their website because:

• Their domain is with one provider, hosting with another, and their web designer is a third person.
• A credit card expires, a payment fails, and suddenly their website goes offline.
• Now they’re stuck calling different vendors, trying to track down passwords, and waiting on support lines.

🚀 With us, everything is under one roof—domain, hosting, and site management. No scrambling, no lost logins, no downtime. If anything needs fixing, we do it instantly—24/7 uptime, no stress, no waiting.

Instead of leaving you to deal with hosting companies, we handle everything—security, updates, backups, and performance—so you don’t have to.

🔑 Access & Logins

To properly set up your new website, we need access to:

• Your domain provider (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, Shopify, etc.).
• Your hosting account (if you have existing hosting).

✅ If you already own a domain, you can keep it—we’ll just point it to our hosting server so everything stays connected.
✅ For security, we recommend resetting your password to a temporary one before sharing login details. Once we’re done, you can change it back.

🛠️ Initial Review & Backup

Before making any changes, we:

• Check your current setup to see what’s working and what’s not.
• Back up your existing assets—images, logos, videos—so nothing gets lost.
• Ensure third-party connections (Google Business, email hosting, etc.) stay intact.

📌 This step is critical to avoid breaking any connections like email, analytics, or CRM tools. We ensure everything is properly reconnected when launching your new site.

💻 Website Development Begins (Live Build-Out Process)

Once everything is in place, we start building your new website on a private development server.

🚀 Landing pages go live immediately so they start getting indexed by Google and potential customers can begin finding and using them.

📌 You can start sending landing pages to potential clients while the rest of the site is finalized—no wasted time, no idle pages.

📤 During this process, you can send us content via Dropbox to personalize your landing pages with your company’s branding and assets.

Step 2: Launch & What Happens After

🔍 SEO Optimization & Making Sure Everything’s Connected

Once your website is live, we ensure it is fully optimized for maximum visibility on Google. This includes:

• 🚀 Fast load speeds
• 📱 Mobile-friendly design
• 🔍 Proper Google indexing

📌 We also update your directory listings and business profiles (Google Business, Yelp, social media, etc.) to reflect your new website, ensuring all traffic is directed correctly.

🔄 Ongoing Revisions & Updates

We offer flat-fee maintenance sessions for ongoing updates. Simply send us an email with the changes you need, and we’ll confirm the scope before proceeding.

📌 Common maintenance updates include:

• Adding a new landing page
• Updating images or swapping out photos
• Adding a project, case study, or new content

For quick, minor updates (like changing a phone number or email), we handle those free of charge. Everything is transparent and hassle-free.

🎓 Full Access & Website Training

You’ll get full login access to your website with a simple, user-friendly dashboard.

🎥 Welcome Video – Shows you how to navigate and make small updates.
📞 Zoom Call Training – Walkthrough for you and your team to manage updates efficiently.

📢 Your Website: A 24/7 Sales & Marketing Tool

Your website isn’t just an online presence—it’s a compounding digital asset that works for you 24/7. It’s the first place customers go to learn about:

• Your business (who you are, what you do).
• Your services (what you offer and how you can help).
• Your past work (proof that you know what you’re doing).
• Your credibility (reviews, testimonials, and social proof).

📌 Example: Instead of explaining your services over the phone, just send them a link to your landing page—it has all the details, social proof, and credibility built-in.

What’s Next? Growing Your Business

Your website is a powerful tool, but to truly maximize its potential, you need consistent traffic and visibility. That’s where our marketing services come in:

• 📲 Social Media & Instagram Management – Stay active and relevant.
• 📧 Email Marketing – Build customer relationships & attract new leads.
• 📝 Content Marketing – Blogs, case studies, & authority-building content.
• 🎯 Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns – Targeted strategies to generate leads.

Want to drive more leads? Visit https://michaelshatravka.com/services/ to learn more.

Final Thoughts

We appreciate your business and are honored to build your online presence. Our goal is to go above and beyond so your website isn’t just a placeholder—it’s a lead-generating machine.

If you need updates, additional services, or marketing solutions, reach out anytime.

🚀 Looking forward to working with you on your next project!

– Michael Shatravka