What local actually buys you
Three things, and they are all about the parts of a website project that are not code.
The first is the meeting. A lot of owners describe their business better out loud than in an email, and a project that starts with an hour at a table produces a better site than one that starts with a form. We will come to your office or meet you for coffee.
The second is photography. Stock photos of somebody else's crew are the single fastest way to look like every other site in your category. If there is nothing usable to start from, we take the pictures.
The third is market knowledge. We know which competitors are already ranking here and roughly what they are doing, because we look at this market for our own site too.
What it does not buy you
It does not buy you better code, faster load times, or better rankings. Google does not know or care where your designer sits.
It does not buy you availability either. A local shop with too many clients is slower to answer than a remote one with a manageable number. Ask how many active projects they have, not where their desk is.
The questions worth asking instead
Whoever you talk to, local or not, these are the ones that separate the good from the expensive.
- Who writes the words on the site, me or you?
- Do I own the code and the logins when this is over?
- What happens to my current rankings when the URLs change?
- How many other projects are you running right now?
- What is the fixed price, and what is the launch date?
Where we land on it
We are in Overland Park and we are members of the OP and Olathe chambers, so most of our work is within driving distance. We like it that way and we think it makes the sites better.
But we would rather you hire the right person than the near one. If you want to see the shape of what we build before you decide, the work on our home page is all Kansas City metro businesses, and the prices are on the pricing page.