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Digital — Website Design & Development

Websites that
do the work
for you.

Most websites are brochures. Ours are business tools — designed with intention, built for speed, and engineered from the first line of code to earn their place in search results.

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Our philosophy Grand Blanc, MI · Since 1994

A website that looks good but doesn't rank is a billboard in a field. A website that ranks but doesn't convert is a leaky bucket. We build neither.

What's Included

Every phase.
One team.

We don't subcontract design to one firm and development to another. Strategy, UX (User Experience), visual design, development, and post-launch support all happen under one roof — which means nothing gets lost in translation.

Before we sketch a single wireframe, we need to understand what you're actually trying to accomplish — not just "look professional" but specifically what actions you want visitors to take, which customers you're trying to reach, and what your competitors have gotten right or wrong.

Discovery typically includes stakeholder interviews, a site audit of your existing presence, a competitor review of 3–5 direct competitors, and a content inventory. From this we produce a strategy brief that drives every decision downstream.

Where things go on a page isn't a design decision — it's a strategic one. What a user sees first, what they're asked to do, how they move between pages: these are conversion questions as much as aesthetic ones.

We produce annotated wireframes for every key template before any visual design begins. This catches structural problems early, gives you something concrete to react to, and ensures visual design doesn't mask a broken layout.

We design systems, not pages. A color token, a type scale, a spacing system — these produce coherent sites that can grow without becoming visually chaotic. Design handoff includes a component library, not just static mockups.

We design in Figma and review directly with you at the full-page level before development begins. Revisions are expected and budgeted. Surprises at development handoff are not.

We build on WordPress with custom PHP themes — not page builders that generate bloated code your SEO then has to fight against. Every template is hand-coded to the design system, responsive by default, and tested across browsers and screen sizes before it gets near a staging server.

Schema markup, semantic HTML, proper heading hierarchy, and alt text are standard. These aren't extras — they're part of what makes a site actually work in search.

We target 90+ on all four Lighthouse categories before launch. Page speed is not a polish step — it's a load-bearing wall. Google's Core Web Vitals score directly affects ranking. A slow site is an SEO penalty built into the foundation.

Every page launches with a title tag, meta description, proper heading structure, schema markup, canonical URL, image alt text, and XML sitemap. The on-page SEO foundation is included in every build.

Launch day isn't the end of the project — it's the beginning of the site's working life. We provide team training on the CMS, documentation on how your components work, and a 30-day post-launch support window for issues that surface in the wild.

Optional maintenance plans include security updates, WordPress core and plugin updates, backups, uptime monitoring, and a monthly content-update allowance. You can also host independently — we'll hand off everything cleanly.

Performance by default

We target 90+
across the board.
Every build.

Google's Lighthouse audit scores directly impact search ranking, ad quality scores, and conversion rate. We run these checks throughout development — not as a final-day checkbox. These are typical scores for sites we've launched.

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Performance
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SEO
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Accessibility
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Best Practices

How We Work

Six to twelve weeks,
start to launch.

Every project follows a structured phase model. You know where things stand at every point, and nothing moves to the next phase without your explicit approval.

Wk 1–2

Discovery

Stakeholder interviews, site audit, competitor review, strategy brief

Wk 2–3

Wireframes

User flows, annotated wireframes, content hierarchy, your sign-off

Wk 3–6

Visual Design

Full-page Figma mockups, design system, revisions, final approval

Wk 6–10

Development

Custom WordPress theme, QA across browsers, performance optimization

Wk 10–12

Launch

Final QA, DNS migration, 30-day support window, team training

Why NWA

Design that earns
its keep.

From early HTML to today’s modern web apps

We’ve been building websites since the days when layouts were made with basic HTML tables. Today, we build fast, modern experiences using current frameworks and best practices. That long runway gives us real pattern recognition—what works, what breaks, and what lasts.

Design and development under one roof

Structure, speed, content, and discoverability are baked in from day one.

Clean themes. Built around your needs.

We refine and streamline WordPress themes—or custom-build where it makes sense—so your site fits your goals, not a generic template. Clean code, lightweight markup, and only the plugins you truly need means faster load times, better performance, and easier long-term maintenance.

Confidently edit your own site

We train your team (if necessary), to make updates simple. You shouldn’t have to call an agency just to change a phone number.

36+
Years building for the web
5,632
Completed projects since 1994
90+
Target Lighthouse score, all categories
26
Industry awards

"NWA built our site and has maintained it for years. They're responsive, genuinely skilled, and — rare for this industry — they explain what they're doing and why."

Client — Michigan Contractor

Local service business, Grand Blanc area

Common Questions

Before you reach out.

Straightforward answers to the questions every client asks before a project kicks off.

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  • Most projects run 6–12 weeks from signed contract to launch. Discovery and strategy take 1–2 weeks, design 2–3 weeks, development 2–4 weeks, and QA plus launch 1 week. Larger sites with custom functionality take longer; simpler sites can move faster.

  • We build on WordPress for most clients — it's what we recommend when content management flexibility matters. For clients with specific requirements we build on other platforms or fully custom. We don't push platforms that serve our workflow over yours.

  • Yes. Every site we build includes foundational on-page SEO: title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, schema markup, image optimization, clean URL structure, and a sitemap. Ongoing SEO campaigns are a separate service, but the technical foundation is built in from day one.

  • Most small-to-mid business sites run $3,000–$10,000 depending on scope, page count, and custom functionality. E-commerce and complex web applications are priced separately. We provide a detailed proposal after discovery — no ballparks that shift dramatically at contract time.

  • Yes. We offer managed hosting and maintenance plans that include security updates, performance monitoring, backups, uptime alerting, and a monthly content-update allowance. You can also host elsewhere — we'll hand off everything you need.

Start a Project

Let's build something
worth visiting.

Tell us about your project. We'll come back with a clear scope, honest timeline, and a proposal that doesn't shift after you've signed.

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