Most of your visitors arrive on mobile data. A heavy template can leave them waiting, and plenty give up before it loads. A hand-built page comes up quickly, so they stay.
Small-business web design, engineered to bring in enquiries.
Custom-built for New Zealand businesses by a software developer, not pulled from a template. It loads fast on a phone and shows up on Google — and it's built to turn visitors into enquiries.
Prefer to talk? Call or text 021 069 9543.
This page · built to score green
100Performance
100SEO
100Accessibility
100Best practices
You're looking at the demo. This page is hand-built and static, no page-builder, no bloat. Run Lighthouse on it yourself →
What a small-business website really needs to do.
Forget the buzzwords. For a small business, a website has a short list of real jobs. These are the ones I build around.
When someone nearby searches for what you do, you want to be in the results. Clean code and proper local SEO give you a fair shot at the map pack and the listings below it.
Looking good isn't the job. The site should make it obvious how to call or message you, and make that the easy thing to do on any screen.
You shouldn't need a developer to change your opening hours or add a photo. I set things up so you can handle the everyday edits yourself.
Built around your business, not a theme you bend to fit.
We map what it needs to do
First we get clear on the one or two jobs the site has to do for you, like enquiries or bookings. Everything else follows from that.
I build it custom & fast
Then I build it by hand, mobile-first, with speed and SEO in from the start. You see it come together the whole way, not just at the end.
You launch and own it
At launch the code, hosting and domain are all in your name. It's easy to update yourself, and I'm here when you want changes. No lock-in.
A real small-business rebuild, live right now.
The fairest way to judge any of this is a site that's already doing the job. Here's a recent one, and the person who built it.
Back to Nature Tours
I rebuilt their dated WordPress and Wix site from the ground up — a full custom redesign, not a template swap. The result is a fast site the owner edits himself, with a Tours and Testimonials CMS he updates directly. It also has FareHarbor booking integration and a full SEO migration that preserved the old URLs with 301 redirects and structured data.
- Custom redesign
- CMS
- FareHarbor
- SEO migration
- Structured data
“Daniel was professional, proactive, and an excellent communicator, providing regular updates and quickly resolving any challenges that arose.”
Chris Roberts · Back to Nature Tours · Google review ↗
I'm Daniel Olliver, an Auckland software developer. I build production systems for a living, including a patient-assessment platform for a UK healthcare provider, so your business site gets held to an engineering standard rather than a template's. Everything here is verifiable: this page is live proof of the speed, and my wider work is public at danielolliver.com/dev and linkedin.com/in/danielolliver. The full range of work is on the Olliver Web homepage.
A Website Audit — fixed price, risk-free.
Not ready to commit to a build? This is the low-risk way to start. I'll go through your current site and show you where it's quietly losing you enquiries, with no obligation to go any further.
What you get
- A plain-English audit of how your current site performs: how fast it loads on a phone, and how it's showing up on Google.
- A clear look at where visitors drop off instead of getting in touch, and why it's happening.
- A prioritised fix list — the handful of changes that would move the needle most, ranked by impact.
- A proposal with real numbers if you'd like it built, so you can decide either way with no pressure.
Founding-client rate
$100$200
Fixed. Money back in full if you go ahead with a build.
Risk-free: if it's not worth it, you don't pay.
Founding-client rate while I take on my first Auckland clients.
Straight answers.
What does a small-business site cost?
Most small-business sites land between $2,000 and $8,000, depending on what it needs to do. You get a fixed quote up front from the audit, so there's no open-ended hourly bill.
How long does it take?
Usually 2–4 weeks from kickoff to launch. You see it come together the whole way, not just at the end.
Do I own it when it's done?
Completely. The code, hosting, domain and analytics all sit in your accounts, in your name. Nothing is locked to a page-builder you have to keep paying for.
Will it rank on Google?
SEO is built in from the first line: fast, clean code with the page structure and data Google looks for. Ranking still depends on your market and content, so I'll tell you straight what SEO can and can't do rather than promise page one.
Do you work with businesses outside Auckland?
Yes. I'm Auckland-based, but most of the work happens over email and calls, so I build for businesses right across New Zealand. Back to Nature Tours, above, is a Dunedin operator.
Do you build online stores too?
Yes. Custom online stores are a separate service and start from around $6,000. See the online stores page for how those work.
Why not just use Wix or a template?
Wix and templates can be a sensible quick start. The trade-off is that a crowded theme or too many add-ons can slow the site down and box you in. A custom build is worth it when speed, ownership or requirements beyond the template matter. That speed is measurable, so run Lighthouse on this page.
Let's make your website your best salesperson.
Tell me what your business needs the site to do, and I'll tell you straight what it would take and roughly what it would cost. Not ready for a build yet? Start with a $100 website audit instead.
Call or text 021 069 9543, or just hit reply — it comes straight to me.