Business Website Design and Development
Business Website Design and Development designs, builds, and launches your company website on Microsoft Azure — design and responsive build, content load, forms wired into Microsoft 365, DNS and TLS certificate setup, and go-live with redirects preserved. Projects are quoted fixed-price in writing from $4,950 and typically run about 4 weeks, managed by Alex Nikulin. You end up with a fast, secure site you own outright — domain, content, code, and hosting — with no plugin-patching treadmill, and hosting billed by Microsoft at its published rates.
What this engagement is
A business website has one job: make it easy for the right visitor to understand what you do and get in touch — quickly, on any device. We design and build company sites on Azure Static Web Apps or Azure App Service rather than a shared CMS host, which changes the day-two economics: pages are served fast, the TLS certificate is managed and renews automatically, and there is no stack of plugins to patch every month. Because we live in the Microsoft 365 world, the site plugs into it — contact and quote forms can write to a SharePoint list, notify a Teams channel, or create a Dynamics 365 lead instead of dying in an unmonitored inbox. The build is accessibility-aware (WCAG guidelines inform structure, contrast, and keyboard navigation), and launch includes the unglamorous work that protects you: a 301 redirect map from your old URLs, metadata and sitemap, DNS and TLS cutover, and a post-launch check. If your current site is fine and only the hosting needs to change, the fixed-price migration to Azure App Service is the cheaper path; and if what you actually need has user sign-in, workflow, and a database behind it, that is application development, which we scope separately.
Success criteria
What you receive
How the work unfolds
Goals, audience, and page list agreed; copy, imagery, and brand assets gathered; form destinations and the hosting model (Static Web Apps vs. App Service) decided.
Mockups for the key pages, revised with your feedback until you approve them in writing. Build does not start on unapproved designs.
Responsive build on the chosen Azure platform, forms wired to their Microsoft 365 destinations, and a staging URL where you watch the site take shape.
Final copy and imagery in; accessibility, performance, and cross-device checks; redirect map prepared from your existing URLs.
DNS and TLS cutover scheduled to minimize visible impact, redirects live, and form deliveries re-verified in production.
After DNS propagation: search-console sitemap submission, form-delivery monitoring, and punch-list fixes from the first days of real traffic.
Prerequisites
Who does what
IT Partner
- Design the site and iterate mockups to your written approval.
- Build the responsive site on Azure and wire forms to the agreed Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365 destinations.
- Deliver the technical SEO baseline: metadata, sitemap, structured data, and the 301 redirect map.
- Configure domain DNS and the TLS certificate, and run the launch cutover.
- Run the QA and launch checklist, and fix what it finds before go-live.
- Provide documentation, the content-update walkthrough, and the fixed written quote before work begins.
Your team
- Provide content and brand assets on the agreed schedule.
- Approve design and content milestones in writing.
- Name the form destinations and recipients, and confirm test submissions arrive.
- Own the domain registration and its renewals.
- Own Azure consumption and any Microsoft or third-party licensing costs.
- Review the staging site during QA and report issues; own content strategy after launch unless separately arranged.
What's not included
Limitations & technical notes
Frequently asked questions
What is included in Business Website Design and Development?
Design mockups iterated to your written approval, a responsive build on Azure Static Web Apps or Azure App Service, content load, contact and quote forms wired into Microsoft 365, a technical SEO baseline (titles, descriptions, sitemap, structured data), a 301 redirect map from your old URLs, DNS and TLS certificate setup, launch, and documentation with a content-update walkthrough. The site runs in your Azure subscription and the source lives in your repository.
How much does a business website cost?
Projects are quoted fixed-price in writing from $4,950, and you pay after you approve delivery. The drivers are page count, custom design and interactive elements, integrations, and content readiness. The quote is fixed before work begins — a scope change gets a new written quote, not a surprise invoice.
How long does a website project take?
Typically about 4 weeks from kickoff to launch: design in the first two weeks, build and content load in weeks two to four, then cutover. Content readiness is the honest gating factor — the schedule assumes copy, images, and approvals arrive on the agreed cadence.
Is this WordPress? What platform do you build on?
No — we build on Azure Static Web Apps or Azure App Service, so there is no CMS plugin stack to patch every month and no shared hosting to outgrow. The honest trade-off is that content editing works differently from a WordPress dashboard: we agree the update workflow during scoping, and where a lightweight CMS genuinely fits, we include one.
Can we update the site content ourselves after launch?
Yes, through the workflow agreed during scoping — from straightforward edits to content files in your repository (demonstrated at handover) up to a headless CMS where the volume justifies it. Small text changes can also be sent to us as time-and-materials micro-requests, each confirmed in writing before we make them.
Can website forms feed into Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365?
Yes — that is one of the main reasons to build with us. Contact and quote forms can write to a SharePoint list, deliver to a shared mailbox, post a Teams channel notification, or create a Dynamics 365 lead where you are licensed for it. Every destination is tested end to end before launch.
What does hosting cost after launch?
Hosting runs in your Azure subscription, billed by Microsoft at its published rates, and for a typical business site it is modest — a Static Web Apps Standard plan or a small App Service plan. Azure's free Static Web Apps tier exists, but Microsoft designates it for hobby and personal projects without an SLA, so we do not put production business sites on it.
Do you handle our domain, DNS, and the TLS certificate?
Yes — we configure DNS, set up the TLS certificate (managed on the Azure side and renewing automatically), and run the cutover so the old site's traffic lands on the new one. The domain registration itself stays in your name and under your control; we never take ownership of it.
Is SEO included?
The technical baseline is: page titles and meta descriptions, structured data where appropriate, an XML sitemap, sensible performance, and 301 redirects that preserve the standing your old URLs earned. Ranking campaigns, link building, content retainers, and paid media are not included — those are ongoing marketing services, not a build deliverable.
Will the site be accessible?
The build is accessibility-aware: WCAG guidelines inform semantic structure, color contrast, keyboard navigation, and alternative text. What this service does not include is a formal WCAG conformance audit or certification — if you need one for compliance reasons, we can arrange it as a separate engagement.
Can you build an online store?
A simple request-a-quote or contact-to-buy flow is in scope. Full e-commerce — product catalogs, carts, payment processing, order management — is a different project with different economics, and we will say so up front rather than stretch this quote around it.
Who owns the website?
You do: the domain registration, the content, the source code in your repository, and the Azure resources in your tenant. If you ever want to take the site to another developer or agency, everything they need is already yours — no lock-in, in either direction.
We already have a website — should we rebuild it or move it?
If the site itself is fine and only the hosting is the problem, the Website or Web App Migration to Azure App Service service moves it for a small fixed price — the cheaper path. If the site needs a redesign, this service rebuilds it and includes a 301 redirect map so you keep the search standing your old URLs earned.