Web developer in Chicago: a site stating what you make, how much, and where it ships
For a firm selling across state lines, the first three pages I'd put together as a web developer in Chicago are these. One covers the products and the volumes you can supply. One names the states you deliver to. One lists clients willing to be named. The rest of the site follows from those three.
Overview
When the business outgrew its copy
A site written for a few nearby customers keeps talking that way long after the orders spread out.
A redesign isn't always needed. I start by listing the facts a buyer in another state looks for, then rebuild the pages around them and keep any wording of yours that still holds. Hiring me as a website designer in Chicago gets you that list before it gets you a new look.
A buyer in Ohio or Georgia can't drive past the plant. So the site shows it, in real photographs shot during a normal shift.
What a scope from me looks like
A first national supplier website, item by item
This sample is for a firm selling to trade buyers in several states.
If you also serve the public nearby, that side is scoped as a separate line, so neither set of pages has to speak to both. I'd start with whichever side brings in more of the revenue.
Included
- A written scope: every page and feature as its own line, agreed before work starts
- Design to build, reviewed on a staging URL that stays open the whole project
- Mobile first — checked on a real phone
- Domain, hosting and every account created in your name from day one
- A capability page: what you make, and in what volumes
- A delivery page naming the states and regions you ship to
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console connected
- A handover guide for updating a capacity figure or a client name yourself
Phase two
- A local-service section, if the business also serves customers nearby
- A deeper capability file for trade buyers doing due diligence
- Ongoing SEO once the site has traffic to read
- A maintenance plan once the site is live
- Logo and brand design, quoted separately from the build
Not doing
- Guaranteed rankings
- Client names published without the client's agreement
Two audiences
Selling to the trade and to the street
Some firms here sell nationally to the trade and locally to the public. Each side arrives with its own questions, and the answers sit on different pages.
A trade buyer in another state
- Checks capacity and delivery range first
- Wants named clients and photographs of the plant
- Compares you with other suppliers on a shortlist
A customer nearby
- Checks whether you're close by and open
- Wants reviews and a real address
- Wants a phone number and directions near the top
Which side earns more?
If you sell to the trade and to the public, bring your rough revenue split. It decides which side gets built first, and a planning call is where we settle it.
What moves the number
Six things that change the scope
The plant photographs and the named clients are the two drivers you can settle before we start.
| What changes it | Why |
|---|---|
| National, local or both | two markets mean two sets of pages |
| Product lines and capabilities | each one that earns a page adds to the build |
| Named clients and plant photographs | ready now, or still to be arranged |
| Current search traffic | enquiries the old site already wins from search, which the new one must keep winning |
| Delivery regions | a state-by-state breakdown takes more writing than a single list |
| The enquiry form | a simple contact, or fields for quantities and specifications |
What changes the size of the job.
Where this comes from
American work behind this
American clients signed the reviews beside their work on the projects page. Counting every US job, that's 600+ projects for US clients; my whole record is 900+ projects since 2017. The team building your site works in Kolkata, India, so we meet by video.
Nearby
More cities in the United States
Boston's page walks through giving every claim a named approver. On the New York page, the subject is a scope you can question line by line.
FAQ
A manufacturer's questions before the build
The national pages come first in every build I scope for a firm like this.
Does a manufacturer website need to say where it ships?
- A manufacturer website should name the states or regions it delivers to, plainly and near the top. That way a buyer in another state can tell at once whether you reach them. If delivery depends on order size, the delivery page says so, and it doesn't need more than a line.
Should a nationally selling firm mention Chicago at all?
- A nationally selling firm can name Chicago as its base on the contact and about pages. The city sits in the address, where it's useful for search, and the home page leads with capability and reach. A local service side is the exception, because its pages are about the neighbourhood it serves.
How should decades of trading appear on the site?
- Decades of trading belong in the first screen, next to proof. Set beside named clients, photographs of the plant and the kind of work you accept, the number becomes something a buyer can verify.
What happens if the design isn't right?
- Every design round happens on working pages at a private address, so you're never judging static pictures. You comment, I change them, and nothing launches until you've approved it.
Can a sales team update capacity figures after launch?
- A sales team can edit capacity figures after launch, because each one sits in its own field rather than in the page design. The handover guide shows where each field lives and what it changes on the site.
Next step
Where your orders went last year
What I'd ask for first is a list of the states you shipped to last year and your largest regular order. The delivery page and the capability page are both built from them.
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