We design and build websites for contractors, distributors and local businesses across Chicago and the western suburbs. Custom builds on a modern stack, fast enough that Google notices, and structured so a visitor who lands on a service page can call you in one tap.
Website Design in Chicago and the Western Suburbs
Most of the websites we are asked to look at are not bad-looking. They are slow, hard to use on a phone, and built so that nobody can tell whether they are working. The owner knows something is wrong because the phone is quieter than it used to be, but nothing on the site announces itself as the problem.
What this is, and who it is for
This is a ground-up website build. Not a theme with your logo dropped into it, and not a page builder that produces something that looks fine on a desktop and falls apart on a phone. Your site is designed around your business and coded from scratch, which is what makes it fast and what makes it possible to change later without everything breaking.
It suits you if your current site is five or more years old, if it was built on WordPress and has quietly collected a dozen plugins nobody maintains, or if you have never had a site that produced a single enquiry you could point to. It also suits you if you are about to spend money on Google Ads — paying for clicks that land on a slow page is the most expensive mistake in local marketing.
It is probably not for you if you need a single page to hold a domain name, or if you want to edit page layouts yourself every week. We will say so on the call rather than selling you something that is more than you need.
What is included
Every build covers the same ground. The number of pages changes, the work behind each one does not.
- Custom design built around your brand, not a purchased template
- Mobile-first layout, designed on a phone screen before a desktop one
- Service pages, one per thing you actually sell
- Service area pages for the towns you want to be found in
- Project gallery with your own photography, properly compressed
- Lead capture: quote forms, click-to-call in the header of every page
- On-page SEO, schema markup and metadata written per page
- Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, with conversion tracking live before launch
- Every old URL mapped to its replacement with a permanent redirect
Process and timeline
A typical build runs four to five weeks from kickoff to launch. The part that sets the pace is almost always content and photography on your side rather than development on ours, which is why we ask for both in week one rather than week four.
Your existing site stays live the whole time. We only point the domain at the new one once it has been checked on real devices and the redirects have been verified.
What it costs
Builds start at $3,500, with ongoing maintenance from $150 a month. You get a firm figure before any work begins — not a range that moves once the project is underway.
If you are joining one of our monthly marketing programs, the build cost is covered. That is a genuine offer rather than a discount dressed up as one: the site is where the rest of the work lands, so we would rather build it properly than optimise around a bad one.
Platforms and tools
We build on Next.js and deploy on Vercel, with every change version-controlled in GitHub. In practice that means three things you will notice: pages load in under two seconds instead of six to eight, there is no plugin surface for anyone to attack, and any change can be reviewed before it goes live and rolled back in minutes if it causes a problem.
We are not religious about it. If you have a genuine reason to stay on WordPress — a team that publishes several times a week through an editor they know — we will tell you that honestly rather than migrating you for the sake of it.
- Next.js and React for the build
- Vercel for hosting, with a global CDN
- GitHub for version control and rollback
- Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager
- CRM connections, including ActiveCampaign, where you already use one
Why A&B
We have been doing this for over 15 years and we work with clients in 17 states, but the useful part is narrower than that: most of our clients sell something physical to people within a specific radius. Roofers, siding and window companies, building supply distributors, manufacturers, medical practices and local retailers.
That focus shows up in the detail. We know a roofing site needs to survive a storm-week traffic spike. We know a distributor's site is read at 6:40am by a contractor who wants to know whether the branch has forty squares in stock. We know a chiropractor is judged on reviews before anyone clicks through to the site at all.
We are a Meta Business Partner and an ActiveCampaign Partner, and our Google Business Profile carries a 5.0 rating from 48 reviews. Our office is in Burr Ridge, which means we can come and meet you, and photograph the work, rather than doing all of it over email.
Where we work
We work in person across the western suburbs and Chicago, and remotely for clients in 17 states. Being close enough to walk a job site matters more than people expect: the photography on your site is the part visitors spend longest looking at, and stock images of someone else's house undermine everything else on the page.
How It Works
What the engagement looks like.
1
Discover
We audit the site you have: load times, what you rank for, where enquiries come from now, and what your competitors are doing that you are not. You get the findings whether or not you hire us.
2
Design
Layouts for the pages that matter most, on mobile first. You see real designs with your content in them, not a generic mockup.
3
Build
The site is coded, your content goes in, tracking is wired up, and you get a staging link you can click through while it is being built.
4
Launch
Redirects mapped and tested, analytics confirmed firing, then the domain is pointed over. Your old site stays up until the new one is verified.
InvestmentGet a firm number
Starting at $3,500.
Maintenance from $150 a month. Build cost is covered when you join a monthly marketing program.
What moves the number:
- How many pages, and how many service areas you want covered
- Whether we write the content or you supply it
- Photography — yours, a shoot, or licensed images
- Integrations: CRM, online booking, product catalog, customer portal
- Whether it is a migration with redirects to map, or a first site
Platforms & Tools
What we build and report on.
Next.jsVercelGitHubGoogle Analytics 4Google Tag ManagerActiveCampaign
Service Areas
Where we work.
In person across Chicago and the western suburbs, and remotely for clients in 17 states. Our office is at 1333 Burr Ridge Pkwy Ste 200-260, Burr Ridge, IL 60527.
Burr RidgeOak BrookOakbrook TerraceHinsdaleDowners GroveNapervilleLemontWillowbrookDarienWestmontLombardElmhurstLa GrangeWestern SpringsBolingbrookOrland ParkJolietChicago
Related
Where to go next.
SEO
The ongoing work that gets the new site found.
Learn more →Local SEO & Google Business Profile
Map pack rankings and citation cleanup.
Learn more →Google Ads
Traffic while the organic rankings build.
Learn more →Websites for contractors & distributors
The industry-specific version of this page.
Learn more →Case studies
Twelve months of measured results.
Learn more →Talk to our team
Learn more →FAQs
Website Design — questions we get asked
What is the average cost of a web designer?
Nationally the range is wide enough to be almost useless — a freelancer might charge $1,000 for a template build, a large agency $25,000 for the same page count. For a small business in the Chicago suburbs, a custom site that is genuinely built to generate leads usually lands between $3,500 and $12,000 depending on page count and integrations. Ours start at $3,500. Below roughly $2,000 you are buying a template with your logo on it, which is a reasonable purchase if you just need an address on the internet, but it will not bring you work.
How long does a website take?
Four to five weeks from kickoff to launch for a typical build. Larger sites with a product catalog or custom functionality run longer and we will say so before you sign rather than discovering it in week six. The usual cause of delay is not development — it is waiting on content and photographs, which is why we ask for those in the first week.
WordPress or a custom build — which is better?
It depends on what you actually do with the site. WordPress makes sense if you publish several times a week and need a team editing through a familiar admin with no developer involved. For most contractors and distributors, who have ten to thirty pages and update them a handful of times a year, WordPress charges you speed, security and maintenance in exchange for flexibility you never use. A custom build loads in under two seconds instead of six to eight, has no plugin surface to patch, and will not break because something updated itself overnight.
Will my site rank on Google?
A new site is built so it can rank — fast, crawlable, properly structured, with real service and service area pages and correct schema. That is the foundation, and it is the part a site either has or does not. But a build on its own is not an SEO campaign. Rankings for competitive local terms come from ongoing work: content, Google Business Profile management, reviews and links. Anyone who promises you page one as part of a web design quote is selling you something they cannot control.
Do you write the content?
We can, and for most clients we do. You know your business better than we ever will, so we interview you rather than inventing copy, then write it in plain English aimed at the person who is going to hire you. If you would rather write it yourself that is fine and it reduces the cost — but be honest with yourself about whether it will actually get done, because unwritten content is the single most common reason a build stalls.
Do you host it?
Yes. Hosting is part of the maintenance plan, from $150 a month, on a global CDN with SSL, uptime monitoring and tested backups. Importantly, the accounts are yours. The domain, the hosting and the code sit in accounts you can hold the keys to, so if you ever leave you take a working site with you rather than being locked into a proprietary builder.
What is the 3-second rule in web design?
It is the rough window you have before a visitor on a phone gives up and goes back to the search results. Google's own research found the likelihood of someone abandoning a page climbs sharply with each extra second of load time, and the curve gets steeper rather than flatter. In practice we treat under two seconds as the target. The reason it matters commercially is that it compounds: a slow site loses visitors before they see your phone number, and it also ranks slightly worse, so you get fewer visitors to lose in the first place.
Will I own my website?
Yes, outright. Domain, hosting account and source code. We build on GitHub and Vercel in accounts that can be transferred to you, and there is no proprietary page builder holding the site hostage. If the relationship ends you leave with a site that works.
Let's talk about your website design.
Tell us where you are now. We'll tell you what we'd do first — and if you don't need us yet, we'll say so.
Get Started