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Bespoke website design.
Built to your requirements.

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Happypath build great websites for small businesses in Melbourne
Happypath busy building a website for a small business in Melbourne

Talk to us today about Bespoke website design

While our all-inclusive package delivers exceptional value, perhaps you're looking for something more tailored?

If your specific needs or ideas extend beyond what our all inclusive package offers, let's talk. Whether your concept is fully formed or still taking shape, we can help transform your initial thoughts into reality.

What we can do

We can create a website that meets your specific requirements. Your bespoke website could include more advanced features like e-commerce, content management systems, sales funnels, email marketing, interactive storytelling, complex animation, and specific web applications.

Maybe you want regular SEO optimised blog posts writing? We can do that too.

Because we code original websites we are not limited to what is available in a pre-bought template, we can build whatever you want. Whatever it is, it will always be optimised for high performance, security and speed.

Get in touch to discuss your project ideas and receive a competitive, no-obligation quote for a website that's tailored precisely to your needs.

Let's make your business stand out with a website designed just for you.

Bespoke website design

Built to your specific requirements

Get a quote

Book a free discovery call to start with the Bespoke website design

Things you might like to know

We update your website for you
Most website companies build you a website then hand it over for you to run with a content management system (CMS), like Wordpress. This is often where the problems start. Being able to update your own content sounds good, until you do something wrong, break your website then have to pay to get it fixed. We offer a fully managed service. If you want to make a change, like adding a blog post, a new staff member or service, just get in touch and we will make the updates for you. And because we know what we are doing, everything will be optimised for speed and SEO. You can get on with running your business and trust us to run your website.
We can help you with email, and domain names
It is preferable that you own your own domain name, you might already have one. We can work with you to configure your domain name to point to your new happypath website. If you don't already have a domain we can help you with that too. We recommend VentraIP as they are an Australian company, we have used them for over 10 years and found them to be excellent.

At happypath we use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to run our websites, this does not enable us to offer email accounts. We recommend a google workspace account that you can get for about AUS$10 a month, we can configure your domain name to work with these accounts. We also think these are better than the standard webmail accounts offered by hosting companies.
We don't use Wordpress, Wix or Squarespace
We prefer to build and own our code. It is more secure against hackers and we can make your website perform much better. Sitebuilders like Wix allow you to build a website using drag and drop content and prebuilt templates. If you want to do this that's great, but you don't need us. Sitebuilders allow you to make a website without any development skills, That's the whole point.
Handcoded websites perform better
Systems like Wordpress often have a lot of unnecessary code, this makes them flexible but can also make your website slower than it should be. At happypath we hand code websites, removing anything that is not required and optimising everything for speed and SEO. We compress all the images to make use of the latest file formats and serve different images for mobile and desktop visitors. Wordpress sites usually make use of plugins to allow specific features. These plugins need to be continuously updated and maintained for security reasons. Once a security issue is discovered in a plugin it's game on for hackers. Wordpress type websites use databases to hold the text and images of the website. Once a hacker has access to this database they can change anything on your site, or add malicious code.
All hosting and maintenance fees are included
Many webdesigners charge you upfront for the website then various recurring fees for hosting, maintenance, backups, updates etc. We roll everything into a single monthly fee. There is nothing extra to pay on top of this.
There is a minimum contract
We require a minimum 12 month contract which covers our initial design and build costs. After that if you want to go with someone else we will move your website to alternative hosting (you need to arrange this). Our contract contains full details.
How we optimise our websites for SEO
'Onsite' or 'technical' SEO is the practice of optimising your website code and content so it is highly performant for search engines. Before embarking on any paid SEO activities or Pay per click advertising it is recommended you have your onpage SEO in a solid condition. Some SEO agencies offer a techical SEO review as a service, which doesn't say much for the quality of the original website. All happypath websites are optimised for performance, schema markup, semantically correct, fully accessible, highly compressed and delivered from a high speed Content Delivery Network. Because we update your website on your behalf it will stay this way - any new content follows the same standard as the original build.
We do bespoke projects
If you need something more specific get in touch, we can provide a quote for all kinds of projects.

Consider the benefits of a happypath website

Our websites are custom designed

Uniquely crafted designs

We don't use pre-made templates.

We carefully plan and design from scratch making sure you have a unique and perfectly suited website for your business. We create content that communicates effectively and directly, to get the outcomes you want.

Carefully handwritten code

Did we say don't use templates? We don't use templates.

Anyone can buy a pre-built website, add your logo, stick in some AI text and send you the invoice before lunch.

We don't do that. That's not how great websites get made.

Every line of code, and the text on your site is written by us, for a reason. It makes your website better and focused on your customers.

Our websites are hand coded
We are your website department

We are your website department

We pride ourselves on being super client focused.

Communication is everything. As a boutique company you talk to us same day, direct. We'll answer your questions, solve your problems, and make your updates. That's our promise.

Superior loading speeds

We build lightning fast websites (like this one).

Nobody wants to wait for a website to load, and research shows they won't. Every additional second of waiting equals a 10% loss of potential customers.

All our sites live on a Content Delivery Network (CDN) which is much faster than conventional webhosting.

These are some small business owners who are having a hard time with their websites
Our websites are hosted on a super fast Content Delivery Network

Built for search engines

Google loves well performing websites and ranks them higher in search results than slower ones.

We optimise our sites for technical 'on-page' SEO from the very start. Our sites score 100% (or really, really near) on each of Google's 4 ranking criteria.

AA Accessibility compliant

We follow the WCAG AA accessibility guidelines strictly to make sure our websites can be properly used by assistive technology users, people with colourblindness, or just older eyes, hands and ears.

Accessibility is good for everyone.

Our websites are fully accessible and WCAG AA compliant
Our websites are fully responsive and work on any device

Fully optimised for mobile

By default all our websites are built to work on any size of screen or device. We also use the latest mobile image compression technology to achieve the highest speeds possible.

Safe and secure

Nearly 2 out of 3 websites use Wordpress, this makes them an easy and attractive target for hackers. Hundreds of thousands are hacked and defaced every year, maybe even yours.

We don't use Wordpress or databases, so there's nothing to hack.

Our websites are secure and unhackable
Our websites are environmentally friendly

Environmentally friendly

Our sites live on an environmentally friendly Content Delivery Network powered by green energy.

Additionally we work in a solar powered office, and we make our own coffee in proper cups.

Australian made

We build websites in Melbourne. Nothing is outsourced cheaply overseas, or outsourced at all.

We are 100% responsible for the quality of our work.

Our websites are designed and built in Melbourne

Ready to get started?

Book an obligation free discovery call to discuss how we can work together to deliver great outcomes for your business.

Not sure yet? Take a minute to realise the many ways happypath is offering an exciting website service.

Book a free discovery call Find out what we do

Why risk waiting?

A low quality website doesn't help your business or your customers. In fact, it can lose you customers and weaken your brand. Even a nice looking website might not be delivering the best results. You might not even know where you are missing out.

We make sure your online presence is the best it can be. In every way.

Custom 5-10 page design

We design and develop a 5-10 page website.

We work with you to find out what kind of design you are looking for, the types of imagery and colours you like, and something that fits your business. We don't start building your website until you are happy with the concept, so you won't get any unpleasant surprises.

We also work with you on the wording of your website, you know your business best and what you are trying to communicate. We then create content suitable for your website audience, optimised for SEO, and with on point messaging.

Content edits and support

Content updates are included in our monthly payment packages. This means you don't have to worry about making your own updates. Just let us know what you need doing and we'll get on it. We do cap the hours for each month, just to prevent unreasonable requests but there is plenty of time to make any changes you need.

When we build, or update your website we structure it in a way that regular changes are easy to make.

Domain name setup

It's preferable you own your own domain name (we can help you with it if needed but it's not included in the price), we will set everything up so your domain name works with your new website.

We recommend VentraIP or Cloudflare for domain name registration but you are welcome to use whoever you want. We're happy to help you through the process.

Domain names normally shouldn't cost much, a dot com (.com) address should be around $20 a year, a com dot au (.com.au) about $10. You will need to be registered with an ABN to purchase a com dot au.

We can configure third party email services so you can have your website domain as your email address - you@yournewwebsiteaddress.com. You will need to pay for these separately. We recommend a Google Workspace account which is about $10 a month.

You do not need to buy any webhosting when purchasing a domain, we will host your site on our super fast Content Delivery Network as part of the package.

Email setup (optional)*

We can configure third party email services so you can have your website domain as your email address - you@yournewwebsiteaddress.com. You will need to pay for these separately. We recommend a Google Workspace account which is about AUS$10 a month. You can have multiple addresses going to a single mailbox such as you@yournewwebsiteaddress.com, and sales@yournewwebsiteaddress.com. If you want distinctly separate mailboxes for different staff members you need to pay for additional Workspace accounts.

We can configure and set this all up for you.

If you already have this in place we can work with your current provider to make sure everything stays working as it should.

Contact form

We will set you up a custom form that your visitors can fill in. We can discuss what information you wish to gather. Once the form is submitted you will receive the information in an email to a mailbox of your choice. We can also facilitate file uploads such as word documents.

If you use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) or want to use one, to add form submissions into mailing lists, we can do that too.

Blog functionality

Blogs are very good for improving your local SEO, and establishing your website as an authority on a subject area. Regular blog posts allow the inclusion of keywords and by writing content 'around' a subject you improve your website's authority.

Our blogging functionality includes tagging so you can group posts into subject areas. Each blog also contains structured markup, code that tells search engines more about the intention of the page.

When you want to add an article to your blog, just send your content through to us in a word document or an email and we will update your website for you.

We caution against using purely AI generated content, by all means use it for outlines and suggestions but remember that Google rewards original content. Poor quality content can damage your SEO ranking and its really boring!

'Linktree style' page for Social media

Linktree style page for social media

A 'Linktree style' page acts as a business card or a microsite that you can use on social media platforms. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter, only allow you to add a single link in your bio. A 'Linktree style' page is a way around this limitation. It's a single link that opens up to a page containing multiple other links to your website, social media, products, services, or any other pages you would like to share.

Companies like Linktree have sprung up to solve this problem, they provide templated pages that you can add your details to. These can be used for free, as well as paid tiers that provide extra features.

At happypath we will build you one as part of your website build, unlike a templated option these can be designed and built to follow your own brand or visual style, and match your website and other materials. We can include as many links as you like and also 'add to address book' functionality that adds your company details to the visitors contacts list.

These pages are straightforward, clean, and optimised for mobile. Perfect for social media users who are usually on their phones.

Hand coded

We don't use 3rd party templates so all our code is custom written for your website. There are some big advantages to this. Visual site builders and template systems like Wordpress Elementor allow people to build websites visually very quickly, but the downside is an overhead of additional unrequired and unused code. This can slow your website down and reduce your potential Google ranking. Faster websites provide a much better user experience too.

With handwritten code we have 100% control of the website structure, content and metadata. This means we can fully optimise your website, getting top marks (Core Web Vitals) for speed, SEO and accessibility.

Because we are not trying to shove your content into an existing template, we can design and build a website that is specifically focused on your customers.

We use the latest web technology Astro, Hugo, HTMX, and Svelte.

Optimised for SEO

SEO is split into two areas, onsite or technical SEO, and external SEO. At happypath we specialise in technical SEO.

Technical SEO is making sure your website is optimised in various ways to give it a greater chance of ranking higher in search engines. Loading speed, accessibility and semantically correct code are the basis for this. Additionally there are many specialist techniques we use including schema markup - marking content up as data that can be understood by search engines.

Once you have established a high baseline for technical SEO any external SEO activities you undertake will be more effective.

We also know how to correctly structure your written content and use various software tools to assess your competitors keywords to help you rank higher in search results.

Fully responsive

A responsive website is built so that whatever the size or shape of the screen it is being viewed on, the design still works.

These days with mobile devices being ubiquitous it's hard to imagine a website designer building a website that fails to work on smaller screens, yet we see it all the time!

Performing well on smaller screens isn't just about rearranging content to fit a smaller space, it is considering the use case. Do mobile devices need so many animations, fades and moving parts? Often they create a visually confusing experience. At happypath we consider these things. The mobile experience must be high performing, pages must load quickly, buttons and links must be clear and large enough for a finger tap.

As we aren't using preset templates we are able to make decisions for the best experiences across multiple devices.

We utilise responsive techniques such as dynamic font sizes (text that scales), and advanced image techniques to serve the latest compression formats to mobile devices.

Fully accessible

Website accessibility is all about making sure your website can be used by everyone, including people using assistive technologies, or different browser settings. When your website is accessible, it means that people with vision or hearing impairments, can still interact with your site effectively.

Everyone should have the opportunity to access online information and services, and it can help your business. An accessible website reaches a wider audience, improving your site's visibility and potentially increasing your customer base.

Disability is a scale. People with vision impairments might use screen reader technology that 'speaks' your website, they will likely use the keyboard to navigate around rather than touch or a mouse. Others with less severe impairments might just increase the font size in their browser so they can read more easily. By following the WCAG guidelines we aim to facilitate all these possibilities.

All our sites strictly follow the AA WCAG guidelines - this means they should be usable by anyone.

Fully secure

Our websites are more secure than traditional sites. This is because they don't rely on a database or server-side processing, which are common targets for hackers.

They are inherently less vulnerable to common web attacks like SQL injection or XSS (Cross-Site Scripting). These are very common with Wordpress websites.

Hosting on a secure Content Delivery Network (CDN) adds another layer of protection. CDNs not only deliver content faster but also help to mitigate DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) and other threats. They do this by distributing the load across multiple servers, making it harder for attackers to overwhelm your site with traffic.

SSL Certificate

An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate establishes a secure connection between your website and your visitors' web browsers.

When visitors see that your website has an SSL certificate (indicated by 'https' in your web address and a padlock icon in the browser), they feel more confident that your site is safe and legitimate, and it is!

Having an SSL certificate also helps with your website's search engine ranking. Search engines like Google give preference to websites that are secure. This means your site will rank higher in search results against one that isn't secure.

An SSL certificate is included in the package, there is no additional or ongoing charge.

Hosting and maintenance

We host your website on a high performance CDN (Content Delivery Network), this is much faster than standard website hosting plans. Additionally the CDN datacenter is powered by green energy.

We look after your website to make sure everything is upto date, secure and super fast.

Google analytics / Tag manager

We set up a Google Analytics account for your website so you can get statistics on your visitors behaviour. Using Analytics you can see how many visitors, which pages they are looking at, and how long they are spending on your website. You can set up all kinds of reports to help you make strategic decisions.

Google Tag Manager is a system for inserting code into your website without having to make direct changes to the website. This is particularly useful if you do any work with external agencies who might want to add tracking to your pages. You can use it to add in your tracking pixels for social media sites so you can target visitors to your site later with Facebook and Instagram adverts.

If we're working with you on marketing automation we will use Tag Manager to connect various platforms to your website. We can also use Tag manager to add code that tracks custom events and adds them into your Google Analytics. You can use this to track your Lead magnet downloads, or form submissions.

Licensed fonts and images

Depending on your business it is preferable you use bespoke photography on your website. This is not always possible or practical so sometimes it is necessary to use stock photography or illustration.

At happypath we use fully licensed fonts and stock photography/illustration from Adobe.

Paid, fully licensed assets are better quality than the free ones some webdesigners get from sites such as Pexels. High-quality images significantly enhance the look of your site, and make it stand out from your competitors.

We also use licensed fonts, this gives us a much wider design choice than the commonly used free ones from Google.

Using licensed content keeps you on the right side of the law. Copyright infringement can lead to legal issues, including fines. By using licensed materials, you're protecting your business from these risks. it also rightly compensates creators for their work and supports ongoing creativity.

Integrations

You may already use 3rd party services such as booking systems, or CRMs (Customer Relationship Management Systems).

Depending on what these are, and the functionality offered, we can integrate these services into your website.

If you don't already use these kinds of services but want to, we are happy to discuss options with you and help you get set up.