FAQ's

Getting Started

• What does Apex Design do?

  We design and build custom WordPress websites for businesses of every size — from single-person local shops to national brands. That includes brand-new builds from scratch, full rebuilds of sites currently on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify, lead-generation and marketing sites, and complete e-commerce stores. Everything we build is custom to your brand, not a template with your logo dropped into it.

• Where are you located, and do you only work with New Hampshire businesses?

  We’re based in New Hampshire and we’re proud of it — a lot of our clients are local businesses we can meet face to face. But we’re not limited to New Hampshire. We’ve built sites for hundreds of companies across the country, from one-person shops and local trades to national manufacturers like SIG SAUER, Taurus, and Rossi USA. Same standard either way, and the process works just as well remotely.

• Who will I actually be working with?

  Josh Adams, the owner and lead developer, founded Apex in 2010 and is hands-on across every project. You’re not getting passed to a call center or handed off to whoever’s available. You’ll know who’s building your site, and you’ll have a real person to call.

• What does the process look like from first call to launch?

  It starts with a conversation about your business — your story, your customers, what the website actually needs to accomplish. From there we move into strategy and structure, then custom design, then development, then testing and revisions before launch. You get unlimited revisions during the design and build phase, so we don’t stop until it’s right. After launch, we stay with you.

• How long does a website take to build?

  A real custom site takes weeks, not days. The exact timeline depends on the size of the site, how complex the functionality is, and how quickly we can get content and feedback from you. We’ll give you a realistic timeline up front rather than a number designed to sound impressive. If someone tells you they can build your whole business website in 48 hours, that should tell you what you’re actually getting.

Cost & Value

• How much does a website cost?

  It depends on what the site needs to do — a focused marketing site and a full e-commerce build with backend integrations are very different projects. Rather than quote a number before we understand your business, we’d rather have a short conversation, scope it honestly, and give you a real figure with nothing hidden behind it. Give us a call at 603-973-4094 and we’ll walk you through it.

• Why does a custom site cost more than a $500 AI-built website?

  Because it isn’t the same product. That price can’t cover real discovery, custom design, and development time — what you’re getting is a template or an AI-generated shell on a rented platform. A custom site is built around your brand and your customer, it’s yours outright, it can grow with you for years, and there’s a real business standing behind it. It’s also worth thinking about the difference between an expense and an asset: a cheap site gets paid for, underperforms, and gets rebuilt in a year or two, plus whatever subscription keeps it online in the meantime. We’re not competing with a $500 site on price, because we’re not selling the same thing.

• What's included in every project, regardless of size?

  A full custom WordPress build, unlimited revisions during design and development, complete on-site SEO handled by our team, a cookie consent banner for compliance, and free changes for 90 days after launch. And full ownership of your hosting and your WordPress instance — that’s standard, not an upgrade.

Ownership

• Who owns the website when the project is done?

  You do. All of it, always. Your domain, your hosting, your content, your design, your accounts, your website. We set accounts up under your name and your ownership, not ours. Nothing we build is held hostage behind a subscription or locked to our name.

• What happens if I ever decide to leave Apex?

  You leave clean. You take your domain, your content, your site, and your accounts with you, because they were yours the whole time. We’d rather earn your business every year than trap you in it. That’s a sharp contrast to AI platforms and some cheap developers, where the subscription or the account itself stays under someone else’s control — which means you never really owned your website in the first place.

• Do I have to host with you?

  No. You retain full ownership of your hosting account and your WordPress instance, and the site is yours to move if you ever want to. We’re happy to handle hosting and the technical side so you don’t have to think about it, but it’s your call, not a condition of working with us.

WordPress, AI Builders & DIY

• Why do you build on WordPress?

  Because there’s no ceiling on it. WordPress has been around a very long time and powers everything from one-person businesses to full enterprise sites. Whatever integration, feature, or idea you want down the road, it can be built — through a plugin or through custom development. You’re never boxed in by the platform the way you would be on a closed builder.

• Can't AI just build my website now?

  AI tools can generate a page that looks reasonably clean. What they can’t do is understand who your customer is, what that customer needs to believe before they’ll call you, and how to structure a site around that. They also can’t give you real SEO control, custom functionality, meaningful ad and conversion tracking, or a design rooted in your actual brand. And there’s a bigger problem most people don’t hit until later: raw AI-generated code is very difficult for any legitimate developer to safely edit afterward. You end up stuck with a site you can’t change and no one willing to touch it. The same trade-off applies to building it yourself on a no-code platform — it can be a fine starting point, but you’ll own less, you’ll hit a ceiling on capability and SEO, and you’ll spend your own hours on something outside your expertise.

• Can you rebuild or migrate my existing site?

  Yes. A large share of our work is rebuilding sites that are outdated, not mobile-friendly, or stuck on a platform the business has outgrown — WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and others. We’ll look at what’s worth keeping, what needs to be rethought, and handle the migration so you don’t lose the SEO value you’ve already built.

• Can I make edits to the site myself after launch?

  Yes. WordPress gives you a real, editable backend, and we’ll show you how to use the parts you’ll actually touch. If you’d rather not deal with it at all, we can handle updates for you instead. Plenty of clients do a mix of both.

Design, Strategy & Conversion

• Is my site really custom, or is it a template with my logo on it?

  Genuinely custom. Before anything gets designed, we go through your company’s backstory, why the website exists, your colors, logo, imagery, and the overall feel of your brand. We’ll ask about sites you love, even outside your industry, to understand your instincts. The design is built from your story outward, not from a template inward — so it won’t look like everyone else’s.

• How do you make sure the site actually converts, not just looks good?

  That’s the part that’s invisible until you see it working. Before a page is designed, we work out who your actual customer is, what they need to see and believe before they’ll call or fill out a form, and what order that information has to appear in. That shapes what goes above the fold, how the story unfolds as someone scrolls, and where your trust signals show up to answer objections before a visitor has to ask. Copy is written to your customer, and calls to action are placed deliberately at the moments someone is most ready to act.

• Will my site work well on phones?

  Yes — and not as an afterthought. Sites are built responsive from the ground up, not squeezed into a mobile view at the end. That means real testing on real devices, fast load times through image optimization and clean code, and layouts designed for how people actually use their phones. For most of our clients, mobile is the majority of their traffic.

• Can you build an online store?

  Yes. We build full e-commerce sites on WordPress, including product setup, payment processing, and the integrations that go with running a real store. For larger catalogs or businesses that need custom backend connections and specialized functionality, we scope that as a custom build.

SEO, Analytics & Security

• Is SEO included, or is that extra?

  On-site SEO is handled by our team on every build. That means proper site structure and URL hierarchy, clean metadata, schema markup, XML sitemaps, image alt text, and internal linking — the technical foundation search engines actually look for. Just as important, WordPress lets you keep adding pages and content over time, which is how a site keeps building SEO value long after launch.

• Will I be able to see how my site is performing?

  Yes. We can connect your site to whatever analytics platform you prefer. Clients on a maintenance plan get a pro analytics dashboard included, and if you’re already using Google Analytics we can connect that too. Your site will also integrate properly with Google Ads and Meta Ads — real conversion tracking and pixel integration, so you can see what your ad spend is actually producing instead of just pointing traffic at a page and hoping.

• How do you handle security and backups?

  SSL, regular software and plugin updates, backups, and malware monitoring are part of how we maintain a site — through the 90-day post-launch window and any ongoing care plan after that. It’s a real risk that gets ignored on cheap builds, which are rarely patched, rarely backed up, and rarely monitored.

After Launch & Support

• What happens after my site launches?

  We don’t disappear. You get free changes for 90 days after launch, and we’re actively supporting you through that window as you start using the site in the real world. After that, you have options — as-needed work or an ongoing care plan — and there’s always a real person at Apex to call.

• Do you offer ongoing maintenance?

  We do. Our maintenance plans cover daily backups, 24/7 uptime monitoring, 24/7 emergency assistance, one-click disaster recovery, a pro analytics dashboard, and monthly plugin and security updates. For clients who want continuous work beyond routine maintenance — new content, new pages, ongoing development — we also offer monthly retainers alongside a maintenance plan. And because it’s a custom WordPress site, there’s essentially no limit to what can be added down the road: new features, new integrations with CRMs, booking tools, payment processors, or custom APIs. The site grows with the business instead of getting thrown out and rebuilt.

• What should I ask any web designer before hiring them?

  Ask who owns the domain, hosting, content, and site when the project is done — in writing. Ask what happens after launch and who you actually call when something breaks. Ask to see genuinely custom past work. Ask what platform it’s built on and whether you can take it elsewhere. Ask how SEO is handled at launch and going forward. Ask what the process and timeline look like, and whether any of it is in a written scope. We’re happy to answer every one of those. Not everyone will be.