A website template is, essentially, a pre-built website that you drop your own logo, images and copy into. It’s advantages include speed and cost. It’s disadvantages include limited customization, a site that isn’t unique (it looks like many others in your niche), can be slower to load and difficult to grow and scale with.

On the flipside, a customized site is written, built and designed just for you and your goals, brand, needs and user experience. Custom website advantages include: it not only stands out but it’s tailored just to you, your needs, your brand and your target audience; it’s typically faster and more powerful for SEO, it’s built to integrate with your CRM, email marketing and scheduling tools; it looks and feels more polished and professional, which can increase your credibility and conversions. It’s disadvantages include a higher cost, longer build time and maintenance is typically required.

Yes. In most cases, we write the copy for the entire website, after researhc, a discovery session(s) and additional information and insights from our client. In some cases, instead, we edit and refine what they’ve written to ensure it connects with their ideal clients and follows best practices for SEO and AI search engines.

If you don’t already have one, we’ll guide you through a mini brand strategy process before design begins. It ensures your colors, fonts, and messaging align perfectly. Additionally, if you need a logo or a full rebrand, we can provide that as well.

We build only custom websites. Every author is unique. Every website should be too. Take a look at our sample websites – you won’t find any cookie-cutter websites nor any that sound or look the same, even within the same industry.

Yes! We can write bios, book descriptions, blog content and calls-to-action aligned with your author brand.

Great photos are important for any website. We can guide you on photo direction for book and/or brand photographer (if you don’t already have these). We’ll also comb through existing assets and, if needed, research and select beautiful, on-brand stock photography, to tell your story visually and ensure a cohesive visual style.

If you simply need some content and image updates, we can typically do minor updates to an existing website. If you need new pages built or existing pages overhauled … or a full redesign, we’ll review your site and it’s backend to determine if that’s possible. A new website may be more cost-effective, depending on the scope of the changes, how old your website is and your existing backend.

At Thrive, we build new websites in WordPress. In some cases, where a client has an existing website that isn’t old,  “broken” or totally off-the-mark for them, we can edit or possibly redesign within their existing WordPress site or other platform (like Wix, Squarespace). After understanding a client’s goals, assessing their existing site and determining a client’s budget, we will let them know what we recommend to best accommodate their needs. A new website build is often, but not always, the best solution. 

When you don’t work on websites for a living, all the acronyms, jargon and advice out there can get overwhelming!

To help, check out our recent blog article written for small businesses: The top 5 Mistakes Made When Hiring a Website Designer.

If you’d like to learn more and talk to a real human, reach out to book a complimentary discovery call. You can also sign up for our quarterly eNewsletter to get future articles and insights.

Absolutely. Every site we build includes foundational SEO setup, basic keyword research, and best-practice optimization for both Google and AI search.