Proposal
Your website is faster now, and here's what's next
A quick, plain-English rundown of the change we made to your site, what it does for your Google rankings, the one honest catch, and three ways we can handle the new pages you asked for.
Hi Christy,
Thanks again for sending over your list of pages. Before we jump into building those, I want to fill you in on something we've been doing behind the scenes, because it directly affects RA Barker.
Over the last few months we've been moving our clients off WordPress and onto a newer, faster platform called Astro. Since you're one of our original clients, we went ahead and rebuilt your current site on it at no cost to you. You can click around the new version below. We did this because a faster, cleaner site tends to help you climb in Google over time, and honestly, we'd rather you be on the better setup than stuck on old technology.
Your new site, ready to preview
It's a pixel-for-pixel copy of your current site, with two upgrades built in: an updated contact and lead form, and pages that load a lot faster.
For comparison, here's your current site: rabarkerhome.com
Why we left WordPress behind
WordPress is fine, but it's heavy. Every time someone visits a WordPress page, it has to wake up a pile of plugins and a database before anything shows up. That makes it slower (especially on phones), it needs constant security updates, and the plugins love to break or conflict with each other.
Astro works the opposite way. It builds your site ahead of time into clean, lightweight pages that load almost instantly and have basically nothing to hack or break. Same look you have today, much better engine under the hood.
✓ Faster on phones
Most of your visitors are on their phone. A faster site means fewer of them give up before it even loads.
✓ Helps your Google ranking
Speed is something Google actually rewards. We also added the local-business info Google likes to see, which your old site was missing.
✓ Much safer
No plugins and no login to break into. Nothing for hackers to target.
✓ It just stays up
No crashes, no plugin conflicts, no "why is my site down" surprises.
Your site, before and after
These are real Google PageSpeed scores, measured this week on both versions of your site. The biggest jump is on mobile, which is exactly where your customers are.
In plain terms: your mobile load time dropped by more than half. That's often the difference between a visitor sticking around and a visitor bouncing before they ever see your work.
Don't just take my word for it
We started moving clients onto this exact platform back in March, and the results are already showing up in Google. Here are three of our own sites and where they stand today.
Keystone Hardscape & Design
Since the switch, Keystone now sits on Google's first page in their area for the searches that actually bring in jobs. Fast site, strong rankings.
Tri-County Construction
This is a big site, well over a hundred pages, and it still loads fast and keeps a healthy Google score. It's already ranking, and it's only been live a short time.
Victory Laser Co
We run our own laser-engraving business on this same platform. It ranks on page one across a wide range of "near me" engraving searches and brings in steady traffic every month.
Rankings pulled from our own Google Search Console (90-day average position). Speed scores from Google PageSpeed Insights.
The one honest catch
It's only fair to tell you the downside. Astro is built in code, so there's no WordPress-style dashboard for you to log into and edit pages yourself. Any changes come through us.
For most of the folks we work with, that's actually the part they like. They don't want to wrestle with a website, babysit plugin updates, or worry about breaking something. They just want a site that works and brings in calls while they're out on the job. We take care of the updates so you don't have to think about it.
That said, if being able to log in and edit it yourself matters to you, we kept an option open for exactly that. It's Option 1 below.
About the pages you sent over
We went through your whole list: the 14 service pages (basements, egress, bathrooms, kitchens, additions, doors and windows, decks, fences and steps, commercial, investment properties, office renovations, exterior repairs, siding, roofing, and fencing), plus the Our Work gallery, Service Areas, Financing page, and the feature requests. We can build all of it.
A project this size, taking you from a 5-page site to around 22 pages, would normally run somewhere in the $3,000 to $3,400 range as a one-time build. But you're one of our originals, and we'd genuinely like to keep RA Barker in the family. So here are three ways to go, including a courtesy offer that's well below what we'd normally charge.
Your three options
Option 1. Stay on WordPress hosting only
Keep the version you can log into and edit yourself.
- We fix the technical issues on it, starting with your broken contact form (right now, messages from it aren't actually reaching you)
- You keep full WordPress access and build out the new pages yourself, on your own schedule
- You keep paying only for hosting, nothing more
- Just know it stays on the slower, higher-maintenance WordPress setup (the red scores above)
Option 2. Flat-rate rebuild $600 one-time, courtesy
Everything on your list, built on the fast new platform, for a fraction of our usual $3,000-plus rate.
- All the new pages from your outline: every service page, the Our Work gallery, Service Areas, and Financing, plus the features you wanted
- 5 local pages for each service, for example "Middletown Decks & Fences," "Newark Decks & Fences," and so on. These help you show up when someone searches in a specific town you serve, which is exactly how Keystone and Tri-County are winning jobs
- Fast, secure, and built to rank, just like the examples above
- After it's live, any future changes are billed by the hour as you need them
Option 3. We run the whole thing $97/month
The easy route. We handle the whole site so you can stay focused on the work.
- Unlimited changes. Just text or email us what you want and it's done
- No hosting fees. It's all included
- We manage the entire site for you, including the full page expansion above
- We set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics so you can see your traffic and where you rank
- If you ever want to run Facebook or Instagram ads, we install the tracking pixel for you at no extra charge
Whichever way you want to go, we're really glad to have RA Barker as a client. Just reply here or call or text me at (302) 401-0204 and let me know which option feels right. If you'd rather talk it through, I'm happy to jump on a quick call whenever works for you.