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Custom web development · Astro & Next.js

Custom web development that is fast by construction.

We build company and service-business websites on Astro: every page is plain HTML, no JavaScript unless a part needs it, and the whole text is there for Google and AI to read. When a site needs logins, portals or live data, we build it on Next.js. Designed in Figma, built exactly as drawn, and wired to count every call and quote request.

Get a fixed quoteAstro or Next.js?

New websites from $2,490, five pages with design included, 3 to 6 weeks.

  • 17 kB

    of JavaScript for the homepage of this site, built the way we build yours

    RankMeHi production build. The median local business page ships 885 kB.

  • 100%

    of the page text in the raw HTML at ICC Collision, before any script runs

    Fetched as GPTBot, 15 Sep 2026: 1,150 words raw, 1,150 rendered.

  • 3.6×

    more clicks a day from Google after the ICC Collision site launched

    Search Console, 2024, read from the performance chart.

The short answer

Custom web development means a site written for your business instead of assembled from a theme: lighter, easier to rank, and built around the one action you want visitors to take. It matters because the typical local site is heavy. In our study of 662 Orange County business websites the median homepage weighed 2.6 MB and took eight seconds to show its main content on a phone.

median weight of a local business homepage
2.6 MBmedian weight of a local business homepage479 sites, PageSpeed Insights mobile, 26 Sep 2026
of those bytes come from third-party code
54%of those bytes come from third-party codeSame sample, median share
JavaScript on the homepage of this site
17 kBJavaScript on the homepage of this siteRankMeHi production build

Custom development, explained

What custom development buys a service business.

In one paragraphA custom site is written for one business: its services, its cities, its quote form. Nothing loads that the page does not use, the text arrives in the first HTML response, and the path to a call is designed rather than inherited from a theme. The result is a site that is faster, easier for Google and AI to read, and simpler to measure.

Page builders and themes are built to do everything for everyone, so every page carries the code for features it never uses. In our study the median local homepage loaded 885 kB of JavaScript and 84 separate requests. A company site built on Astro sends no JavaScript at all unless a part of the page needs it, such as a quote estimator.

Pre-rendering is the second difference. The page is built into plain HTML before anyone visits, so the phone shows content straight away and crawlers read the full text without running scripts. Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript at all; a site that assembles its content in the browser is close to blank to them.

Editing does not have to suffer. Your team updates services, posts and photos in a CMS, and WordPress can stay as the editor if that is what it knows, while the public site stays static, fast and hard to break.

And a custom build is where conversion gets designed in: one clear action per page, a call button that stays on screen on phones, a short quote form, and tracking that counts every submission from launch day.

Astro or Next.js? One rule decides.

A company site is mostly text, photos and a form, so it should be plain HTML: we build it on Astro. A site that behaves like an app gets Next.js. We pick for the job and tell you which one before we quote.

When RankMeHi builds on Astro and when on Next.js
AspectAstroNext.js
We use it forCompany and service-business sites: services, cities, proof, a quote form, a blog.Sites that behave like an app: logins, portals, larger stores, live data.
JavaScript sent to the phoneNone by default. Only a part that needs it, such as a quote estimator, loads scripts.A framework runtime on every page, plus the code each page needs.
How pages are madeBuilt to static HTML at deploy time.Pre-rendered or rendered on the server, page by page.
HostingCloudflare edge network.Vercel.
Our sites on itNew company-site builds, from September 2026.ICC Collision, Aria Glass, LineEra, Blue Aqua and this site.

Speed by platform, from our own data.

Median mobile Lighthouse performance score and page weight for each platform in our study of 662 Orange County business websites. The platform is not the whole story; how the site is built matters as much. But the spread is real.

Median mobile Lighthouse score and page weight by website platform, 662-site Orange County study
AspectSites scoredMedian mobile scoreMedian page weightScored 90+
WordPress205602.7 MB6%
Custom or unidentified98652.0 MB13%
Wix38672.9 MB0%
Squarespace30492.6 MB0%
GoDaddy Builder30651.8 MB13%
Shopify17603.4 MB0%
Weebly12452.1 MB0%
Webflow10568.9 MB0%
Next.js10721.9 MB20%

RankMeHi study of 662 Orange County business websites. Crawl 25 to 26 Sep 2026; PageSpeed Insights, mobile, 26 Sep 2026. Platforms with fewer than 10 scored sites are left out. Next.js and Webflow are 10 sites each, so treat those rows as a direction, not a verdict. Too few Astro sites turned up in the sample to get a row of their own. Method and full data

Original research · 662 sites

Where the speed goes on a typical local site.

The same study, from the engineering side. None of these problems is fixed by a faster server; they are decided by how the site is built.
  • 79%of sites take more than 4 seconds to show their main content on a phoneGoogle calls anything over 4 s "poor". Only 7% hit the 2.5 s "good" mark.
  • 2.6 MBmedian page weight of a local business homepage44% ship more than 3 MB, a quarter more than 5 MB. Scripts outweigh the photos: 885 kB against 594 kB at the median.
  • 54%of the bytes on the median page come from third parties: widgets, trackers, chat, buildersThe code you did not write is most of what slows the page.
  • 7%of sites score 90+ on mobile performance33 of 479 sites tested. The other 446 are slower than they need to be.
  • 14%refuse AI crawlers such as GPTBot or ClaudeBot at the firewallOnly 0.8% say so in robots.txt, so the refusal comes from a security setting, not a stated choice. Cloudflare is behind 54% of the refusals.
  • 15%of the websites listed for these businesses are dead or return an errorExpired domains, broken certificates, error pages. Measured across all 662.
“The median Orange County business homepage in our study weighed 2.6 MB, and more than half of those bytes came from third-party code.”
RankMeHi, local business website study, September 2026

RankMeHi study of 662 Orange County business websites. Crawl 25 to 26 Sep 2026; PageSpeed Insights, mobile, 26 Sep 2026. Read the full study and method

The proof

Fast by construction. Readable by AI by default.

The four sites below are Next.js builds, pre-rendered, so speed is a property of the build and the whole page is in the HTML for Google and AI assistants to read. Our Astro company sites go a step further and ship no JavaScript by default. Every number below names its source.

03

Fast

Every one of these sites is built on Next.js. That is why they are fast.

No page builders, no plugin bloat. Pages are pre-rendered, images are optimised, and the browser only loads the code the page actually needs. Core Web Vitals are a property of the build, not a tuning job.

ProofProof: this site, built the same way. Measured from its production build.

17 kB
JavaScript for the homepage
0
Third-party scripts before you interact
WebP
Every screenshot sized to the screen
HTML
Pre-rendered, readable without JS

rankmehi.com, from its production build. Open the dev tools if you like.

  • ICC Collision Center

    Next.js · pre-rendered · Vercel

  • Aria Glass

    Next.js · pre-rendered · Vercel

  • LineEra

    Next.js · pre-rendered · Vercel

  • Blue Aqua

    Next.js · pre-rendered · Vercel

04

Readable by AI

What an AI assistant sees when it fetches the page: the whole page.

ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity read the HTML you send, not the page a browser eventually paints. Our pages arrive complete: headings, services, areas, schema. Nothing waits for JavaScript.

ProofProof: each site fetched with a GPTBot user agent on 14 Sep 2026; status and words of readable text in the raw response.

curl -A "GPTBot/1.2" · 14 Sep 2026
SiteStatusReadable words in HTML
icccollision.com2001,358
lineera.com2001,182
ariaglass.us200600
blueaquaint.com403blocked by firewall, fixing

  • Content in the HTML

    Headings, services and areas arrive in the first response, not after scripts run.

  • Schema.org structured data

    Business, services, areas and FAQs stated as data, so a model does not have to guess.

  • Specific, citable facts

    Materials, areas, turnaround and prices where the client allows. Quotable beats clever.

  • Crawlers allowed

    GPTBot, Google-Extended and PerplexityBot are not blocked; llms.txt and the sitemap point them the right way.

Want a site built this way?

Get a fixed quote

Our method

The Three-Judge Test: what Google, AI and your customer all check.

The Three-Judge Test is RankMeHi’s launch rule: a page ships only when a customer can act on it in seconds, Google can crawl and rank it, and an AI assistant can read it in the raw HTML and quote it.Fifteen checks, five per judge. Every site we ship passes all of them at launch, and the free audit runs your current site through the same list.
01

What Google checks

Fundamentals

Technical SEO has not changed because AI arrived. These are the ranking basics, and every site we ship passes them at launch.

  • Core Web Vitals in the green on a phoneSpeed is a ranking signal and the first reason a visitor leaves.
  • Pre-rendered HTML, crawlable without JavaScriptIf Googlebot has to run your scripts to see your content, you are last in line.
  • One page per real search, with one clear H1A page that tries to rank for everything ranks for nothing.
  • Internal links from proof pages to service pagesTells Google which pages matter and what they are about.
  • Titles, descriptions, canonical URLs and a sitemapThe basics, done once, done right, checked in Search Console.

ProofICC Collision: 3.6× more clicks a day from Google after launch (Search Console, 2024). Read the case study

02

What AI assistants check

AI readability

ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity fetch your page and decide in one pass whether you are worth recommending. They read structure and specifics, not design.

  • Content in the HTML response, not loaded laterMost AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript. Blank HTML means you do not exist.
  • Schema.org structured data: business, services, areas, FAQsStructured data tells the model what you are without guessing.
  • Clean semantic headings and listsAssistants lift answers from well-structured sections, not from paragraphs of marketing.
  • Specific, citable facts: prices, areas, materials, turnaroundA model recommends what it can quote. Vague pages get skipped.
  • Crawlers allowed, llms.txt and sitemap in placeA firewall that blocks GPTBot blocks the recommendation too.

ProofFetched as GPTBot on 14 Sep 2026: ICC, LineEra and Aria Glass returned full HTML (600 to 1,358 words). Blue Aqua is blocked by a firewall rule we are fixing.

03

What the customer checks

Content-led SEO

Rankings and recommendations only pay when the page convinces a person. Content-led SEO means writing for the search and the buyer at the same time.

  • Service and location pages written around real searchesKeyword Planner tells us what people type; the page answers exactly that.
  • Proof on the page: photos, numbers, named clientsA stranger needs a reason to trust you before they will call.
  • FAQs that answer the questions buyers actually askRank for the question, get cited for the answer, close the doubt.
  • One obvious next step on every pageQuote form, click-to-call, no dead ends. Conversion is a route, not a button.
  • Every enquiry countedForms and calls are tracked, so the site is judged on leads, not on looks.

ProofAria Glass: one page per service and a quote form built with the estimator; quote requests up 368% a month, year one to now. Read the case study

What we build

Six things every build includes, not extras.

The stack is the same for every client, so the quality does not depend on who is on the project that week.
  1. 01

    Astro for company sites

    Every page built to static HTML at deploy time, with no JavaScript sent unless a component needs it. Served from Cloudflare’s edge, close to every visitor.

  2. 02

    Next.js when you need an app

    Logged-in areas, customer portals, larger stores and live data. Public pages stay pre-rendered; the app parts sit where they belong.

  3. 03

    Editing your team can use

    Services, posts and photos are edited in a CMS, not in code, and WordPress can stay as the editor if your team knows it. The public site never runs themes or plugins.

  4. 04

    Figma to code, pixel-close

    Andrew designs every screen in Figma, phone frames first. We build exactly what was approved, including motion, or from your own designer’s files.

  5. 05

    Forms, calls and integrations

    Quote forms with spam protection, click-to-call, booking tools, CRM and email hand-offs. Every submission is recorded as a conversion from launch day.

  6. 06

    Migrations without losing rankings

    Every old URL mapped to its new home with a 301, titles and content carried over, Search Console watched for the first weeks after the switch.

  7. 07

    Schema and AI-readable HTML

    Structured data for the business, services, areas and FAQs, and the full text in the first HTML response, so Google and AI assistants read the whole page.

From brief to launch

Four steps, three to six weeks.

You see real work at the end of every step, on your own phone, and approve it before the next one starts.
  1. 01

    Audit and brief

    Week 1

    We read the current site, its Search Console data and the searches your customers type, then agree the pages, the features and what counts as a lead.

    You getA sitemap, a feature list and a fixed price. Nothing starts until you approve it.

  2. 02

    Design

    Week 1 to 2

    Figma screens for the key pages, phone first. You review real layouts with real copy, not lorem ipsum.

    You getApproved designs for every template, on phone and desktop.

  3. 03

    Build

    Week 2 to 5

    Astro for a company site, Next.js if it needs app features, with the CMS, forms and tracking wired in. You get a private preview link that updates as we go.

    You getA working staging site you can click through on your own phone.

  4. 04

    Launch and the Three-Judge Test

    Week 3 to 6

    Every page checked against all fifteen items: speed on a phone, crawlability, schema, raw-HTML text, forms and calls. Redirects in place, Search Console and analytics live.

    You getA launched site and a launch report with the scores for every page.

Pricing

A fixed price, agreed before we start.

A new site, or a round of speed and structure fixes on the one you have. Local service businesses can also take the pay-per-lead partner route, with a lower setup fee and billing per approved lead.

  • New website

    For a business that needs a site built to convert from day one.

    from $2,490

    five pages, design included · 3 to 6 weeks

    • Design in Figma, or built from yours
    • Astro front end, edited in a CMS your team can use
    • Service pages written around real searches
    • Analytics and Search Console wired up at launch
    Start with the free audit

  • Audit & fix

    For a site that exists but is slow, invisible on Google, or not bringing in enquiries.

    from $490

    one-off, after the free audit · 1 to 2 weeks

    • Free audit with a prioritised fix list
    • Speed and Core Web Vitals repair
    • Technical SEO and page structure fixes
    • Quote form and click-to-call setup
    Start with the free audit

We eat our own cooking

This site is built the way we build yours.

Open the dev tools if you like. Everything we recommend for clients is running on the page you are reading.
Next.js 15
One of the two stacks we build on, with Astro. No page builder, no theme.
17 kB
JavaScript for this page. Most builder homepages ship over a megabyte.
WebP
Every screenshot resized to the screen it is shown on, 24 to 57 kB each.
0
Third-party scripts loaded before you interact with the page.

Is it for you?

Who our web development is for.

A good fit if

  • You run a service business and the site should bring calls and quote requests.
  • Your current site is slow on a phone, hard to edit, or held together by plugins.
  • You have a design, or want one, and need it built exactly as drawn.
  • You want to own a fast site rather than rent a template.

Probably not a fit if

  • You need a large custom web app or SaaS product; we build marketing and lead sites.
  • You want to change layouts yourself every week without a developer.
  • Your budget is under a few hundred dollars; a builder plan will serve you better.
  • You need the site live tomorrow.

Questions

Web development questions, answered straight

What owners ask before they commission a custom site.

Web development guides

How we decide between Next.js and WordPress, what full-service development includes, and why custom builds win for local businesses.

Browse all articles

Start with clarity

Get a fixed quote for your new website

Tell us what you have today. We audit it, then reply with a fixed price for a fast Next.js site designed to convert, with no per-lead billing.
  1. 1Share your name, email and website.
  2. 2We review your current website and SEO foundation.
  3. 3We reply with the clearest next steps for your business.
Prefer to talk? (844) 972-6563

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