Four parts ⦿ When you need development ⦿ Integrations ⦿ Process ⦿ Cost ⦿ Support ⦿ FAQs ⦿ Get started
A website project at CJ Digital has four parts: the design, the customer-facing layer; the development, the build underneath; the content that fills it; and the ongoing support that keeps it running. All four get scoped and quoted separately so the buyer can see what they’re getting and what they’re paying for.
CJ Digital has built websites for Melbourne small businesses since 2014, working from a Hawthorn studio. If you’re planning a complete web project and weighing up the options, this page covers the full picture. If you specifically want a small business website without custom integrations or larger development scope, our [web design in Melbourne page](/website-design-melbourne/) is the more focused starting point.
A website project has four parts that all have to work for the site to do its job. Common failure modes show up as gaps. A beautiful site with no working contact form. A solid build with content that doesn’t convert. A project that launches well but breaks at month three because no one is maintaining it.
Every CJ Digital project covers all four. Some clients want them sequenced over months rather than bundled in one go. We work either way.
Most Melbourne small businesses need a website. Some need a web project. The difference is whether custom development is part of the brief.
A small business website typically covers standard pages, a contact form, and basic SEO. The build is reasonably standardised. Our [web design in Melbourne page](/website-design-melbourne/) covers this case directly, with an 8 to 12 week timeline.
A web project means custom development on top of the design. Some examples:
When custom development is part of the brief, the project is bigger, the timeline is longer, and the scoping conversation matters more than the design conversation. Most clients arriving on this page have a project of this kind, even if they haven’t named it that way.
CJ Digital builds custom development on top of WordPress for most projects. The platform choice gives the client real control after launch and avoids locking the business into a proprietary system. We’ve worked with WordPress for more than a decade.
Specific integration work we’ve delivered for Melbourne clients:
We don’t build every integration that exists. Where a client needs work outside our experience, we say so up front rather than treating the project as a learning exercise on the client’s budget. The integrations named on this page are ones we’ve shipped to production for Melbourne clients.
A standard project runs over 8 to 16 weeks depending on scope. Smaller small business sites land at the lower end. Custom development projects with significant integrations run longer.
The project covers six stages: discovery (defining the brief), content planning (mapping pages and photography), design (the home page first, then inner pages), build (development against signed-off designs), content population (copy and images loaded), and launch (going live with hosting, redirects, and team training).
For standard small business projects we publish the week-by-week timeline on our [web design in Melbourne page](/website-design-melbourne/). For custom development projects, the discovery and scoping stages are usually longer because the integration work needs to be defined before the build can be quoted accurately.
Project costs vary widely with scope. A standard small business website is a different project from a custom development project with multiple integrations, which is again different from a multi-site franchise build.
Four factors move the price.
Send us a brief outline of what you need and we’ll come back with a quote tailored to your scope within two business days.
Larger ongoing work like new pages, new functionality, or significant redesigns is scoped separately. The line between support hours and project work is discussed with you in advance. No surprises.
Web design is the customer-facing layer: visual design, brand, user experience, content. Web development is the build underneath: platform, code, integrations, performance, security. A complete project covers both.
Yes. We've built multi-site architectures for clients with multiple locations. The project usually combines a shared content core with location-specific overrides, central reporting, and either a single CMS or a multi-tenant setup. Multi-site projects are quoted bespoke.
Often, yes. The integrations we name here are ones we've shipped to production. We can scope work with platforms outside that list when the integration is reasonably documented. Where a project needs unusual or undocumented integration work, we either bring in a specialist partner or recommend a different agency for that scope.
Most CJ Digital projects don't fit a standard scope. The scoping conversation is the first thing we do. We don't commit to a price until the scope is clear enough that the price can hold.
Often, yes. We audit the existing site (platform, hosting, security state, plugin landscape, integration health) before quoting. Some sites are straightforward to take over. Others have technical debt that needs to be addressed before ongoing support is reasonable.
We build smaller ecommerce projects (under 1,000 SKUs, standard payment and shipping requirements) on WooCommerce or Shopify. For larger catalogue work, complex inventory management, or multi-channel ecommerce, a Shopify Plus specialist is usually a better call. Our ecommerce store design page covers the smaller-project case.
Send us a brief outline of where you are now, what you're trying to build, and what's currently in the way. We'll come back with a scoped response within two business days. For complex projects, the response usually includes a few clarifying questions before we can scope a quote.
Phone: (03) 8582 8702
Studio: 16-22 Church Street, Hawthorn VIC 3122
Email: as per current site contact link
