Your questions.

A complete website build is $2,500 (AUD). Once it's live, you pick a monthly package: Starter is $30 a month, Essential is $70 and Pro is $129. If you ever need a change that goes beyond what your package includes, it's a flat $49 for anything up to 15 minutes, or $150 for bigger jobs. The build is just $500 to get started, and the remaining $2,000 when your website goes live. It's all laid out on the pricing page. For comparison, most professionally built small business websites in Australia cost $3,000 to $10,000, and our guide to what a website costs explains why.

Quite a lot, we hope you'll agree! You get a custom design made around your business, an experience crafted specially for phones (60–73% of people now browse or search on a phone), a version that looks right on laptops, desktops and tablets, optimisation for search engines and AI answer tools, custom AI-generated imagery and video to match your brand, and up to eight pages.

Starter keeps your site online, quick and looked after, with hosting, SSL and security, domain management and monitoring. Essential adds a standard contact form, a text and photo update each month, a yearly search and AI check-up, and Pulse Lite, which covers your site's health, enquiries, Google reviews, page speed and top pages. Pro adds one change a month (about 30 minutes, design and new pages included), the Dactyl Smart Form, search and AI fine-tuning every two months, the full Business Pulse (where visitors come from, what led to each enquiry and call, the paths people take through your site, and regular check-ins on your prices and timetables), a check of your business listings across around 14 directories, a Monthly Marketing Boost (an article, promotional graphic, animation or strategic concept each month, to use anywhere including your socials) and the Prototype Sandbox (early access to our latest tools, yours to keep if they become permanent Pro features).

No. The monthly packages are month to month, so there's nothing to be locked into. You can move between packages as your business changes.

You do. Domain names are purchased by the customer, and we can assist you through the entire process to keep it straightforward. Once the build is complete, you own the website entirely. The only exceptions are our own Dactyl tools (such as the Dactyl Smart Form), which are licensed to you as part of your monthly hosting packages.

We're a small studio in Smithfield, out in Sydney's west. Most of our work is with local small businesses around Western Sydney, such as Parramatta, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown, Fairfield and Penrith, and we'd be happy to help businesses right across Sydney too. You can read more about Western Sydney or the wider Sydney area.

Not at all. Lots of small and one-person businesses have a website, and many find it helps people trust them and get in touch. If you're wondering whether it's right for you, have a look at our page on which small businesses tend to benefit, or just ask us. We're happy to chat.

It's pretty relaxed. First we have a chat about you, your business and what you'd like to achieve. Then you decide how involved you'd like to be in the design, as much or as little as you like. While we build, we keep you posted so there are no surprises. Then we launch, and we're still around afterwards for support and whatever comes next.

None at all. You're very welcome to call or email with questions, website related or not. You can reach us on 0411 968 611 or at team@dactylwebsites.com.au, or use the contact page.

The build process can typically take roughly 2-4 weeks to complete. It's a process we generally don't like to rush as there are a lot of moving parts and we want to ensure we deliver the best possible product for our customers. When you get in touch, you'll be chatting with John, and he'll work closely with you from the start of the project through to the finish.

Only as much as you'd like to be. Some people love having a say in every detail, and others would rather hand us the brief and approve the result. Both are completely fine.

You can provide as little or as much content as you like. We're happy to write everything for you, with your feedback along the way, of course.

For photos, it's usually best if you're able to provide real, professional-looking photos (or videos) of your business. That's absolutely ideal. If not, we can also help with photos that suit your business.

Yes, and that's where we start. We design every website for phones first, because somewhere between 60% and 73% of people now browse or search on a phone, depending on the study. Then we give it a proper redesign for laptops, desktops and tablets.

It's a contact form that comes with the Pro package. Before we build it, we'll chat about the questions your customers ask you most, and turn them into a few easy steps. Your customer taps through in a minute or two, you get every answer in one tidy email, and they get a confirmation email too. The Essential package has a standard contact form with an enquiry-type dropdown.

Fair enough, the jargon can be a lot. SEO is about helping search engines like Google find your pages. AEO is about making it easy for a search or voice assistant to pull out a clear answer. GEO is about helping AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini understand your business and talk about it accurately. We've written a friendly Search & AI guide if you'd like the longer version.

We build every site so search engines and AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity can find it, understand it and get your details right: clear headings, structured data, a sitemap, quick pages and answers to common questions written up front. To be honest with you, nobody can promise a number one spot, and anyone who does is worth a gentle raised eyebrow. What we can promise is that your site gives them everything they need. There's more on our Search & AI page.

On Essential and Pro, you'll get your Business Pulse each month. Essential comes with Pulse Lite, covering your site's health, enquiries, Google reviews, page speed and top pages. Pro comes with the full Business Pulse, which also shows where your visitors came from, what led to each enquiry and call, and the paths people take through your site, plus a check of your business listings across around 14 directories.

We stay with you. Every package keeps your site hosted, secure, monitored and online. On Essential and Pro, you also get monthly updates and your Business Pulse, and we keep an eye on how you're showing up in search and AI tools. On Pro you'll get a Monthly Marketing Boost and early access to new tools from our Prototype Sandbox too. The full details are on the pricing page.