Web design & development
Web designbuilt to perform.
Your website is the foundation of your business online. It is the first impression most customers will ever have of your company, and in a market as competitive as Wilmington, NC, that impression has to count.
- Clients served
- 300+
- Years in business
- 13+
- Best of Wilmington
- 3x
- Growth guarantee
- 90 days
Custom WordPress, E-commerce, Mobile-first, Redesigns, Landing pages, Care plans
(01)Why it matters
A slow, outdated website costs you every single day.
A slow, outdated, or confusing website does not just look bad. It actively costs you leads, sales, and credibility every single day.
DesignLoud is a full-service web design agency that has been building custom websites for local businesses since 2011. Founded by Derek Schmidt and headquartered in downtown Wilmington at 10 N. Front Street, Unit C, we have worked with more than 300 clients across home services, healthcare, e-commerce, professional services, and dozens of other industries.
We have been named Best of Wilmington three times, and Derek has been recognized as a Coastal Entrepreneur Award winner and two-time 40 Under 40 honoree.
(02)Why DesignLoud
Why 300+ businesses chose us.
Wilmington is not a small town anymore. The Cape Fear region has grown rapidly, and with that growth comes real competition. Your website is often the deciding factor in who gets the call and who gets skipped.
13+ years of local experience
We started in 2011 and have built websites for businesses on every major corridor in the region, from Market Street to Oleander Drive to College Road. We understand what Wilmington customers expect when they land on a local business website.
A downtown Wilmington office
We are not a remote agency working from another state. Our office is at 10 N. Front Street in downtown Wilmington, and our clients are welcome to sit down with us face to face.
Proven results, not promises
Our case studies include a 1,047% return on investment for a local HVAC company within 90 days, an 86.7% conversion rate for a dental practice that reached first-page rankings, and exceptional local market share growth for a cosmetic surgery practice in under 12 months.
3x Best of Wilmington winner
Voted the best in our category three times by the community we serve. That is not something you earn with flashy ads. You earn it by delivering consistent results year after year.
Full-service capability
Most web design shops build you a website and walk away. We handle SEO, Google Ads, social media, email marketing, content creation, and ongoing maintenance. Your website is the hub of a complete digital strategy.
90-day growth guarantee
We guarantee measurable growth within the first 90 days. If we do not deliver, we work for free until results are achieved. That is how confident we are in what we build.
(03)What we build
Our web design services.
Every business has different needs, and cookie-cutter solutions rarely work. We build each site from the ground up to match your specific goals, audience, and budget.
Custom WordPress website design
WordPress powers more than 43% of all websites on the internet. Every site we build is a custom WordPress design, not a purchased theme with your logo dropped in. We design and code each page to match your brand, your content, and the way your customers actually use your site.
E-commerce and WooCommerce development
Fast, secure WooCommerce stores that are easy to manage. Product catalog setup, payment gateway integration (Stripe, PayPal, Square), shipping configuration, inventory management, and conversion-optimized checkout flows.
Responsive and mobile-first design
More than 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. We start with the phone experience and scale up to desktop, rethinking navigation, touch targets, load times, and content hierarchy.
Website redesigns
If your website was built more than three or four years ago, it is almost certainly hurting your business. A redesign rebuilds your site on modern architecture so it loads faster, ranks higher, converts better, and works properly on every device, including content migration and URL redirect mapping.
Landing pages
Running Google Ads or a social media campaign? We design standalone landing pages optimized for specific campaigns, audiences, and offers, with clear calls to action, mobile-optimized layouts, fast load times, and tracking integration.
Website hosting and maintenance
A website is not a set-it-and-forget-it asset. Our Website Care Plans start at $150 per month and cover updates, security monitoring, daily backups, uptime monitoring, and priority support.
- Care: from $150/mo
- Protect: $350/mo, with enhanced security hardening
- Perform: $500/mo, with performance optimization and monthly reporting
(04)Transparent pricing
What does web design cost?
This is the question every business owner asks first, and you deserve a straight answer. Here is what web design in Wilmington, NC actually costs in 2026, based on the hundreds of projects we have completed.
Starter websites
01$3K to $5K
For service businesses, consultants, and professionals. Typically 5 to 10 pages with custom design, mobile-responsive layout, basic on-page SEO setup, contact form integration, and Google Analytics configuration.
Business websites
02$5K to $10K
For growing businesses that need more functionality. Typically 10 to 25 pages with blog functionality, multiple service pages, SEO architecture built in, and integrations with scheduling software, CRM systems, or review platforms.
E-commerce websites
03$8K to $15K
WooCommerce setup and configuration, product catalog design, payment processing, shipping and tax configuration, inventory management, and a checkout designed to minimize cart abandonment.
Enterprise and custom
04$15K+
Custom functionality, advanced integrations, membership portals, multi-location architectures, or high-volume e-commerce. Custom plugin development, API integrations, and advanced user role management.
Monthly website maintenance starts at $150/mo: WordPress core and plugin updates, security monitoring and malware scanning, daily automated backups, uptime monitoring, and priority technical support.
What drives cost up or down? The number of unique page templates, custom functionality, third-party integrations, content creation needs (copywriting, photography, video), and timeline. A 15-page site using three templates costs less than one where every page has a unique layout.
(05)Our process
Kickoff to launch in 6 to 10 weeks.
We have refined our process over 13 years and hundreds of projects. It is designed to be thorough without dragging on forever.
Discovery and strategy
A deep-dive discovery session covering your target audience, competitive landscape, current website performance, brand positioning, and the business outcomes you want the website to drive, including local keyword research so the architecture is built around what customers actually search.
Design
Wireframes map out structure, content hierarchy, and user flow. Once approved, we move into full visual design. You see complete mockups of your key pages before any code is written, and we do not move on until you are fully satisfied.
Development
Clean, standards-compliant WordPress code built for performance: optimized images, minimal plugin bloat, clean database queries, and proper caching. We build on a staging environment so you can review the working site before it goes live.
Launch
A comprehensive QA checklist: cross-browser and device testing, form testing, page speed validation, accessibility checks, SEO metadata review, analytics verification, and SSL. We set up 301 redirects to preserve rankings and monitor the site closely for 48 to 72 hours.
Ongoing support and growth
Launch is not the end of the engagement. It is the beginning. Updates, security, performance monitoring, and content refreshes, plus ongoing SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, and conversion optimization. Your website is a living asset.
(06)Web design case studies
Real results from Wilmington clients.
We do not ask you to take our word for it. Here are real results from businesses in the Wilmington area that partnered with DesignLoud.
(07)The 2026 standard
What makes a great website now.
The standards for what constitutes a good website have changed dramatically in the past few years. Here is what actually matters now.
Mobile-first is non-negotiable
Google uses mobile-first indexing, so the mobile version of your site is the one it evaluates for rankings. We design the mobile experience as the primary experience, with desktop as the enhancement.
Core Web Vitals and page speed
Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift directly affect your position in search results. We build every site to pass and keep monitoring after launch.
Accessibility
Proper heading hierarchy, alt text, keyboard navigability, sufficient color contrast, and ARIA labels are part of how we build. An accessible website is also a better-structured website.
SEO-ready architecture
Heading structure, meta titles and descriptions, schema markup, XML sitemaps, clean URLs, internal linking, and image optimization come standard when your web designer also runs SEO.
Conversion-focused design
Every page has a clear purpose and a clear next step: strategic calls to action, clickable phone numbers on mobile, short forms, trust signals, and layouts that guide the eye. We track conversions from launch day.
You own your website
You own the design, the code, the content, and the domain. If you ever decide to leave, we provide a full export of your site. We do not hold websites hostage. Ownership is a principle, not a policy.
(08)Why WordPress
The platform we recommend.
We have built websites on many platforms over the past 13 years. WordPress is what we recommend for the vast majority of businesses.
Wix and Squarespace work fine for personal blogs or hobby sites. For a business that depends on its website to generate revenue, they fall short: limited SEO control, slower page speeds, restricted customization, and no real code ownership.
- Powers 43.5% of all websites and more than 60% of the CMS market
- You own your code, content, database and hosting
- Clean permalinks, easy metadata and robust sitemaps for SEO
- Scales from a five-page site to a 50,000-product store
- More than 60,000 plugins, plus custom development when needed
- Never locked into a single agency or developer
The upfront cost of a custom WordPress site is higher than a DIY builder, but the long-term value in performance and ownership is not comparable.
(09)Web design FAQs
Questions, answered.
Straight answers for Wilmington businesses planning a new website.
Most projects take 6 to 10 weeks from kickoff to launch. A straightforward 5 to 10 page service business site can sometimes be completed in 4 to 6 weeks. E-commerce sites and complex custom builds typically take 10 to 14 weeks. The biggest variable is usually content.
Starter sites range from $3,000 to $5,000. Mid-range business sites run $5,000 to $10,000. E-commerce sites range from $8,000 to $15,000. Enterprise and custom builds start at $15,000 and can exceed $30,000. These reflect true custom design and development, not template installations.
We build on WordPress. It powers over 43% of all websites globally, gives you full ownership, is inherently SEO-friendly, and has the largest ecosystem of plugins, themes, and developer resources. For e-commerce, we use WooCommerce.
Every website we build is designed mobile-first. We design the phone experience first and enhance upward to tablet and desktop. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so the mobile version determines your search rankings. We test on real devices throughout development.
Every site includes foundational SEO: proper heading structure, meta titles and descriptions, image optimization, schema markup, XML sitemap, clean URL structure, internal linking, and Google Analytics setup. Ongoing SEO (monthly keyword targeting, content creation, link building) is a separate service starting at $200 per month.
Yes. We offer managed WordPress hosting through premium partners. Hosting is included in our Website Care Plans starting at $150 per month, which also covers maintenance, security monitoring, backups, and support. We can also deploy to your own hosting provider.
Clear indicators: your site is more than three to four years old; it is not mobile-responsive; it loads slowly (more than three seconds); you are not appearing in search results; your bounce rate is above 60%; or the site does not reflect your current services and branding. If two or more apply, a redesign will likely pay for itself.
WordPress core updates, plugin and theme updates, security monitoring and malware scanning, daily backups, uptime monitoring, and technical support. Our plans also include performance monitoring, broken link checking, and form testing.
Absolutely. You own the design, the code, the content, and the domain. If you ever decide to leave DesignLoud, we provide a full export of your WordPress site, database, and all associated files. We do not hold websites hostage.
All new websites come with a 30-day post-launch support period. Beyond that, our Website Care Plans provide ongoing support and priority access to our development team. We are also available for one-time projects ($250/hr development, $200/hr design).
(10)Highly rated agency
What our fans say about us.
DesignLoud has proven over time to be a great strategic partner for any business trying to be "known". Derek is a champion!
Derek Schmidt and his team are exceptional at web design/SEO and more. They recently helped me with a difficult Google issue and am so appreciative that they fixed it! I highly recommend DesignLoud if you want outstanding results!
Without a doubt the best in town for all things related to digital marketing and websites! Highly recommend!
Highly recommend DesignLoud! Derek was fantastic to work with. He was incredibly knowledgeable and made the entire process so easy. His expertise and professionalism were next level. If you're looking for high-quality website support and exceptional customer service, I highly recommend Derek and DesignLoud!
I had a great experience working with DesignLoud over the past three months! Vanessa and Colleen were absolutely phenomenal to work with. They handled all of our social media content and were always creative, responsive, professional, and just genuinely nice people. They made the whole process easy and enjoyable.
Derek is awesome to work with. He listened to what I said I needed help with and followed through on what he said he would do. Appreciate that he seemed to have my best interests in mind, not trying to up-sell me on things that wouldn't actually matter.
Top notch professionalism!
Derek Schmidt is truly an expert marketer! As a new small business owner, his tips and tricks have been extremely beneficial for me to embrace to help grow my client base! Thank you, Derek!
Derek provided an educational workshop with CFCC's Small Business Center regarding marketing and advertising with Google Ads. The class was very insightful and I would recommend his services.
The webinar was excellent. I am quite excited about using Claude now. Thanks Derek!
Derek is approachable, informative, and does a great job breaking down a real marketing campaign using an attendee's business as an example. He shares the tools and AI prompts he uses, which makes the class extra valuable.
Derek provided our company with some great marketing information and we'll definitely be using a lot of it going forward!
Derek is extremely knowledgeable and easy to learn from. He broke everything down in a way that actually made sense, even the parts of social media marketing that usually feel overwhelming. Highly recommend!
Good overview of how Google ads work, and how to leverage AI to get it done.
Derek's class on Email Marketing Excellence for the Small Business Center (CFCC) was awesome. It was one of the most informative web sessions I've attended recently.
I love how patient Derek is in explaining how he does things. He will also take time to answer all of your questions so you can work smarter, not harder!
Derek made incredible use of the time, delivered so much valuable information, answered everyone's questions clearly and kept the session engaged with just the right touch of humor. This webinar was a 10 out of 10 experience.
The DesignLoud team is a fantastic partner. DesignLoud is most concerned about taking pride in the end product and insuring that I was absolutely delighted in the outcome. The team remains with me as updates are needed. THANK YOU!
In good company
Don't worry, you're in good company. Say hello to some of our friends.
(11)Keep exploring
More ways we make you loud.
- 01Search Engine OptimizationSEO and AI search optimization that gets you found.
- 02Digital MarketingPPC, social, email and reputation, built for results.
- 03Graphic DesignLogos and branding that make you impossible to ignore.
- 04Packaging DesignPackaging that turns every unboxing into an encore.
- 05Programmatic AdvertisingPrecision ad placement across CTV, audio and display.
- 06AI SolutionsChatbots and automation that give your team hours back.