Who We Are

Chesapeake Web Designs is a small business located in Cecil County, Maryland. We have been in business since 2005 serving mainly small businesses and non-profits in the surrounding area, including Harford County and outside of Maryland.

The service we offer is different than most web design companies that charge a very small fee to build your website, then charge high monthly fees moving forward. We charge a reasonable design fee up front, but you only pay a yearly hosting renewal after that, and it includes most updates that you need throughout the year.

We are a Christian based company that believes in providing a professional service at a fair price to our clients. Honesty and integrity are the foundation in which we base our business decisions and customer interactions. It’s important to us that our clients love their website when it is completed!

Our Skills

Professional top notch websites require three skills: graphic design, coding knowledge (HTML5, CSS3, Javascript), and the ability to write content with SEO in mind. We believe that businesses are better off having a custom coded website designed, which is what we exclusively do.

Most website companies these days are utilizing a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and Joomla. There are others, but these are currently the most popular. These programs provide software that simplifies the process of creating, managing, and publishing digital content for websites. The designer doesn’t necessarily need graphic design or coding experience (and many don’t have it) to create a website from a template that these programs include. Some companies even group a number of unrelated clients into a single hosting account to save money.

CMS websites work well for some, but they do have disadvantages that can lead to frustration. They are basically a software system that has been designed by a technical team with the goal of making it possible for an average person without HTML and CSS knowledge to build a functional and attractive website. They get regularly updated by the technical team, and include 3rd party plug-ins that must be managed through the control panel, and some have separate fees associated with them. Building these CMS websites by a user is somewhat limited since the customization features are preset. We have some experience with Word Press and although it is a good option for some, we decided to only custom design our websites so that we can more easily control all aspects of the website. Custom designing allows us to gather requirements from a client and build the website accordingly, rather than only offering limited options in regard to design and functionality. Always ask a web design company about their control over the website up front because it’s not usually information they freely provide.

Since we custom design and code our websites from scratch, we can update them very quickly without delay. This seems to be a stumbling point for many CMS companies since they may run into plug-in issues (updates and renewals) or other functionality updates that they weren’t aware of before they attempted the update. We experienced that when we used Word Press. We often hear from new clients about their inability to get their website updated or changed when they worked with a CMS company. Because of this desire for quick updating, we have always made that a niche for our company to offer quick, dependable updating when needed – usually a 1–2-day turnaround. This is easy for us since our sites are custom coded with no 3rd party plug-ins or updates that we aren’t aware of.

In regard to web hosting (the server space where your website files and domain name live), each of our clients has their very own Deluxe hosting account with no other client websites tied in. It is possible to have multiple websites that you own, each with their own domain name, within your single hosting account. Our hosting accounts come with free SSL (Secure Socket Layer), which gives you a secure "https:" URL. We custom code your HTML and CSS files and upload them via an FTP software program. All files are also held locally on our server and periodically backed up. There are no plug-ins or 3rd party programs to update or renew associated with our websites or hosting accounts.

Our Technical Skills:

Graphic Design

HTML 5

CSS 3

JavaScript