The First Coastal Is Open for Business

We Started a Web Company. Here's the Deal.

Look, there are a ton of web design companies out there. You know this. I know this. A lot of them will build you something and disappear. Or they'll promise stuff they can't deliver. Or they just don't communicate well and you're left wondering what you even paid for.

So we started The First Coastal.

We're in Northeast Florida. First Coast area. We build websites, we fix websites that aren't working right, we handle social media for businesses that don't have time for it, and we do SEO. That's the Google stuff. Getting your business to show up when people search.

Here's something we want to be upfront about: a website by itself isn't going to flood your business with customers. That's not how it works. A website is one piece of a bigger puzzle. If nobody knows your site exists, they're not going to find it. That's where SEO comes in. That's where social media comes in. It all works together.

Why should you care about us? Maybe you shouldn't. But if you've been burned before or you're just tired of not understanding what you're paying for, keep reading.

Who We Are

We're local. That matters to us even if it doesn't matter to you. We go to businesses around here. We want those businesses to do well. When someone gets ripped off by some company in another state that disappears after cashing the check, that bothers us.

We've been in this industry long enough to see how things usually go wrong. And we got tired of it.

Here's what we do. We're just going to lay it out.

New Websites

You need a website built from nothing. Ok. We can do that.

But we're going to ask you a bunch of questions first. What's this website supposed to do for you? Who are you trying to reach? What do you want someone to do after they land on your homepage? These aren't trick questions. We actually need to know this stuff or we're just guessing. And guessing is how you end up with a site that doesn't fit what you actually need.

A lot of designers skip this part. They ask about colors and fonts and then start building. Few weeks later you've got something. It exists. It might even look good. But if it wasn't built with a clear purpose, it's going to be harder to use it effectively down the road.

The questions matter. We need to know what success looks like for you. Is it phone calls? Form submissions? People buying stuff online? Just having something professional to point people to? All of those are valid answers but they lead to different decisions about how the site gets built.

And here's the honest part: even a great website needs people to actually find it. That means SEO, social media, maybe some advertising. The website is the foundation, but you've got to build on top of it. We can help with that stuff too, or we can just build the site and point you in the right direction. Either way, we're not going to pretend that launching a website is the finish line. It's the starting line.

We build with modern tools. Sites load fast, they work on phones, the code is clean. That last part you probably don't care about right now but you will when something needs to change two years from now and whoever's working on it can actually understand what they're looking at. We've taken over projects where the previous code was such a mess that fixing anything took twice as long as it should have. We don't want to leave that for whoever comes after us.

Also, and this is important, your site has to work on phones. Most people are looking at websites on their phones now. If your site is annoying to use on a phone, people leave. They just leave. They'll find someone else. So we make sure that doesn't happen.

We don't disappear after we launch your site. Stuff always comes up. Questions, changes, things that need tweaking. We're here. Same time zone. You can reach us.

Fixing Websites

Maybe you already have a site and it's not great. Your cousin made it back in 2018 or whenever. Or you paid a company and now they won't respond to emails and you can't even log in to change your phone number. That second one happens way more than it should.

We see this constantly. Old designs. Slow loading. Mobile versions that are barely usable. Contact forms that don't actually send anywhere. Checkout processes that break. It's a mess out there. And when someone does find your site and can't use it properly, that's a problem. They're not going to try again.

Here's the thing though. A lot of business owners don't realize there's a problem. The site went up years ago, it seemed fine, they haven't really looked at it on a phone or tested the contact form or checked if it shows up on Google. They just assume it's working. Why wouldn't it be working? It was working before.

But stuff breaks. Plugins get outdated. Security issues pop up. The site that looked modern five years ago looks dated now. And Google changes what it wants to see, so a site that used to rank ok might not anymore. None of this is your fault. It's just how this stuff works.

Most problems can be fixed. Sometimes we look at something and the honest answer is that it needs to be completely redone. The foundation is bad, the code is a mess, it would cost more to fix than to start over. We'll tell you if that's the case. But usually we can work with what's there. We'll tell you what's wrong, what it'll take to fix it, and give you options. Real options. Not just one expensive option.

If it's a small fix, we'll tell you. A few hours of work, here's what it costs, done. If there's nothing we can do, we'll tell you that too and you won't owe us anything for the conversation. We're not going to waste your time or ours.

Social Media

Running social media for a business is time consuming. You know this if you've tried it. Coming up with stuff to post, actually posting it, responding to comments and messages, figuring out what's working and what isn't. It takes hours. Hours most business owners don't have.

We take that off your plate. We plan content, we post it, we handle the engagement, we track what's getting results. We show up consistently because showing up consistently is what actually matters. Not any one post. Just being there regularly so people don't forget you exist.

We're not going to tell you social media will save your business. It won't. If what you're selling isn't good, posting about it more isn't going to help. But if you've got something worth talking about and you just need help actually talking about it, we can do that.

And no, we can't make you go viral. Nobody can promise that. That's mostly random. Anyone who guarantees viral content is lying to you.

SEO

SEO means search engine optimization. It's how you get your business to show up when someone searches for what you do on Google.

This is the area with the most scams in our industry. Guaranteed first page rankings. Thousands of backlinks for cheap. Secret relationships with Google. None of that is real. It's all garbage.

Here's what's actually true. SEO takes time. Months. Anyone promising fast results is either lying or doing stuff that'll get your site penalized later. We've seen businesses completely wreck their Google presence by hiring the wrong people. It happens.

What actually works: having a site that loads fast and is set up correctly. Having content that's actually useful to people. Having other legitimate sites link to yours. None of this is secret. It's just work. Consistent work over time.

We'll look at where you're at, figure out what's helping and what's hurting, and put together a plan. We explain what we're doing. We're honest about what's realistic. You're probably not going to rank number one for everything. But we can get more people finding you than are finding you now.

Why We're Doing This

We live here. First Coast. This is our community. We use local businesses, we know people who run local businesses, we want those businesses to do well. When they do well, the whole area does better. More jobs, more options, money staying local.

When a restaurant owner pays thousands of dollars for a website that doesn't even show up in search results, that's bad. When a contractor buys a social media package that's mostly fake followers and bot engagement, that's bad. When someone gets monthly SEO reports full of charts and jargon that mean nothing, that's bad. And it keeps happening. All the time. To good people who are just trying to run their businesses.

These are real people. They're working hard, taking risks, trying to build something. Early mornings, late nights, all of it. They don't deserve to get ripped off by people who know they don't understand this stuff. It makes us angry, honestly. Watching someone get taken advantage of because they trusted the wrong company. Because they didn't know what questions to ask. Because this stuff is confusing and some people exploit that.

That's why we started this. Offer something different. Be the people you can actually trust with this stuff. Give you straight answers even when those answers aren't what you were hoping to hear. Do work that actually helps your business instead of just looking good in a portfolio.

That's it. That's the mission. Not complicated.

What We Don't Do

We don't take every project. If we're not right for what you need, we'll say so. If you'd be better off spending your money somewhere else, we'll tell you that too. We'd rather turn something down than do a bad job or take money for something we can't deliver.

We don't pretend to know everything. This stuff changes all the time. We stay current, we keep learning, and we're upfront when something is outside what we know.

We don't use jargon. You ask a question, you get an answer you can understand. If we're recommending something, we explain why.

We don't vanish. We're local. Same area code. When you need something, you can reach us.

Get in Touch

If any of this sounds good, reach out. We'll have a conversation. Not a sales pitch where we try to pressure you into signing something. Just a conversation about what you're dealing with and whether we can help.

Maybe you need a new site. Maybe your current one needs work. Maybe you're drowning in social media and don't have time for it anymore. Maybe you don't even know what you need but something's not working and you're not sure where to start.

All of that is fine. We can talk through it.

We're at thefirstcoastal.com. There's a contact form. Email works too. Phone if you prefer that. Whatever's easiest for you.

That's It

Starting a company is weird. Putting yourself out there is uncomfortable. We know most people reading this aren't going to reach out. Some will close the tab and forget about it. That's fine. That's how it goes.

But if you made it this far, thanks. We mean that.

We're The First Coastal. We help businesses figure out the online stuff.

We're just getting started.