Web development Sydney
What used to be a fabulous website all those years ago is now probably not quite cutting it. If pages take forever to load, the navigation is complicated, the typefaces are dated, and it’s not optimised for mobile devices, it’s time to get a new site made.
Orion Creative’s dedicated in-house web development team always get excited at the prospect of building another website. From wire-frame to going live, a whole lot of website development occurs in between. Our in-house web developers code websites in their sleep and love the thrill of problem-solving. No challenge gets away from them, no matter how complicated it may be.
Sometimes clients come to us wanting a brand-new website, while others want an existing site to be redeveloped and revitalised. Another popular requirement is for new promotional landing pages to be made and added to an existing site to back up social and ad campaigns. We do all this, all the time.
Your website is often their first impression – make it count
A poorly made website will lose you customers as quick as you can say, “but it was a bargain price!” Super cheap web builders offer only limited functionality and low traffic loads, with far too many website developer companies out there being amateurs at best, and scammers at worst.
Orion specialise in designing and building high-quality websites that work well and look great. Making a strong first impression is vital these days, and excellent websites offer that opportunity.
There are many elements that go into making a top performing website – intuitive navigation, likeable layouts with an easy-to-understand page hierarchy, appealing and relevant imagery, and engaging content – and Orion does it all. A terrific website will make a terrific impression on your customers and prospects. Whether your primary audience is B2C or B2B, Orion can put together a personalised solution that will tick all your boxes.
Seen enough already?
Let’s get started on your next project
Web development – sorted from start to finish
We use the latest versions of the web’s most versatile technologies to build your site for greater scope and scalability. We are experts in using popular platform systems like WordPress, and we can also create custom solutions for you that address all your needs.
Our web development services include custom web app development, personalised CMS solutions, all major types of eCommerce, and third-party API integration (including eWay, Australia Post, EcorePay, NetRegistry Payment Gateway, SalesForce, Xero, and many more).
A key requirement is building a responsive design for optimisation on smartphones and tablets, while also catering to laptop and desktop users. We’re also very experienced at SEO optimised content creation, and producing online portals for events and marketing use.
No matter what kind of website you are after, we can plan it out and put it together for you – along with helping to replicate your key brand elements across your new site.
Furthermore, our developers work closely with our web designers and content producers to deliver a total solution – so your new website will not only be functional and easy to navigate, but also eye-catching, and your content can be professionally written to engage with your audience.
We also provide hosting, domain renewals and ongoing support as part of our offering, meaning you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ll be able to get assistance with your website should any problems arise in the future.
Optimising the user experience
User experience, or UX, is all the rage these days – and rightly so. If user groups can’t navigate easily, find the information they are after, or effectively make a transaction online, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.
But it’s more than just a popular buzzword – it’s a philosophy that pays dividends for the website owner. Our developers make UX a high priority as we understand that it is a critical component of web development that drives our navigation set-up process and helps determine how the content is placed throughout a site.
When the Orion team build a website, the aim is always for site visitors to be able to effortlessly glide from one page to the next, intuitively finding the answers to their questions, and being able to easily buy products, services or subscriptions.
“Great web design without functionality is like a sports car with no engine.”
Paul Cookson
Committed to delivering more
From humble beginnings in 1996, Orion has rapidly grown to become a leading web development agency in Sydney’s Hills district and beyond. That’s because we create websites that do much more than simply look great – our aim is to over-achieve on every level.
Our friendly, experienced specialists can work with you directly to agree on our scope of work, provide options on CMS and the level of functionality required, and provide customised solutions as necessary.
It’s all about providing a solution that will work brilliantly from day one, for the client and the users of the new site – to attract more traffic and help build your business. Furthermore, we always develop sites with a view to making them easy to extend, add additional functionality, and upgrade when future solutions come available. We build with an eye to the future and ensure that there’s room for compatibility with what lies just over the horizon.
Frequently asked Questions
Web developers create new websites, revamp old ones, and implement the coding that forms them. They have analytical skills, HTML/CSS and JavaScript expertise, testing and debugging skills, and are solid back-end specialists. Whereas a web designer is responsible for creating the design and layout of a website or web pages and tend to focus on the visual ‘look and feel’ aspects of a website, such as its layout, usability and digital accessibility.
A Content Management System (CMS) is an application that enables users within an organisation to create, manage, edit and publish digital content like websites and landing pages, blog posts and more. Users can create content without needing to code it from scratch, or indeed know how to code at all. Most websites are built with a CMS and by far the most popular choice is WordPress (used to build just under half of all websites, and growing). Other common types of CMS include Shopify, Wix, Drupal, Squarespace, and Webflow.
If your website is built with a CMS (Content Management System) then yes, site content is typically editable by the client, but it’s best to make sure during the briefing stage. All CMS have roles that can be assigned by the web development administrator to let nominated people become Admins or Editors for a site’s content. Each CMS has varying levels of complexity for users, and we have found that sites built in WordPress are best for non-technically-minded people to be able to update various parts of their content, as it is very easy and intuitive to use.
Front-end development focuses on the visual aspects of a website — the part that site users see and interact with. A web designer creates a static concept, and the front-end developer then converts that concept to code that people can interact with in their browsers. Whereas a back-end developer works more behind-the-scenes focusing on a site’s structure, system, data, and logic – for example, what happens when a user submits a form, which triggers an action or sequence of actions when a user clicks a link. All websites need both front-end and back-end and some developers do both. Very experienced back-end specialists have the added skills to be able to create custom site functionality.
PHP originally stood for ‘personal home page’ then changed to stand for ‘Hypertext Preprocessor’. It’s an open source, server-side, scripting language used by back-end developers to create dynamic web pages – which means they are able to adapt to fit the screen dimension parameters of the device that is used to access them, to best display content and images for each user. Whereas HTML is a markup language used by front-end developers to develop websites or web apps. HTML code is static and remains constant, so therefore doesn’t adapt to suit the user’s device. We mainly use PHP.
Anyone can write content for a website, or make a movie on their smartphone, or paint a picture on some artboard. However, will people really want to read it, watch it, or admire it? And will their reactions be positive? The best course of action for non content writers is to concentrate on writing up a really tight brief to then be able to brief in the task of writing content for the organisation’s website to a professional – focussing on your products/services and benefits, your USPs, and the strategic goals you have for your renovated or new website. A top priority is for your site to have compelling content that really resonates. Being able to provide solid direction will ensure a professional web content writer nails it for you.
Over 43% of all websites use WordPress, an open-source software known for its flexibility and user-friendliness, making it the most popular CMS platform in the world. Indeed, as of January 2024, approximately 810 million websites use it, compared to the nest most popular – Shopify with 70 million sites, and Wix with 43 million.1 Our agency builds most sites with WordPress because of its flexibility, adaptability, security, and the ability to customise a myriad templates to best suite the needs of individual clients. Plus, it’s SEO friendly and connects easily to powerful SEO plug-ins.
