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By Tim Miner, founder of Next Drop Design. I build websites for builders, architects, interior designers and landscape architects across the country.
A design-build firm sells something a separate architect and builder can't: one team, one contract and one point of responsibility from the first sketch to the final walkthrough.
Most design-build websites don't show it. They show finished homes, which look the same whether one firm built them or three. The integrated process, the thing the client is actually buying, is left to the sales meeting.
This article covers how a luxury design-build firm can show that process on its website.
A traditional builder is usually recommended by an architect. A design-build firm is often the first call, which means no one is vouching for you before the client arrives. Demand comes from your reputation: press, social media, past clients and homes people drive past.
That puts more weight on the website. The site isn't confirming someone else's recommendation. It's making the case from scratch.
A process page is the most important page on a design-build site. Walk through each phase in plain terms:
For each phase, say what the client receives and what they decide. The point to make, again and again, is that design and construction are talking to each other the whole way through.
Each project page should tell the story of one home from start to finish. What the client asked for, how the design developed, a decision that was made because the builder was in the room during design, and how it turned out.
Include early sketches or renderings beside the finished photos where you can. Nothing shows the integrated model better than the drawing and the house side by side. (Project storytelling)
A design-build client is hiring people, not a logo. Show your designers, project managers and superintendents, and link each one to the homes they worked on. In our 2026 Benchmark of 154 luxury residential firms, 63% didn't show their team with the projects they delivered. (Team credibility showcase)
If you bring in outside specialists, such as an interior designer, landscape architect or structural engineer, credit them too. It shows the client the full team, and gives those partners a reason to share your work.
Because design-build demand comes from the brand, your social media and your website should tell the same story. The projects, team and process pages give you material for months of posts, and every post links back to a page that makes the case in full.
We build process pages, project pages and team pages for design-build firms, and write the content that feeds social media from the same projects. Website builds start at $4,000. Content Creation starts at $750 a month, and Studio Content ($2,500 on a 6-month retainer) plans and publishes everything for you. See Web Design or see Content Creation
A process page that explains each phase and how design and pricing run together, project pages that show each home from first design to finished build, and team pages that connect your people to their projects.
A builder's site often confirms an architect's recommendation. A design-build site usually has to make the case on its own, so the process carries more of the weight.
Where you can, yes. The drawing and the finished home side by side show the integrated model better than any description.
Let's talk about your projects, your partners, and the content that will help your next referral decide to call.
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