The Sitemap
& Pricing Playbook
How we map a website, architect the right sitemap, and price every build — integrations and custom functions included — the Uprise way, for the Australian market.
One repeatable system from enquiry to quote
Mapping and pricing currently lives in a few people's heads. This turns it into a process anyone can follow — so every proposal is consistent, defensible, and profitable, and matches the quality of the proposals we already send.
Map it the same way
A shared discovery process so we never miss scope and never quote blind.
Architect on purpose
Sitemaps built around the client's goal and the user's intent — modelled on our real builds.
Price with evidence
Australian market data plus a clear model for pages, integrations, and custom work.
Worked examples are our own live projects: Next Generation Taekwondo ($13k), Arise Solar ($24k + GST), and Millwater Tyrrell Law.
Anatomy of an Uprise proposal
Every proposal we send follows the same spine. Learn the order — it walks the client from problem to signature.
Introduction
Conversion-led positioning and the founder's framing of the goal.
Problem with current approach
The diagnosis. Name the gap costing them leads or rankings.
Project scope & sitemap
The visual sitemap — the blueprint of the build.
Detailed sitemap & objectives
Page-by-page purpose, page counts, and SEO hierarchy.
Lead form & enquiry flow
What the form captures and where each submission goes.
Automation & migration
Dual webhook / CRM, plus 301 redirects and content migration.
What's included
Standard inclusions and optional add-ons (hosting from $35/mo).
Timeline & recent work
6–8 week schedule and proof from past builds.
Investment & sign-off
Cost, 50/50 terms, scope protection, and the signature block.
Behind every proposal, the same method
Never skip a phase. A weak map produces a weak quote.
Map
Understand the business, the customer, and the one action the site must drive.
Architect
Turn that into a sitemap: pages, hierarchy, and the job of each page.
Price
Cost the build by tier and page count against real AU market rates.
Quote
Add integrations and custom functions as separate, defensible line items.
Map the website
You can't architect or price what you don't understand. Mapping is structured listening — leave the call knowing exactly what the site has to do.
The questions to ask on every call
- Q1What does the business do, and who is the ideal customer? Sets the language and structure of the whole site.
- Q2What is the #1 action a visitor should take? Request a quote, book a consultation, book a free trial. The sitemap is built around it.
- Q3What are the core services or products? Each usually becomes its own SEO landing page.
- Q4How many locations / how many product variants? Multi-location and product-size pages mean templates, priced per instance.
- Q5What tools or CRM are they on? GHL, existing CRM, finance providers, Stripe — every integration is scope.
- Q6New build or redesign? Redesign needs an audit of existing URLs, content, and rankings to protect.
- Q7Where does their traffic come from? Google Ads, Meta, or organic changes whether we need no-nav ad landing pages.
- Q8Content: ready or do we write it? Copywriting and migration are real line items, not freebies.
Lead with the problem you found
Our strongest proposals open by naming the gap that's costing the client money. The sitemap then becomes the fix. Two real diagnoses:
Intent mismatch
All Google Ads — residential, commercial, battery — pointed at one homepage converting at 11%. The fix: a dedicated, intent-matched landing page per product, lifting toward the 15%+ benchmark.
Invisible to Google
Of 198 URLs Google discovered, 116 (59%) weren't indexed — Squarespace junk wasting crawl budget. The fix: a clean 70-page WordPress structure with full indexation control.
The pattern: traffic exists, but architecture wastes it. Diagnose the architecture problem and the whole proposal writes itself.
Turn answers into raw material
Content inventory
What exists
For a redesign, list every current URL. Decide: keep, merge, redirect, or kill. Millwater's 116 unindexed pages were assessed and migrated, consolidated, or discarded.
What's needed
List pages they need but don't have. Arise needed a page per system size; Millwater needed Commercial Law grown from 1 to 10 pages.
User journeys
The primary path
Trace the click path to the #1 action. Home → Service → Request a Quote / Book a Consultation. Every step must be effortless.
Secondary paths
Existing customers (Make a Payment), job seekers (Careers), finance shoppers (Humm / Latitude). Each may justify its own page.
Output of Phase 1: a one-page brief — business goal, primary conversion, service/location list, tools to integrate, content status. That brief is what you architect from.
Design the sitemap
The sitemap is the blueprint of the build and the basis of the quote. Get the structure right and design, SEO, and pricing all fall into place.
Eight rules for a sitemap that works
- Group by user intentOrganise around what people look for, not the company's org chart.
- 5–7 top-level itemsA tight primary nav. Everything else nests underneath.
- 3-click ruleAny page reachable within three clicks of home.
- Max 3 levels deepParent → child → grandchild, no deeper.
- One job per pageEach page has a single purpose and one primary CTA.
- One page per keywordA page per core service, location, or product size for SEO.
- Plain, recognisable names"Pricing", "Book a Consultation" — label by what users expect.
- Design for the conversionThe primary action reachable from every page.
Multi-location, single conversion
Five Adelaide studios, one dominant action: Book a Free Trial. Scope covered the full website, a WooCommerce online store, the automated free-trial funnel, and CRM automation.
Real top level: Programs (Kids/Junior, Teen/Adult, Specialised) · Locations (Ingle Farm, Norwood, Hollywood Plaza, Craigmore, Welland Plaza) · About Us · Online Store (WooCommerce) · Careers · Contact · Book a Free Trial · Paid Ads Landing Pages (no-nav) · Legal & Utility. Location pages are one template × 5 instances.
Intent-led product architecture
A page per product and per system size, so every ad lands on a matched page. The whole structure funnels to one action: Request a Quote.
Real top level: Residential (6.6/10.3/13.2/20kW) · Commercial (30/50/100kW) · Solar Battery · Smart EV Charger · Solar Services · Energy Comparison · Finance (Humm/Latitude) · Locations (Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Sydney) · Request a Quote. Plus no-nav ad landing pages built off these for Google & Meta.
SEO-led depth, 70 clean pages
A law firm where the architecture was the product. We replaced a 65-page Squarespace site (59% unindexed) with 70 strategic WordPress pages — every page with a defined purpose, zero junk.
Family Law · 18
Core Services, Protection Orders, Agreements & Process, Information — under a clean /services/family-law/ hierarchy that protects existing SEO equity.
Commercial Law · 10
Grown from 1 page to a full section: Buying/Selling a Business, Structuring, Litigation, Corporations, Property, Leasing, Insolvency.
Conveyancing · 8
Restructured under /services/conveyancing/ with new Residential and Commercial category pages.
Wills & Estates · 3 | Criminal · 1
Core pages with Testamentary Trusts and Powers of Attorney sub-pages.
Our Team · 6 | Resources · 10
Profiles per lawyer under /team/; consolidated guides and flowcharts under /resources/.
Blog · 7 | Utility · 3 | Legal · 2
Articles moved /resources/ → /blog/; Pricing, Contact, Book a Consultation, plus legal pages.
The lesson: for service firms, depth is the value. One page per practice area and sub-service is what makes the firm findable. Use this as the model for any multi-service business.
Design the lead form, not just the page
Every Uprise sitemap ends in a structured enquiry flow. Capture the right fields up front, then route the submission. This is a slide in the proposal — and a line item in the quote.
Step 1 · What the form captures
Name & contact · interest / area (e.g. system type, or area of law) · property or matter type · state / location for eligibility or routing. Just enough to qualify — no more.
Step 2 · On submission
Lead routed to the right person (sales team or specific lawyer) · instant email confirmation to the enquirer · team follows up within the agreed timeframe.
Qualifier fields are what make the form worth quoting. "Add a contact form" is free; "a routed, multi-field lead qualifier wired to your CRM" is a paid custom function.
Get this right before you price
✓ A strong sitemap
- Mirrors how customers describe their own needs
- One obvious primary action, repeated everywhere
- Separate page per service, location, or product size
- Clean URL hierarchy that protects or builds SEO
- Flags every custom function as a distinct line item
✕ Red flags to avoid
- Nav with 10+ items and no hierarchy
- Insider jargon as page names
- One "Services" page instead of SEO pages
- Platform junk (auto-generated URLs) left to waste crawl budget
- Hidden scope: a "simple form" that's actually a CRM integration
The last red flag is the expensive one. A vague sitemap is how projects get under-quoted — name every custom function now so it lands in the price.
Price the website
Price the structure, not a feeling. With the sitemap done, the build cost is mostly page count, design depth, and complexity — benchmarked to the Australian market.
What the AU market pays in 2026
Know the going rate so we sit confidently in the professional band — not racing DIY builders to the bottom.
| Segment | Typical range (AUD, ex GST) | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| DIY / template builder | $200 – $1,500 / yr | Wix / Squarespace self-serve |
| Freelancer / basic site | $1,500 – $5,000 | Sole traders, simple brochure sites |
| Small-business sweet spot | $5,000 – $8,000 | 5–10 page professional site |
| Agency custom build | $8,000 – $20,000 | Conversion-focused, custom design + SEO |
| eCommerce / complex / heavy automation | $8,000 – $25,000+ | Stores, portals, CRM integrations |
| Enterprise | $25,000 – $150,000+ | Large custom platforms |
The Uprise tiers
Place the project in a tier from the sitemap, then add integrations and custom work on top (Phase 4). Our real projects ladder up cleanly.
- Template-led custom design
- Core pages + contact form
- Mobile + basic SEO
- Sole traders, single service
- Fully custom UX/UI
- Service + location templates
- One custom function (e.g. booking form)
- SEO foundations + copy support
- Multi-product or multi-location
- CRM + automation (dual webhook)
- Ad landing pages, migration
- Advanced SEO / indexation control
Custom functionality is what pushes a project up a tier — which is exactly why it's quoted separately, never absorbed.
$13,000 + GST — Business tier
The full website, a WooCommerce online store, the automated free-trial funnel, and CRM automation — quoted as two clean lines the client can read at a glance.
The build line
Web build, custom design, multi-location templates, the automated free-trial funnel and a simple WooCommerce store — bundled as one figure.
The automation line
CRM & automation broken out on its own: the dual-webhook wiring to the existing CRM and GoHighLevel. Custom work gets its own number.
The real investment summary
Two lines, not ten. The client sees a clean build cost and a clear automation cost — and the automation line is exactly the kind of custom function we always separate out.
This is the actual proposal breakdown. The pattern to copy: bundle the website work into one figure, but always isolate CRM/automation so its value stays visible and defensible.
Open the full NGTKD proposal ↗$24,000 + GST — Premium tier
A bundled, outcome-priced proposal. The number isn't about page count — it's about the conversion machine: intent-matched ad pages, a quote funnel, and dual-webhook automation.
Priced as one figure
The proposal lists every component as "included" under a single $24k + GST total — selling the outcome (more qualified leads), not a line-by-line menu.
Terms
50% deposit to commence, 50% on final delivery before launch. Valid 14 days.
What the $24k bundles
NGTKD ($13k) vs Arise ($24k) is the whole lesson: same agency, double the price — because automation, ad architecture, and migration are real scope. Quote them, and the premium is obvious.
Pricing an e-commerce build
A store is a different animal to a brochure site — products, payments, tax, shipping, and checkout each need setup and design. Price it in its own band, never as a "few extra pages".
| Store tier | AUD, ex GST |
|---|---|
| Starter store simple catalogue, template theme | $3,000 – $8,000 |
| Small / mid store custom theme, real product setup | $9,000 – $15,000 |
| Large store filtering, upsells, integrations | $20,000 – $40,000+ |
| Custom platform B2B, marketplace, multi-store | $80,000+ |
WooCommerce vs Shopify
WooCommerce: full ownership, lower monthly cost, but plugin & update management is a real ongoing cost — best when they want control or already run WordPress. Shopify: hosting bundled, faster to launch, but monthly plan + a card fee on every sale.
What drives the price
Number of products · custom vs template theme · product import / migration · payment gateways · shipping & GST rules · filtering, search & upsells · email/CRM integration.
Implementation quality matters more than the platform. Quote the work, not the logo — a clean Shopify theme build and a custom WooCommerce store can cost the same.
The e-commerce proposal scope
Modelled on our NewFLo water-filtration store. Every line below is something the client assumes is "included" — so name each one, or it eats your margin.
Catalogue setup
Product templates, categories, variants, images, and copy. Price per product band (e.g. up to 25 / 50 / 100) — bulk import is its own line.
Payments & checkout
Gateway (Stripe / PayPal / Shopify Payments), cart, a high-converting checkout, and abandoned-cart recovery.
Shipping & tax
Shipping zones & rates, GST handling, and any courier or fulfilment integration.
Migration & redirects
Moving products, orders, and content from the old store with 301s — protects rankings. A poor migration can cost 60% of organic traffic.
Email & CRM
Klaviyo / Mailchimp or GHL flows: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase. Dual-webhook to their CRM where relevant.
Post-launch & recurring
Always state ongoing costs: platform plan, transaction fees (1.75–2.9%), and maintenance ($600–$3,600/yr) — and offer a care retainer.
Golden rule for stores: the upfront build is one number, but transaction fees and maintenance are recurring — spell them out so the client owns them and there's no surprise after launch.
Quote integrations
& custom functions
This is where margin is won or lost. Anything beyond standard pages — forms, CRMs, automations, migrations — is scoped and priced as its own line item.
How to price anything custom
Every integration follows the same formula. Use it and you'll never under-quote a "quick" feature again.
1 · Estimate build hours
Break the feature into setup, configuration, connection, and testing. Most "small" integrations are a full day or more.
2 · Pass through licences
GHL, Stripe fees, premium plugins are the client's ongoing cost, stated clearly — not absorbed in our fee.
3 · Add a QA buffer
Integrations break in edge cases. Build in 15–20% for testing across devices and real data.
4 · Offer ongoing management
CRMs and automations need maintenance. A monthly retainer turns a one-off into recurring revenue.
Integration & custom function starting points
| Item | Setup (AUD, ex GST) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard contact form | Included | Part of base build |
| Custom multi-field lead / booking form | $800 – $2,000 | Qualifiers, validation, routing, notifications |
| GHL integration & setup | $1,500 – $3,500 | + client's GHL subscription |
| Dual webhook (existing CRM + GHL) | $1,000 – $2,500 | Zero-disruption automation upgrade |
| No-nav ad landing page | $400 – $900 each | Google / Meta, conversion-only |
| Payment gateway (Stripe/PayPal) | $400 – $900 | + transaction fees to client |
| Service / location / product-size page | $300 – $600 each | Templated, priced per instance |
| Content & blog migration + 301 redirects | $500 – $2,500 | Protects rankings on a redesign |
| Custom API / webhook | From $1,000 | Hourly beyond defined scope |
Internal starting points to adjust per scope — not a public price list. Always anchor to hours, then sense-check against this menu.
Terms that keep a fixed price profitable
A good number gets eaten by scope creep without terms. These come straight from our proposals — apply them every time.
Payment
50% deposit to commence, 50% on final delivery before launch. Proposal valid 14 days.
Sign-off gates
Lock each phase at sign-off: Copy & Strategy → Design → Final review. Once locked, that phase is done.
Out-of-scope rate
Changes after sign-off — copy rewrites, new pages, layout changes, new features, pages beyond the agreed count — are billed at $100/hr.
Client responsibilities
Client responds to feedback within 5 business days to stay on the 6–8 week schedule.
Define "the agreed scope in this document" explicitly. Everything in the sitemap and inclusions is in; everything else is a new line item or the hourly rate.
Paste-ready sitemap generator
Fill in the brackets from your Phase 1 brief, paste into your AI tool, and it returns a sitemap, page objectives, and the custom functions to quote.
ROLE: You are an information architect for Uprise Digital, an Australian web design agency.
TASK: From the business details below, produce a recommended website sitemap and a scope list we can quote from.
BUSINESS DETAILS
- Business name: [ ]
- Industry / what they do: [ ]
- Ideal customer: [ ]
- #1 action a visitor should take (primary conversion): [ ]
- Core services / products (and any size/variant tiers): [ ]
- Number of physical locations: [ ]
- Tools / CRM in use (e.g. GHL, existing CRM, Stripe): [ ]
- New build or redesign? If redesign, list current pages + any SEO issues: [ ]
- Main traffic source (Google Ads / Meta / organic): [ ]
- Target SEO keywords / service areas: [ ]
- Content status (ready / we write it): [ ]
DELIVER
1. Top-level navigation: max 5-7 items, grouped by user intent.
2. Full sitemap as an indented tree (parent > child), max 3 levels deep.
3. For each page: its single job + primary CTA.
4. A SCOPE LIST flagging every page or feature needing custom
functionality (lead/booking form, CRM/GHL, dual webhook, store,
ad landing pages, migration) as a separate quote line item.
5. SEO landing pages: one per core service, location, and product size.
6. Anything missing this type of business usually needs.
RULES
- Group by what users look for, not the company's org chart.
- Every page reachable within 3 clicks of home.
- Plain, recognisable page names. Clean URL hierarchy.
- Do not invent services that weren't provided - ask if unclear.The one-pager to keep open
① Place the tier
Starter $4–6.5k (1–5 pp) · Business $7–13k (6–12 pp) · Premium $13–25k+ (complex). Use the page count from your sitemap.
② Count templated pages
Locations, services, product sizes are templated. Build once, charge per instance ($300–$600 each).
③ Line-item every custom function
Lead form, GHL, dual webhook, store, ad pages, migration — never bundle into "a form".
④ Price integrations by hours
(hours × $150) + licence pass-through + 15–20% QA buffer. Offer a retainer.
⑤ Protect the scope
50/50 terms, 14-day validity, sign-off gates, $100/hr for anything outside this document.
⑥ Sense-check the market
AU professional sites sit $5–25k. NGTKD $13k, Arise $24k — know where yours lands and why.
Golden rule: if it isn't on the sitemap and in a line item, it isn't in the quote — and it shouldn't be in the build.
From enquiry to quote in four moves
Map
Run discovery, diagnose the architecture problem, find the one conversion.
Architect
Build a sitemap grouped by intent — tight nav, 3 clicks, one job per page.
Price
Place the tier, count pages, benchmark to the AU market.
Quote
Add integrations and custom functions as separate, defensible items.
Map it. Architect it. Price it. Quote it. Every time.