About

Twenty-five years of building websites.

RVA Digital is a small web design studio on East Main Street in downtown Richmond. The studio is new. The people behind it are not — we've been building websites for over twenty-five years, through every platform that was going to change everything and most of the ones that quietly didn't.

What twenty-five years actually buys you.

Not novelty. Most of what makes a small business website earn its keep was settled a long time ago: load fast, be findable, say plainly what you do, make the next step obvious, and don't build anything you'll be unable to change in two years.

What the experience buys is knowing which decisions matter and which ones don't. We have seen what happens in year three — when the plugin stops being maintained, when the person who knew the login leaves, when the platform changes its pricing and the site becomes a hostage. So we build on WordPress, we hand over administrator access on day one, and we keep an export of everything ready to give you. Those aren't generous policies. They're what two decades of watching the alternative teaches you.

We've seen it break

Every platform we build on, we've had to rescue a site from at some point. That informs what we say yes to.

We know what's optional

Most of what agencies bill for is process. We skip the parts that don't change the finished page.

We know when to hand off

Ongoing SEO, AEO and paid campaigns are a different discipline from building the asset. When you are ready for them, they go to our sister company, The Digital Hall.

Why the 72-hour model exists.

The honest version: small businesses don't stall on design, they stall on admin. A domain to choose and pay for, a host to pick, DNS records that don't behave, content that never gets written. Each step is small, and each one is where a project quietly dies.

So we removed the two biggest ones. You launch on an address we already own, and we draft the copy from a twenty-minute call instead of waiting months for you to send it. What's left is three days of building. When you want your own domain later, you move — and nothing you've built gets thrown away.

How the address works

How we work.

You own everything. Files, database, images and content, exported and handed over on request, at no charge, whenever you ask.
No lock-in. Thirty days' notice on the monthly plan, and we help you leave properly rather than making it difficult.
Prices are published. You can read them on the pricing page without talking to anyone first.
Administrator access on day one. Change your password and we lose access. That's the point.
Built on WordPress. The platform most designers already know, so you're never stuck with us specifically.
One round of revisions, properly. You correct the first pass, we make the changes, it goes live. Not an open-ended loop.

Who we build for.

Local businesses whose customer's next step is to call, come in, or order — barbers and salons, HVAC and plumbing crews, landscapers, food trucks and restaurants, therapists and photographers, boutiques and makers, contractors, trainers, nonprofits and churches.

We're not the right studio for a venture-backed product launch or a fifty-page corporate rebuild, and we'll say so on the first call rather than take the deposit.

See the work What it costs

Where we are.

1011 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia — the Ironfronts building downtown. We work with businesses across Richmond city, Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover, and out as far as Petersburg and Ashland. Most of the work happens over a call and email; we meet in person when it genuinely helps.