Portland Web Design

Let Gard’s web team guide you every step of the way with our expert website strategy, design and development

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The Hub of Truth

Websites are powerful communication tools that advance your goals and strategies. They establish strong brands and serve as the hub of truth about your organization, even with active presence on other digital channels.
A woman in a bright, modern office browses a website on her desktop computer.

We Help You Engage Your Audiences

At Gard, we build award-winning websites, develop digital campaigns and manage social media to help clients communicate online. We launch successful web design and digital solutions for national clients in healthcare, energy, government, philanthropy, professional services and more.

We bring to each project a sophisticated understanding of audiences and user experience (UX) design, as well as storytelling, content creation, SEO and SEM, and enterprise-level WordPress development. We thrive on complexity and know how to present nuanced information to the right audiences using human-centered design principles.

The process we engage our clients in is collaborative and rooted in strategy. The result is an online presence that makes our clients proud and drives engagement from their audiences.

Streamlined, Audience-Focused Web Design

We’re experts in redesigning websites for large organizations, and we create small niche sites, too. Whether your site has become unwieldy, grown without a plan, or you’re just starting out, we can help.

We’re User Experience (UX) Design Experts

We simplify the complex, creating clean, intuitive websites that engage audiences and are easy to maintain and scale as your organization grows.

We Offer Comprehensive Digital Services

Our SEO, SEM, web analytics, user research, usability testing, video production, social media strategy, and media buying expertise allows us to make holistic and strategic recommendations for your website.

We Use Leading-Edge Technology

We specialize in custom, open-source web development for projects ranging from enterprise-level to microsites. We prioritize technical excellence and never shoehorn a website into a pre-made template.

Our Web and Digital Services
Online Presence Evaluation
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  • Website audits
  • Cross-channel audits
  • Google Analytics audits
Research and Strategy
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  • Qualitative and quantitative user research
  • Personas and journey maps
  • Information architecture and user flows
Design and Prototyping
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  • User Experience wireframes
  • Visual design prototypes
  • Responsive (mobile) design
Content
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  • Copywriting and copyediting
  • Content strategy and style guides
  • Content governance planning
Development
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  • WordPress development
  • API integration
  • Custom map building
Testing and Training
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  • Usability testing
  • Accessibility testing
  • Training and user manuals
Website maintenance
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  • Website technical maintenance
  • Website content management
  • Ongoing training
SEO and SEM
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  • Social media strategy
  • Digital advertising
  • SEO and SEM campaigns
Recent Website Design and Development Projects

The Gard team was top-notch. They helped us understand how ineffective our old division websites were, and how – with their help – we could streamline them into one website that was much more user friendly.

Ellen Klem, Director of Consumer Outreach and Education, Oregon Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General

We’re very proud of our website rebuild, and Gard was an outstanding partner in the process from start to finish. They were attentive, knowledgeable about web design and our priorities, and worked tremendously hard to keep us on schedule for a successful launch.

Eric Chambers, VP of Strategy and Outreach at OBRC

Gard’s iterative process kept our staff engaged and informed, and they responded to all problems that arose. They clearly understood what it meant to work with a government/non-profit client. Their approach made us confident that we would wind up with a superior end product.

Greg Martin, Director of Communications and Public Policy, Acumentra Health

Gard was upfront and proactive when it came to solving problems. They anticipated and identified potential issues ahead of time. They were also willing to be an ongoing resource as solutions unfolded. The web design process was particularly impressive because we put them on such a tight timeline, and with their excellent project management system in place they kept the process to schedule.

Monica Anderson, President, BHEGroup Engineers

The new site is a vast improvement on the previous site. It’s a very workable, sustainable site that has met all our needs and is easily administered through WordPress. The site is much easier for our visitors to use, and is more informative than most similar sites in our industry.

Greg Martin, Director of Communications and Public Policy, Acumentra Health

Gard redesigned separate websites for our hospital, foundation, and health insurance plan. We received great customer service from Gard. They were always very quick to respond. Our teams and their teams work very well together. It’s been a very collaborative arrangement.

Gerry Ewing, Director of Corporate Communications, Tuality Healthcare

One of the best things about the experience for us was the customer service. Gard’s high level of advance planning (e.g., conducting a focus group to identify critical user needs) and the structures they put in place to facilitate tracking and resolution of technical issues, resulted in seamless communication.

Greg Martin, Director of Communications and Public Policy, Acumentra Health

    FAQs

    Open all
    • icon of a calendar.
      How long does a website take to plan, design and build?

      That depends on several factors, such as scale, complexity, technical integrations and more. A small site can take a few short weeks if the goals and content are clear at the start. A large, complex site with hundreds of pages and multiple integrations can take several months.

    • icon of a dollar sign.
      How much does a website cost?

      Like timing, the cost depends on the scale of the site and the types of services. Often the discovery and planning process reveals beneficial functionality or strategies that you may not have initially considered, and it can also reveal efficiencies that were not initially apparent.

    • icon of a stacked inbox.
      What’s Gard’s project management process?

      We excel in managing projects with grace and skill. Web projects can be particularly complex, with many moving parts. To keep projects moving forward to launch on time and on budget, we pair creative and technical leads with a strong project manager who ensures that your standards, strategy, deadlines and budgets are adhered to at every step. We use enterprise-level project management software to ensure no details get lost in the process.

    • icon of a terminal input.
      What is Gard’s technology platform of choice?

      We build sites in WordPress on a trusted, highly secure host. This open-source solution is extremely flexible, broadly supported, and its popularity and ease of use will enable your organization to remain independent of your vendor. Additionally, we ensure all site content is fully accessible and that ADA-compliant features are in place. All our sites are built using standards-compliant code, with up-to-date HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and we follow best practices for SEO optimization.

    • icon of a repeating cycle.
      How easy will it be for our organization to maintain our site?

      We get to know your business workflow and will make sure the content management system (CMS) we design fits your needs. We consider site admins to be an important audience we’re designing for, and we customize each site’s CMS to make it easy for your staff to maintain. And if you don’t have time to maintain it, we are happy to do that for you!

    • icon of a ticket.
      Does Gard use a ticket system to manage requests for help?

      We don’t use a ticket system, and a dedicated account manager will be your point person during the site build and after it’s launched. We are highly responsive and happy to help with the even the smallest question or edit request.

    • icon of two people.
      Does Gard farm work out to offshore staff?

      We do not. All work is done by our Portland-based team of seasoned professionals, who have the wisdom and experience do get your website done right the first time, with a transparent process and no surprises.

    Need help with your own web project?

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