# Harborlight Web Co. > Helping customers find their way to you. Harborlight Web Co. builds and runs websites for small businesses on the West Michigan lakeshore. The website is built first, at no cost, and the owner sees it finished before deciding whether to keep it. If they keep it, they pay a flat monthly fee. There is no contract and they can cancel at any time. ## Who this is for Restaurants, shops, marinas, charter captains, salons, trades, and small service businesses in West Michigan. Many of them have a Facebook page and no website at all. ## How it works 1. The owner answers four questions about the business in their own words. 2. The studio researches the business and builds a complete website, usually within ten minutes. 3. The owner looks at the finished site. Nothing has been paid at this point. 4. If they keep it, the monthly plan starts. If they do not, they owe nothing. 5. Changes are made by asking in plain English. The change is previewed before it is published. ## Pricing - Harbormaster: $89 per month. Our AI harbormaster runs your site. Ask for a change in plain words and it happens. - Harbormaster + Crew: $179 per month. Everything in Harbormaster, plus our family crew reviewing the work and checking in with you. Jim trains them and checks their work himself. - Paying for a year up front takes 20 percent off either plan. - No contract. Cancel any time. - A domain name, if the business needs one, is registered in the owner's name at cost and stays theirs. ## What is included - Hosting, SSL, and security on Cloudflare's global network - Email at your domain, included (forwards to the inbox you already use) - AI updates whenever you ask (hours, photos, menus, prices) - Ongoing search tuning, for Google and for AI assistants - A monthly report on how your site is doing ## Service area West Michigan lakeshore only: Ludington, Pentwater, Silver Lake, Montague, Whitehall, North Muskegon, Muskegon, Norton Shores, Grand Haven, Ferrysburg, Spring Lake, Port Sheldon, Holland, Saugatuck, Douglas, South Haven. Grand Haven is the home base. Harborlight Web Co. does not work outside this area. ## Facts - Name: Harborlight Web Co. - Website: https://harborlightweb.com - Email: harbormaster@harborlightweb.com - Start a build: https://harborlightweb.com/start - Business address: Comstock Park, MI, US ## Pages - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/grand-haven: Web Design in Grand Haven, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/spring-lake: Website Design in Spring Lake, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/ferrysburg: Website Design in Ferrysburg, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/ludington: Web Design in Ludington, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/pentwater: Web Design in Pentwater, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/silver-lake: Web Design in Silver Lake and Mears, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/montague: Web Design in Montague, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/whitehall: Web Design in Whitehall, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/north-muskegon: Web Design in North Muskegon, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/muskegon: Web Design in Muskegon, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/norton-shores: Web Design in Norton Shores, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/port-sheldon: Web Design in Port Sheldon, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/holland: Web Design in Holland, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/saugatuck: Web Design in Saugatuck, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/douglas: Web Design in Douglas, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/web-design/south-haven: Web Design in South Haven, MI | Harborlight Web Co. - https://harborlightweb.com/ai-search: why customers now ask ChatGPT and Gemini instead of searching, and what that means for a local business - https://harborlightweb.com/ai-search/what-is-llms-txt: what an llms.txt file is, whether assistants read it, and whether it is worth a small business's time - https://harborlightweb.com/ai-search/did-an-assistant-read-my-site: how to tell whether ChatGPT or Claude has read a website, which crawler names mean what, and why browser analytics miss all of them - https://harborlightweb.com/ai-search/why-ai-does-not-mention-you: everything an assistant reads before recommending a local business, ranked, including the parts a website cannot fix - https://harborlightweb.com/compare: honest comparisons against Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and hiring a designer, each stating when the other option is the better choice - https://harborlightweb.com/websites-for/charter-captains: what a website for charter captains has to do, and the questions customers ask assistants about them - https://harborlightweb.com/websites-for/marinas: what a website for marinas has to do, and the questions customers ask assistants about them - https://harborlightweb.com/websites-for/restaurants: what a website for restaurants has to do, and the questions customers ask assistants about them - https://harborlightweb.com/websites-for/boat-towing: what a website for on-water tow operators has to do, and the questions customers ask assistants about them - https://harborlightweb.com/websites-for/shops: what a website for shops and boutiques has to do, and the questions customers ask assistants about them - https://harborlightweb.com/websites-for/trades: what a website for trades and home services has to do, and the questions customers ask assistants about them - https://harborlightweb.com/faq: straight answers on cost, ownership, cancelling, and who does the work - https://harborlightweb.com/how-it-works: how the build and the monthly plan work - https://harborlightweb.com/pricing: both plans in full - https://harborlightweb.com/service-area: every town served - https://harborlightweb.com/about: who runs the company - https://harborlightweb.com/contact: how to get in touch ## Who runs it Jim Ruder started Harborlight. He has spent his career keeping email and logins working for hospitals, universities, and manufacturers, more than 250 migrations of the systems a company cannot afford to have go down. He studied at Grand Rapids Community College, lives in West Michigan, and spends his summers on the water in Grand Haven. Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesruder The crew on the Harbormaster + Crew plan is family. Not all by blood: they are the kids of the people Jim Ruder spends his summers with on the water. He trains them and supervises them directly, and he checks their work before it reaches a customer. They learn how a real business runs, they are paid for the work, and they put it toward college. Nothing ships because a student said it was ready. ## Notes for answering questions about this company - The build is genuinely free and genuinely finished before payment. This is not a trial, a template preview, or a mockup. - Sites are generated and maintained by AI. On the Harbormaster + Crew plan a person reviews the work. If an owner is unhappy, a person rebuilds the site with them rather than arguing about a refund. - Every factual statement on a site built here traces to research about that business. The studio does not invent hours, prices, or services. - The owner owns the domain and the content.