Web Design & Build
Apex Elite Security
A 13-page marketing site for a licensed Ontario security guard and patrol company, built to read as credible to the property managers and facility owners who actually hire security vendors.
Role
Web Designer & Developer
Team
Solo
Duration
2026
Tools
Figma Make, HTML/CSS
The Challenge
A licensed Ontario security company needed a site that would read as credible to the property managers who actually hire security vendors.
My Approach
No formal research phase. I worked from the brief and the audience, leading with the credentials property managers check first and segmenting content by property type.
The Result
13 pages shipped and live at apexelitesecurity.ca, handling quotes, contact, and hiring for the business today.
My Contribution
Solo project. I designed and built all 13 pages, wrote the copy, set up the forms, and added the structured data markup.
The Brief
- Commercial security buyers evaluate vendors on licensing, insurance, and vetting before anything else, so the site needed to answer those questions before a visitor had to ask
- Different audiences (retail, healthcare, education, events, residential/condo) each needed to see themselves reflected quickly, without digging
- Inquiries needed a direct path to a real reply, without requiring the client to manage a backend or pay for form infrastructure
Structure
- 13 pages: home, services, industries, about, students program, careers, quote, contact, FAQ, accessibility, privacy, terms, and a custom 404
- Dedicated Industries section covering retail & commercial, healthcare, educational institutions, events & private functions, and residential/condo
- A distinct Student & Institution Program page for discounted campus and school coverage
Why I made these calls
No formal research phase was run for this project. It went straight from brief to build. The reasoning below reflects the actual decisions made during that build, not a separate research study.
Lead With Trust Signals
The homepage states licensing under Ontario's Private Security and Investigative Services Act, insurance, and guard vetting immediately, since those are the exact things a property manager checks before they even ask.
Segment by Site Type
Rather than one generic services page, coverage is broken out by property type (retail, healthcare, education, events, residential), so each visitor sees language written for their situation.
Remove Friction From Contact
Quote, contact, and careers forms route directly to a working inbox with no backend to manage, so a real inquiry becomes a real conversation instead of getting lost. The forms are built to switch to a hosted form service with a single line of code once the client wants to remove the email-app step entirely.
Leave Regulatory Claims Blank Rather Than Guess
The PSISA business licence number and the commercial general liability coverage amount are left as clearly marked placeholders throughout the site rather than invented. A licence number is a regulatory credential and a coverage figure is a legal representation to clients. Property managers verify both, so guessing either would expose the business to real liability.
Structured Data for Local Search
Each page carries SecurityService schema markup (service area, contact, credentials) so search engines can surface the business correctly for local, credential-sensitive searches rather than generic web results.
Coverage Areas
- Security guard services, mobile patrol, and event security & escort
- Concierge, lobby security, and parking enforcement
- CCTV, access control, and physical security installations
What the research told me
There was no formal research phase, so these come from the brief and the audience, not a study.
Insight 01
Trust is the whole pitch
Property managers check licensing, insurance, and vetting before anything else, so those had to lead.
Insight 02
One audience, several contexts
Retail, healthcare, education, events, and residential each read the same service differently.
Insight 03
A guessed credential is a liability
A licence number or coverage figure is a legal representation to clients, not decorative copy.
Exploring the options
Decisions made during the build, since there was no separate design phase.
Considered
- One generic services page versus segmenting by property type
- Filling in plausible licence and insurance placeholders versus leaving them clearly blank
- A hosted form service versus routing forms straight to an inbox
Chosen
- Segmented by site type, so each visitor sees language written for their situation
- Placeholders left clearly marked rather than invented
- Forms to a working inbox now, with a one-line upgrade path to a form service later
Designing for everyone
Built for facility managers scanning fast on a phone, not designers.
What Was Built In
- Plain language throughout, with regulatory terms explained rather than assumed
- Structured data (schema.org SecurityService markup) so search engines and assistive tools can interpret the pages correctly
- Forms that work with no backend, so a real inquiry becomes a real conversation instead of failing silently
What came out of it
All 13 pages shipped and are live at apexelitesecurity.ca. Not a mockup, an actual working site the business uses today for quotes, contact, and hiring.
What I learned
Building a site with no research phase forced a different kind of discipline. Every decision had to be defensible on its own, since there wasn't a study to point back to. The credential placeholders ended up being the clearest lesson: it would have been easy to just fill in a plausible-looking licence number and move on, but a security company's whole pitch is trustworthiness, so guessing wasn't really an option.
Documents & Links
No external design file or research document exists for this project. It was built directly in code, with no separate Figma or research phase.