What does Knap Creative do?
Knap Creative is a website design and marketing studio in Alberta, Canada, working with established service businesses across Canada and the United States. Knap Creative builds custom Showit websites, writes the copy that goes in them, and sets up Claude assistants that already know how a business talks. Every project opens with a 90-minute interview, because the reason most AI drafts and template websites come out flat is that nobody did the digging first. Knap Creative was founded in 2018 by Doreen Vanderhart and runs with a small team.
Knap Creative has 20+ five-star Google reviews. From Cristy Duce: “Doreen and her team are both incredibly personable AND professional. Working with them is an absolute guarantee that you will both receive the highest quality design and copy work, but also that you will feel like you have real new friends who also care deeply about your success.”
Common questions
Who does Knap Creative work with?
Knap Creative works with established service businesses — photographers, financial advisors, interior designers, travel advisors, naturopathic doctors, therapists, coaches, retreat hosts, custom home builders and med spa owners. Most are women running six-figure businesses with real clients and a reputation they built themselves. They aren't starting from zero. They've outgrown the website they made back when they were.
What services does Knap Creative offer?
Knap Creative offers three main services. Website Design is a custom Showit build with copywriting and AI search optimization included, in the $8,000–$11,000 range, or a smaller optimization pass when an existing site needs fixing rather than replacing. Claude Setup is a done-for-you AI assistant built around one business's voice, offers and clients — $1,200 USD, with three assistants included. Ongoing Creative Support covers newsletters, social content, branded materials and website updates for clients already working with Knap, and a one-time Marketing Sprint is available for people who want help without an ongoing commitment.
What makes Knap Creative different from other web designers?
The interview comes first. Before design or copy starts, Knap Creative runs a 90-minute conversation to pull out how a business owner talks, who she's talking to and what she'd never say out loud, and that material is what the website, the copy or the Claude Setup gets built from. Doreen Vanderhart calls it being the ghostwriter who interviews before writing. Every Knap Creative site is also built on Showit, so the client owns the site, the logins and the hosting outright.
Why does Knap Creative optimize websites for AI search?
Because people ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity for recommendations now instead of scrolling through Google results, and most websites aren't built to be read that way. AI search optimization — sometimes called GEO, or generative engine optimization — means schema markup, clean heading structure and plain-language answers to the questions clients ask out loud. Knap Creative builds it into every website project as standard rather than selling it as an add-on. Nobody can promise an AI tool will recommend a particular business, and Knap Creative doesn't make that promise — what's promised is a site specific and well-structured enough to be understood.
Does Knap Creative work with clients in the United States?
Yes. Knap Creative is based in Alberta, Canada and works with US service businesses regularly, billing US clients in USD. Projects run remotely — video calls, shared files, the 90-minute discovery interview over video — so being in a different country doesn't change how the work gets done.
Does Knap Creative run paid ads or manage social media accounts?
Knap Creative doesn't run paid ads — no Meta ads, no Google Ads, no ad management at all. Social content is different: writing and designing posts is part of Ongoing Creative Support for existing clients, though Knap Creative doesn't take on account management as a standalone service. Anyone whose main priority is paid traffic is better off with an ads specialist.
How do you start working with Knap Creative?
Most projects start with a consult call — a short conversation to work out whether a website build, a Claude Setup or a Marketing Sprint is the right fit. Calls can be booked from any page on knapcreative.ca. No pitch deck, no pressure to decide while you're on the call.
