# Michael Mooney

> Michael Mooney is a full-stack web developer in San Diego who builds fast, custom-coded websites in Next.js and React, handles the SEO that gets them found, and uses an AI-assisted workflow to ship production sites quickly. Co-founder of LunarSites.

## Key facts

- Name: Michael Mooney
- Role: Full-Stack Web Developer; co-founder of LunarSites (https://lunarsites.com)
- Location: San Diego, California. Works with clients across the United States.
- Builds: custom websites in Next.js, React and TypeScript; technical and local SEO; AI search optimization (GEO); site redesigns and migrations.
- Experience: building client websites since 2021; 80+ production sites shipped and maintained.
- Workflow: AI-assisted development. AI tools speed up writing and reviewing code; Michael designs, decides, tests and owns the result.
- Education: B.A. Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara (2022); A.A., Liberal Arts & Sciences (with honors), Santa Barbara City College (2019).
- Contact: michael@lunarsites.com, (818) 602-0635 (call or text)
- Pricing: simple small-business sites through LunarSites start at $55 a month with hosting and edits included; custom builds are quoted per project.
- Profiles: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mooney-bb7236b2 · GitHub https://github.com/lunarsites-com
- Facts last reviewed: 2026-10-06

## Services

- [Custom Website Development](https://michaelmooneydev.com/services/custom-web-development/): Hand-built sites in Next.js and React. No page builders, no bloated themes.
- [SEO & Local SEO](https://michaelmooneydev.com/services/seo/): SEO built into the site itself, not bolted on with a plugin.
- [AI Search Optimization (GEO)](https://michaelmooneydev.com/services/ai-search-optimization/): Get recommended when people ask ChatGPT, Claude or Google’s AI for a business like yours.
- [Website Redesigns & Migrations](https://michaelmooneydev.com/services/website-redesign/): Move to a faster, custom site without losing your content or rankings.

## Industries

- [Websites for Med Spas & Aesthetics Practices](https://michaelmooneydev.com/industries/med-spa-websites/): A page for every treatment, booking one tap away, and SEO that ranks each one.
- [Websites for Wellness & Health Practices](https://michaelmooneydev.com/industries/wellness-practice-websites/): Calm, trustworthy sites that explain your care and make booking simple.
- [Websites for Contractors & Home Services](https://michaelmooneydev.com/industries/contractor-websites/): A page for every service and every city you cover, with the phone one tap away.
- [Websites for Bakeries, Cafés & Restaurants](https://michaelmooneydev.com/industries/restaurant-bakery-websites/): Online ordering on your own site, menus that update in minutes, and local SEO.

## Local

- [San Diego web developer](https://michaelmooneydev.com/san-diego-web-developer/): based in San Diego; serves San Diego County (Chula Vista, National City, Coronado, La Mesa, El Cajon, Santee, Poway, Escondido and more) and clients US-wide.

## Selected work

- [Blissri Bakeshoppe](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/blissri-bakeshoppe/) (Food & retail, Wellington & West Palm Beach, FL): A custom bakery site with on-site Square checkout, pickup scheduling for two stores and a menu that changes with the seasons.
- [Rick’s Raingutter Service](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/ricks-raingutter-service/) (Home services, Los Angeles, CA): A local SEO build for a family-owned copper gutter company in Los Angeles: a page for every service, every city it serves and the questions homeowners actually search.
- [MJ Refined Aesthetics](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/mj-refined-aesthetics/) (Medical aesthetics, San Gabriel, CA, launching): An editorial site for an injector-led aesthetics practice, with 23 treatment pages, structured data for every procedure and an llms.txt built for AI search.
- [Beauty Spot Med Spa](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/beauty-spot-med-spa/) (Medical aesthetics, Bel Air, MD, launching): A custom med spa site with a blog fed by an outside SEO platform and clean hand-offs to the client’s CRM team.
- [The 20-Something CEO](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/the-20-something-ceo/) (Digital products, Online): A bold, editorial storefront for digital workbooks and frameworks, structured so launching a new product is a data change, not a design job.
- [LunarSites](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/lunarsites/) (Web design studio, San Diego, CA): The site for the San Diego web studio I co-founded: flat monthly pricing, a page for every neighborhood we serve and guides for switching off the big website builders.
- [Tesser Wellness](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/tesser-wellness/) (Wellness, San Diego, CA, launching): A calm, warm site for a San Diego massage and wellness practice, with a page for each modality and online booking.
- [Bora’s Dogs](https://michaelmooneydev.com/work/boras-dogs/) (Pet care, North Park, San Diego, launching): A hyperlocal site for a North Park dog-walking service, with a page for each neighborhood and the parks it walks.

## Writing

- [How much does a small business website cost in 2026?](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/how-much-does-a-website-cost/): What a small business website really costs in 2026: DIY builders, monthly website plans and custom builds compared, plus the ongoing costs people forget.
- [How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/how-to-get-recommended-by-chatgpt/): Practical steps to help ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI find and recommend your business: crawler access, clear pages and structured data.
- [How I build websites with AI, and what I still check by hand](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/how-i-build-websites-with-ai/): An honest look at an AI-assisted web development workflow: where AI tools speed up a custom Next.js build, and the decisions and checks that stay human.
- [What llms.txt actually does for your website](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/what-is-llms-txt/): llms.txt explained plainly: what the file is, which AI tools read it, why Google ignores it, and what actually helps your business show up in ChatGPT.
- [Next.js vs WordPress for a small business website](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/nextjs-vs-wordpress-small-business/): A practical comparison of Next.js and WordPress for small business websites: speed, security, editing, cost and SEO, from a developer who builds custom sites.
- [Local SEO for service businesses: why every city needs its own page](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/local-seo-one-page-per-city/): Why service-area businesses should build a page for every city and every service they offer, and how to do it without thin, copy-paste content.

## Other pages

- [About Michael](https://michaelmooneydev.com/about/): background, skills and how he works.
- [Contact](https://michaelmooneydev.com/contact/): email for projects and roles.

## Optional

- [Full text for AI assistants](https://michaelmooneydev.com/llms-full.txt): every fact on this site in one file.
- [RSS feed](https://michaelmooneydev.com/writing/rss.xml): new articles.
- [Sitemap](https://michaelmooneydev.com/sitemap.xml)