Web design in Broadstairs, where traditional still works
More calls and enquiries, a website that makes you look the part, and none of the technical side to worry about.
Broadstairs never needed reinventing. It trades on being exactly what it always was, and your website should back that up rather than fight it.
162 reviews across four sites, rated 5.0 on Google and WixGet your site online for only £199, £99 setup and your first month, then from £100 a month. 12‑month minimum. No VAT to add. SEO kept up every month.Live in as little as 2 weeks200+ projects10+ years building websitesWix Legend Partner
Local knowledge
What a website has to do for Broadstairs customers
Broadstairs is the Thanet town that did not change. While Margate reinvented itself and Ramsgate quietly grew a food scene, Broadstairs carried on being a traditional English seaside town, and did rather well out of it. Viking Bay, the Dickens connection, Folk Week and a small independent high street still bring people back year after year.
That continuity is the commercial asset, and it is easy to undervalue. Broadstairs visitors are frequently returning families who came as children, and second-home owners who have been coming for decades. They are not looking for novelty. They are checking that the place they remember is still there and still open.
Which changes what a website has to do. A gastro-modern rebrand can actively lose you trade here, where a warm, clear, well-photographed site that says I am still here, still family run, still open on bank holidays does far better. Confidence in what you already are beats trying to look like somewhere else.
The trade-off is a short, sharp season and an older, more affluent resident base the rest of the year. Businesses that survive here usually serve both, and the ones doing it best make it obvious on the site which months are which, rather than leaving visitors to guess whether anything is open in November.
- Bank holiday and Folk Week opening hours
- Naming St Peters, Kingsgate and Reading Street
- Photography of the bay and the premises
- Booking that suits families planning ahead
- Clear winter hours, visitors do ask
- Reviews from returning customers shown
What it costs
What a Broadstairs website costs
Get your site online for only £199
£99 setup and your first month, then from £100 a month. 12‑month minimum. No VAT to add. SEO kept up every month.
Custom design, hosting, SEO and small changes done for you within 2 working days, in one price.
From £800
Plus £25 a month hosting, rolling, 30 days' notice.
Taking bookings or payments through the site? That is from £150 a month on the monthly plan (card fees paid by you), or from £1,000 bought outright, plus £25 a month hosting.
162 reviews
Rated 5.0 on Google. Every one left by a real client on Google, Wix, Facebook or another public review site, where you can read them for yourself.
“Owen was helpful throughout the process and was able to make any changes we required quickly to get to the desired result.”
My work
A few sites I've built
Picked from all my projects, so not only from Broadstairs. Each one has its own page with the whole story.
See all the work
What I do
What I build for Broadstairs businesses
A website that brings in work, and help getting it found on Google.
Web Design
A custom designed site for your Broadstairs business that looks professional, is fast on phones and makes it easy for customers to call. Built properly and looked after for you.
I built on Wix for years, until its limits kept getting in the way, so I now build in code, and your site can still come with an editor so you can change it yourself. I still fix Wix sites, and build new ones on Wix if that is what you want.
SEO
Getting that site found when local people search on Google and on Google Maps.
Included in every monthly plan. For a site bought outright or one you already have, Advanced SEO is from £300, one off. What SEO includes
Who this is for
The Broadstairs businesses I build for
Seaside Hospitality
Guest houses, tearooms, restaurants and ice cream shops around Viking Bay and the harbour. Serving returning families who book ahead, so photography, availability and honest opening hours do nearly all the work.
Independent High Street Retail
Independent shops, galleries and gift shops along the High Street and Albion Street. Competing with online rather than with each other, and winning on being genuinely worth the walk down the hill from the station.
Trades & Resident Services
Builders, gardeners, care services and trades serving the resident population, which skews older and more affluent than elsewhere in Thanet. Clarity and reassurance matter more than speed for this group.
Common problems
What I see missing on Broadstairs websites
Rebranding away from the appeal
Broadstairs trades on continuity, and a site that scrubs off the traditional character can lose the returning customers who were your most reliable trade. Modernise the presentation, not the personality.
Nothing about winter
Visitors genuinely do not know whether you are open in November, and if the site does not say, a good number simply assume you are not and never bother to check again the following year.
No photographs of the place
Sites with no pictures of the bay, the premises or the town. In a place people visit specifically for how it looks and feels, that is the easiest and cheapest thing on this list to fix properly.
Folk Week and bank holidays left off
Folk Week and the bank holidays are when visitors most need to know whether you are open, booked up or on different hours. A site that says nothing about them leaves people to guess.
Not sure how yours measures up? Tell me about it and I'll look at it with you
Broadstairs web design questions
Do you work with Broadstairs businesses?
Yes. I'm in Gillingham, about an hour along the A299, and the distance does not change the price. Most of it runs remotely, and I'll come over when meeting in person genuinely helps.
Our business is old fashioned and that's the point. Will a new site ruin it?
Not if it's done properly. The job in Broadstairs is making the site quick, clear and easy to book from, while leaving the character alone. I'd talk you out of a rebrand that lost you regulars.
Do you cover St Peters and Kingsgate?
Yes, along with Reading Street, Dumpton and the rest of Thanet. If you serve them your site should name them individually, because that is how residents actually search.
What does a website cost?
At WebOws Design in Gillingham, Kent, there are two ways. Get your site online for only £199: £99 setup and your first month, then from £100 a month. 12-month minimum. That covers a custom site hand built in code, hosting, SEO and small changes done for you. Or, if you want to edit it yourself, the same kind of site bought outright from £800, plus £25 a month hosting, with a fixed quote agreed before anything starts. No VAT to add either way.
We're only really busy in summer. Is it worth the spend?
Usually, because bookings are made months before the season starts. The site earns its keep in February and March when families are planning, not in August when you are already full.
We take bookings by phone and a paper diary. Do we have to change?
No. Plenty of businesses here run perfectly well that way, and forcing an online system onto a diary that works is how you end up with two systems and trust in neither. Making the number obvious and being clear about when you answer it helps more.
Nearby
Areas near Broadstairs I also cover
I work right across Kent, not only in Broadstairs. These are some of the nearby towns with a page of their own.
By trade
Pages by line of work
The kinds of business above, each with its own page about what a website has to do in that line of work, in Broadstairs or anywhere else in Kent.
Worth reading next
Quick quote
Tell me about the business. I'll confirm the right plan and when you could be live.
I usually reply within a working day. Or call 01634 984929 and speak to me directly.
Let's talk about your Broadstairs website
Not sure yet what you need? Tell me about the business and I'll say honestly what would help and what wouldn't. Asking costs nothing.