Web design in Canterbury for a city that empties and fills again
More calls and enquiries, a website that makes you look the part, and none of the technical side to worry about.
Canterbury's customers change with the term dates and the coach parties. I build websites that work for whoever is in town this month.
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 Canterbury customers
Canterbury is three economies sharing one set of streets. There is the tourist city built around the Cathedral and the Westgate, which fills and empties on a weekly rhythm. There is the student city, roughly forty thousand people across three universities, who arrive in September and vanish in June. And there is the ordinary working city of trades and professional firms, carrying on regardless.
That makes trade here unusually uneven. Your busiest and quietest months can look like two different businesses, and a website written for one of them is wrong for the other.
The independent scene along the King's Mile, Palace Street and the Northgate end is unusually strong and genuinely competitive. A shop or cafe there is compared with its neighbours before anyone walks in, usually on a phone, so the photos, the hours and what makes you different have to be on the page.
Visitors plan before they arrive. If your site answers what someone needs a week before they travel, parking, hours, booking, you capture trade that never walks past your door.
- Opening hours that are current, bank holidays too
- Parking and access spelled out for drivers
- Seasonal offers surfaced, not buried
- Booking that works on a phone from a train
- Naming Whitstable, Herne Bay and the villages
- Photos of the real place, not a stock Cathedral
What it costs
What a Canterbury 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.
“Helped me build my website and i am very pleased and satisfied with it. Very good and professional”
My work
A few sites I've built
Picked from all my projects, so not only from Canterbury. Each one has its own page with the whole story.
See all the work
What I do
What I build for Canterbury businesses
A website that brings in work, and help getting it found on Google.
Web Design
A custom designed site for your Canterbury 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 Canterbury businesses I build for
Hospitality & Tourism
Restaurants, pubs, guest houses and attractions inside the walls and along the river. Most of their customers plan from a phone before they travel, so hours, booking and parking have to be easy to find and right for the time of year.
Independent Retail
Shops along the King's Mile, Palace Street and Burgate competing with each other and with online. Real photos of the stock and the shop, and a clear reason to visit, do more here than a long description.
Professional Services & Trades
Solicitors, accountants, letting agents and trades serving residents, landlords and the student housing market across Sturry, Hersden and the villages. Their work runs all year whatever the season, and is won on reviews, clear contact details and naming the places they cover.
Common problems
What I see missing on Canterbury websites
Built for one season
A site that says the same thing in February and August is wrong twice. The headline, the hours and what you are promoting should change with the city, and a site built to be updated makes that easy.
Hours that are quietly wrong
Bank holidays, term breaks, off season closures. Nothing loses a visitor faster than driving in and finding the door shut.
Parking and access left out
Visitors driving in do not know which car park is nearest or how far the walk is. If the site does not say, the trip feels like a gamble, and the easier option wins.
Treating students as an afterthought
Forty thousand people with money, phones and no local knowledge arrive every September. A site that answers what a newcomer needs, where you are, when you are open and what it costs, is the one they can actually use.
Not sure how yours measures up? Tell me about it and I'll look at it with you
Canterbury web design questions
Do you actually work with Canterbury businesses?
Yes. I'm in Gillingham, about 40 minutes along the A2, and I take on work right across Kent. Most of it runs remotely, and I'll come over when seeing the premises genuinely helps.
Can a website really handle seasonal trade?
Yes, and it should. The homepage is built so the headline offer, hours and featured content can change with the season: on a monthly plan you tell me and it is done within 2 working days, or on a site bought outright you swap them yourself in the editor.
We're in a listed building and can't change the shopfront. Does that matter online?
It makes the website more important, not less. When the frontage cannot say much, the site has to: real photos of the inside, what you sell, and exactly where to find you, so someone heading along Palace Street or the King's Mile already knows what is behind the door.
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.
Do you cover Whitstable and Herne Bay?
Yes, and the villages between, such as Sturry, Hersden and Bridge. If you take work from the coast, the site should name those places rather than stopping at Canterbury, because naming the place is how people search when they are looking close to home.
Do students actually matter for a business like mine?
It depends what you sell, but the three universities put around forty thousand students in the city from September to June, most of them with no local knowledge and a phone in their hand. If they are part of your trade, the site should answer what a newcomer needs to know.
Most of my customers are visitors rather than locals. Does local SEO still help?
Yes, but it does a different job. Visitors search before they travel, often a week ahead, so the site and your Google Business Profile need to answer what they plan around: opening hours, parking, access and booking. Get those right and you capture trade that never walks past your door.
Can the site handle group and coach bookings?
It can, and if you take them regularly it should. Group sizes, how far ahead to book and how to arrange it belong on a page of their own, with a form that asks for the date and the numbers, rather than a line at the bottom of the contact page.
Nearby
Areas near Canterbury I also cover
I work right across Kent, not only in Canterbury. 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 Canterbury or anywhere else in Kent.
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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 Canterbury 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.