Web design in Chatham for a town in the middle of change
Chatham is being rebuilt around the waterfront and the university campus. I build websites for the businesses trading through it. Fixed prices from £800, live in two to four weeks.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 160 reviewsFrom £800, fixed priceLive in 2–4 weeksWix Legend Partner200+ projects10 years building
Covering the whole district rather than Chatham on its own? See web design in Medway.
After ranking an existing site rather than building a new one? See SEO in Chatham.
Local coverage
Why Chatham businesses need more than a template
Chatham is the commercial centre of Medway and the one changing fastest. The Historic Dockyard pulls in visitors from well outside the county, the university campus at Chatham Maritime brings thousands of students and staff, the Pentagon anchors the retail end, and the waterfront has been under regeneration for years with more of it still to come.
That gives you an unusually mixed customer base for one town. A cafe near the Dockyard is serving tourists in August and almost nobody in February. A takeaway near the campus lives and dies by term dates. A trade business three streets back is serving the same residential roads it always has, regardless of either of them.
So the honest answer to what your website should say depends entirely on which of those you are. The mistake I see most often is a site written as though Chatham were one single market, when in practice it is at least three sitting on top of each other, running on completely different rhythms.
There is also a real gap opening between the businesses that have adapted and the ones that have not. Chatham has more visible competition than the other Medway towns, and more of it is now genuinely decent. Turning up with a site built in 2018 is far more noticeable here than it would be in Rainham or Strood.
What tends to work here
What to fix
What a Chatham site usually leaves out
Written for one market
A site aimed at everybody in a town with tourists, students and residents on completely different clocks ends up speaking clearly to none of them. Pick the one that actually pays your bills and write for them.
Nothing about parking
Chatham town centre is genuinely confusing to drive into and park in. Sites that never mention where to park, or which car park is nearest, lose visitors who simply give up and go somewhere easier.
Ignoring term and season
Term dates and tourist season swing trade here more than in the other Medway towns, and almost no local site reflects it. The homepage says the same thing in August as in January, which is wrong half the year.
Sitting still while others move
Competition here is more visible and more capable than in the neighbouring towns. A site that was fine five years ago now sits beside several that have been rebuilt since, and the comparison is not flattering.
What I do
What I build for Chatham businesses
Two services, shaped around what the business actually needs.
Web Design
A custom site, never a template, designed around what your Chatham business actually needs, built to load fast and rank.
From £800
SEO in Chatham
Already have a site and need it found? That is its own service, with its own page for Chatham, from £300.
What it costs
What a Chatham website costs, on one scale
The three build packages against the same scale, so you can see where each one starts and where they meet.
£800 to £1,000. A straightforward service or brochure site.
£1,000 to £1,300. Fully responsive design, my default recommendation.
On application, for businesses where the website is core infrastructure.
Timings
How long a Chatham project actually takes
Before the clock starts
Discovery & quote
A call, competitors, then a fixed price agreed before anything starts.
2 to 4 weeks
Design & build
Where the whole build sits, brochure at the short end, ecommerce at the long one.
Launch day
Launch
Testing, SEO checks, analytics and email all done before it goes live.
30 days included
Support
Then ad-hoc whenever needed. Some clients come back years later.
Proof, not promises
Every one left by a real client on Google, Facebook, Trustpilot or Wix. Nothing here is a quote I chose because it flattered me.
One of them, word for word
“Owen knows his stuff, was quick and professional and did what I wanted and even advised a better way which suited what I wanted perfectly! Great job would highly recommend his knowledge and expertise!”
Questions
Chatham web design questions
Do you work with Chatham businesses?+
Constantly. I'm in Gillingham, about ten minutes away, and Chatham is one of the towns I know best. Meeting in person is easy if you'd prefer that to email.
Most of my trade is students. Can a website help with that?+
Yes, and it's badly underused locally. Students arrive every September with no local knowledge and search for everything on a phone. A site that answers hours, prices and location instantly does very well with them.
Do you cover Chatham Maritime and Luton?+
Yes, along with Walderslade and Wayfield. Chatham Maritime in particular behaves like a separate market to the town centre, and your site should reflect that rather than lumping them together.
What does a website cost?+
From £800, with a fixed quote agreed before anything starts. No hourly billing and nothing on the invoice you have not already approved.
Can you handle online ordering or bookings?+
Yes. It adds time to the build and I'll say so at quote stage rather than discovering it halfway through, but for food and hospitality here it usually pays for itself quickly.
Nearby
Areas near Chatham I also cover
Most Chatham enquiries come with work just over the boundary, so these are the neighbouring areas we cover most often.
From the blog
Quick quote
Tell me what you need. I'll come back with a fixed price.
Usually within a working day. Or call 01634 984929 and speak to me directly.
Let's talk
Let's talk about your
Chatham website
Tell me what your business needs and I will tell you honestly what would help, and what wouldn't. Free consultation, no pressure, no jargon.