Website Design in Chester
Looking for a website designer in Chester? We design and build custom websites for Chester businesses, from independent shops on the Rows and hotels inside the walls to professional firms, clinics and trades in Hoole, Handbridge and Upton. The work is done entirely online, from the first call to launch.
Web Design Services in Chester
DigitalPod is a UK-based design and web development studio that provides its web design services across the UK, including website design for businesses in Chester. Your website designer starts with a blank page and works from your brand and your customers, and the same team then builds the site in-house, with no templates and no outsourcing. The studio specialises in startup website design and website redesigns, with a design degree and more than 15 years of industry experience behind it, and websites start from £2,400 wherever you are based.
A booking in Chester is often made by someone still at home, comparing hotels, restaurants and shops close to the racecourse or the river. Website design in Chester has to win that comparison on a phone, with photographs, prices, availability and a booking button on the first screen. Businesses that serve residents need a different plan: pages for Hoole, Boughton, Vicars Cross and the other suburbs, and for the places just beyond, from Ellesmere Port to the Flintshire side of the border.
Websites for Chester Businesses
Chester is a walled cathedral city on the River Dee, very close to the Welsh border, and it lives on services: tourism, retail, public administration and financial services. Visitors come for the Rows, the walls, the racecourse and the zoo, and the shops, hotels and restaurants of the centre depend on them. Banks and other financial companies are among the main employers, many of them on Chester Business Park to the south, alongside the University of Chester and the Countess of Chester Hospital. Airbus builds aircraft wings at Broughton, just across the border.
A business in Chester is found by two audiences. Residents search by suburb, whether Hoole, Handbridge, Upton or Blacon, and by nearby places such as Saltney and Ellesmere Port, and the city's catchment runs over the border into Flintshire. Visitors search before they travel, comparing somewhere to stay, eat or shop near the cathedral, the racecourse or the river. A website here needs pages for the neighbourhoods it serves and, for anyone in hospitality or retail, enough detail to win a booking from someone who has not arrived yet.
Website Design by Sector in Chester
How a website should work depends on what the business does. Each page below explains what a website for that kind of business in Chester needs, how its customers search and the rules that apply in England.
Homes and Property
Housing in Chester is tightly bound to its suburbs. Hoole, to the east, is Victorian terraces and inter-war semis around its own shopping streets, and Curzon Park, above the Dee, has some of the city's most prestigious houses. Blacon is predominantly a council-built estate, the Lache is another large estate, and Newton and Vicars Cross are big residential suburbs, with villages such as Christleton just beyond the edge. The university adds a market in student lets. Residents search by suburb first, and the nearest towns in one direction are in Wales.
Professional and Business Services
Chester has a relatively large financial sector for a city of its size, with banks and other financial companies among its main employers, many of them on Chester Business Park by the southern bypass. The council, the University of Chester and the Countess of Chester Hospital are large employers too, and Airbus at Broughton is just over the border in Flintshire. The catchment crosses a national border, with clients in Flintshire and Wrexham as well as Cheshire, so a firm's website should say plainly which places it serves and what it specialises in.
Hospitality and Retail
Chester's visitors come for the city walls, the Rows, the cathedral and the Eastgate Clock, for race days on the Roodee and for Chester Zoo at Upton. They shop on the two levels of the Rows and in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, eat at Chester Market and beside the river, and spend evenings at Storyhouse. Cheshire Oaks, the outlet centre at Ellesmere Port, is a destination in its own right. Race meetings and the Christmas market are busy periods for hotels and restaurants, and being bookable online early decides who gets the trade.
Health, Care and Wellbeing
The Countess of Chester Hospital, on the northern side of the city by Upton, is the main hospital, and the University of Chester's campus on Parkgate Road brings students into the streets around it. Hoole, Handbridge, Upton and Vicars Cross are settled residential suburbs, and villages such as Christleton and Waverton lie just outside. Residents choosing a dentist, physiotherapist, nursery, salon, gym or care provider can pick from the city, the suburbs or Ellesmere Port, so clear information, reviews and availability make the difference.
What Every Website We Build Includes
Custom Design, No Templates
Designed from a blank page around your brand and your customers, and approved by you before any code is written.
Fast on Every Phone
Hand-coded for speed, because most local searches in Chester are made on a phone and a slow page loses the enquiry.
Local Search Foundations
Page titles written for the searches people in Chester make, service and area pages, and details that match your Google Business Profile.
Bookings, Quotes and Members
Online booking, quote forms, member areas and payments where your business needs them, built in rather than bolted on.
Update It Yourself
An optional admin dashboard, so you can add services, news, listings or photographs without calling a developer.
Hosting and Support
Managed cloud hosting from £20 a month, or take the code and host it yourself. The website is yours either way.
Getting Found in Chester
People rarely search for a business by city alone. In Chester they search by district, in places such as Hoole, Handbridge, Boughton and Upton, and by the towns around it, so a website that wants local customers needs a page for each service and each place it serves, written for that place rather than copied with the name changed.
We plan that structure with you before the design starts: which districts and nearby towns, such as Ellesmere Port, Saltney and Neston, are worth a page, which services people look for, and how the site should match your Google Business Profile. Our guide to getting a new website found on Google explains what to do after launch. We do not promise rankings, which also depend on reviews and competition, and ongoing search engine optimisation is available as a separate service.
What a Website Costs in Chester
Our prices are published and do not change with your postcode. A custom-designed website of up to around ten pages starts from £2,400, a website with an admin dashboard from £3,900, and managed cloud hosting from £20 a month if you would like us to run the site for you.
- Startup Website from £2,400
- Website + Admin Dashboard from £3,900
- Managed Cloud Hosting from £20 per month
Agencies commonly quote £6,000 to £20,000 or more for a comparable small business website, while experienced freelancers and small studios typically charge £2,000 to £6,000. With us, payment is a 50% deposit with the balance on completion, and the finished website, its design and its code are yours. See the full website design prices or, for a new business, startup website design prices.
What Clients Say
"DigitalPod provided an excellent service in creating Rhino Play Ltd's website. We were able to discuss ideas and check different styles as we progressed and the end product could not have been better. DigitalPod also supplied us with stationery design work which we were very impressed with. We would not hesitate in recommending DigitalPod to anyone."
"Matthew was able to take my original idea and transform it into an attractive, functional website for my books. I have also been very pleased with the post-sales service when I needed advice or wanted to make tweaks."
"Matthew has been very helpful in setting up our website. It's a bit more complicated than a standard site and has required a few redesigns / revisions, but communication has always been clear and easy, which has made the process much more stress-free than it otherwise could have been."
Website Design in Chester: Questions
Are you a website designer based in Chester?
No. DigitalPod is a UK-based design and web development studio that provides its web design services across the UK, and we work with businesses in Chester entirely online, over video calls, email and shared documents. You review designs and the test site in your browser and give feedback in writing, so nothing is lost between conversations. Where your website designer is based has no bearing on the quality of the website, and our prices are the same wherever you are.
How much does a website cost in Chester?
The same as anywhere else in the UK. Our websites start from £2,400 for a custom-designed site of up to around ten pages, and from £3,900 with an admin dashboard so you can update it yourself. Managed cloud hosting is from £20 a month. Agencies commonly quote £6,000 to £20,000 or more for a comparable small business site, while experienced freelancers and small studios typically charge £2,000 to £6,000.
Can you help my business get found in Chester?
We build the foundations local search depends on: a page for each service and each area you serve, such as Hoole, Handbridge, Boughton and Upton, page titles written for the searches people make, fast loading on a phone and details that match your Google Business Profile. Nobody can honestly promise a position on Google, because rankings also depend on your reviews and the competition. Ongoing search engine optimisation is available as a separate service.
What kinds of business in Chester do you work with?
Any business that needs a website to win customers. We have built sites for solicitors, recruitment companies, trades and service businesses, e-commerce stores and membership organisations, and we have researched what a website needs in twenty sectors, from plumbers and accountants to restaurants, dentists and care homes. Each has its own page for Chester, listed above. If your kind of business is not among them, tell us what you do.
How long does a website take?
Most websites take three to six weeks from brief to launch, provided your content is ready. We give you a realistic completion date once the visuals are approved, and if you are working to a deadline we can suggest a focused first version to launch quickly and build on.
More answers in our FAQ. Starting a new business? See startup web design. Replacing a site that has dated? See website redesign. Or go to the DigitalPod home page for our portfolio and services.
Website Design Near Chester
We work with businesses across the North West and the rest of the UK. These are the nearest cities with a page of their own.
Guides to Planning and Costing a Website
Start Your Chester Website
Tell us about your business in Chester and what the website needs to do, or book a call with our senior software engineer to talk it through. Everything runs online, and we reply personally with a clear, fixed price.