Website Design in Edinburgh
Looking for a website designer in Edinburgh? We design and build custom websites for Edinburgh businesses of every kind, from solicitors and fund managers in the New Town to guest houses near the Royal Mile and shops and trades in Leith, Stockbridge and Morningside, working with you online from the first call to launch.
Web Design Services in Edinburgh
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 Edinburgh. 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.
Website design in Edinburgh depends on which city you sell to. For businesses that serve visitors, the year turns on the festivals in August and on Hogmanay, so the site must show dates, availability and prices and take the booking directly. For those that serve residents, loyalty is to the neighbourhood: Corstorphine, Newington, Marchmont and Colinton each expect to be named, and to see evidence of work nearby. Either way the design has to stand beside long-established names, so we give typography and layout as much attention as structure.
Websites for Edinburgh Businesses
Edinburgh is Scotland's capital, home to the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government and the country's highest courts, and one of the UK's main centres for banking, insurance and fund management. Financial firms fill the Exchange district beside the conference centre and the business park at Edinburgh Park on the western edge of the city, while solicitors and advisers still work from Georgian buildings in the New Town. Visitors crowd the Old Town in every season, and Leith, once a separate burgh and port, is now known for the restaurants on the Shore and new housing along the waterfront.
The capital offers a business a prosperous resident population and a constant flow of visitors, and a great deal of competition for both. Residents search by neighbourhood and mean it: Morningside, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield, Leith and Portobello each have their own main street and their own loyalties. Visitors search by landmark and by date, above all for the festivals in August and for Hogmanay. A website here has to say which part of the city it serves, stand comparison with long-established names and, for anyone selling to visitors, take the booking directly.
Website Design by Sector in Edinburgh
How a website should work depends on what the business does. Each page below explains what a website for that kind of business in Edinburgh needs, how its customers search and the rules that apply in Scotland.
Homes and Property
Edinburgh's homes range from Georgian flats and townhouses in the New Town, part of a World Heritage Site with the Old Town, to Victorian tenements in Marchmont, Morningside and Dalry, colony houses in Stockbridge and Abbeyhill, and stone villas in the Grange. Newer flats have been built at Quartermile and along the waterfront at Granton and Leith. Listed buildings and conservation areas are common across the city, students rent around Marchmont and Newington, and residents look for firms used to working on shared stairs and old stone.
Professional and Business Services
Edinburgh is the centre of Scotland's legal system: the Court of Session sits at Parliament House, the Law Society of Scotland is based here and solicitors' offices are found throughout the New Town. Banks, insurers and fund managers work from the Exchange district, the city centre and Edinburgh Park, and the Scottish Government and Parliament support a large public sector. Clients can choose between long-established firms and national names, so a smaller practice needs a website that sets out its specialisms, its people and its fees without making anyone ask.
Hospitality and Retail
Visitors come to Edinburgh all year for the castle, the Royal Mile and the Old Town, and in greater numbers for the festivals in August and for Hogmanay. They shop on Princes Street, George Street and at the St James Quarter, and eat everywhere from the Old Town to the Shore in Leith. The city now charges a visitor levy on paid overnight stays. Rooms and tables for festival weeks are booked long in advance, so a hotel, restaurant or shop needs to be found, priced and bookable well before the guest arrives.
Health, Care and Wellbeing
The Royal Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People at Little France, and the Western General, are NHS Lothian's main hospitals in the city, with a private hospital at Murrayfield. The University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Napier bring a large student population, and Queen Margaret University sits just over the boundary at Musselburgh. Many households are professional ones, and families in Morningside, Corstorphine, Colinton and Portobello can compare several dentists, physiotherapists, nurseries and care providers online before they choose.
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 Edinburgh are made on a phone and a slow page loses the enquiry.
Local Search Foundations
Page titles written for the searches people in Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh
People rarely search for a business by city alone. In Edinburgh they search by district, in places such as Leith, Morningside, Stockbridge and Corstorphine, 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 Musselburgh, Dalkeith and Livingston, 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 Edinburgh
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
"Matthew at DigitalPod produced three websites for my company. Each was well designed and met all the functional requirements for our customers. I was also hugely appreciative of the fast technical support response on the few occasions we needed it. I can strongly recommend DigitalPod."
"Digitalpod have been a valuable associate to our company and I am extremely pleased to have found a developer that is truly client focused."
"I have worked with quite a few web developers but digitalpod are one of the very best I have ever used. From ideas to visuals and to final coding. The project just effortlessly flowed."
Website Design in Edinburgh: Questions
Are you a website designer based in Edinburgh?
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 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh?
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 Edinburgh?
We build the foundations local search depends on: a page for each service and each area you serve, such as Leith, Morningside, Stockbridge and Corstorphine, 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 Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh, 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 Edinburgh
We work with businesses across Scotland 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 Edinburgh Website
Tell us about your business in Edinburgh 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.