Website Design in Exeter
Looking for a website designer in Exeter? We design and build custom websites for Exeter businesses of every kind, from law firms in Southernhay and independent shops on Fore Street to trades covering Heavitree, St Thomas and Topsham, working with you online from the first call to launch.
Web Design Services in Exeter
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 Exeter. 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.
Customers come to Exeter from a wide area, so website design in Exeter is partly a matter of geography. Someone in Exmouth, Crediton or Cullompton needs to see that you serve their town before they will travel or call, and a resident of Topsham or Alphington wants the same reassurance about their own district. We give each service and each area a clear page, and design the site to stand comparison with the regional firms it will be judged against.
Websites for Exeter Businesses
Devon's county town is the place a wide area comes to for work, shopping and public services. The Met Office has its headquarters here, and the University of Exeter, the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at Wonford and Devon County Council are among the largest employers. Law firms cluster in Southernhay, with its Georgian terraces, and there are larger offices on the business parks on the eastern side and trading estates at Sowton and Marsh Barton. Shopping is centred on the High Street and Princesshay, with independents on Fore Street and Gandy Street.
Because so many people travel into Exeter, a business here serves two groups: residents of districts such as St Thomas, Heavitree and Pennsylvania, and customers from the towns around, among them Exmouth, Crediton and Cullompton. Both search with a place name attached, and both can choose between Exeter firms and ones nearer home. A website needs a clear page for each service and each area served, and it should look as established as the regional firms that share the city.
Website Design by Sector in Exeter
How a website should work depends on what the business does. Each page below explains what a website for that kind of business in Exeter needs, how its customers search and the rules that apply in England.
Homes and Property
Georgian terraces survive in Southernhay, and conservation areas cover St Leonards, Heavitree, Pennsylvania and the estuary town of Topsham, where merchants' houses with Dutch gables line the Strand. Newtown has streets of small Victorian terraces, and the lower slopes of Pennsylvania have larger Victorian and Edwardian houses, popular with students and university staff. Many suburbs began as separate villages and parishes, among them Heavitree, Alphington, Pinhoe and Exwick, and residents still use those names. The newest housing is on the eastern side, at Monkerton and Pinhoe.
Professional and Business Services
Southernhay, with its Georgian terraces and the Law Courts, is where several of Exeter's law firms have their offices, and large practices such as Michelmores and Ashfords work from the business parks on the eastern side of the city. The Met Office, the university, the hospital and the county council are the major employers, and Exeter Science Park, beside the motorway, houses science and technology companies. Clients come from across Devon, so a firm's website should say which sectors and which parts of the county it serves.
Hospitality and Retail
Exeter is the shopping centre for a wide area of Devon. People come in for Princesshay, the Guildhall shopping centre and the High Street, and for independent shops on Fore Street, Gandy Street and around Cathedral Green. Visitors come for the Cathedral, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, the medieval underground passages and the Quayside, and for rugby at Sandy Park, and Topsham has independent shops of its own. Many people are in the city for the day, so shops and restaurants should put opening hours, menus and booking online.
Health, Care and Wellbeing
The University of Exeter's Streatham and St Luke's campuses bring a large student population, and Pennsylvania is popular among students and staff. The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at Wonford is the city's main hospital. Heavitree, St Thomas, Alphington and Pinhoe are long-established residential districts, and new households are arriving at Monkerton. People from the towns around also come into Exeter for appointments, so a dentist, physiotherapist, nursery, salon or gym here is compared with others across the city and should make its location and parking clear.
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 Exeter are made on a phone and a slow page loses the enquiry.
Local Search Foundations
Page titles written for the searches people in Exeter 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 Exeter
People rarely search for a business by city alone. In Exeter they search by district, in places such as St Thomas, Heavitree, St Leonards and Topsham, 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 Exmouth, Crediton and Dawlish, 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 Exeter
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
"Great Service. nothing is too much trouble and you can really tell Matthew has a sense of pride about his work and that shows throughout his dealings and the quality of what he produces."
"Our company has used Digital Pod for the last 5 years, providing us with creative concepts and technical support to a high end. The service has been fantastic all round and we would highly recommended."
"Patient, knowledgeable, thoroughly professional and highly competitive. Mathew is a pleasure to do business with, his advice and suggestions were timely and well delivered and a real skill in understanding what I was hoping to achieve and delivering it."
Website Design in Exeter: Questions
Are you a website designer based in Exeter?
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 Exeter 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 Exeter?
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 Exeter?
We build the foundations local search depends on: a page for each service and each area you serve, such as St Thomas, Heavitree, St Leonards and Topsham, 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 Exeter 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 Exeter, 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 Exeter
We work with businesses across the South 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 Exeter Website
Tell us about your business in Exeter 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.