Web design in Margate
Margate has a visitor economy that has grown substantially and a long-standing resident economy that never went away. Businesses here generally do better choosing one than splitting the difference.
That is a commercial decision rather than a design one, and it should be made before anybody builds anything.
- Arts and creative
- Tourism and hospitality
- Independent retail
- Trades
- Property
Selling to Margate
Worth knowing hereThe visitor and the long-standing resident markets are very different, and businesses generally do better choosing one.
Choosing is the strategy
A business built for visitors optimises for discovery, photographs, booking and a short decision made by somebody who has never been. A business built for residents optimises for reliability, price, familiarity and repeat custom.
Those pull in opposite directions. Visitor-facing content makes a resident feel the prices are not for them; resident-facing content gives a visitor nothing to be excited about.
Picking one and doing it properly produces a clearer business, not a smaller one. The second market can be served with a single honest page rather than half the site.
A short, intense season
Visitor trade concentrates sharply, which means the site has to be right before the season rather than during it, and the winter is when that work should happen.
It also means the off-season needs a plan: either a resident-facing offer, or an honest statement of seasonal hours so nobody turns up to a closed door.
The creative economy sells outside the town
Galleries, makers and studios here often sell nationally, and for them the site is a shop rather than a local advert — individual pieces, proper photographs, and shipping stated plainly.
Questions people here ask
- Should I serve visitors or residents?
- Pick the one your business actually depends on. Both can be acknowledged, but a site that genuinely tries to do both usually persuades neither.
- When should seasonal businesses build?
- Winter. A site that goes live in May has missed the planning most visitors did months earlier.
- What about the off-season?
- Either build a resident-facing offer or state your seasonal hours honestly. The worst option is a site that implies you are open when you are not.
Sites we have built
Live, working businesses. Visit them and judge the standard yourself.
Also across the South East
Tell me about your business.
One message is enough to start. I’ll read it and reply myself, usually with a couple of questions and a clear price.
Liam Tapp, Website Builds