Web design in Salisbury
Salisbury is a small city carrying two economies that have almost nothing to do with each other. There is heritage tourism, and there is the defence and agricultural economy of the plain and the countryside around it.
A business serving both is common here. A website serving both well is rare, and the reason is almost always that nobody separated them.
- Tourism and heritage
- Defence and related services
- Agriculture
- Retail and hospitality
- Trades
Selling to Salisbury
Worth knowing hereThe gap between the tourist economy and the defence and farming economy is wide, and a business serving both usually needs the site to speak to them separately.
Two readers who share no assumptions
The visitor has never been, does not know the geography, and is deciding quickly on a phone. The defence or farming customer knows exactly where you are, has probably been recommended, and is checking specifics.
Written for one, the page irritates the other. The visitor finds the detail impenetrable; the local finds the scene-setting a waste of their time.
Separating them costs nothing structurally. It usually means the home page picks a side and the other audience gets a clear, obvious route to a page written for them. Choosing which side the home page takes is the decision worth spending an hour on.
Defence-related work has its own expectations
Suppliers into that world are used to being assessed on paper. Certifications, clearances where relevant, insurance and previous work carry the conversation, and vagueness is read as a lack of experience rather than discretion.
State what you hold and what you have done, plainly. It is one of the few audiences where a plainer, more formal page outperforms a warmer one.
A rural catchment that searches by village
The countryside around Salisbury is dispersed, and people there search for their own village long before they search for the city.
A site that names only Salisbury misses them. Naming the villages you genuinely serve is unglamorous work and it is reliably one of the highest-return things a rural business can do to its website.
Questions people here ask
- Can one site serve tourists and local trade?
- Yes, if it stops trying to serve them in the same paragraph. Pick who the home page is for and give the other audience a clear route to their own page.
- How specific should I be about defence work?
- As specific as you are permitted to be. Certifications, the type of work and the sectors you have supplied matter; where you cannot say more, say that plainly rather than being vaguely impressive.
- Is it worth naming surrounding villages?
- In a dispersed rural catchment, yes, provided you actually serve them. It matches how people search and it costs nothing but honesty about your travel radius.
Sites we have built
Live, working businesses. Visit them and judge the standard yourself.
Also across the South West
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