Web design in St Ives
St Ives has the most extreme seasonal swing of any town in Cornwall. In August it holds far more people than live here, the streets are full and the car parks are not. In January it is a small coastal town with a few thousand residents and a lot of shuttered frontages.
Almost every business decision here follows from that, and so does the website. A site written for one season is wrong for half the year.
One town, two jobs
August
Filter
More customers than capacity. The page earns its keep by answering the four repeated questions without a phone call.
January
Trade
Residents, second homes and letting agents. The page is the only thing still selling, and it is searched for in different words.
In August the website is a triage tool
When there are more customers than you can serve, an extra enquiry is not worth anything. Being able to answer the same four questions without a phone call is.
Put the answers on the page in text: whether you are open, whether you are taking bookings, whether you are full, how to find you, and where to park. Parking is not a trivial detail here; it is often the deciding factor in whether somebody comes to you at all.
Speed matters more here than almost anywhere in the county. In peak season the mobile networks in the town are under real load, and a heavy page simply will not open for somebody standing on the harbour front.
In January the website is the only thing still trading
Out of season your customers are residents, second-home owners and the letting agents who look after empty properties. That is steady work, and it is searched for in a completely different way from summer trade.
If you close for the winter, say so plainly and say when you reopen. A site that goes silent reads as a business that has closed permanently, and people do not come back to check.
If you stay open, say that even louder, because in a town where much of the competition shuts, being open is the single most valuable thing you can advertise.
Visitors search differently from residents
A visitor searches for the thing near them and does not know your name, your street or the difference between Downalong and the Malakoff. Directions and being visible in Maps matter more than anything you write.
A resident searches for a trade and a town, checks you, and rings. That customer wants photographs of your work and a list of the areas you cover.
Two different pages, or at minimum two clearly separate sections. One page attempting both usually reads as confused to each.
The art trade is its own economy
Galleries, makers and studios here sell to people who saw the work in person and think about it afterwards, often from two hundred miles away. That is a different website problem entirely: the site is not finding customers, it is closing the sale weeks later.
For that, clear images, sensible prices, who made it, and a straightforward way to buy or enquire beat anything else. If somebody remembers a piece in September and cannot find it online in October, the sale is simply lost.
CB Flooring, which I built, currently reaches the first page for laminate flooring st ives, which is an ordinary trade search rather than an art one. Both markets exist here and both are reachable.
Questions St Ives businesses ask
- Should I say I am closed for winter?
- Yes, with the reopening date. Silence reads as closed for good, and people who conclude that do not come back in spring to check. A clear seasonal note costs you nothing and keeps the enquiries for next year.
- How important is speed for a St Ives business?
- Unusually important. The networks in the town are under genuine load in peak season, and a heavy page will not open for a visitor standing in the street. Keep images small and test it on mobile data in August.
- Do I need to mention parking?
- If customers drive to you, it is one of the most useful things on your site. Where to park, how far the walk is, and whether it is realistic in August. Visitors make decisions on exactly this.
- I sell art to people who visit. What should the site do?
- Close the sale after they leave. Clear photographs, prices, dimensions, who made it and an easy way to buy or ask. Most of those sales happen weeks later from somewhere else entirely.
A website for a St Ives business, £249.
Then £49.99 a month, which is what keeps it saying the right thing in August and in January.