Web design in Edinburgh
Edinburgh is one of the more online markets, and that changes the job
Only 53% of the 3,149 businesses we list in Edinburgh have no website, so the large majority already do. Being online here is not an advantage, it is the entry requirement.
A basic site will not distinguish you, and the cheap wins are elsewhere. What tends to separate businesses in markets like this is page speed on a phone, a complete and active Google profile, and consistently collecting reviews — not an elaborate homepage.
If you already have a site that works, the honest advice here is usually to leave it alone and spend the money on the profile instead.
Which trades in Edinburgh are actually offline
The headline figure hides a wide spread. In Edinburgh, hairdressers & beauty are the least likely to have a website: 73% of the 646 we list have none. Dentists are the most likely to have one, at 26% without. That is a 47-point gap between two trades in the same city.
A gap that size usually means the two trades get their custom differently. Where most competitors have no site, a plain one is enough to be the only result somebody can check. Where most already do, the site is assumed and the decision gets made on something else.
Edinburgh is more online than most of the cities we cover: 53% with no website against a median of 63%, 15th of 16. Expect the people searching for you to have options.
Where in Edinburgh the gap is widest
Edinburgh is not one market. Across the 8 areas where we hold enough listings to compare, Sighthill/Gorgie has the most businesses with no website at 64% of 127, and Inverleith the fewest at 44% of 128. Where you trade inside the city changes who you are actually competing with.
| Area | Listed | No website | Publish hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sighthill/Gorgie | 127 | 64% | 26% |
| Southside/Newington | 236 | 57% | 41% |
| Portobello/Craigmillar | 96 | 55% | 22% |
| Leith Walk | 137 | 54% | 50% |
| Morningside | 203 | 48% | 45% |
| Leith | 135 | 47% | 40% |
| City Centre | 830 | 45% | 30% |
| Inverleith | 128 | 44% | 35% |
Areas are ONS ward names, which is how the underlying data records them rather than how anybody says them out loud. Only wards with at least 40 listings are shown, because below that a single business moves the percentage several points.
What we hold for Edinburgh
3,149 businesses, of which 946 (30%) publish opening hours and 1,208 have a phone number recorded. The trades break down like this:
Businesses here with no website on record
Real listings from this directory. A number is easier to dismiss than a name. If one of these is yours and we have it wrong, the listing has a link to correct it and correcting it is free.
What you get
from £900one off, no contract · 2 to 3 weeksA site that loads fast, reads properly on a phone, and tells Google what you do and where you are. Handed over on your own domain, in your name.
We reply by email and read every enquiry ourselves. Nothing is charged from this page.
Before you buy anything: if your Google Business Profile has never been set up properly, that is almost always the bigger change for the smaller invoice. We fix those for £149, one off. What that covers.
If the job is bigger than this
The prices above are where each service starts, and they cover what most small businesses need. Larger jobs get quoted properly rather than squeezed into a package: multiple locations, booking or payments, a shop, a rebuild that has to keep its existing rankings, ongoing work across more than one service, or anything where the answer depends on what you already have.
Tell us what you are trying to do and we will come back with a scope and a fixed price, or say plainly if we are not the right people for it.
Ask about custom pricing for EdinburghQuestions
- How many businesses in Edinburgh have a website?
- Of the 3,149 we list in Edinburgh, 1,466 have a website recorded and 1,683 do not — 53% with none. Counted from this directory, sourced from OpenStreetMap, so treat it as a floor.
- What does web design cost in Edinburgh?
- from £900, one off, no contract. A site that loads fast, reads properly on a phone, and tells Google what you do and where you are. Handed over on your own domain, in your name.
- How much does a small business website cost?
- Ours start at £900 for up to five pages, and most land between £900 and £2,000 depending on page count and how much writing you want done for you. Quotes of £5,000 and up usually include design work, ongoing retainers or bespoke functionality rather than a bigger version of the same site. Below £500, ask who owns the domain and hosting afterwards.
- How long does it take?
- Two to three weeks from the point we have your content, and the content sets the pace rather than the build. Gathering roughly 1,200 words and some photographs takes most people longer than building the pages takes us.
- Will a new website put me at the top of Google?
- No, and nobody can promise it. A new site does not outrank an established one for being new. What it does is make you findable when somebody searches your name, give Google something to show, and give a customer somewhere to check your hours. For most local businesses the faster win is the Google Business Profile, which is why we sell that separately and cheaply.