Choosing a web designer in Surrey.

What a website costs around here

Surrey sits next to the most expensive design market in the country, and that pulls local prices in two directions. London agencies will quote £8,000 upwards for a small-business site because their overheads demand it. At the other end, there are plenty of £500 offers that turn out to be a template with your logo on it and a monthly fee you can’t leave.

For a properly planned, designed and built site from an independent designer in Surrey or South West London, expect £2,500 to £5,000. My own websites start at £2,800, and most local businesses land between that and £4,500 depending on page count and whether they want the words written for them. There’s a fuller breakdown in how much a website costs in the UK.

Does being local matter?

Less than it used to, and more than people think. The design and build happen on screen wherever your designer sits. What a local designer gives you is a sense of the area and the kind of customers you’re after, and the knowledge of who you’re up against. Whether you meet in person matters far less than whether you can reach them quickly when something needs doing.

A joiner in Sutton, a salon in Kingston and a letting agent in Epsom all compete for customers who search on their phones and judge in seconds. A designer who knows that market, and knows that a Surrey business is often being compared with a London one, is designing for the right audience.

The practical test is whether the person you speak to is the person who does the work. At an agency it usually isn’t. With me it always is.

Six questions to ask any designer

• Who actually designs and builds it? If the answer involves a team you’ll never meet, ask how changes get made and how long they take.
• Can I see three live sites on my phone? Not mock-ups. Real sites, and ideally ones for businesses like yours.
• What’s included, in writing? Pages, features, who supplies the words and photos, dates, and what happens after launch.
• Who owns the site and the domain? You should own both. If the domain is registered in the designer’s name, walk away.
• What will it cost to run? Hosting, updates and any connected services, per month, written down.
• What do you do about Google? If the answer is vague, the site will look fine and bring in nothing.

The local setup most sites miss

When someone in Kingston or Epsom types “plumber near me”, Google doesn’t look at who has the prettiest website. It looks at who has a complete, active Google Business Profile close to the searcher, with reviews. The website matters for whether they trust you once they’ve found you, but the profile is what gets you found.

So any website project for a local business should include three things: a Google Business Profile that’s set up properly and linked to the site, page titles that name the area you serve, and the structured data that tells Google your business type and location. I build all three into every local site, and they cost nothing extra. If your current designer didn’t, that’s the first thing to fix.

Is a London agency worth it?

For a large organisation that needs a team, campaigns and a big online shop, often yes. For a Surrey small business that needs a site to bring in enquiries, usually not. You’re paying for an account manager, a project manager and office rent in zone 1, none of which make your website better.

The honest comparison is between a good independent designer and a cheap template. The template is cheaper now and costs more later: in missed enquiries, in monthly fees, and in the rebuild when you outgrow it.

What to do next

Write down what you want the site to do: calls, bookings, quote requests, sales. Then talk to two or three designers and ask the six questions above. If you’d like one of them to be me, get in touch. The first conversation is free, by video or phone, and if you don’t need what I do, I’ll say so.