Website Design & Build

Websites for Edinburgh small businesses that load fast, work on every device, and actually rank on Google. WordPress, Shopify, and bespoke builds.

What We Build

Most Edinburgh small business websites we build fall into one of three categories: a clean brochure site that wins trust and gets you found on Google, an ecommerce store that takes payments and ships orders, or a bespoke web app for an internal workflow you can't buy off the shelf. Whatever the shape, we focus on what actually moves the needle for a small business: fast page loads, clear calls to action, and search visibility.

We are a working Edinburgh tech business — the same engineers who diagnose your network or fix your server are the ones designing your site. That means we build with the long view: maintainable code, sensible plugin choices, no offshore agency black boxes. When something breaks at 9pm on a Thursday, you can pick up the phone.

Types of Sites We Build

Small Business Websites

5 to 12-page brochure sites for trades, professional services, restaurants, salons, and consultancies. Designed to convert visitors into enquiries — clear contact, real photos, local SEO baked in.

Ecommerce Stores

Shopify or WooCommerce stores with proper product pages, Stripe / Apple Pay / Google Pay checkout, stock management, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping integrations for UK couriers.

Landing Pages

Single-page sites built around one campaign or product launch. Optimised for conversion, easy A/B testing, and fast turnaround when you need something live this month.

Blogs & Content Sites

WordPress blogs and content-led sites with proper editorial workflow, schema markup, automatic sitemaps, and the SEO foundations to rank for the topics you publish about.

Booking & Membership Sites

Online booking with calendar sync, recurring class scheduling, member portals, and Stripe-powered subscriptions. Used by yoga studios, hairdressers, fitness trainers, and consultants.

Bespoke Builds

When WordPress or Shopify won't fit the workflow, we build custom in modern frameworks — typically Next.js or Astro on Cloudflare. Right when the off-the-shelf tools become the bottleneck.

Sample Concepts

The kinds of websites we build

Four illustrative project briefs based on common Edinburgh small business needs — the work that typically lands in our inbox.

Concept 01
Hospitality

Bramble Café & Roastery

A small Edinburgh roastery losing brunch-rush sales to walk-in queues. Needed a website that handled pre-order takeaway during peak hours and sold their bean subscription nationally.

What we built
  • Time-slot takeaway ordering — frees staff during the lunch rush
  • Coffee subscription with Stripe recurring billing
  • Staff-editable specials block (no developer needed)
  • Embedded Google Maps + opening hours synced to GBP
WordPress WooCommerce Stripe
Concept 02
Local Trades

Newington Plumbing & Heating

An established Edinburgh plumber stuck below page-one search results. Most enquiries came via word-of-mouth; the website was an afterthought from 2014. We built for hyperlocal SEO and rapid emergency-callout response.

What we built
  • Per-area landing pages (Morningside, Leith, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield)
  • Quote-request form with WhatsApp fallback for fast replies
  • Click-to-call banner on mobile, schema-marked for Google
  • Before / after gallery with EXIF data stripped for privacy
WordPress Local SEO Schema.org
Concept 03
Ecommerce

Tartan Threads

A handmade-textiles maker who sold at craft fairs and on Instagram DMs, ready to take their business online properly. Needed clean ecommerce, real shipping calculations, and a checkout that converts.

What we built
  • Product pages with size / colour / pattern variants
  • Stripe + Apple Pay + Klarna pay-in-3 at checkout
  • Royal Mail Tracked + DPD shipping rate calculator
  • Klaviyo abandoned-cart and welcome flows
Shopify Klaviyo Stripe
Concept 04
Booking & Memberships

Old Town Pilates Studio

A boutique pilates studio juggling bookings across spreadsheets, Instagram DMs, and the front-desk phone. The owner spent two hours every morning on admin. We replaced all of it with a single self-serve booking system.

What we built
  • Class timetable with capacity limits and automatic waitlist
  • Monthly memberships managed via Stripe Customer Portal
  • SMS + email reminders 24h before booked sessions
  • Instructor profiles searchable by specialty
WordPress Amelia Stripe Twilio SMS

Concepts shown are illustrative project briefs based on common Edinburgh small business needs — not real client engagements.

Platforms We Use

We pick the right tool for the job. There is no perfect platform — only the one that fits how your business actually works.

WordPress Shopify WooCommerce Next.js Astro Cloudflare Pages Stripe Klaviyo Mailchimp

Already on a different platform? We work with what you have rather than insisting on a rebuild. Get in touch to discuss.

Our Build Process

  1. Discovery Call — A 30-minute conversation about your business, your customers, and what success looks like for the website. No commitment.
  2. Quote & Sitemap — A clear written quote with a sitemap of pages, the platform we recommend, the timeline, and exactly what is included. No hidden line items.
  3. Design — We share design mock-ups for the homepage and key inner pages. You give feedback, we iterate. No surprises at the build stage.
  4. Build — We build on a staging server you can access, write the page content with you, and integrate the third-party tools (forms, payments, booking, analytics).
  5. Test & Launch — Cross-browser testing, mobile testing on real devices, accessibility check (WCAG 2.2), Core Web Vitals tuning, and then we point your domain to the new site.
  6. Training & Handover — A walkthrough video and a written guide so you can update content yourself. Or stay on a maintenance plan and we handle it.

Why Choose Us for Your Website

Fast by Default

Core Web Vitals are now a Google ranking factor. Every site we build hits the green-band thresholds for mobile and desktop before launch — measured, not guessed at.

Mobile-First

Over 60% of UK web traffic comes from phones. We design and test on mobile first, then scale up — not the other way around.

WCAG 2.2 Accessible

The European Accessibility Act now applies to many UK businesses. We build accessible by default — colour contrast, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, alt text. No retrofitting required.

SEO from Day One

Title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, internal linking, sitemaps, page-speed tuning — all baked in. We do not bolt SEO on after launch as an upsell.

Local & Accountable

We are an Edinburgh business. You can call us, email us, or walk into the workshop. No offshore agency, no chasing tickets, no time-zone games.

You Own Everything

Domain, hosting, code, content — all in your name, all transferrable. We never lock you into a contract you can't leave.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about our website design and build service.

We build small business websites, ecommerce stores, landing pages, and bespoke web apps. Most projects are on WordPress or Shopify, but we also build custom sites in modern frameworks where the business case calls for it.

A simple business website with 5 to 8 pages typically takes 3 to 5 weeks from first conversation to launch. Larger ecommerce builds or custom sites take 6 to 12 weeks. We share a clear timeline at the quote stage.

Yes. We offer hosting, security updates, plugin maintenance, backups, and ongoing content tweaks on a monthly basis. You can also self-host if you prefer — we will hand over everything you need.

Yes. Every website we build is designed mobile-first. Over 60 percent of UK web traffic now comes from phones, and Google ranks the mobile version of your site for search. We test on real devices, not just emulators.

Yes. We build to WCAG 2.2 standards by default — proper colour contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text on images, semantic HTML. The European Accessibility Act now makes accessibility a legal requirement for many UK businesses, so getting this right from day one matters.

Yes. We hand over a written guide and a short walkthrough video showing how to update text, swap images, add blog posts, and manage products. Most clients are confident managing their own content within an hour of training.

Ready to start your website project?

Tell us what you have in mind. We will come back within one working day with next steps.