WebOws Design

Web Design in Chatham for a Town in the Middle of Change

Chatham is being rebuilt around the waterfront and the university campus. I build websites for the businesses trading through it. Fixed prices from £800, live in two to four weeks.

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★★★★★ Rated 5.0 across 160 public reviews, and a certified Wix Legend Partner

200+ projects / 10 years building / 2–4 weeks to launch

Local coverage

Why Chatham businesses need more than a template

Chatham is the commercial centre of Medway and the one changing fastest. The Historic Dockyard pulls in visitors from well outside the county, the university campus at Chatham Maritime brings thousands of students and staff, the Pentagon anchors the retail end, and the waterfront has been under regeneration for years with more of it still to come.

That gives you an unusually mixed customer base for one town. A cafe near the Dockyard is serving tourists in August and almost nobody in February. A takeaway near the campus lives and dies by term dates. A trade business three streets back is serving the same residential roads it always has, regardless of either of them.

So the honest answer to what your website should say depends entirely on which of those you are. The mistake I see most often is a site written as though Chatham were one single market, when in practice it is at least three sitting on top of each other, running on completely different rhythms.

There is also a real gap opening between the businesses that have adapted and the ones that have not. Chatham has more visible competition than the other Medway towns, and more of it is now genuinely decent. Turning up with a site built in 2018 is far more noticeable here than it would be in Rainham or Strood.

What tends to work here

Opening hours that reflect term and season
Naming Chatham Maritime and Luton
Parking spelled out, the centre is confusing
Booking or ordering that works on a phone
Reviews up front, competition is visible
Photos of the real premises, not stock

Who this is for

The Chatham businesses I build for

Hospitality & food

Cafes, restaurants, takeaways and bars serving the Dockyard visitors, the campus and the town centre. Hours, location and a booking or ordering link do more work than anything decorative, and they shift with the season.

Town centre retail

Shops in and around the Pentagon and the High Street, competing with Bluewater and with online. Being findable for specific products, and being obviously open, is most of the battle before anyone walks in.

Trades & construction

Builders, electricians and fit-out firms working across the regeneration sites and the residential streets behind them. Steady year-round work that does not care about tourists or term dates in the slightest.

What to fix

What a Chatham site usually leaves out

Written for one market

A site aimed at everybody in a town with tourists, students and residents on completely different clocks ends up speaking clearly to none of them. Pick the one that actually pays your bills and write for them.

Nothing about parking

Chatham town centre is genuinely confusing to drive into and park in. Sites that never mention where to park, or which car park is nearest, lose visitors who simply give up and go somewhere easier.

Ignoring term and season

Term dates and tourist season swing trade here more than in the other Medway towns, and almost no local site reflects it. The homepage says the same thing in August as in January, which is wrong half the year.

Sitting still while others move

Competition here is more visible and more capable than in the neighbouring towns. A site that was fine five years ago now sits beside several that have been rebuilt since, and the comparison is not flattering.

What I do

What I build for Chatham businesses

Two services, shaped around what the business actually needs.

Web Design

A custom site, never a template, designed around what your Chatham business actually needs, built to load fast and rank.

From £800

SEO

Getting that site found once it exists, on Google, in the local pack, and increasingly in AI answers.

From £300

What it costs

What a Chatham website costs, on one scale

The three build packages against the same scale, so you can see where each one starts and where they meet.

WebOws Editor

£800 to £1,000. A straightforward service or brochure site.

WebOws Studio

£1,000 to £1,300. Fully responsive design, my default recommendation.

WebOws Performance

On application, for businesses where the website is core infrastructure.

Timings

How long a Chatham project actually takes

Before the clock starts

Discovery & quote

A call, competitors, then a fixed price agreed before anything starts.

2 to 4 weeks

Design & build

Where the whole build sits, brochure at the short end, ecommerce at the long one.

Launch day

Launch

Testing, SEO checks, analytics and email all done before it goes live.

30 days included

Support

Then ad-hoc whenever needed. Some clients come back years later.

Proof, not promises

160five-star reviews

Every one left by a real client on Google, Facebook, Trustpilot or Wix. Nothing here is a quote I chose because it flattered me.

Read the reviews See them on Google →

Questions

Chatham web design questions

Do you work with Chatham businesses?+

Constantly. I'm in Gillingham, about ten minutes away, and Chatham is one of the towns I know best. Meeting in person is easy if you'd prefer that to email.

Most of my trade is students. Can a website help with that?+

Yes, and it's badly underused locally. Students arrive every September with no local knowledge and search for everything on a phone. A site that answers hours, prices and location instantly does very well with them.

Do you cover Chatham Maritime and Luton?+

Yes, along with Walderslade and Wayfield. Chatham Maritime in particular behaves like a separate market to the town centre, and your site should reflect that rather than lumping them together.

What does a website cost?+

From £800, with a fixed quote agreed before anything starts. No hourly billing and nothing on the invoice you have not already approved.

Can you handle online ordering or bookings?+

Yes. It adds time to the build and I'll say so at quote stage rather than discovering it halfway through, but for food and hospitality here it usually pays for itself quickly.

Nearby

Areas near Chatham we also cover

Most Chatham enquiries come with work just over the boundary, so these are the neighbouring areas we cover most often.

GillinghamRochesterStrood All areas →

From the blog

How Much Does a Website Cost in the UK?

The pricing tiers, what moves the number, and why £800 to £3,000 is the sweet spot.

How to Get Your Business on Google Maps

A step-by-step guide to showing up when locals search, and climbing the local pack.

Let's talk

Let's talk about your
Chatham website

Tell me what your business needs and I will tell you honestly what would help, and what wouldn't. Free consultation, no pressure, no jargon.

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