Website design for Sussex trades.

Sussex is not one market

A sole trader in Lancing and a kitchen fitter in Horsham are selling to completely different customers, and the website that works for one does not work for the other.

Lancing runs on word of mouth, so the site's job is to confirm a recommendation is real. Horsham customers get three quotes and research all three, so the site's job is to win a comparison. Brighton is design-literate and brutally competitive. Chichester has protected building stock and customers searching for specialists by name. Worthing has an older customer base that looks you up before they ring.

Most agencies sell all five of them the same five-page template with the town name swapped. That is also, not coincidentally, the pattern Google treats as spam.

Sitework is based in Sussex. That is not a marketing line, it changes the job: we know which towns have three good trades and which have thirty, we can meet in person if you would rather, and we are not writing about your patch from an office in another county.

The two halves of local search

Every local search result has two parts and they are won differently. The map pack at the top is powered by your Google Business Profile: verified address or service area, correct categories, real photos, and a steady flow of reviews. You do not own it, and Google can change or suspend it.

Underneath it are the organic results, and those are won by the website. Pages for the specific jobs you want, local business schema, fast loading on a phone, and content that actually answers the question. That half you own outright, and it is the half that still works when a directory puts its prices up.

Trades that have both beat trades that have one, every time. If you want the ongoing version of the second half, that is the local SEO plan, and it is entirely optional.