Hove does independents brilliantly. Delis and boutiques along Church Road, cafés and barbers on George Street and Portland Road, studios tucked behind Western Road, and plenty of trades and therapists working out of the streets in between.
Hove customers are loyal, but they're choosy, and almost all of them look you up before they visit. Here's what they're looking for.
Your phone is the front door
People search on the move: walking up from Hove Lawns, killing time at Hove station, or wondering where to eat after a stroll past the beach huts. They want your hours, where you are and what you offer, fast.
If your website makes them pinch and zoom, or hides your opening hours three pages deep, they'll pick the next place in the results.
If they have to hunt for your hours, they'll find someone else's.
Look as considered as your shop
Hove's best independents put real care into how they look, from the shopfront to the coffee cup. A tired template website undoes all of that before anyone walks through the door.
Your website should feel like stepping into your place: your colours, your photos, your way of talking. If your Instagram has more personality than your site, that's the gap to close.
Say Hove, not just Brighton
Plenty of people search for "Hove" specifically, not "Brighton". If your website only mentions Brighton, you can miss them. Mention Hove naturally, along with the areas you actually serve, whether that's Church Road, Aldrington, West Blatchington or out towards Portslade.
Do the same in your Google page titles. "Florist in Hove" says far more to Google, and to a customer, than just your business name.
Your Google Business Profile does half the work
When someone types "coffee near me" on George Street, the map results come from Google Business Profiles. Keep yours complete, with correct hours, real photos, the right category and a link to your website.
Make sure your name, phone and website match exactly between your profile and your site, and ask happy customers for reviews. In a neighbourhood like Hove, word of mouth now happens on Google too.
In Hove, word of mouth now happens on Google too.
Make it easy to say yes
Whatever you want people to do, make it one tap: book a table, book an appointment, call for a quote, find you on the map. Put it at the top of every page, not buried at the bottom.
Folks Barbershop on Portland Road is a good example. Book Now sits on every page, and the website is now the main way customers book.
Most of these fixes are quick, and you can do several of them yourself this afternoon.
If you'd rather hand it over, STKR Studio is a small web design studio just along the road in Brighton. We build websites from scratch for independent businesses, write the words, handle the local search setup and look after everything once you're live.