Web design · Wigan
Web design in Wigan, built on spec.
I am Jake, and I build websites for Wigan businesses on spec, so you see the finished site for your trade before you pay the rest. From £297, live in seven days, on your own domain from day one.
From £297, live in 7 days, on your own domain.
Web design in Wigan
I am Jake, and I run FORGE. I build websites for Wigan businesses, and I build them on spec, so you see the finished site for your trade before you pay the rest. It starts at £297, it is live within seven days, and it sits on your own domain from day one. This is web design Wigan businesses can actually judge on results, because you are looking at the real thing before you pay the rest. After that it is £49 a month to keep it running, or £129 if you want me pushing it up Google every month.
Wigan and Leigh are two towns, not one
On paper the borough gets treated as a single place. It is not, and anyone who lives here knows it. Wigan and Leigh pull in different directions and always have. Rugby league tells you most of what you need to know: Wigan Warriors and Leigh Leopards, two proud clubs, no love lost between the ends of the borough. A site that says “serving Wigan” to a customer in Leigh can quietly cost you the job, because plenty of people in Leigh do not think of themselves as Wigan at all and would rather ring someone who gets that. When I build for you, we name your actual patch. If you are Leigh, the site says Leigh. If you cover both, it says both, in the right order for who you most want calling.
The villages each back their own
Around the two towns sits a ring of old mining and mill villages, and each one keeps its own loyalty. Ashton-in-Makerfield, Hindley, Pemberton, Orrell, Aspull, Shevington, Golborne, Atherton, Tyldesley. Someone in Ashton looking for a tradesman is not really searching for “Wigan”, they are searching for someone who covers Ashton and will actually turn up. A generic borough-wide page treats all of that as one blob and hopes nobody notices. I build the service area properly, so the site reads like it was made by somebody who knows Hindley is not Orrell and does not pretend otherwise. That is the difference between looking local and being local, and around here people can tell.
Standish is a different job again
Standish is its own market and worth saying so out loud. It is the more affluent pocket of the borough, and the customer there behaves differently. More research, higher expectations, more likely to line up two or three quotes and judge you partly on how your website looks before they ever pick up the phone. If your work takes you up into Standish, or out to Shevington and Appley Bridge, the site has to carry that weight. A tidy, fast, well-photographed site does more of the selling for you in that market than it does in a quick-quote job down the road. I build with that in mind rather than stamping out one flat template for the whole borough and hoping it lands everywhere.
The town centre still trades on being found
Wigan town centre is still a proper high street. The Grand Arcade, Makinson Arcade, the market hall, the independents up Standishgate and King Street. If you run a shop, a salon, a cafe or a studio in town, footfall is only half your trade now. The other half is someone sat at home in Norley Hall or Marsh Green on a Thursday night, deciding where to go at the weekend, and they decide on their phone. A slow site, or no site, or a Facebook page nobody has touched since last spring, quietly loses you that person. I build the kind of site that turns a phone search into someone walking through your door, with your opening hours, your location and what you actually sell right where people are looking for it.
Built by someone who knows the place
Wigan has a strong sense of itself. The Pier and the Orwell book it lent its name to, the rugby, the pies, the accent people take the mickey out of and Wiganers wear with pride. You cannot fake that, and I do not try to. What I do instead is build you a site that behaves like a proper local business: quick to load, honest about where you actually work, easy to ring or message, and photographed with your own jobs rather than stock pictures of somebody else’s van in somebody else’s town. You own the domain and the site outright, with no lock-in, and that part is simply how it ought to be. What you are really paying for is a site that makes the phone ring across the towns and villages you cover. If that sounds like what you are after, message me and I will build you one on spec, so you can see it before you decide.
How it works
From message to live in four steps.
- 01
Message me
Tell me what you do and where you are on WhatsApp. No forms, no call to book.
- 02
£99 to start
A £99 deposit gets your build going and comes off your quote. It covers some of the build time.
- 03
I build it, you see it
I build the whole site, framed around your work, and send it to you finished to look at.
- 04
Pay the rest, go live
Happy with it? You pay the balance, it goes live on your own domain, and it is yours to keep.
What you get
What a site from me includes.
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Built on spec
I build it first and send it finished. You see the real thing before you decide, not a mock-up.
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Live in 7 days
From the go-ahead, your site is live within a week. No months of back and forth.
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On your own domain
It goes live in your name. You own the site and everything on it, with no lock-in.
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Genuinely fast
Static pages, no WordPress. Fast pages rank better and turn more visitors into calls.
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Found on Google
Built to be found in local search, with the plumbing done properly from day one.
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Looked after
Someone looks after it and changes it when you need. Two small edits a month, your listing kept current.
Who I build for
Trades and businesses in Wigan.
- Trades Own your leads instead of renting them off a directory. Built for emergency call-outs and high-ticket work, on your own domain, live in 7 days.
- Home services Get found for the jobs happening on your street. Visual, seasonal, recurring work, shown off and easy to book, live in 7 days on your own domain.
- Local business Fill the diary and drive footfall without paying per booking. Booking-led and occasion-led work, shown off and easy to choose, on a site you own.
What it costs
A straight price.
From £297 to build it, first three months of Care included, then £49 a month.
You own the site outright and can stop the monthly plan whenever you like. Hosting is part of Care and Grow, so one of those keeps it online after the first three months, or you host it yourself. See the full pricing.
Common questions
Questions I get asked.
Do you build for Leigh as well as Wigan?
Yes, and I treat Leigh as its own town, because it is one. If your customers are in Leigh, Atherton or Tyldesley, the site is written to speak to them rather than lumping them under Wigan. If you genuinely work both towns, we say so clearly and in the right order for who you want calling.
I cover a few villages, not just the town centre. Can the site handle that?
That is exactly how I build them. Your service area gets set out properly, so someone searching in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Hindley, Orrell or Pemberton can see you actually cover them. A page that just says "Wigan and surrounding areas" reads as lazy to the person living in the surrounding area.
I work up in Standish. Does that change anything?
A bit, yes. Standish tends to be a more research-led market, where people compare two or three businesses and judge you partly on how your site looks before they ring. I build with that in mind, cleaner and better photographed, so the site does more of the selling for you up there.
How much does a website cost?
It starts at £297 to build, and that includes the first three months of looking after it. After that it is £49 a month to host it, keep it running and make small edits when you need them. If you want me actively working to push you up Google every month, that step up is £129 a month.
Do I own the site, or am I locked in?
You own it. The domain and the site are yours from day one, and there is no long contract holding you in. The monthly fee is for hosting and upkeep, not for renting your own website back off me.
How quickly can it be live?
Seven days from the point we have your details and photos sorted. Because I build on spec, you also see the finished site for your business before you pay, so there is no guessing about what you are getting.
I tried a website before and it did nothing. Why would this be different?
Usually the old one was slow, hard to find, or built once and then forgotten. I build fast sites, set up so you can be found for the actual places you work, and I keep them maintained rather than handing over a dead file. You also see it working before you pay for it.
Tell me what you do and I'll build you a site on spec, so you can see it before you pay. See the full pricing, browse the work, or get in touch.