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Web design and WordPress development across Sussex

Custom WordPress websites for businesses across East Sussex and the UK. Designed around your customers, built to be found, and handed over so you can run them yourself.

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  1. 1What a build includes
  2. 2Divi, Elementor or a custom theme?
  3. 3Rebuilding an existing site

In short

Rockhopper Digital builds custom WordPress websites for businesses in East Sussex and across the UK, using Divi, Elementor or a custom theme. Every build includes technical SEO, responsive layouts and content you can edit yourself. Work is delivered directly by founder Martin Phillips, who has over 25 years of design experience.

Most small business websites fail for one of two reasons. Either they look the part and nobody can find them, or they rank perfectly well and nobody enquires. We build for both at once, because separating design from search is what creates that problem in the first place.

You work directly with Martin Phillips, a WordPress designer and developer with over 25 years of experience, from the first conversation through to launch. No account managers, no handoffs, no one learning your business twice.

What a build includes

Every site is built to the same standard, whether it is five pages or fifty. If you run a small business and want to know what that usually involves, see websites for small businesses.

  • A structure planned around what your customers actually search for, not around your internal org chart
  • Custom design in Divi, Elementor or a custom theme, depending on what the project needs
  • Responsive layouts tested on real devices, not just a browser window dragged narrower
  • Technical SEO built in from the start: clean URLs, structured data, fast loading, proper heading order
  • Content you can edit yourself, with training so you actually will
  • Enquiry forms that record every submission server-side and track as conversions in GA4

Divi, Elementor or a custom theme?

There is no single right answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling what they already know how to build.

Page builders such as Divi and Elementor make sense when you want to make substantial layout changes yourself after launch. A custom theme makes sense when performance matters more than editing flexibility, or when the design needs to do something a builder cannot. We work in all three and will tell you honestly which suits your project, including when the answer costs us less work.

Page builderDivi or ElementorCustom themeNo page builderMore freedomto change layouts yourselfMore speedand fully bespoke design
Neither is right for every site. The best choice depends on how much you will want to change the layout yourself after launch.

Rebuilding an existing site

A redesign is the most common way a business loses its search rankings. URLs change, redirects are missed, content is trimmed, and six months of traffic disappears the week the new site goes live.

We map every existing URL before anything is built, keep the content that earns traffic, and put redirects in place before launch rather than after. If your current site ranks for anything worth having, it still will afterwards.

One point of contact from start to finish

Martin Phillips, from the first conversation to launch day and after it.

Martin has over 25 years of design experience. He leads every project and stays your contact throughout, backed by a small team of SEO specialists and developers. There are no account managers, so nobody has to learn your business twice, and many clients have stayed with Rockhopper for years.

Martin at Rockhopper has been maintaining our sites for some time now and provides a highly professional service at a very fair price. I would have no hesitation in recommending Rockhopper.

Tim Kitching, Google review Rated 5.0 from 20 Google reviews

Where we work

Based in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, and working with businesses in Hastings, Bexhill-on-Sea, Battle, Eastbourne, Lewes, Rye, Tunbridge Wells and Kent. Clients elsewhere in the UK, and in the US, Canada and South Africa, work with us in exactly the same way.

Common questions

How much does a website cost?

A small business site typically runs from a few thousand pounds, depending on the number of pages, whether e-commerce or membership functionality is needed, and how much of the content you are supplying. We quote a fixed price after an initial conversation, so there are no hourly surprises.

How long does a build take?

Most business websites take six to ten weeks from brief to launch. The variable is almost always content. Projects where the copy and images are ready move quickly; projects waiting on content do not.

Can I update the website myself?

Yes. Every site is built so you can edit text, images, pages and posts without touching code, and we run a handover session so you know how. If you would rather not, ongoing support is available.

Do you work with businesses outside East Sussex?

Regularly. We are based in Robertsbridge and work with clients locally and across the UK. Most of the process happens by video call and email either way.

Will a redesign damage my existing SEO?

Not if it is planned properly. We audit the current site first, identify which pages earn traffic, preserve that content and put a full redirect map in place before launch. Rankings are protected by preparation, not by luck.

Also from Rockhopper

SEO and local search across Sussex Search optimisation for businesses that need to be found locally. Technical fixes, content that answers real queries, and a Google… Read more E-commerce websites: WooCommerce and Shopify Online shops built on WooCommerce or Shopify, designed around the buying decision rather than the product database. Read more Website maintenance and WordPress support Website maintenance plans for WordPress sites: updates applied and tested, backups verified, security watched, and a person to call when… Read more

From our Insights

Every project starts with a conversation.

Send a message, or call for a proper conversation. Either way, you’ll be talking to Martin.

Based in
Robertsbridge, East Sussex

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