Websites · 5 min read
Colne Valley businesses sell further than their websites let them
The Colne Valley — Golcar, Milnsbridge, Linthwaite, Slaithwaite — has an unusual density of makers, joiners, small manufacturers and specialist trades. Most of them sell to whoever walks past or hears about them, because their website has no product or service pages for anyone further away to find.
By Raja Wahab, Co-founder, Fixby Studios · Updated
A maker economy with a village marketing plan
The valley's textile history left behind workshops, mills and a culture of making things properly. Golcar alone has a population approaching nineteen thousand and the Colne Valley Museum keeps the heritage visible. What's missing is the modern equivalent of the market stall: pages that let someone in Leeds, Manchester or London find the work.
What holds valley businesses back online
- One homepage and a contact form — nothing else for search to grip on to.
- Photography that undersells genuinely good work.
- No stated lead times, delivery area or starting prices, so distant buyers don't enquire.
- Everything on Instagram, where the work vanishes down the feed in a week.
The fix is structural, not cosmetic
A page for each thing you make or do, each answering what it is, what it costs to start, how long it takes and where you deliver. That's what makes a business findable outside a five-mile radius, and it's the same work whether you're a joiner or a ceramicist.
Local still matters too
Selling wider doesn't mean abandoning the valley. Keep the Google Business Profile sharp and the village named on the page — then let the product pages do the long-distance work.
For makers, trades and independents across the valley.
Raja Wahab is co-founder of Fixby Studios, a Huddersfield studio building websites, SEO, social media and business software for small, owner-managed businesses across West Yorkshire.
Want this handled for you?
Fixby Studios builds websites, runs SEO and manages social media for small businesses across Huddersfield and West Yorkshire.