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St. Louis, MO · Web Design
St. Louis Web Design: Hold Your Own Beside Established Employers
A web design company in St. Louis starts with the people and businesses the site will serve, and established employers are common in St. Louis. GetPhound has built and launched more than 500 websites, each custom-built on WordPress with design mockups and a project lead.
Numbers for this market
How Crowded Is the Small Business Field in St. Louis?
Local Website Competition Index
35.8/ 100
Number 1,294 out of 1,822 counties that have at least 20,000 residents, and 388 among the 400 markets on this website. On a scale of 0 to 100, a higher score means more small businesses per resident and a field that is changing faster. The calculation, step by step
We score each U.S. county-equivalent with 20,000 or more residents on the number of small local businesses, the kind that depend on a small-business website, per resident and the pace at which more are opening. St. Louis scores 35.8, which is quieter than most.
Two things stand out about St. Louis: it is rich in established employers, and it is barely growing, or even shrinking. Below, every measure gets its own tile, so you can see which ones drive the score.
- Small shops per 10,000 residents (under 10 employees) 35.5 Outranks 60% of counties
- Net change in employer locations of every kind, 2017 to 2022 -0.4% Falls behind 73% of counties
- Tiny shops: locations with under 5 employees, share 52.8% Falls behind 80% of counties
- Established players: locations with 20+ employees, share 16.9% Beats 99% of counties
- Headcount trend since 2020 -6.6% Lags 99% of counties
- Median household income, 2023 estimate $55,231 Sits below 81% of counties
- Homes permitted last year per 10,000 residents (2025) 9.7 Sits below 82% of counties
Each bar marks where St. Louis sits among all 1,822 counties of 20,000 or more people. Built from: Census population estimates, County Business Patterns (2017 and 2022), SAIPE income estimates and building permit data.
What stands out
Competing With Bigger Local Names in St. Louis
A larger share of St. Louis's local businesses are established: 16.9% of locations in our business types employ 20 or more people, ahead of 99% of counties. If you are the smaller shop in that picture, your website is the place to look just as organized and reachable as the bigger names.
Home to 281,754 residents (number 252 of 3,143 U.S. counties), St. Louis is down 6.6% since the 2020 Census.
St. Louis is dense, and customers describe where they are by neighborhood as much as by the city name. A site that names the neighborhoods you serve, with directions and parking where they apply, is useful to a visitor who is already nearby.
Turning the data into a plan
What a Law Firm Website Needs in St. Louis
The law offices category has the thickest small-business field in St. Louis, so the site has a specific job to do. A law firm website carries a lot of the first impression: practice-area pages that spell out things in plain language, attorney profiles with real photos, and an easy way to request a consultation do the work a referral would.
A site is also what search engines and AI tools read about your business, so we build it with tidy code, fast pages and a clear structure; speed, reliability and security can all affect how it performs in search. Nobody can promise a ranking.
Your competition
Who Else Is Competing for Attention Online in St. Louis
Start with the table: for each of fifteen categories it shows how many locations St. Louis has, how thickly the small ones are packed compared with a typical county, how the count moved over the period, and how many have 20 or more staff. Keep it beside you when you weigh web design in St. Louis.
Kind of businessHow many locationsHow thickly small shops sit versus a typical countyGrowth or decline 2017 to 2022Larger locations (20+ staff)
Law officesMost crowded 247 -15.7% 30
Roofing contractors 24 -14.3% 3
Full-service restaurants 333 -6.5% 121
Janitorial services 69 +38% 15
Physicians offices 170 +17.2% 34
Beauty salons 58 +16% 0
Real estate agents and brokersSmallest shops 95 +20.3% 3
General automotive repair 72 -16.3% 3
Residential remodelersFastest growing 81 +42.1% 0
Dentists 64 -7.2% 0
Insurance agencies and brokerages 92 -5.2% 0
Landscaping services 55 +31% 3
Accounting and CPA firms 23 -23.3% 7
Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractorsLeast crowded 60 +9.1% 23
Electrical contractors 31 -26.2% 7
Crowding is locations with fewer than 10 employees per 10,000 residents, divided by the same figure for the median U.S. county of at least 20,000 residents. The dark tick on each bar marks 1.0x, the typical county. County Business Patterns establishments for 2017 and 2022; they say nothing about websites. Method
Of the fifteen business types, the law offices category is the most crowded with small businesses in St. Louis, at 2.6x the typical county (189 of 247 locations have fewer than ten employees, down 15.7% since 2017). Also denser than usual: full-service restaurants (133 small locations, 1.7x) and janitorial services (47 small locations, 1.6x). At the other end, the plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors category sits below typical density at 0.5x, so a new site there faces fewer lookalikes.
Growth has been quickest in residential remodelers: 42.1% more locations since 2017, now 81, which means fresh competing sites keep arriving. The heaviest concentration of 20-plus staff locations is in plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, at 23 of 60 (38%).
Remember what this measures. It counts business locations from Census data. It says nothing about site quality, traffic or results, so use it to understand the size of the field, not to forecast a return.
Markets like this one
Which Markets Look Most Like St. Louis?
Of the 400 markets on this website, these six are the best matches for St. Louis. The match blends size, income, small-business density, established employers, the number of towns and building activity.
| Place | Score | People | Since 2020 | Employer locations since 2017 | Small-business density |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis, MO (this page) | 35.8 | 281,754 | -6.6% | -0.4% | 35.5 |
| Newport News, VA | 34.8 | 183,118 | -1.7% | +0.2% | 33.4 |
| Norfolk, VA | 31 | 230,930 | -3% | +0.4% | 31.9 |
| Richmond County, GA | 33.1 | 205,414 | -0.6% | -0.4% | 31.4 |
| Orleans Parish, LA | 48.7 | 364,136 | -5.2% | +5.7% | 45 |
| Vanderburgh County, IN | 30.4 | 179,810 | -0.2% | +0.2% | 40.3 |
| Kalamazoo County, MI | 35.7 | 262,215 | +0.2% | +0.3% | 30.6 |
Look-alikes are chosen from our 400 markets by weighing size, income, density of small employers, established employers, number of places and building activity. Sources are those listed above.
Closest on paper: Newport News, VA, at 34.8 against St. Louis's 35.8. The most distant of the six is Orleans Parish, LA, at 48.7. If you are weighing a custom WordPress website for your St. Louis business, treat the table as a picture of how alike the competition is, not as a forecast for your site.
Where demand is heading
St. Louis Building Permits: 2022 Was the High, but This Year Is Picking Up
Housing units that received building permits. Data: Census Bureau permit files by county. Permits are approvals, not finished homes.
Permits in St. Louis peaked at 1,176 units in 2022; 2025 brought 272, about 77% less. Even so, 2025 equals 9.7 units per 10,000 residents, a lower rate than 82% of counties. Eight months into 2026, 219 units have been permitted, compared with 191 over the same eight months of 2025 (+14.7%).
Among construction-linked categories, roofing contractors (2.0x typical) and real estate agents and brokers (1.3x typical) carry the most small-business competition in St. Louis. A website takes weeks to plan, design and build, so the time to start is before new households arrive and begin looking up providers.
Try your own numbers
Work Out Whether a New Website Pays Back for You
Whether a new website pays off in St. Louis depends on your numbers, not an average. Type in your quote and figures to see how many extra customers cover the build and hosting.
What goes into the website
What Goes Into a Custom WordPress Website for St. Louis
Project manager and developers
A dedicated project lead and developers stay on your build from the opening call through launch, and support comes from a U.S.-based team.
Fast, clean, structured
We build with tidy code and a structure that search engines can read. Page speed, reliability and security can affect SEO, and plain pages are also easier for AI tools to read. About RankGuarantee™.
Kept running, and yours
The site is yours, with complete control and access, and it is hosted on managed WordPress with monitoring and kept updated and patched for you. About hosting and website maintenance.
Web design in St. Louis, website design, a web design company, a custom WordPress site: different names for the same job of building a site that is fast, straightforward and built for your customers.
How it works
How Website Design Works for St. Louis Businesses
From the opening call to launch, most websites take about four to six weeks.
Discovery
The first conversation covers your goals, any special functionality you need and the styles you like.
Planning
The project manager sits down with the developers and converts the discovery notes into an action plan for the site, so nobody starts designing from guesswork.
Build the website
The developers build a first draft from the approved design mockups on WordPress. You review it, we revise it, and we prepare for launch.
Go live
Before the site goes live we run a final round of testing across browsers and devices. After a standalone launch you receive a training video.
Quotes and plans
What a Website Costs in St. Louis: Plans and Pricing
A website's cost comes down to scope: how many pages, which features and how much content. So we quote each project after a short call instead of posting one price. Set up a call with our CEO.
Website project, no plan required
It stands alone, with no plan to buy. The build covers mockups, a custom WordPress build, up to 30 development hours, a dedicated project manager and a training video after launch. More on website design.
Bundled into Organic Growth Gold and Platinum
Gold and Platinum include a custom-built site with hosting and maintenance, fully managed for you, alongside RankGuarantee™ landing pages, content and AI search work. Silver is the one plan without a site. There is no setup fee and no contract, only month-to-month plans. See how the plans work.
Questions
Your Questions About Websites in St. Louis, Answered
How much ought to I expect to pay for a new website in St. Louis?
The answer depends on scope: how many pages you need, which features it must have (bookings, forms, an online store, a member area) and how much writing and photography has to be produced. We do not post a flat price, so after a short call with our CEO you get a custom quote for your project. A typical build runs about four to six weeks, opening call to launch. If you select Organic Growth Gold or Platinum, a fully managed custom website is included.
How long does it take to build a website in St. Louis?
Expect about four to six weeks start to finish. There are four stages: discovery, planning, development and launch, including a first pass for your review and a round of edits. With law offices this crowded in St. Louis, launching before your busy stretch is worth planning for.
Is St. Louis a competitive market for small business websites?
Not as much as most. St. Louis scores 35.8 on our Local Website Competition Index, sitting at 1294th of 1,822 counties with 20,000+ residents, and 388th among the 400 markets on this website. The category with the most small-business competition is law offices, at 2.6 times the typical county. There is more space here for a well-built site to stand out. When you evaluate a web design company in St. Louis, keep this field in mind.
Which kinds of local businesses crowd the field in St. Louis?
The top three categories by location count in St. Louis are full-service restaurants (333), law offices (247) and physicians offices (170). Against a typical county, the most crowded with small businesses are law offices (2.6x) and full-service restaurants (1.7x). How large a category is says how many other sites a visitor may weigh against yours, and nothing about how yours will do.
Will I own my website, and who will I work with?
You do own it, with complete access and control, so there is no renting it from us. A dedicated project lead and developers stay with you from the opening call through launch, and our U.S.-based team supports you afterward.
Who keeps the site running after it goes live?
Hosting is managed WordPress with updates and monitoring. Maintenance means updating WordPress, themes and plugins on schedule, patching security issues the moment updates come out, running a post-update check after routine updates, and reviewing content a few times a year. Your domain name is a separate purchase, managed apart from hosting.
Will a new website help my business show up in search and in AI answers?
It builds a better foundation. We build sites with well-organized code and a structure made for SEO, and page speed, reliability and security can affect SEO. To go further, we add RankGuarantee™ local landing pages and, in Organic Growth, AI search (GEO) work. Neither a ranking nor an AI mention can be promised by anyone, and we promise neither.
Do I need an Organic Growth plan to get a website?
Not at all. You can buy a website on its own. Gold and Platinum Organic Growth plans include a fully managed custom website, hosting and maintenance, and Silver is the plan without a website. Each plan is month to month, and none charges a setup fee.
Can my site cover the neighborhoods of St. Louis, not just the city as a whole?
Yes, it can. The structure can include pages for the neighborhoods and surrounding areas you serve, and your address, hours and directions stay consistent throughout. It is planned up front, in discovery and planning, before anything is designed.
Nearby
Building Websites Near St. Louis Too
Some customers live past the edge of St. Louis. These neighbors are ordered by distance from county center to county center:
- St. Louis County, MO lies 11 miles out, with 987,059 people and an index score of 68.4
- St. Clair County, IL sits 21 miles away, with 251,018 residents and an index score of 48.5
- Madison County, IL lies 23 miles off, with 262,752 residents and an index score of 54.4
- Monroe County, IL sits 25 miles off, with 34,957 people and an index score of 64
Sources and method
The Sources Behind This St. Louis Page
Client accounts played no part in this page. It is built from public Census Bureau files and one formula applied to all counties, so St. Louis can be set next to any other. We publish no traffic, ranking or conversion results from GetPhound sites either, because outcomes differ by business.
- RefreshedOctober 19, 2026
- SourcesCensus population estimates for 2023, County Business Patterns for 2017 and 2022, the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates for 2023, building permit files covering 2021 through 2026 to date, plus Gazetteer files for county centers.
- How it is definedThe exact calculation of the Local Website Competition Index plus all of the derived numbers are written out on the methodology page. See where each market lands in the index.
- CorrectionsTell us at hello@getphound.com and we will verify it against the original data.
Start a Conversation
Let's Talk About St. Louis Web Design for Your Business
What does your business sell, and which part of St. Louis ought to it reach? Our CEO will go over your site on a short call before quoting it. You can reach us at 610-825-4363 or hello@getphound.com. Weighing web design in St. Louis against other options? A short call is the quickest way to compare.