Web Design in Des Moines, Washington

Small business website advice, Des Moines edition

Ever since 1959, Des Moines has built up more than half a century of businesses, families and habits. Long-established places reward businesses that feel familiar: people want to know who they are dealing with and how long the business has been open. Just opened? Then the website has to do what years of reputation does for the older names: show the work, the people and the prices.

Des Moines is on Interstate 5, so some of the people looking for food, fuel, lodging and repairs are just passing through. Travelers search from the road, decide fast and will not call to ask what you have. Say which exit and how to get there from the highway on the contact page, and keep the hours right. The website is where that turns into a decision, so it pays to get the basics right.

Look at what Des Moines does for a living: 19.6% of employed residents work in education, health care and social assistance, 14.1% in professional, management and administrative services. A city’s work pattern tells you when customers have time to look you up, and what they want to read first. Make your hours impossible to miss, and say which days you are open late if you do. That is the work a small business website does well: answering the first questions before anyone has to ask.

Reading the Des Moines customer

About 26.0% of Des Moines’s people were born abroad. Clear wording and good photos help every customer, wherever they grew up. 10.0% of commuters travel an hour or more each way. A website that answers questions after hours is more useful to them than an office phone.

Half the homes in Des Moines were built before 1974. That means steady demand for repairs and renovations.

93.4% of households have a broadband subscription. A business without a website loses that first look.

Towns near Des Moines your website can name

The closest municipalities to Des Moines are Normandy Park (3.3 miles), SeaTac (3.9 miles) and Kent (4.9 miles). A 25-mile radius around Des Moines takes in 50 other municipalities. Seattle, seat of King County, lies 16 miles to the north. The city spreads over 6.4 square miles of land and 1.0 square miles of water, with roughly 5,150 people per square mile. Naming Kent, SeaTac and the other places you cover on a service area page tells customers outside Des Moines that you work there too.

Local competition in Des Moines

ZIP code 98198, mostly within Des Moines, had 653 employer establishments in the 2023 count. Some of the businesses behind that number:

• Cleaning services, 22 in the count. What works online: what each cleaning includes, the areas you cover and a quote request form.
• Hotels and motels, 11 in the count. What works online: rooms, photos, location and a contact form, so travelers can compare you outside the booking apps.
• Beauty salons, 11 in the count. What works online: services, the stylists, photos of their work and a way to ask for an appointment.
• Child care centers, 11 in the count. What works online: ages served, hours, tuition or fees and how to schedule a tour.
• Pharmacies, 7 in the count. What works online: hours, services such as vaccines, the insurance you accept and a map.

King County as a whole had 70,376 employer establishments in 2023 and another 193,904 nonemployer businesses, the one-person shops and independent contractors that often have no website at all. By number of employer establishments, professional, scientific and technical services leads in King County (15.7%), followed by health care and social assistance (12.5%) and construction (9.6%). Every one of them is a search away from a customer in Des Moines.

Des Moines in figures

Household incomes in Des Moines track the state: a median of $92,483, against $98,141 for Washington. The typical resident is 38.0 years old, versus 38.3 statewide. Des Moines counts 11,925 households; 60.6% own their home. Housing costs: a median home value of $597,000 and a median rent of $1,799 a month, against $564,600 and $1,760 in Washington.

Little has changed in the head count: 32,890 in 2020, 33,032 in 2025. That compares with +3.8% for Washington as a whole. Without much growth, the customers are mostly the same people every year; the website is how they remember you.

Hot months, wet months: Des Moines through the year

By the 1991-2020 normals of the Seattle Tacoma International Airport weather station (3.9 miles from Des Moines), August highs average 78°F and December lows average 37°F. Precipitation totals about 39 inches a year, with November the wettest month. Mild weather stretches the outdoor season: landscaping, outdoor dining and recreation have a long season. Give seasonal work its own page, so the right page is there when the weather turns.

A web designer for Des Moines businesses, working online

Based in Curitiba, Brazil, Aria has been building business websites since 2008. There is no Aria office in Des Moines, and you don’t need one: sign-up, material and approval all happen online.

1. Sign up online in about 5 minutes; the logo, photos and texts you already have go by email.
2. Review the website on a temporary link, ready within 5 business days, and request any changes.
3. Approve it, pay the first month, and the website goes live on your domain together with your business email.

Changes after launch go by email and are included, and so do quick questions.

Before you publish: Washington and federal rules

A website doesn’t need a special license, but the business behind it follows the same Washington rules as any other.

• A federal rule (16 CFR Part 465) makes it unlawful to write, buy or sell fake reviews and testimonials, so the reviews on a business website have to be real. 16 CFR Part 465
• Local business tax receipts in Washington can come from the county and, inside city or town limits, from the municipality: for you, King County and Des Moines. Official source
• Washington’s state retail sales tax rate is 6.5%, with a local rate added depending on the city or county. Washington State Department of Revenue
• Out-of-state sellers have to collect Washington sales tax once they reach the state threshold: More than $100,000 in combined gross receipts sourced or attributed to Washington in the current or prior year (the 200-transaction test was removed in 2019). Official source

This is general information, not legal advice. Your county, your city hall or an attorney can confirm what applies to you.