Web Design in Scranton, Pennsylvania

What a web designer should know about Scranton

The county government of Lackawanna County sits in Scranton; county business brings people into town every weekday. Lackawanna County counted 216,502 residents in 2025, spread over 19 municipalities. Visitors who come in for county business usually need something else while they are here: lunch, a copy shop, a notary, a mechanic. Put the address, parking and the hours on every page; a visitor from out of town wants to plan the trip. That is the work a small business website does well: saying the obvious things clearly.

Households in Scranton have a median income of $50,739 (Pennsylvania: $77,971), and the median rent is $1,048. Value decides many choices here, so clarity about cost wins customers. Show prices, or at least how you price, and say what is included; nobody has to call to find out. With those details in place, the rest of the website can stay simple.

Scranton is on Interstate 81 and Interstate 476, so some of the people looking for food, fuel, lodging and repairs are just passing through. Highway traffic brings freight: trucking, repair, towing and truck services work for customers from far away. A page with the services, the hours and a map is all a driver has time for. The site is where that gets settled, so it pays to get the basics right.

Sizing up the Scranton market

49.9% of the city’s 30,247 households own the place they live in. The median home value is $158,100 and the median gross rent is $1,048 a month (Pennsylvania: $254,500 and $1,209).

The count is steady: 76,169 in 2020, 75,514 in 2025. That compares with +0.4% for Pennsylvania as a whole. In a stable market, reputation matters, and a website lets customers check yours at any hour.

Website design for the people of Scranton

Nonprofits employ 12.8% of Scranton’s working residents. Organizations hire vendors they can vet online, so a clear services page helps.

Scranton is one of 19 municipalities in Lackawanna County, a county of 216,502 people. For a city as small as Scranton, the county figures are more reliable: households have a median income of $66,223, and half the residents are older than 41.9. Broadband reaches 87.5% of homes, and 12.7% of households are online only through a phone plan. 65.4% of households own their home.

A year of weather in Scranton

By the 1991-2020 normals of the Wilkes-Barre International Airport weather station (5.8 miles from Scranton), July highs average 85°F and January lows average 20°F. Precipitation adds up to about 39 inches a year, falling on about 80 days with a tenth of an inch or more. The high reaches 90°F or more on about 12 days a year. Winter reshuffles demand: snow removal, heating and ice-dam repairs in the cold months, yard work and construction once it thaws. Update the homepage before your busy season: send the changes by email a few weeks ahead.

The roads, towns and places around Scranton

The closest municipalities to Scranton are Taylor (2.6 miles west), Dunmore (3.2 miles east), Moosic (3.9 miles southwest) and Throop (4.5 miles northeast). A 25-mile radius around Scranton takes in 62 other municipalities. Scranton lies on the Lackawanna River and Lake Scranton. The nearest large city is Paterson, NJ, 85 miles to the southeast. A service area page that lists the towns you cover, from Scranton to Taylor and Throop, answers the first question many customers have: do you come to me?

The Scranton business count, sector by sector

ZIP codes 18503, 18510, 18505, 18509, 18508, 18504, mostly within Scranton, had 1,876 employer establishments in the 2023 count. Some of the local businesses in that count:

• 86 law offices: practice areas on separate pages, the attorneys and a contact form for a first conversation.
• 70 quick-service restaurants: the menu with prices, hours and the closest cross streets.
• 98 physician practices: office hours, locations and what to bring to a first visit.
• 22 child care centers: ages served, hours, tuition or fees and how to schedule a tour.
• 33 beauty salons: a price list, a gallery of recent work and a contact form for appointment requests by email.
• 11 auto body shops: photos of repairs, how you handle insurance claims and a form to request an estimate.

Across Lackawanna County, County Business Patterns counted 5,198 employer establishments in 2023, and the Nonemployer Statistics add 14,138 businesses with no payroll, most of them self-employed owners. By number of employer establishments, health care and social assistance leads in Lackawanna County (15.6%), followed by retail trade (15.6%) and accommodation and food services (10.9%). The jobs Scranton residents hold are mostly in education, health care and social assistance (26.9%) and retail trade (13.7%). Every one of them is a search away from a customer in Scranton.

How Aria builds a Scranton website

Aria is a web design company based in Curitiba, Brazil, building websites, online stores and business email since 2008. Nobody from Aria will visit: material and questions travel by email, and you approve the website on a temporary link.

1. Fill in the sign-up form (about 5 minutes) and send your material by email.
2. Within 5 business days you get a temporary link with the whole website, built on a proven template with your brand.
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.

Pennsylvania rules to know before your website goes live

A few rules apply to any Scranton business that sells or advertises online:

• Municipal requirements are separate: check with the local municipality about taxes, zoning requirements, local licenses and permits. In Scranton, that means asking Lackawanna County and the City of Scranton. Official source
• Any individual, sole proprietorship, corporation, partnership or other entity conducting business in Pennsylvania under a name other than its own real or proper name must register that fictitious name with the Pennsylvania Department of State (Form DSCB:54-311, $70). If an individual is listed on the registration, newspaper advertising is also required. Registration creates no exclusive right to the name, and failing to register can bar the business from enforcing contracts in Pennsylvania courts (54 Pa.C.S. § 331). Fictitious Names Act of 1982, 54 Pa.C.S. §§ 301 et seq. (registration under § 311)
• Fake or bought reviews are illegal under a federal rule in force since 2024 (16 CFR Part 465): post only real ones. 16 CFR Part 465
• The Pennsylvania sales tax rate is 6 percent. Only two local add-ons exist: 1 percent in Allegheny County and 2 percent in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Department of Revenue
• Under ADA Title III, a business open to the public should make its website usable by people with disabilities, according to the Justice Department’s guidance. ADA.gov guidance

This is general information, not legal advice; check with the Pennsylvania agencies, Lackawanna County, the city of Scranton or an attorney.