Web Design in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach up close: notes for a small business website

Myrtle Beach sits on the North Atlantic Ocean. Water also means weather, insurance and property work, and customers look for specialists. If your work is on or near the water, name the waters and areas you cover; it is what customers search for. That does not take a big website. It takes a clear one, with the details right.

Myrtle Beach has been around since 1936; that is more than half a century of local history. The city also keeps sister-city ties with Burlington (Canada), Pinamar (Argentina) and Killarney (Ireland). Customers in an older city usually ask around first, and the website is where they confirm what a neighbor told them. Put the year you opened and the names of the people behind it on the About page; a photo of the actual storefront or crew does more than any slogan. That is the work a small business website does well: saying the obvious things clearly.

Myrtle Beach’s working residents are concentrated in arts, entertainment, recreation, lodging and food service (18.6%) and education, health care and social assistance (17.7%). A city’s work pattern says when customers have time to look you up, and what they expect to find. Make your hours impossible to miss, and say which days you are open late if you do. The site is where that gets settled, so it pays to get the basics right.

How big is the Myrtle Beach market?

The median age is 47.3, against 40.2 for South Carolina. The median household income is $60,394, about 13% below the South Carolina median of $69,324. There are 17,623 households, and 60.5% of them own their home.

Myrtle Beach’s small businesses and what their websites need

ZIP code 29577, mostly within Myrtle Beach, had 2,612 employer establishments in the 2023 count. Among them:

• Gift and souvenir shops: 35. Their website should show what you carry, store hours and an online store for the same monthly fee.
• Hotels and motels: 90. Their website should show rooms, photos, location and a contact form, so travelers can compare you outside the booking apps.
• Real estate offices: 124. Their website should show market areas, how you work with buyers and sellers and a contact form.
• Full-service restaurants: 178. Their website should show the menu, the dining room, private-event information and the hours, kept current by email.
• Law offices: 83. Their website should show what kind of cases you take, where you practice and how a first consultation works.

In Horry County, the Census counted 10,550 businesses with employees and 35,545 without a payroll in 2023; the second group is where a simple, affordable website changes the most. The county’s largest sectors by number of employer establishments are retail trade (17.6%), accommodation and food services (13.3%) and construction (11.2%).

Myrtle Beach and its neighbors

Distances from Myrtle Beach: Surfside Beach (8.7 miles, pop. 4,392), Briarcliffe Acres (9.6 miles, pop. 585), Atlantic Beach (12 miles, pop. 472) and Conway (13 miles, pop. 30,627). The nearest large city is Wilmington, NC, 67 miles to the northeast. Myrtle Beach covers 23.4 square miles of land and 0.3 square miles of water, about 1,746 residents per square mile. The nearest airport with an IATA code is Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR), 3.2 miles southwest. Horry County’s county seat is Conway, 13 miles to the northwest. A service area page that lists the towns you cover, from Myrtle Beach to Surfside Beach and Atlantic Beach, answers the first question many customers have: do you come to me?

A year of weather in Myrtle Beach

Climate normals for 1991-2020 from Myrtle Beach Airport, 12 miles away, put the July average high at 88°F and the January average low at 37°F. Precipitation totals about 48 inches a year, with September the wettest month. The high reaches 90°F or more on about 21 days a year. Mild weather stretches the outdoor season: landscaping, outdoor dining and recreation stay busy for months. If you offer emergency or same-week service in bad weather, state it clearly and make the contact form fast to fill in.

Five years of change in Myrtle Beach

The population has grown every single year since 2020, from 35,972 to 40,937. Statewide, the change was +8.8%. New residents mean new customers who don’t have a favorite plumber, dentist or restaurant yet.

Website design Myrtle Beach: start with the customer

Newcomers shape Myrtle Beach: 56.5% of residents were born elsewhere in the U.S., mostly the South, and only 31.9% in South Carolina. Without a website, a business is invisible to the people who arrived last year. Myrtle Beach is a city of apartments: 40.0% of homes are in buildings with five or more units. Property managers and residents both look for contractors who know multifamily buildings.

Trips to work are short here: 45.8% take under 15 minutes. Short trips keep spending close to home, and customers pick the nearest business they can trust.

Self-employment is strong in Myrtle Beach: 13.7% of workers run their own business (9.9% statewide). For a one-person business, the website is the storefront, the brochure and the business card at once.

South Carolina rules to know before your website goes live

Selling or advertising online brings no special license, but a few apply to many Myrtle Beach businesses:

• Horry County and the City of Myrtle Beach may each charge a local business tax; ask both before you open. S.C. Code Ann. Sections 6-1-315 and 6-1-400 et seq. (Business License Tax Standardization Act)
• South Carolina’s statewide sales and use tax rate is 6%, and a county may add up to 1% in local sales tax if its voters approve it. South Carolina Department of Revenue
• 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
• If you send marketing email from your new business address, the CAN-SPAM rules (16 CFR Part 316) apply, including an easy way for people to opt out. 16 CFR Part 316
• Out-of-state sellers have to collect South Carolina sales tax once they reach the state threshold: More than $100,000 in gross revenue from sales into South Carolina in a calendar year. Official source

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

What happens after you sign up

Aria has built websites since 2008 and is based in Curitiba, Brazil. We don’t have an office in Myrtle Beach: the whole process happens online, and the plan is the same $89 a month in any city.

1. The sign-up at cadastro.ariaserv.com/en takes about 5 minutes; your logo and photos go by email.
2. Review the website on a temporary link, ready within 5 business days, and request any changes by email.
3. Ask for adjustments by email, approve, and after the first monthly fee the site goes live on your domain.

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