Building a website in Soulac-sur-Mer: what a seaside business needs to plan for

Our workshop is in Talais, a few kilometres from Soulac-sur-Mer. We built the website for La Bodega there, and printed keyrings for Gitem Soulac, the restaurant Le LB and the newsagent La Dame de Cœur. So we know the questions a Soulac business asks when it gets a website made. Here are the answers we give them.

A short season, so a site that is ready before Easter

In Soulac, many businesses open in spring and close in autumn. La Bodega, for instance, is open from April to October. The trouble is that holidaymakers don’t search on the day you open: they plan their stay weeks ahead, from home.

A new site does not rank straight away. It takes two to four weeks to build once the content is ready (we break down the timeline in how long does it take to build a website), then several more weeks before Google takes it seriously. The right time to launch a site in Soulac is between November and February, when there is time to choose photos and the season has not started.

Winter also raises a practical question: opening hours. A site that says “open every day” in January sends people to a closed shutter. You need to be able to write “closed until 4 April” in two minutes, on the site and on the Google listing, and both have to say the same thing.

Visitors searching on their phone, often on foot

Your typical customer does not find you sitting at a desk. They are on rue de la Plage, or walking back from L’Amélie beach, typing “restaurant Soulac” or “bike hire Soulac” on their phone, with the signal you get by the sea.

That puts three demands on the site:

• load in under two seconds on a phone, or they move on to the next place;
• put what they are looking for at the top of the screen (the menu, the prices, the availability), not a welcome message;
• a phone number that dials in one tap, and directions that open in one gesture.

La Bodega’s site scores 100 out of 100 for speed on desktop and 98 on mobile in Google’s tool. That is no accident: it is decided while the site is being built.

Some of your customers don’t speak French

At the height of summer, some of Soulac’s holidaymakers come from abroad. A foreign visitor looking for a restaurant types the search in their own language. If your site only exists in French, they don’t find you.

The answer is not an automatic translation button tucked in a corner. It is a real version in that language, with its own copy and its own address, which Google ranks separately. La Bodega has a full English version. To decide which languages to add, the simplest thing is to listen to what people ask you at the counter.

Holiday rentals: filling the calendar without paying commission every time

Soulac villas, flats, B&B rooms: many owners fill their calendar through the platforms. They help you get noticed, and we don’t advise leaving them. But a guest who comes back every summer has no reason to go through them again.

A site of your own lets them book directly: photos, amenities, access to the beach, prices by week, an availability calendar. Our booking module syncs that calendar with the platforms’ calendars, so the same week is never let twice.

Being found when someone types “Soulac”

The site alone is not enough. For a seaside business, the Google listing (hours, photos, reviews) often weighs more than the site itself in local searches. The two reinforce each other: the site says clearly who you are, what you do and where, the Google listing points to the site, and reviews do the rest.

That does not mean making one page per neighbouring town (“website Soulac”, “website Le Verdon”, “website Vensac”). Google spots those near-identical pages and penalises them. One solid page per activity, with your address and your area, works better. We explain this in more detail in our guide to website design in the Médoc.

What it costs

Our prices are public. The base, a complete multi-page site, costs €1,199 paid once. You then add only what you need:

• one extra language: €349;
• the module to edit your hours and copy yourself: €399;
• the booking module for rentals: €1,799.

Hosting is a monthly plan of €39, €59 or €89 depending on the modules, with no lock-in. The code belongs to you. The details are on the website design page, and we compare with other options in how much does a website cost.

An example in Soulac: La Bodega

La Bodega is a restaurant, bar and night spot under a pergola, a few minutes from the ocean. Its site was designed for the person looking for it at 7:30 pm in the street: the menu as a real web page rather than a PDF, booking by phone in one tap, a full English version.

The whole project is told in the case study La Bodega, Soulac-sur-Mer. And if you run a restaurant, we have also written a guide to a restaurant’s website.

If you are in Soulac and want to talk it over, we can come and see you: the workshop is next door.

Frequently asked questions

When should a Soulac business launch its website to be ready for the season?

Between November and February. A brochure site takes two to four weeks to build once the photos and copy are ready, then Google needs several more weeks to index and rank it. Launch in May and it arrives after holidaymakers have already made their choices.

Does a business in Soulac-sur-Mer need a website in English?

As soon as some of your customers don't speak French, yes. A real English version, with its own address and its own copy, shows up in searches made in English, which an automatic translation button does not. One extra language costs €349 with us, paid once.

Is it worth a holiday rental owner having their own website?

Yes, for returning guests. Platforms are still useful to get noticed, but a guest who comes back every summer can book directly on your site, without the platform's commission. Our booking module syncs calendars so the same week is never booked twice.