Hove searches are different
Brighton and Hove merged into a single unitary authority in 1997 and was granted city status in 2000, yet people still search for “Hove” on its own. “Dentist Hove”, “nursery Hove” and “cafe Hove” return different businesses from their Brighton equivalents, and Google’s map results shift as you move west along the seafront. For a Hove business that is an opening: the field for a Hove search is often smaller than for the same search in central Brighton, and Google rewards the businesses that make their location obvious.
It also cuts the other way. If your website only ever says “Brighton”, Google has little reason to show you to someone in Hove who adds the place name to their search, even if you are on their doorstep.
Where Hove does business
Hove’s commercial life is spread across a handful of streets rather than one centre, and each has its own character.
- Church Road runs east to west through the middle of Hove, with banks, estate agents, restaurants and independent shops.
- George Street is the mostly pedestrianised shopping street running north from Church Road, with everyday retail and cafés.
- Western Road links Hove to central Brighton, so businesses here compete in both markets.
- Portland Road, further west, is known for independent cafés, delis and small shops serving the surrounding residential streets.
Behind them are long residential avenues, Regency and Victorian terraces near the seafront, and the lawns and beach huts along the promenade. Hove station, opened in 1865 and named Hove since 1895, has direct trains to London Victoria, which helps explain why so many residents commute and why so many professional firms and family services serve them.
Landmarks that shape local searches
Hove’s seafront end is defined by Brunswick Town, laid out from the 1820s and run as a separate town from 1825 with its own town hall and market, whose Regency squares and terraces, including Brunswick Square and Adelaide Crescent, still face the sea. Further inland, Sussex County Cricket Club has played most home matches at the County Ground on Eaton Road since 1872, and the ground also hosts concerts and events, so match days bring a surge of searches for food, drink and parking nearby. Hove Museum of Creativity, free to enter, occupies an 1877 villa on New Church Road and has been a museum since 1927. At the western end, Hove Lagoon draws beginners for watersports such as paddleboarding and wakeboarding. Each of these is a place people search around, and a business near one can mention it naturally.
What Hove customers search for
A lot of Hove demand is residential and repeat: dentists, physios, nurseries, tutors, estate agents, solicitors, accountants, hairdressers, cafés and tradespeople. Those searches tend to be short and local (“physio Hove”, “plumber near me”) and are often made on a phone. Many people searching in Hove are comparing two or three nearby options on the map before they ever reach a website, so your Google Business Profile, reviews and photos do much of the selling.
Street names and neighbourhoods matter too. People search for “cafe Portland Road” or “dentist Church Road” because they know exactly where they want to be. Mentioning the streets you are on, and the areas you serve, in plain language helps Google match you to those searches.
How we approach SEO in Hove
Most of our Hove work starts with local SEO: a complete, accurate Google Business Profile, a correct pin, sensible categories and a steady flow of genuine reviews. Our guide to Google Business Profiles for Brighton businesses walks through the basics.
Then we look at your site. For a business that serves both Brighton and Hove, we often recommend a dedicated Hove page that says something useful about how you serve the area: where you are, parking or transport, the neighbourhoods you cover and the questions Hove customers ask. A page that swaps “Brighton” for “Hove” and changes nothing else does not help. We also check the technical basics that hold small sites back, such as slow mobile pages, missing titles and broken contact forms.
Where you need more than the map, content and a small number of genuine local links from Hove organisations, events and suppliers make the difference.
Common mistakes we see
The same few problems come up again and again with Hove businesses. A Google Business Profile registered years ago with an old phone number or the wrong opening hours. A website whose only mention of Hove is in the footer address. Service pages that cover everything on a single page, so Google cannot tell which service you want to rank for. And reviews that arrived in a burst years ago and then stopped, which looks less trustworthy to a searcher than a steady trickle. Each is easy to fix, and fixing them together usually moves the needle faster than any single new tactic.
Is Hove worth its own page?
If a meaningful share of your customers live or work in Hove, yes. If you are a Hove business, your whole site should already say so. If you are based elsewhere and only occasionally take Hove work, a short mention on your service area page may be enough. We will tell you which applies to you, using your own enquiry and Search Console data rather than guesswork. Read our case studies to see how we work, or get in touch for a straightforward review of your Hove visibility.