Stockport, the town and the borough
Stockport is a town and a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, and the two are different sizes. At the 2021 Census, ONS counted 117,935 people in the Stockport built-up area, in its "Large" size class. The borough, which takes in Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme and Marple, had 294,773.
The business figures below cover the whole borough. In March 2026 the borough had 12,470 enterprises, 11,140 of them in ONS's micro size band (0 to 9), and 14,175 local units, meaning individual workplaces (ONS UK Business Counts). Stockport Council's Stockport Economic Overview 2025 names the borough's most significant business sectors as professional, scientific and technical; health and social work; admin and support services; wholesale and retail; and manufacturing. The council's growth-sectors page adds that business start-up rates in the borough "continue to exceed regional and national averages", and says the digital sector is expected to create 1,500 new jobs by 2035, an increase of 23.7%. Its One Stockport Economic Plan runs from 2022 to 2030, with a delivery plan for 2025 to 2028.
Dental, hair and beauty, by the official counts
Set beside seven other boroughs, two kinds of business stand out. In March 2026 the borough had 115 enterprises in dental practice activities and 320 in hair and beauty, and a further 260 in other human health activities. On the first two it had more than any of the seven other boroughs in our comparison: Trafford, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Oldham and Rochdale. The comparison left out other Greater Manchester boroughs, the Manchester local authority among them, with 24,550 enterprises in the same dataset, so the lead holds among those eight only. Stockport is not the most populous of the eight: Wigan and Bolton both counted more residents in 2021.
ONS rounds these counts to the nearest five, and a business is counted as dental only if its official record carries the dental class. Aesthetic clinics have no class of their own: they are spread across classes they share with other kinds of business, so none of the numbers above counts the clinics in Stockport, and none should be read as a clinic count.
Behind those counts are businesses whose websites answer to their own rule books. A practice site answers to the GDC, the CQC, the ASA and the CMA at once, and dental practices shows where each of them reaches; our post on the GDC's website list quotes the list in full. For the 320 in hair and beauty, the questions are what a treatment page can substantiate and how reviews may be gathered since the law changed in 2025, both on the beauty and wellness clinics page. An aesthetic clinic starts from aesthetic clinics, where the consultation leads the page.
Professional services, on the council's list
The council's list also names professional, scientific and technical services, and admin and support services. Where a firm in either sells to other businesses, its website questions sit somewhere else: how an enquiry is caught and followed up, and what the firm may send to people who have not asked for it. CRM & Follow-up builds the first, in an account you own. The second turns on the recipient's legal form under PECR, and the B2B outreach rules set it out.
Bramhall
Bramhall is part of Stockport borough, and this page covers it. ONS counted 17,195 people in the Bramhall built-up area at the 2021 Census, a "Small" one in its size classes. ONS publishes no business count for Bramhall as a town, so the numbers on this page are the borough's and describe all of Stockport.
Bramhall was formerly a civil parish in Cheshire. The Local Government Act 1972 placed the urban district of Hazel Grove and Bramhall, then in Cheshire's administrative county, in a new Greater Manchester district with the county borough of Stockport, so two county names can attach to Bramhall. Our standard writes a Bramhall business as Bramhall, Stockport, and keeps the name and address the same on the website, the Google profile and any directory listing, so that all three agree. The place name then sits where the site does its work: the page titles, the contact page, and the opening lines that say what you do and where.
A first website in Stockport
With start-up rates above the regional and national averages, and most of the borough's enterprises in ONS's micro band, a new business here may have no site yet and may not need a large one. Websites starts at five custom-designed pages, and Landing Pages suits a single offer, event or campaign you send people to; landing page or website? sets out which to build first. Once there is a site for Google to read, SEO is the monthly work that follows.
Working with us
Every starting price is on the pricing page. WebAsk works remotely, so wherever in the borough you trade, the work runs the same way: a free 30-minute call and, if we are the right fit, a written scope with the price in it within three working days. For the rest of Greater Manchester, start from the Manchester hub.