Saturday morning in Ballinteer runs to a timetable. Kids to the GAA pitches or the football, a run or a walk in Marlay Park, a stop at the shops on Ballinteer Avenue for the paper and whatever was forgotten, and somebody’s birthday party at two. Ballinteer is a family suburb from end to end, built across the slope between Dundrum and the mountains in Dublin 16, and the businesses that do well here fit into that timetable. Website design in Ballinteer, for us, starts with the calendar: when people here look for a business, and what they expect to see when they find it. We are Dublin based and we come out to Ballinteer to meet owners in person.
Nine o’clock at night
The search for a business in Ballinteer rarely happens during the day. It happens after the kids are down: “plumber Ballinteer” when the shower has been running cold since Tuesday, “maths grinds Dublin 16” in the weeks after the mocks, “creche Ballinteer” by someone going back to work in the new year, “physio near me” after a hamstring at training. These are searches made on a phone, on the couch, and the person wants to settle it in a few minutes.
That means the page they land on has to answer fast: do you do this, do you cover here, what does it cost, how do we book or ask. If it takes three taps to find a phone number, or the prices say “contact us for a quote” when a competitor shows theirs, they move on without a second thought.
Dublin 16, the M50 and the Luas
Ballinteer is a place people drive to and from. The M50 has its own junction for Ballinteer and the Luas green line is a walk away at Balally, so a Ballinteer business can honestly serve Dundrum, Rathfarnham, Churchtown, Sandyford and Stepaside as well as its own estates. The trick is to say so plainly. Google’s listing lets a service business set the areas it covers, and the page text should name them the way a local would rather than hoping “South Dublin” does the job.
For a shop at the shopping centre or on the Avenue, the page should give parking and the Eircode so the pin lands at your door and not in the middle of the car park. For a physio or a dentist it should give the clinic hours including Saturday, because Saturday is when half of Ballinteer is free.
The businesses that live on a Facebook page
A good share of what gets bought in Ballinteer is bought from people who have never had a website: the woman who does nails from a converted garage, the personal trainer in Marlay Park at seven in the morning, the grinds tutor with a waiting list, the cake maker whose work is all over the local parents’ group. Their customers find them through the group and through a friend’s recommendation.
That works until the group gets busy and the post scrolls away, or until the person who would have been your best customer searches on Google instead and finds someone in Dundrum. A short site with the services, the prices, the area and a way to book gives the recommendation somewhere to land. You keep the Facebook page; it just stops being the only place you exist.
What it costs
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month: site, hosting, .ie domain in your name, Google Business Profile verified, a self-edit page for the hours and the prices. Complete is €1,499 and €100 a month and adds bookings with reminders, card and Apple Pay payments and a review request after each visit, which is what a GAA club taking memberships or a tutor taking deposits usually needs. Full detail is on pricing, and the bookings guide explains how the booking side works.