Carrickmacross empties towards Dublin every weekday morning. The N2 bypass takes the town’s commuters down to the M1 at Ardee and on to the city, and brings them back after six to houses in the estates around the town, where the searching for a childminder, a plumber, a takeaway or a hairdresser gets done between dinner and bed. The town they come home to has a long Main Street climbing from the Market Square, the lace gallery that keeps the Carrickmacross lace tradition alive, St Joseph’s with its Harry Clarke windows, the mart that still brings the farms of south Monaghan in, and a Friday night that fills the restaurants. Website design in Carrickmacross is for a customer who is often not in the town when they search for it. We are based in Dublin, an hour and a half down the same road, but we do not come up: the first chat is a phone or video call, you send photos and details, and changes after go by WhatsApp.
The after-dinner search
The commuter who moved into one of the new estates knows nobody in the town and searches for everything: “creche Carrickmacross”, “electrician Carrickmacross”, “takeaway Carrickmacross open now”, at nine at night from the couch. What Google shows them is the Business Profile and whatever page sits behind it. If the page is a Facebook page, Google shows little; if it is a site with hours, prices and photos of real work, it shows that. The people who already use you are not the problem. The families who arrived in the last few years are, and the guide on what local SEO is explains how they decide.
Three Carricks
Carrickmacross shares its short name with Carrick-on-Shannon and Carrick-on-Suir, and “Carrick” on a site or a Google listing is an invitation to confusion. The site should use the full name, say Co. Monaghan, carry the A81 Eircode and name Main Street, Market Square or the road you are on. The Google Business Profile should match that exactly, name, address and phone, with the pin on your door. That is dull work and it is most of what local search is.
Market town, farms and the border counties
The mart and the farms of south Monaghan give Carrickmacross a trade in agricultural contractors, machinery repairs, fencers, fuel suppliers, vets and the electricians and builders who work on sheds, all of it run on a mobile and a Facebook page. Their service area runs out through Inniskeen, Magheracloone, Donaghmoyne, Corduff and Broomfield, across into Kingscourt in Cavan and east into Louth and south Armagh, and the site should name those places in sentences rather than claim three counties. Customers from Crossmaglen and Newtownhamilton use UK phones and UK cards, so the number is shown in +353 form, prices in euro with the currency stated, and card payments settle in euro to your account with their bank doing the conversion. For shops and services the competition is Dundalk and Ardee, both a short drive away, which is a reason to make the Carrickmacross option the easy one to find.
Lace, windows and the visitor who buys later
The lace gallery and the windows bring a small, steady stream of visitors who are interested in craft and who buy later, from home. A page with photographs and prices and a way to pay reaches them; a small online shop is an add-on we quote before any work starts, and payments go to your own account.
Facebook alone
If your business is on Facebook and nowhere else, the regulars are fine and the new estates are a closed door. Signs your website is costing you customers is a short list of what to check, and it applies to a Facebook-only business with the answer already written in.
Plans
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month and suits a trade, a garage or a creche that needs to be found and rung. Complete is €1,499 and €100 a month with bookings, deposits, payments, chat and monthly Google work for a salon or a restaurant. Both are on the pricing page, and the electricians page shows what a trade site includes.