Donegal is joined to the rest of the Republic by a few miles of ground at Bundoran and Ballyshannon, and for everything else it faces Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh. There is no railway in the county. Dublin is a long drive, often through the North. The towns that matter are Letterkenny, Donegal town, Buncrana, Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Ballybofey and Stranorlar, Dungloe, Killybegs, Carndonagh and Lifford, with the Gaeltacht of Gweedore, the Rosses and Glencolmcille out to the west. Website design in County Donegal has to start from that map. We work with Donegal businesses from Dublin by phone and video call, with the site built from your photos and details and changes handled by WhatsApp. We have no office in the county, and the work does not need one.
The border is a shopping street
Trade in Donegal has always crossed the border. Derry people fill Letterkenny and Buncrana when sterling is strong, Donegal people fill Derry and Strabane when the euro is, and the farmers, hauliers, builders and fuel merchants of east Donegal deal in both currencies every week. Northern families have holidayed in Bundoran, Rossnowlagh, Downings and Dunfanaghy for generations and still do.
For a website that means a few plain things. Prices in euro, stated clearly, so nobody has to guess which currency a figure is in. A phone number in the +353 form, which a UK mobile can dial with one tap. WhatsApp as a contact route, because it ignores the border. Card and online payments through the site settle in euro to your own account while the customer’s bank does the conversion, which is simpler for everyone than a sterling cash drawer. And a .ie domain, which tells a Derry customer in one glance that you are in the South. Our guide on registering a .ie domain explains the proof the registry asks for.
Towns that do not overlap
Donegal’s towns each serve their own corner. Letterkenny is the big one, with the hospital and ATU Donegal. Donegal town is the gateway to the south west. Buncrana serves Inishowen. Ballybofey and Stranorlar serve the Finn valley. Killybegs is where the fishing fleet lands. A tradesperson in Glenties does not work in Carndonagh, and a search from Dungloe should not return a plumber in Lifford. The site needs to name the towns you actually cover, with a sentence each about the work you do there, rather than claim the county. The routing keys help Google draw the circle: Letterkenny is F92, Inishowen and the Lifford side are F93, and Donegal town, Ballyshannon, Bundoran and Killybegs are F94.
Summer, the Gaeltacht and the people who come home
The season runs roughly from Easter to September, with Slieve League, Glenveagh, Malin Head, the Wild Atlantic Way and the beaches drawing visitors who have never been here and search for everything from the car. August also brings the diaspora: families home from Scotland, England and America who book the B&B, the boat trip and the dinner from abroad. Gaeltacht businesses, from Gweedore to Glencolmcille, may want the site in Irish as well as English, which is an add-on we quote first. In the quiet months the hours on your Google listing need to be true, and the self-edit page in both plans lets you change them yourself.
Running on Facebook in the west
Across the west and north of the county the builders, electricians, well drillers, fishermen selling at the pier, coach operators and self-catering owners mostly have a Facebook page and a phone. The neighbours know them; the Derry couple who bought a holiday house in Dunfanaghy do not. A page Google can read is the difference, and the guide on what local SEO is explains why in plain words.
Plans
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month for one site with your towns named on it. Complete is €1,499 and €100 a month and adds bookings, deposits, payments, chat and the monthly local pages a county this size needs. Both are itemised on the pricing page, and the trades we build for are under websites for.