Dublin 2 fills up at nine and empties at six. The DART into Pearse and Tara Street, the green Luas to Dawson and St Stephen’s Green, the buses down Dame Street and the cyclists along the canal bring in the people who keep the district’s salons, clinics, restaurants and pubs going, and most of them go home to somewhere else. Website design in Dublin 2 is about catching those people in the gaps in their day. We are Dublin based and meet owners on their premises, which here usually means a quick sit down between appointments.
Office hours and after hours
There are really two districts. By day it is Grafton Street and the lanes off it, Dawson Street, the Georgian squares full of solicitors, accountants and consultants, and the tech offices at Grand Canal Dock at the Pearse Street end. By night it is Camden Street, Wexford Street, Harcourt Street and Temple Bar. The day trade books a haircut for 1pm or a dentist for 8am. The night trade decides at 7pm where to eat. The weekend brings the suburbs into the shops and the visitors into Temple Bar, Trinity and the Green. A business here usually serves two of these groups and should write its page for both.
The customer cannot see your door
Ground floor rent on Grafton Street or Dame Street goes to the chains. Most independent Dublin 2 businesses are upstairs, down a basement step or on a lane: a brow studio on the first floor of Wicklow Street, a personal trainer in a basement off Baggot Street, a hair salon above a shop on South William Street. Nobody finds those on foot. They are found by a search at a desk: ‘hair salon Dublin 2’, ‘dentist near Pearse Street’, ‘lashes Grafton Street’, ‘lunch near Merrion Square’. The search goes through Google Maps, the result is three names, and the one with the right hours, a price list and recent reviews gets the booking. ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers now do the same job for the same questions, reading the same pages.
Getting D02 right on a phone
The exact address with the floor and the buzzer. Which Luas stop and which DART station is nearest. Hours that are right on a Thursday evening and on a bank holiday Monday. Prices, because the office worker is comparing three tabs and will not ring to ask. A booking button that works at 11pm, since that is when people plan their week. For restaurants and pubs, the menu as text on the page, so that Google and the AI tools can read it. For a solicitor, accountant or dentist around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square, the names and faces of the people, because trust is the whole sale. All of it with Dublin 2 and the D02 routing key in the structured data, so Google has no doubt where you are.
Grand Canal Dock and the Pearse Street end
The east of the district has changed completely in the last twenty years. Grand Canal Dock, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and the office blocks along the canal basin brought a lunchtime crowd and an after-work crowd to a part of Dublin 2 that used to be quiet, and gyms, barbers, coffee counters and physios opened for them. That trade overlaps with Ringsend and the Docklands across the water, and a business on the border should name both on its page rather than pick one. At the other end, Camden Street runs down to the canal and into Portobello, and the bars and cafes there share the same Friday night.
Instagram is not a shopfront
Hairdressers, brow and lash studios, nail bars, personal trainers and small restaurants in Dublin 2 often run everything through Instagram. It is a good window, and we will link to it, but it cannot be found by a search, it does not show hours to someone without the app, and it cannot take a deposit for a Saturday colour appointment. The page is for the people who are not following you yet, which in a district of commuters and visitors is nearly everyone. We have written a guide to booking systems for salons and barbers if that is the decision in front of you.
Price
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month. Complete, which is the plan most appointment businesses here will want for its bookings and payments, is €1,499 and €100 a month. The detail is on the pricing page, and the hair salons page shows what the appointment set up looks like for a salon. The wider city centre page covers both sides of the river together.