Dublin 3 starts at the Five Lamps and finishes at the wooden bridge to Bull Island. In between are five or six places that do not think of themselves as one district: Clontarf on the seafront, Fairview on the busy road out, Marino behind it, East Wall between the railway and the port, North Strand and Ballybough under Croke Park, and Killester on the Howth Road sharing its postcode with Dublin 5. Website design in Dublin 3 means writing for the right one of those, not for the number. We live in Dublin and do these first meetings in person, in the shop, the clinic or the kitchen.
Two Dublin 3s
Clontarf is houses, families, dogs and the seafront walk. The trade is cafes, clinics, physios, pharmacies, estate agents, dog walkers and the clubs: GAA, rugby, cricket, tennis, sailing, golf out on the island. Fairview Strand and Marino Mart are a different thing: a narrow strip of small shops, barbers, takeaways and cafes on the main bus road from the north east coast into town, with the Malahide Road and the Howth Road peeling off at the end of Fairview Park. East Wall is older cottages and new apartments with the port and the East Point offices next door. A painter or plumber based in Marino works all of it and out into Raheny and Drumcondra besides.
Where the searches come from
Clontarf searches are planned: ‘physio Clontarf’, ‘dog groomer Dublin 3’, ‘estate agent Clontarf Road’, typed at the kitchen table in the evening, with reviews read carefully. The local Facebook groups and the residents’ WhatsApp threads do a lot of recommending, and the recommendation is then checked on Google before anyone rings. Fairview searches are quicker and happen on the footpath or the bus: ‘barber Fairview’, ‘coffee near Fairview Park’, ‘chipper Marino’. Then there are the match days. A full house at Croke Park walks home through Ballybough, North Strand and Fairview, and plenty of them search ‘pub near Croke Park’ or ‘food Fairview’ on the way. A page with hours that are right on a Sunday in August catches that.
Being correct for Clontarf, Fairview and Marino
A Dublin 3 business should have the village name, the district and the D03 routing key on the page and on the Google Business Profile, all matching. If you are on the seafront, say ‘Clontarf Road’, mention the DART at Clontarf Road station and say what the parking is like on the prom, because people from across the city come out for the seafront cafes on a Sunday. If you are a trade, set a service area that lists the places you drive to (Clontarf, Marino, Fairview, Killester, Raheny, Drumcondra) instead of a single pin. Hours including bank holidays, prices or ‘from’ prices, and photos of real jobs in real local houses, since the redbricks and the 1930s semis are what the customer is picturing.
The businesses that have never had a page
Dog walkers, painters, window cleaners, personal trainers on the prom, cake makers, grinds tutors and childminders across Clontarf and Marino mostly run on a Facebook page and a WhatsApp number. That works until someone new moves in and searches instead of asking. A one page site with your name, your area, your photos and a WhatsApp button puts you in front of them, and the Google Business Profile that comes with it puts you on the map. The guide on getting your business onto Google Maps explains the map side.
Village pages and plans
The village pages for Clontarf, Fairview and Killester go into each place on its own, and Dublin 5 picks up where the Howth Road crosses out of the district. Plans are the same everywhere we work: Essentials at €499 to set up and €50 a month, or Complete at €1,499 and €100 a month with bookings, payments and the monthly Google work. The pricing page has the detail, and there is a page per trade under businesses we build for, including physios and estate agents.