Kilcoole is a village with a Main Street, a train halt on the beach and a much bigger neighbour just up the road. The railway runs along the shingle here, between the sea and the marshes where the terns nest, and the station is a request stop that commuters use for the run into Dublin. Behind the village, the estates built over the last few decades have turned a farming parish into a commuter one, with Newcastle to the south, Greystones and Delgany to the north and the N11 a few minutes inland.
That neighbour is the whole problem for website design in Kilcoole. Type “plumber Kilcoole” or “creche Kilcoole” into Google and a lot of what comes back is in Greystones, because the Greystones businesses have pages and profiles that name their town and the Kilcoole ones often have a Facebook page and a phone number. Being the Kilcoole result is a matter of saying so, properly, in the places Google reads. We are Dublin based, so for Kilcoole the first chat is a phone or video call, and from there on it is WhatsApp, a self-edit page and a monthly report, the same as for everyone.
Who searches here, and when
Kilcoole’s estates are full of young families, and young families search in the evening and at the weekend: a childminder for September, an after-school club, a painter before the baby arrives, a dog walker for the days both parents are in the office. The village Facebook group is active and the school gate is where names get passed, but the name is still checked on a phone before the call.
Commuters search from the train too. Someone on the morning train with a boiler on the blink looks for “heating engineer Kilcoole” somewhere between Kilcoole and Bray, and the result with a real page, a tappable number and a photo of an actual van gets the message.
Saying Kilcoole where it counts
A site for a Kilcoole business needs the village name in the page title, in the opening paragraph, on the contact page and in the structured data, and the Google Business Profile needs the same address written the same way. Kilcoole shares the A63 routing key with Greystones and Delgany, which is one more reason to write the village name out in full rather than lean on the Eircode. The Google Business Profile guide covers the profile side step by step.
Then name the patch. A Kilcoole trade usually covers Newcastle, Greystones, Delgany, Newtownmountkennedy and Kilpedder, and often Bray and Wicklow town. A short, honest sentence on each is enough for Google to show you for a search from any of them. First-time callers also need to know how to find you: the Sea Road side or the Main Street side, where to park, whether you are near the station.
Creches, childminders and trades on a Facebook page
The village businesses most likely to have no site are the ones that are full: creches and childminders with waiting lists, a painter who gets every job from the last one, a mobile dog groomer whose customers have her number saved. A Facebook page serves them well enough until the family that moved into the new estate last month searches Google and finds Greystones. A page of your own is how Kilcoole businesses stop losing their own village to the town up the road. If you want to know what should be on it, we have written out what a small business website should include.
Plans and price
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month, covering the site, hosting, a .ie domain in your name and a verified Google Business Profile. Complete is €1,499 and €100 a month and adds bookings, payments, chat and monthly Google work. The pricing page lists it all, and the creches page shows what a childcare site includes.