Kilkenny fills up on a Friday afternoon. The Dublin train arrives at MacDonagh Junction, the M9 delivers the cars, and by evening High Street, the Parade, Kieran Street and John Street are full of people who do not live here: hen and stag parties, couples for a weekend, families for the castle, Americans walking the Medieval Mile from the castle gates to St Canice’s and its round tower. By Monday the city belongs again to its own people, the hurling, the hospital, the offices and the shops. A Kilkenny business lives on both halves of the week, and website design in Kilkenny city has to serve both.
The trade follows the streets. High Street and the Parade are shops, cafes and the Tholsel; the Castle Yard opposite the castle holds the Design Centre and the craft studios; Kieran Street and the Butter Slip are small independents; John Street over the bridge is pubs and late food; Parliament Street has the old Smithwick’s brewery turned visitor centre and the Abbey Quarter rising behind it; MacDonagh Junction and Market Cross hold the chains. We are based in Dublin and we work with Kilkenny businesses over video call and WhatsApp. You send the photos and the details, we build and run the site, and we never need to be in the same room.
The weekend customer books from a phone
A hen party books nails, tans, lashes and a blow-dry for eight people from a WhatsApp group in Dublin a month out. A couple books a table for Saturday from the train. A family looks up “things to do Kilkenny with kids” on Friday night in the hotel. None of them are standing on High Street when they decide. They are in Google, on Instagram and more and more in ChatGPT, asking for “best brunch Kilkenny” or “walking tour Kilkenny Saturday morning”, and the answers come from websites and Google listings with plain facts, prices and photos. We have written about how to show up in ChatGPT answers.
For the salons, the tan studios and the barbers, the real problem is the group that books six slots and brings four. A deposit at the time of booking fixes it, and the site can take it. Our guide to taking deposits online in Ireland covers what is allowed.
The festival calendar
Cat Laughs over the June bank holiday weekend, the Arts Festival in August, Savour Kilkenny at the end of October and Kilkenomics in November each bring a different crowd, and each is a reason to change your hours, your menu or your prices for a few days. The self-edit page in Essentials means those changes take two minutes from your phone. Your Google Business Profile should carry the special hours too, so the person checking it at eleven at night sees the truth.
Parking, the one-way streets and the R95
Visitors ask where to park before they ask anything else, because the centre is medieval and the streets are narrow and one-way. Say which car park is nearest and how long the walk is. Carry the R95 routing key, the address written exactly as it is on the Google listing, and the hours including Sundays, when the city is still full of visitors and half the county is still closed.
Independents on Instagram alone
Kilkenny’s jewellers, potters, gift shops, cafes and brow and lash rooms are often Instagram-only, and the feed is lovely. The visitor planning from Dublin, or the AI tool answering her question, does not read the feed. A short site with the hours, the location, the prices and the booking or enquiry button, using the photos you already have, is what gets the shop found. An online shop for the craft makers is an add-on we quote first.
Price
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month. Complete is €1,499 and €100 a month, with bookings, deposits, payments, chat, review requests and monthly Google work. The pricing page sets out each, and the nail salons page shows what a booking site built for hen party groups looks like.