Longford town used to be a place you drove through. The N4 ran through the middle of it on the way from Dublin to Sligo, and every shop and pub got a look from the traffic. The bypass took that away, and the town has been working out since what it means to be a destination instead of a stop. It is the county town, with the courthouse and the council, St Mel’s Cathedral, which burned on Christmas morning in 2009 and reopened five years later, the Market Square, the station on the Sligo line, the Camlin running under the bridge, and a population more mixed than almost any midland town of its size. Website design in Longford town is about being found by people who no longer pass the door. We do that work from Dublin, with no office in Longford: we talk by video or phone, you send photos and details on WhatsApp, and the site is built from them.
The bypass changed who sees you
When the traffic went around the town, the sign over the door stopped doing the work it used to do. The person now coming into Longford for a reason, a solicitor’s appointment, a part for the car, a haircut before a wedding, has decided where to go before they leave the house, and they decided on Google Maps. “Solicitor Longford”, “tyres Longford”, “barber Longford open Saturday”. The three results that show get the visit. A business that is on Main Street but not in those three is as invisible as if it were on a side street in another town.
New neighbours who search instead of asking
Longford has taken in more new arrivals from abroad than most towns its size, and it has also lost a lot of its own young people to Dublin and further. The result is a town where a large share of customers did not grow up here and have no aunt to ask which electrician is sound. They search, in English and sometimes in their own language, and they go by what they see: photos of real work, hours that are right, prices that are stated, reviews that are answered. For the salons, takeaways and cleaners that do much of their trade with those new families, getting more Google reviews is the single most useful thing after the site itself.
N39 and the county round the town
Longford is N39, and the Eircode goes on the contact page and in the structured data. A garage or an electrician on the edge of town serves Newtownforbes, Drumlish, Edgeworthstown, Lanesborough and Ballymahon, and over the county lines Strokestown and Roosky in Roscommon and Mohill in Leitrim, and should say so in plain sentences. The Google Business Profile should carry the same towns as its service area. Say where to park, because the town centre is tighter than it looks on the map. Say the hours, including the bank holidays and the early closing day if you keep one. Our checklist of signs your website is costing you customers is a ten minute way to see what a stranger sees.
Takeaways, hair and trades on Facebook alone
Longford’s takeaways live on the delivery apps and pay a commission on every order from people who would happily have rung direct. The barbers and salons book by Instagram message. The trades have a Facebook page with the van and the phone number. All three work for the customer who already knows them, and fail for the one who searched Google last night, because Google does not show a Facebook page for “nails Longford” in the results that matter. A page of your own, with the menu or the prices and a button to book or call, puts the business in front of the stranger. That is most of what we build here.
Prices
Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month. Complete is €1,499 and €100 a month with bookings, payments, chat, review requests and monthly Google work. The detail is on the pricing page; the takeaways page shows what a takeaway site includes.