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County Cork

Web design in Cork, with the homework done.

Websites for Cork businesses. In October 2026 we checked the websites of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Cork, across five trades. This page shows what those sites have, what they miss, and what to fix first on your own.

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The Shandon bell tower with its fish weathervane behind a row of shopfronts, and a laptop open on a new websiteThe Shandon bell tower with its fish weathervane behind a row of shopfronts, and a laptop open on a new website
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18 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Cork have a website of their own, and none of the 18 with a speed score reached 90 out of 100 on a phone. Having a site is the easy part. Making it work for the customer holding the phone is where the gaps are.

The headline numbers for Cork, October 2026

  • 18 of 20 businesses Google shows first have a website of their own
  • 0 of 18 sites with a speed score reach 90 or more on a phone
  • 9 of 15 sites we could read show a price
  • 7 of 10 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online
Where we looked

We checked the 20 businesses Google shows first in Cork.

Checked · Study by , founder · How we checked

I set the rules for this study: one town per county, the same five searches in each, the businesses Google shows first, and no business named.

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The 26 towns in our county study, one per county. This page is Cork city, in County Cork. Tap a county to open its page.

  1. We searched Google for five trades

    Plumbers, electricians, cafes, hairdressers and physio and physical therapy clinics, on 14 October 2026, on a phone, logged out, from Cork city centre.

  2. We took the first four from each Maps list

    After removing chains, wrong trades, duplicate listings and anything outside the county. That gives 20.

  3. We checked each of the 20

    Their websites, their Google profiles, their Google ads and whether ChatGPT names them. We name none of them here.

Searches a month from County Cork

Searches a month from County Cork

  • Cafes and coffeeabout 50,600
  • Hairdressersabout 5,160
  • Plumbersabout 1,750
  • Physio and physical therapy clinicsabout 1,600
  • Electriciansabout 1,460
The searches in each total

Cafes and coffee about 50,600 a month

  • "coffee near me" 27,100
  • "cafe near me" 9,900
  • "coffee shop near me" 6,600
  • "cafe" 5,400
  • "cafe cork" 1,600

Hairdressers about 5,160 a month

  • "hairdresser cork" 2,400
  • "hair salon near me" 1,000
  • "hairdresser near me" 880
  • "hairdresser" 880

Plumbers about 1,750 a month

  • "plumber near me" 590
  • "plumber cork" 590
  • "plumber" 480
  • "emergency plumber" 90

Physio and physical therapy clinics about 1,600 a month

  • "physio" 880
  • "physio near me" 720

Electricians about 1,460 a month

  • "electrician" 590
  • "electrician cork" 480
  • "electrician near me" 390

Google's own monthly estimates for searches made from County Cork: a 12-month average, rounded by Google, with singular and plural counted once.

Who has a website

18 of the 20 in Cork have a website of their own.

Of the other two, one relies on Instagram alone and one has no website we could find.

Further down the same Maps lists, 83 of the 125 businesses have a website of their own, so a website is more common at the top of each list than below it.

Every electrician, cafe and physio and physical therapy clinic Google shows first in Cork has a website of its own, four of four each. Plumbers and hairdressers have three of four.

Cork has the highest share of the 26 study towns: 18 of 20, against 308 of 505 across all 26. With a website the norm at the top, a Cork site is judged on what it shows, and the area it covers is the gap: five of the 15 we could read name it.

Searches from County Cork run to about 50,600 a month for cafes and coffee, about 5,160 for hairdressers and about 1,750 for plumbers. Of the 15 Cork sites we could read, nine show a price.

The shops are sorted by status, not by trade or by place on the map.

The 20 businesses Google shows first

  • Own website 18 of 20
  • Facebook or Instagram only 1 of 20
  • No website found 1 of 20
The rest of the same Maps lists, 125 businesses
  • Own website 83
  • Facebook or Instagram only 7
  • No website found 27
  • Not working, or could not tell 8
A phone showing a shop's website with a green call button, beside a booking calendar

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What the websites do

None of the 18 Cork sites scored 90 or more for speed on a phone.

In October 2026, Google's PageSpeed test, run as a phone, gave the 18 sites with a speed score in Cork city a median of 50.5 out of 100. Nine of them scored under 50.

Speed on a phone

05090100

50.5 median score out of 100

  • Under 50 9
  • 50 to 89 9
  • 90 or more 0

Why speed matters

In October 2026, the biggest image or block of text on the 18 sites with a speed score in Cork city took a median of 10.9 seconds to appear on a phone. Google's own mark for a good page is 2.5 seconds or less.

Google counts 90 or more as a good score, and none of the 18 got there. A Cork site that does would outscore every one of them.

Run Google's Lighthouse test on your own site
Page checks and platforms, in numbers

What the 15 sites we could read do

  • 13 of 15 read say what they do and where, in the page title or main heading
  • 12 of 15 read put a tap-to-call link or a form on the home page
  • 9 of 15 read show a price
  • 5 of 15 read name the area they cover
  • 14 of 15 read load securely (https)
  • 7 of 10 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online

What the 18 websites are built on

  • WordPress 11
  • Squarespace 1
  • Shopify 1
  • Wix 1
  • Could not tell 4
What "read" and "scored" mean

"Read" means the 15 sites we could read page by page. Three more sites' hosts showed our checks a bot check or refused our requests. They count as live websites of the businesses' own, because the Google profile links them and Google's own speed test loads them. We could not read them, so they are left out of the page checks. "Scored" means the sites with a speed score: Google's speed test reached all 18, three runs each, median taken.

The rest of the study

How the same 20 show up on Google.

Google Maps, the ordinary results, the ads and ChatGPT's answers have their own page, with a step for each.

Read SEO in Cork
A list of search results with a cursor on the top result, which is lit green

Slow on a phone, or hard to find on Google?

Send the address and you'll get a straight read on its speed and on how it shows up on Google.

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Steps you can take

Four fixes for a Cork website, each tied to a gap we measured.

  1. Make it quick on a phone

    9 of 18 sites with a speed score scored under 50 on a phone

    Half the Cork sites with a speed score, 9 of 18, came in under 50 on a phone; their biggest image or text took a median of 10.9 seconds to appear. Start with the images and the add-ons.

  2. Put your prices, your area and a call button on the home page

    6 of 15 sites we could read show no price

    Nine of the 15 Cork sites we could read show a price and five name their area. Add both to your home page, next to a call button.

  3. Get a website of your own

    2 of 20 businesses Google shows first have no website of their own

    Only two of the 20 at the top in Cork have no website of their own, so here a site is the price of entry. If yours is missing, start with one page: prices, area, call button.

  4. Get the setup underneath right

    15 of 125 businesses further down the Maps lists have not claimed their Google profile

    Every business at the top in Cork has claimed its Google profile and lists its hours, and six of the 20 carry a booking link. Match them, and link your website from the profile.

Where we can help

Our work

See the work we've done.

Every site here is real client work, live and public. Have a look around before you talk to us.

See all our work
Questions

What owners ask about a website.

Do businesses in Cork have websites?

More than in any of the other 25 towns we checked. In October 2026, 18 of the 20 businesses Google showed first in Cork city had a website of their own, across plumbers, electricians, cafes, hairdressers and physio and physical therapy clinics. Across all 26 towns in our county study it was 308 of 505.

Do I need a website if I have a Facebook page?

Yes, if you want customers to see what you charge and where you work. In October 2026, 18 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Cork have a website of their own, and one relies on Facebook or Instagram alone. A social page is a fair start. Your own website is where you set out, your way:

  • your prices
  • the area you cover
  • a way to call or book.
What should a small business website have?

Start with five things. The 15 Cork sites we could read, counted against each:

  • What you do and where, in the page title or main heading: 13 of the 15 Cork sites we could read in October 2026.
  • A tap-to-call link or a form on the home page: 12 of the 15.
  • A guide price where you can give one: 9 of the 15.
  • The area you cover: 5 of the 15.
  • Speed on a phone: of the 18 sites with a speed score, none reached 90 out of 100.

On our Cork searches, Google's "People also ask" box asked "What is the average call-out charge for a plumber?" A guide price on your site is how you answer it.

How much does a website cost?

It depends on the number of pages and what the site has to do. Our website packages and their prices are on the website development page, and bigger builds are quoted.

Website packages and prices How much does a website cost in Ireland?

What does a website do that a Google listing doesn't?

It gives you a place of your own in the ordinary results under the map, and a page you control from top to bottom. Across our five Cork searches in October 2026, 22 of the 50 places in the first ten ordinary results went to local businesses' own websites. Directories and listings took 14 of those 50, most often Golden Pages with three, Tripadvisor with three and Bark with two. Without a website of its own, a business shows up there only on someone else's page, such as a directory or a social page.

Do you only work with businesses in Cork city?

No. We work with businesses across Ireland. The study looked at Cork city because our method takes the biggest town in each county, and in County Cork that is the city.

Michael Collins, founder of Wagyu Digital
MethodHow we checked
  • Checked October 2026. The searches ran on 14 October 2026 at about 1pm Irish time; ChatGPT was asked on 14 October 2026.
  • The 20 businesses are the first four local businesses in the Google Maps list for each of five trade searches. The searches ran on a phone, logged out, from Cork city centre. Chains, wrong trades, duplicate listings and businesses outside the county were removed first. "The rest of the list" is everyone else in the same cleaned lists: 125 businesses.
  • A website counts only if it is the business's own. A Facebook or Instagram page alone does not.
  • A website linked from the Google profile counts as live even when its host shows our checks a bot check or refuses our requests. We cannot read those sites, so they are left out of every page check: "of 15 read" means the 15 sites we could read. Google's PageSpeed test can still reach them, so the speed figures ("of 18 scored") cover every site it scored.
  • Speed is Google's PageSpeed test, run as a phone, three runs per site, median taken. The load time is the same test's Largest Contentful Paint: when the biggest image or block of text appears.
  • Google ads come from Google's Ads Transparency Center, looked up by the business's own web address, plus one look at each search. So the ads figure counts only businesses with a web address of their own, including sites that no longer work. Facebook ads were not checked.
  • ChatGPT was asked "Who is a good [trade] in [town]?" three times for each trade, from Ireland, with web search on. A business counts as named if any of the answers names it.
  • "The first ten results for their own search" means the first ten ordinary results, under the map and the ads, for the business's trade-and-town search, such as "plumber cork".
  • Distances run from the Cork city centre point to each business's map pin.
  • Figures "across the 26 towns" add up the 505 businesses Google showed first in all 26 study towns, one town per county. Every town was searched the same way on the same day, 14 October 2026.
  • Anything else we could not check is left out of that count, and the count says so.
  • A median is the middle value. With an even number of businesses it is the average of the two middle values.
  • Searches a month are Google's own estimates (Google Ads search volume, read on 16 October 2026) for searches made by people in County Cork: a 12-month average, rounded by Google. Each trade's total adds up the same set of searches in every county: the trade on its own, the trade with "near me", and the trade with "cork" after it. Four more searches count too: "emergency plumber", "coffee near me", "coffee shop near me" and "hair salon near me".
  • Singular and plural are one search in Google's data, so neither is counted twice. A search Google gives no figure for is left out, not counted as zero. One person can search more than once, and not every search for a trade comes from someone hiring, so these figures count searches, not people.
  • No business from the study is named on these pages.

Sources: Google's guide to Largest Contentful Paint (good is 2.5 seconds or less); About PageSpeed Insights (90 or above is good); Google Ads Transparency Center.