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County Laois

Web design in Laois, with the homework done.

Websites for Laois businesses. In October 2026 we checked the websites of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Portlaoise, 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 Rock of Dunamase near Portlaoise, its castle ruin on the hilltop, behind a row of shopfronts, and a laptop open on a new websiteThe Rock of Dunamase near Portlaoise, its castle ruin on the hilltop, behind a row of shopfronts, and a laptop open on a new website
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12 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Portlaoise have a website of their own, and three more have one that no longer works. All 11 sites we could read put a call button or a form on the home page. Three name the area they cover.

The headline numbers for Portlaoise, October 2026

  • 12 of 20 businesses Google shows first have a website of their own
  • 0 of 12 sites with a speed score reach 90 or more on a phone
  • 5 of 11 sites we could read show a price
  • 6 of 7 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online
Where we looked

We checked the 20 businesses Google shows first in Portlaoise.

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.

Web design in CarlowWeb design in CavanWeb design in ClareWeb design in CorkWeb design in DonegalWeb design in DublinWeb design in GalwayWeb design in KerryWeb design in KildareWeb design in KilkennyCounty LaoisWeb design in LeitrimWeb design in LimerickWeb design in LongfordWeb design in LouthWeb design in MayoWeb design in MeathWeb design in MonaghanNorthern Ireland (not in the study)Web design in OffalyWeb design in RoscommonWeb design in SligoWeb design in TipperaryWeb design in WaterfordWeb design in WestmeathWeb design in WexfordWeb design in WicklowPortlaoise, County LaoisPortlaoise
The 26 towns in our county study, one per county. This page is Portlaoise, in County Laois. 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 Portlaoise town 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 Laois

Searches a month from County Laois

  • Cafes and coffeeabout 4,780
  • Hairdressersabout 990
  • Plumbersabout 360
  • Physio and physical therapy clinicsabout 180
  • Electriciansabout 160
The searches in each total

Cafes and coffee about 4,780 a month

  • "coffee near me" 2,400
  • "coffee shop near me" 880
  • "cafe near me" 720
  • "cafe" 390
  • "cafe portlaoise" 390

Hairdressers about 990 a month

  • "hairdresser portlaoise" 720
  • "hair salon near me" 110
  • "hairdresser" 90
  • "hairdresser near me" 70

Plumbers about 360 a month

  • "plumber portlaoise" 140
  • "plumber near me" 70
  • "plumber" 70
  • "plumber laois" 70
  • "emergency plumber" 10

Physio and physical therapy clinics about 180 a month

  • "physio" 110
  • "physio near me" 70

Electricians about 160 a month

  • "electrician" 50
  • "electrician portlaoise" 50
  • "electrician near me" 40
  • "electrician laois" 20

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

Who has a website

12 of the 20 in Portlaoise have a website of their own.

Of the other eight, five have no website we could find and three have websites that no longer work. None of the 20 relies on Facebook or Instagram alone.

Further down the same Maps lists, 14 of the 35 businesses have a website of their own, so a website is more common at the top of each list than below it.

Cafes have the fewest websites at the top in Portlaoise, one of four. Every physio and physical therapy clinic has one; plumbers have three of four, electricians and hairdressers two of four.

Portlaoise's 12 of 20 sits just under the 308 of 505 across the 26 study towns, level with Carlow. It also has the most dead websites at the top of any study town, three: a working site is the first thing to get right.

Every month, about 4,780 searches for cafes and coffee come from County Laois, with about 990 for hairdressers and about 360 for plumbers. Of the 11 Portlaoise sites we could read, five 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 12 of 20
  • No website found 5 of 20
  • Website no longer works 3 of 20
The rest of the same Maps lists, 35 businesses
  • Own website 14
  • Facebook or Instagram only 3
  • No website found 17
  • Not working, or could not tell 1
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 12 Portlaoise sites scored 90 or more for speed on a phone.

In October 2026, Google's PageSpeed test, run as a phone, gave the 12 sites with a speed score in Portlaoise, County Laois, a median of 59.5 out of 100. Two of them scored under 50.

Speed on a phone

05090100

59.5 median score out of 100

  • Under 50 2
  • 50 to 89 10
  • 90 or more 0

Why speed matters

In October 2026, the biggest image or block of text on the 12 sites with a speed score in Portlaoise, County Laois, took a median of 7.7 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 12 got there. A Portlaoise 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 11 sites we could read do

  • 7 of 11 read say what they do and where, in the page title or main heading
  • 11 of 11 read put a tap-to-call link or a form on the home page
  • 5 of 11 read show a price
  • 3 of 11 read name the area they cover
  • 9 of 11 read load securely (https)
  • 6 of 7 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online

What the 12 websites are built on

  • WordPress 6
  • Wix 2
  • Squarespace 2
  • Could not tell 2
What "read" and "scored" mean

"Read" means the 11 sites we could read page by page. One more site's host showed our checks a bot check or refused our requests. It counts as a live website of the business's own, because the Google profile links it and Google's own speed test loads it. We could not read it, so it is left out of the page checks. "Scored" means the sites with a speed score: Google's speed test reached all 12, 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 Laois
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 Portlaoise website, each tied to a gap we measured.

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

    8 of 11 sites we could read do not name the area they cover

    Five of the 11 Portlaoise sites we could read show a price and seven say what they do and where in the page title. The area you cover is the one to add.

  2. Get a website of your own

    8 of 20 businesses Google shows first have no working website of their own

    Three businesses at the top in Portlaoise have a website that no longer works, and five have none we could find. Check yours still loads; if you have none, start with one page: prices, area, call button.

  3. Make it quick on a phone

    12 of 12 sites with a speed score stayed under 90 on a phone

    On a phone, the Portlaoise sites took a median of 7.7 seconds to show their biggest image or text, and none reached 90. Lighter images and fewer add-ons first.

  4. Get the setup underneath right

    3 of 35 businesses further down the Maps lists have not claimed their Google profile

    Every business at the top in Portlaoise has claimed its Google profile. Do the same, add your hours and link your website from it.

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 Laois have websites?

Fewer than in 13 of the other 25 towns we checked. In October 2026, 12 of the 20 businesses Google showed first in Portlaoise, County Laois, 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, 12 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Portlaoise, County Laois, have a website of their own, and none of the 20 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. How the 11 Portlaoise sites we could read did on each:

  • What you do and where, in the page title or main heading: 7 of the 11 Portlaoise sites we could read in October 2026.
  • A tap-to-call link or a form on the home page: 11 of the 11.
  • A guide price where you can give one: 5 of the 11.
  • The area you cover: 3 of the 11.
  • Speed on a phone: of the 12 sites with a speed score, none reached 90 out of 100.

When we searched Portlaoise, Google's "People also ask" box asked "How much should I pay for a gas boiler service?" Your own site is where a guide price answers 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 Portlaoise searches in October 2026, 17 of the 50 places in the first ten ordinary results went to local businesses' own websites. Directories and listings took 19 of those 50, most often Yelp with five, Golden Pages with four and Plumbers in Ireland with three. 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 Portlaoise?

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

Michael Collins, founder of Wagyu Digital
MethodHow we checked
  • Checked October 2026. The searches ran on 14 October 2026 at about 3pm 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 Portlaoise town 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: 35 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 11 read" means the 11 sites we could read. Google's PageSpeed test can still reach them, so the speed figures ("of 12 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 portlaoise".
  • Distances run from the Portlaoise town 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 Laois: 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 "portlaoise" or "laois" 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.