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County Sligo

Web design in Sligo, with the homework done.

Websites for Sligo businesses. In October 2026 we checked the websites of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Sligo, 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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Benbulben's flat top and ridged cliffs behind a row of shopfronts by the water, and a laptop open on a new websiteBenbulben's flat top and ridged cliffs behind a row of shopfronts by the water, and a laptop open on a new website
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17 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Sligo have a website of their own, against 20 of the 48 further down the same Maps lists. Of the 16 we could read, 14 put a call button or a form on the home page. Where they fall short is speed: one of the 17 reached 90 out of 100 on a phone.

The headline numbers for Sligo, October 2026

  • 17 of 20 businesses Google shows first have a website of their own
  • 1 of 17 sites with a speed score reach 90 or more on a phone
  • 9 of 16 sites we could read show a price
  • 8 of 9 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online
Where we looked

We checked the 20 businesses Google shows first in Sligo.

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 Sligo town, in County Sligo. 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 Sligo 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 Sligo

Searches a month from County Sligo

  • Cafes and coffeeabout 7,340
  • Hairdressersabout 1,010
  • Plumbersabout 450
  • Physio and physical therapy clinicsabout 350
  • Electriciansabout 210
The searches in each total

Cafes and coffee about 7,340 a month

  • "coffee near me" 3,600
  • "cafe near me" 1,300
  • "coffee shop near me" 1,000
  • "cafe" 720
  • "cafe sligo" 720

Hairdressers about 1,010 a month

  • "hairdresser sligo" 720
  • "hair salon near me" 110
  • "hairdresser" 110
  • "hairdresser near me" 70

Plumbers about 450 a month

  • "plumber sligo" 260
  • "plumber near me" 110
  • "plumber" 70
  • "emergency plumber" 10

Physio and physical therapy clinics about 350 a month

  • "physio sligo" 210
  • "physio" 90
  • "physio near me" 50

Electricians about 210 a month

  • "electrician sligo" 110
  • "electrician" 70
  • "electrician near me" 30

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

Who has a website

17 of the 20 in Sligo have a website of their own.

The other three have no website we could find. None of the 20 relies on Facebook or Instagram alone.

In Sligo a website is far more common at the top of each list than below it.

Every trade at the top in Sligo is mostly online: plumbers and physio and physical therapy clinics have four of four, electricians, cafes and hairdressers three of four each.

Only Cork, of the 26 study towns, has a higher share than Sligo's 17 of 20; across all 26 it is 308 of 505. A Sligo site is up against websites in every trade, so its speed and what it says are where it can do better.

Every month, about 7,340 searches for cafes and coffee come from County Sligo, with about 1,010 for hairdressers and about 450 for plumbers. Of the 16 Sligo sites we could read, seven show no price.

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

The 20 businesses Google shows first

  • Own website 17 of 20
  • No website found 3 of 20
The rest of the same Maps lists, 48 businesses
  • Own website 20
  • Facebook or Instagram only 6
  • No website found 20
  • Not working, or could not tell 2
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What the websites do

One of the 17 Sligo sites scored 90 or more for speed on a phone.

In October 2026, Google's PageSpeed test, run as a phone, gave the 17 sites with a speed score in Sligo town a median of 58 out of 100. Five of them scored under 50.

Speed on a phone

05090100

58 median score out of 100

  • Under 50 5
  • 50 to 89 11
  • 90 or more 1

Why speed matters

In October 2026, the biggest image or block of text on the 17 sites with a speed score in Sligo town took a median of 9.6 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 one of the 17 got there. A Sligo site that does would outscore 16 of them.

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

What the 16 sites we could read do

  • 12 of 16 read say what they do and where, in the page title or main heading
  • 14 of 16 read put a tap-to-call link or a form on the home page
  • 9 of 16 read show a price
  • 9 of 16 read name the area they cover
  • 15 of 16 read load securely (https)
  • 8 of 9 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online

What the 17 websites are built on

  • WordPress 8
  • Squarespace 2
  • Wix 1
  • Could not tell 6
What "read" and "scored" mean

"Read" means the 16 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 17, 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 Sligo
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 Sligo website, each tied to a gap we measured.

  1. Make it quick on a phone

    16 of 17 sites with a speed score stayed under 90 on a phone

    One of the 17 Sligo sites reached 90 on a phone. The biggest image or text took a median of 9.6 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

    7 of 16 sites we could read show no price

    Show a guide price on the home page. In Sligo, nine of the 16 sites we could read do, and nine name their area. Do both.

  3. Get a website of your own

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

    Three of the 20 at the top in Sligo have no website we could find. If yours is one of them, a single page with your prices, your area and a call button is the start.

  4. Get the setup underneath right

    10 of 48 businesses further down the Maps lists have not claimed their Google profile

    Claim your Google profile, add your hours (17 of the 20 at the top in Sligo list theirs), 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 Sligo have websites?

More than in 24 of the other 25 towns we checked. In October 2026, 17 of the 20 businesses Google showed first in Sligo town 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, 17 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Sligo have a website of their own, and none of the 20 relies on Facebook or Instagram alone. Further down the same lists, six of the 48 do. 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. Sligo gave us 16 sites to read; here is the count for each:

  • What you do and where, in the page title or main heading: 12 of the 16 Sligo sites we could read in October 2026.
  • A tap-to-call link or a form on the home page: 14 of the 16.
  • A guide price where you can give one: 9 of the 16.
  • The area you cover: 9 of the 16.
  • Speed on a phone: of the 17 sites with a speed score, one reached 90 out of 100.

Google's "People also ask" box on our Sligo searches asked "What is the average hourly rate for a plumber in Ireland?" A guide price on your own site 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 Sligo searches in October 2026, 16 of the 50 places in the first ten ordinary results went to local businesses' own websites. Directories and listings took 16 of those 50, most often Fresha with four and Yelp 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 Sligo town?

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

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 Sligo 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: 48 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 16 read" means the 16 sites we could read. Google's PageSpeed test can still reach them, so the speed figures ("of 17 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 sligo".
  • Distances run from the Sligo 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 Sligo: 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 "sligo" 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.