Web design in Westmeath, with the homework done.
Websites for Westmeath businesses. In October 2026 we checked the websites of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Mullingar, across five trades. This page shows what those sites have, what they miss, and what to fix first on your own.
8 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Mullingar have a website of their own. Five rely on Facebook or Instagram alone, and six have no website we could find. In Mullingar, the first gap is the website itself.
The headline numbers for Mullingar, October 2026
- 8 of 20 businesses Google shows first have a website of their own
- 2 of 8 sites with a speed score reach 90 or more on a phone
- 2 of 7 sites we could read show a price
- 2 of 5 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online
We checked the 20 businesses Google shows first in Mullingar.
Checked · Study by Michael Collins, 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.
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 Mullingar town centre.
We took the first four from each Maps list
After removing chains, wrong trades, duplicate listings and anything outside the county. That gives 20.
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 Westmeath
Searches a month from County Westmeath
- Cafes and coffeeabout 7,000
- Hairdressersabout 1,280
- Plumbersabout 380
- Physio and physical therapy clinicsabout 230
- Electriciansabout 200
The searches in each total
Cafes and coffee about 7,000 a month
- "coffee near me" 3,600
- "cafe near me" 1,300
- "coffee shop near me" 1,300
- "cafe" 590
- "cafe mullingar" 210
Hairdressers about 1,280 a month
- "hairdresser mullingar" 880
- "hair salon near me" 170
- "hairdresser" 140
- "hairdresser near me" 90
Plumbers about 380 a month
- "plumber mullingar" 170
- "plumber" 110
- "plumber near me" 70
- "plumber westmeath" 20
- "emergency plumber" 10
Physio and physical therapy clinics about 230 a month
- "physio" 140
- "physio near me" 90
Electricians about 200 a month
- "electrician" 90
- "electrician near me" 50
- "electrician mullingar" 50
- "electrician westmeath" 10
Google's own monthly estimates for searches made from County Westmeath: a 12-month average, rounded by Google, with singular and plural counted once.
12 of the 20 in Mullingar have no working website of their own.
Of those 12, three rely on Instagram alone, two rely on Facebook alone, six have no website we could find and one has a website that no longer works.
Physio and physical therapy clinics are the one trade where websites are common at the top in Mullingar, three of four. Plumbers, cafes and hairdressers have one of four each, electricians two of four.
Mullingar's 8 of 20 ties with Castlebar for the second-lowest share of the 26 study towns, after Carrick-on-Shannon; across all 26 it is 308 of 505. Five businesses at the top in Mullingar rely on Facebook or Instagram alone, the most of any study town. So a Mullingar owner with a site of their own has something only eight of the 20 at the top have.
Every month, about 7,000 searches for cafes and coffee come from County Westmeath, with about 1,280 for hairdressers and about 380 for plumbers. Of the seven Mullingar sites we could read, two 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 8 of 20
- Facebook or Instagram only 5 of 20
- No website found 6 of 20
- Website no longer works 1 of 20
- Own website 20
- Facebook or Instagram only 1
- No website found 22
- Not working, or could not tell 0
Need a website, or a revamp?
Pick a time for a free 15-minute call and tell us what the business does, or about the site you have now. You'll get a straight read on what it needs.
A real person will get back to you.
Two of the 8 Mullingar sites scored 90 or more for speed on a phone.
In October 2026, Google's PageSpeed test, run as a phone, gave the 8 sites with a speed score in Mullingar, County Westmeath, a median of 73.5 out of 100. One scored under 50.
Speed on a phone
73.5 median score out of 100
- Under 50 1
- 50 to 89 5
- 90 or more 2
Why speed matters
In October 2026, the biggest image or block of text on the 8 sites with a speed score in Mullingar, County Westmeath, took a median of 4.8 seconds to appear on a phone. That is the second quickest of the 26 towns we checked. Google's own mark for a good page is 2.5 seconds or less.
Google counts 90 or more as a good score, and two of the 8 got there. A Mullingar site that does would outscore six of them.
Run Google's Lighthouse test on your own sitePage checks and platforms, in numbers
What the 7 sites we could read do
- 4 of 7 read say what they do and where, in the page title or main heading
- 5 of 7 read put a tap-to-call link or a form on the home page
- 2 of 7 read show a price
- 3 of 7 read name the area they cover
- 6 of 7 read load securely (https)
- 2 of 5 cafe, hairdresser and clinic sites we could read take bookings online
What the 8 websites are built on
- WordPress 3
- Duda 1
- Squarespace 1
- Could not tell 3
What "read" and "scored" mean
"Read" means the 7 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 8, three runs each, median taken.
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.
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.
A real person will get back to you.
Four fixes for a Mullingar website, each tied to a gap we measured.
Get a website of your own
12 of 20 businesses Google shows first have no working website of their own
Six of the 20 at the top in Mullingar have no website we could find. Keep your Facebook page, and start a site of your own with one page: your prices, your area and a call button.
Put your prices, your area and a call button on the home page
5 of 7 sites we could read show no price
Put a guide price on the home page; two of the 7 Mullingar sites we could read show one. Then name the towns you cover, as three of them do.
Make it quick on a phone
6 of 8 sites with a speed score stayed under 90 on a phone
The Mullingar sites are the second quickest we measured: a median of 4.8 seconds to show their biggest image or text on a phone, still over Google's 2.5. Small images and few add-ons are where to start.
Get the setup underneath right
9 of 43 businesses further down the Maps lists have not claimed their Google profile
All 20 at the top in Mullingar list their hours on Google. Claim your profile, add yours, and link your website from it.
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.
Artist / galleryMajella O'Neill CollinsFull website build, SEO and managementView the site
Media / publisherSouthern StarWebsite advertising: ad revenue and ad partnersView the site
ConstructionEuroconcreteFull website build, SEO and managementView the site
Sport mediaLive PickleballWebsite advertising: ad revenue and growth adviceView the site
What owners ask about a website.
Do businesses in Westmeath have websites?
Fewer than in 23 of the other 25 towns we checked. In October 2026, 8 of the 20 businesses Google showed first in Mullingar, County Westmeath, 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 Mullingar, County Westmeath, in October 2026, five of the 20 businesses Google shows first rely on Facebook or Instagram alone, and eight have a website of their own. 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, each counted across the seven Mullingar sites we could read:
- What you do and where, in the page title or main heading: 4 of the 7 Mullingar sites we could read in October 2026.
- A tap-to-call link or a form on the home page: 5 of the 7.
- A guide price where you can give one: 2 of the 7.
- The area you cover: 3 of the 7.
- Speed on a phone: of the 8 sites with a speed score, two reached 90 out of 100.
On our Mullingar searches, Google's "People also ask" box asked "How much does a gas boiler service cost in Ireland?" Put a guide price on your own site to 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 Mullingar searches in October 2026, 14 of the 50 places in the first ten ordinary results went to local businesses' own websites. Directories and listings took 13 of those 50, most often Tripadvisor 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 Mullingar?
No. We work with businesses across Ireland. The study looked at Mullingar because our method takes the biggest town in each county, and in County Westmeath we took Mullingar over Athlone, because part of Athlone lies in County Roscommon.

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 Mullingar 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: 43 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 7 read" means the 7 sites we could read. Google's PageSpeed test can still reach them, so the speed figures ("of 8 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 mullingar".
- Distances run from the Mullingar 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 Westmeath: 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 "mullingar" or "westmeath" 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.