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County Wicklow

Web design in Wicklow, with the homework done.

Websites for Wicklow businesses. In October 2026 we checked the websites of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Bray, 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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Bray Head and the cross on its summit behind a row of seafront shopfronts, and a laptop open on a new websiteBray Head and the cross on its summit behind a row of seafront shopfronts, and a laptop open on a new website
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15 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Bray have a website of their own, against 20 of the 50 further down the same Maps lists. Of the 13 we could read, three name the area they cover, and none of the 14 with a speed score reached 90 on a phone.

The headline numbers for Bray, October 2026

  • 15 of 20 businesses Google shows first have a website of their own
  • 0 of 14 sites with a speed score reach 90 or more on a phone
  • 5 of 13 sites we could read show a price
  • 3 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 Bray.

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 Bray, in County Wicklow. 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 Bray 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 Wicklow

Searches a month from County Wicklow

  • Cafes and coffeeabout 14,720
  • Hairdressersabout 1,360
  • Plumbersabout 590
  • Physio and physical therapy clinicsabout 470
  • Electriciansabout 330
The searches in each total

Cafes and coffee about 14,720 a month

  • "coffee near me" 8,100
  • "cafe near me" 2,900
  • "coffee shop near me" 1,900
  • "cafe" 1,300
  • "cafe bray" 480
  • "cafe wicklow" 40

Hairdressers about 1,360 a month

  • "hairdresser bray" 480
  • "hair salon near me" 320
  • "hairdresser near me" 210
  • "hairdresser" 210
  • "hairdresser wicklow" 140

Plumbers about 590 a month

  • "plumber near me" 170
  • "plumber" 170
  • "plumber bray" 140
  • "plumber wicklow" 90
  • "emergency plumber" 20

Physio and physical therapy clinics about 470 a month

  • "physio" 260
  • "physio near me" 210

Electricians about 330 a month

  • "electrician" 140
  • "electrician near me" 110
  • "electrician bray" 40
  • "electrician wicklow" 40

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

Who has a website

15 of the 20 in Bray have a website of their own.

Of the other five, one relies on Instagram alone and four have no website we could find.

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

Every plumber and every physio and physical therapy clinic at the top in Bray has a site of its own. Half the cafes and half the hairdressers do, two of four each, and three of the four electricians.

Bray's 15 of 20 matches Galway and Kilkenny and is above the 308 of 505 across the 26 study towns. With most of the top online in Bray, a new site is compared with theirs, so make it say where you work.

People in County Wicklow make about 14,720 searches a month for cafes and coffee, about 1,360 for hairdressers and about 590 for plumbers. Of the 13 Bray 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 15 of 20
  • Facebook or Instagram only 1 of 20
  • No website found 4 of 20
The rest of the same Maps lists, 50 businesses
  • Own website 20
  • Facebook or Instagram only 5
  • No website found 22
  • Not working, or could not tell 3
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 14 Bray sites scored 90 or more for speed on a phone.

In October 2026, Google's PageSpeed test, run as a phone, scored 14 of the 15 sites in Bray, County Wicklow, with a median of 60.5 out of 100. Four scored under 50.

Speed on a phone

05090100

60.5 median score out of 100

  • Under 50 4
  • 50 to 89 10
  • 90 or more 0

Why speed matters

In October 2026, the biggest image or block of text on the 14 sites with a speed score in Bray, County Wicklow, took a median of 8.6 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 none of the 14 got there. A Bray 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 13 sites we could read do

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

What the 15 websites are built on

  • WordPress 6
  • Wix 2
  • Could not tell 7
What "read" and "scored" mean

"Read" means the 13 sites we could read page by page. Two 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. 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 scored 14 of the 15, 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 Wicklow
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 Bray website, each tied to a gap we measured.

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

    10 of 13 sites we could read do not name the area they cover

    Write Bray and the areas you cover on the home page. 11 of the 13 Bray sites we could read have a call link or form up front; the area is what's missing.

  2. Make it quick on a phone

    4 of 14 sites with a speed score scored under 50 on a phone

    On a phone, the Bray sites took a median of 8.6 seconds to show their biggest image or text. Smaller images and fewer add-ons first, a speed check every month after.

  3. Get a website of your own

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

    Four of the 20 at the top in Bray have no website we could find. One page with your prices, your area and a call button is the start.

  4. Get the setup underneath right

    13 of 50 businesses further down the Maps lists have not claimed their Google profile

    19 of the 20 at the top in Bray list their hours on Google. Claim your profile, add yours, 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 Wicklow have websites?

More than in 19 of the other 25 towns we checked. In October 2026, 15 of the 20 businesses Google showed first in Bray, County Wicklow, 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, 15 of the 20 businesses Google shows first in Bray, County Wicklow, 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 13 Bray sites we could read, check by check:

  • What you do and where, in the page title or main heading: 7 of the 13 Bray sites we could read in October 2026.
  • A tap-to-call link or a form on the home page: 11 of the 13.
  • A guide price where you can give one: 5 of the 13.
  • The area you cover: 3 of the 13.
  • Speed on a phone: of the 14 sites with a speed score, none reached 90 out of 100.

On our Bray searches, Google's "People also ask" box asked "How much does a plumber charge to replace a hot water cylinder?" A guide price on your site answers that.

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 Bray searches in October 2026, 12 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 Golden Pages with four and 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 Bray?

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

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 Bray 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: 50 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 13 read" means the 13 sites we could read. Google's PageSpeed test can still reach them, so the speed figures ("of 14 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 bray".
  • Distances run from the Bray 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 Wicklow: 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 "bray" or "wicklow" 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.