How to set up a website for a new business in Ireland

You've registered the business. You have a name. Maybe even a logo. Now you need a website — and you're staring at a wall of Wix ads, agency cold-emails, and conflicting advice. Here's the actual playbook.

1. Buy your .ie domain first

Before you do anything else. Use Blacknight, Register365 or Namecheap. A .ie costs €15–€25/year and signals you're a real Irish business. Buy the .com too if you can afford it — protects the brand.

2. Set up a business email on that domain

you@yourbusiness.ie reads far more professional than yourbusiness@gmail.com. Google Workspace (billed per user, per month) or Zoho Mail (free plan for up to five users, in selected regions) are both fine.

3. Decide: DIY, freelancer, or AI-assisted

• DIY — Squarespace or Wix. Cheap, slow, you'll fight templates.
• Freelance designer — €2,500+. Good if you have a strong brand vision.
• AI-assisted build — €495–€2,250. Fastest path to a real-looking site.

4. Write the content first, design second

Most founders waste weeks tweaking colours before they've written a single sentence. Decide what your homepage says, what each page is for, and what action you want a visitor to take. AI can draft this for you — but you have to know what you're selling.

5. The five pages you actually need

1. Home — what you do, for whom, and the one action to take next.
2. About — who's behind it and why anyone should trust you.
3. Services or products — what you sell, clearly.
4. Contact — phone, email, hours, location, contact form.
5. Pricing or FAQ — answer the questions you get asked most.

6. SEO basics on day one

• Unique <title> and meta description on every page.
• Set up Google Business Profile — free, huge for local SEO.
• Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
• Add LocalBusiness schema (a freelance designer can do this in 10 minutes).

7. Launch and tell people

A website nobody knows about is just an expensive PDF. Email your existing contacts. Add the URL to your LinkedIn, Instagram bio, business cards, vehicle signage. Ask your first real customers to leave a Google review.

What it should cost, end to end

Domain (€20/yr) + email (one Google Workspace user, billed monthly) + a Business-tier build (€1,150 one-off) + optional Starter Maintenance (€29/month) = roughly €1,600 in year one — and you fully own the site. Compare that to a typical agency proposal (€4,000 + retainer) and you can see why we exist.

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