How Much Should a Tradesman's Website Cost in Ireland?

The short answer

A useful trade website in Ireland in 2026 is scoped to the work and quoted as one fixed figure for the build, plus a fixed monthly retainer if you want it to actually rank locally.

What the price actually pays for

1. Strategy — keyword research for your county, service mix, competition. 2. Design and build — pages that look professional and load fast on a mid-range Android. 3. On-page SEO — title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, internal linking, Google Business Profile alignment. 4. Ongoing work — content updates, technical maintenance, Search Console monitoring.

What you get at each price band

a quoted range: the "calling card"

One page. Pretty. Loads. Fine if 100% of your work is referrals and the site exists only to look legitimate.

a quoted range: the working trade site

5–9 pages, proper SEO, schema, mobile-first. Where most Irish trades should land. First map-pack appearances within 60 days if GBP is also done.

a quoted range: site + local SEO

The above plus 10–15 pages targeting individual towns or service combinations. Usually bundled with a 6–12 month local SEO retainer at a quoted range/month.

a fixed written quote+: be careful

At this price you should be getting ecommerce, custom booking, or strategic SEO with measurable targets.

Red flags

• "Free website" with a fixed monthly retainer rental — over three years that's a fixed written quote and you don't own it.
• Per-page pricing — almost always overcharges.
• No SEO included — pointless.
• Vague "AI" mentions with no specifics.

What ours costs

For transparency: Digital Bridge publishes its pricing — Brochure quoted in writing Growth quoted in writing Authority quoted in writing — at /cheapest-websites-ireland. Every one includes SEO foundation, schema, mobile-first build and GBP alignment. No rental.

What actually moves the price up or down

Two trade websites can be quoted at a fixed written quote and a fixed written quote and both be fair. The difference is almost never the design. It is these five things:

1. Page count. A five-page site (home, services, about, areas, contact) is a different job from a twenty-page site with a page per service and per town. Each extra page needs its own copy, its own schema and its own internal links, or it drags the whole site down. 2. Who writes the words. If you supply finished copy the build is cheaper. If the agency writes it, budget roughly a quoted range per page. Most trades underestimate this and end up with a beautiful site full of placeholder text. 3. Photography. Stock photos of somebody else's van cost you credibility. A half-day of real photography on your own jobs runs a quoted range in Ireland and pays for itself on the first quote. 4. Booking or quoting logic. A contact form is included everywhere. A calendar that checks your availability, takes a deposit, and writes into your existing diary is custom work and adds a quoted range 5. Migration. Moving an existing site, its domain, its email and its rankings without downtime is a real job. Rebuilding on the same domain without a redirect map is how businesses lose their Google position overnight.

The running costs nobody quotes for

The build is a one-off. These are not:

Total honest running cost for a small Irish trade: a quoted range a year without SEO, or roughly a fixed written quote a year with a proper local SEO retainer.

• Domain: a quoted range a year for a .ie.
• Hosting: a quoted range a month depending on the platform. Static and modern hosting is often free at this scale.
• SSL certificate: should be a fixed written quote If you are being charged for one, ask why.
• Business email: a quoted range per mailbox per month.
• Maintenance: a quoted range a month for updates, backups and monitoring on a WordPress build. Considerably less if the site is not built on plugins.
• Local SEO: quoted in writing a month, and only worth starting once the site and Google Business Profile are actually finished.

How to compare three quotes fairly

Ask every quote the same four questions and the differences become obvious:

The cheapest quote that answers "you rent it from us" is not the cheapest quote.

• Do I own the domain, the hosting account and the files at the end?
• Is copywriting included, and for how many pages?
• What happens to my existing Google rankings during the switchover?
• What is the hourly or per-change rate after launch?

In our experience

The most common expensive mistake we see in Wexford, Wicklow and Carlow is not overpaying for a build. It is paying a fixed written quote for a decent site and then spending nothing on the Google Business Profile, which is free and does more for a local trade than the website does in the first six months. Do the profile first, then the site, then the SEO.

Payment terms to expect

Standard in the Irish market is 50% deposit and 50% on launch, with larger builds split 40/30/30 across milestones. A signed scope before work starts protects both sides — it is the single best defence against the project drifting and the invoice growing.

Is a very low quote a warning sign for a trade website in Ireland?

Not automatically, but you need to know what it is. At that price you are buying a small, well-built brochure site — a few pages, mobile-first, fast, with your phone number and services clear. What it will not include is a page per town, ongoing SEO or custom booking. It is a genuinely good option if most of your work comes by referral and you need somewhere credible to send people.

Should I pay monthly for a website instead of buying one?

Only if you understand the total. A a fixed written quote a month rental is a fixed written quote over three years and you own nothing at the end — no domain, no files, no rankings. If cash flow is the reason, ask for a staged payment plan on an owned build instead. Most Irish studios, including us, will split payments rather than lose the job.

How long should a trade website take to build?

Two to four weeks for a five to nine page site, assuming you get us photos and sign off on copy inside a few days. The build is rarely the delay. Waiting on content is what turns a three-week project into a three-month one.

Do I need to pay for SEO straight away?

No. Finish the Google Business Profile, get fifteen reviews and let the new site settle for a month first. Those steps are free or near-free and they move the map pack more than a retainer does in month one. Start paid SEO when you can name the searches you want to win and what a lead is worth to you.

What does Digital Bridge charge?

Published, not hidden: Brochure quoted in writing Growth quoted in writing Authority quoted in writing (up to a fixed written quote), e-commerce quoted in writing and local SEO quoted in writing a month. Every build includes SEO foundations, schema, mobile-first layout and Google Business Profile alignment, and you own everything.

Who wrote this

Joey Bray, founder and principal engineer at Digital Bridge in Gorey, Co. Wexford. He scopes and builds every project personally and writes these guides from the work itself. Questions on anything above: 085 224 1848 or [email protected].

What happens next

Every job gets a fixed written quote after a free call, so you know the full price before work starts.

1. You get a reply from Joey Bray the same working day.
2. You get a fixed written quote within 48 hours — one price, one delivery date.
3. Work starts once you approve the written scope.
4. Jo McAteer — A booking-led site for Ireland's Wedding Celebrant of the Year 2026, as seen on RTÉ.
5. Printhouse.ie — A custom web-to-print platform with an instant product quoter.
6. MicroYards — A garden design engine that turns one photo into a costed plan.
7. Get my fixed quote: https://digitalbridge.ie/contact