Guides

• Cork Café Websites Checked: What 24 Sites Show an AI Assistant, 9 October 2026

  On 9 October 2026 I ran six checks on the websites of 24 cafés and roasters in Cork city and county. No robots.txt rule closed the home page to any of the 10 named AI crawlers, 13 failed the menu check, and 20 did not have both the phone and the address as data (18 had neither, 2 had the address but not the phone).

  10 October 2026

• Is Your Café Ready for AI? 11 Dublin Sites Tested

  On 26 September 2026 I read 11 Dublin café websites the way ChatGPT's crawler does. None had all four things an assistant needs. A free check for yours.

  26 September 2026

• Do Dublin Cafés Have Websites? 77 Counted, 2026

  I read the Google listing of 77 independent Dublin cafés with 24,599 ratings between them. Four in five have no website of their own on it. The full count, the method, and where my own earlier sample was wrong.

  20 September 2026

• Does My Café Need a Website? Ireland, 2026

  Four in five independent Dublin cafés have no website of their own on their Google listing, measured across all 77 shops on my register. What that means for yours.

  16 September 2026

• Café Website Cost in Ireland (2026 Prices)

  Published Irish prices for a café website in September 2026, side by side with dates: €60 a year to €5,000, and what each one actually covers.

  14 September 2026

• Grow Digital Voucher for a Café Website (2026)

  The Trading Online Voucher closed in December 2024. Its replacement pays 50% of costs, minimum €500, maximum €5,000. What a Dublin café gets.

  14 September 2026

Shorter answers

Where somebody asked a specific question in public, the reply has its own page.

• Should a Café Add “Coffee” or Its Area to Its Name on Google?

  Google’s guidelines say a profile name should be the business’s real-world name, and that unnecessary information in it could get the profile suspended. Address, service area, business hours and category go in the other sections.

  6 November 2026

• Can a Café Remove the Delivery App Order Links on Its Google Listing?

  Under Food ordering, Google’s help page describes these controls: turn off “Accept orders on your profile”, which hides the third-party order options and links you add; set a preferred provider; or remove a specific provider, which providers must remove within 5 business days of a request.

  4 November 2026

• Can a Café Inside a Theatre, Shop or Hotel Get Its Own Google Listing?

  It depends on who runs the café. Google says an independently operated café inside another business should have its own Business Profile with ‘Cafe’ as its primary category; for a department, Google’s example is a grocery store that adds additional categories.

  2 November 2026

• How Much Does a Basic Website Cost for a Small Business in Ireland?

  In a 2019 boards.ie thread about a small business website, posts gave figures including 600-800, €3-5k and €5-8k, and one post asked about ecommerce, hosting and maintenance. In our view, ask what each quote includes before you compare prices.

  29 October 2026

• Why Do Closed Businesses Leave Their Website Up?

  In a 2022 boards.ie thread about closed businesses in general, posts gave several reasons a closed business's website stays up, and disagreed about liquidators. In our view, a café that closes or moves should say so on its website and Google listing.

  27 October 2026

• Should a Café Put Its Prices on Its Online Menu?

  In a 2025 to 2026 boards.ie thread about cafés setting up in parks and other locations in Dublin, one post called a menu transparent and online with prices, and posts disagreed on whether the prices were high. In our view, put the prices on the online menu and keep them current.

  23 October 2026

• Should a Café Contact a Customer About a Bad Review?

  In a 2014 boards.ie thread, some posters said a venue should answer a review on the site where it was posted. Some posts said to wait for the facts. In our view, a café should reply where the review was posted.

  21 October 2026

• Do Customers Check TripAdvisor Before Choosing a Café or Restaurant?

  Some posters in a 2014 boards.ie thread said they check TripAdvisor before booking a hotel or restaurant. Others said they read it with care or distrust it. In our view, a café should make sure its own menu and hours can be found too.

  19 October 2026

• Does an Out-of-Date Website or Facebook Page Lose a Café Customers?

  In our view it can. One diner in a 2014 boards.ie thread checked two restaurants' pages, found one website and Facebook page last updated in 2011 and another Facebook page last updated the previous September, and wrote that they had decided to go elsewhere. The fix is a page with the menu, prices and hours, changed when they change.

  17 October 2026

• Is a Facebook Page Enough for a Café, or Does It Need a Website?

  In our view a Facebook page is fine for posting but a poor only home, because some people never log in. A site of your own with the menu, hours and phone as text can be read by anyone.

  15 October 2026

• Can a Café Use a QR Code That Only Lets 5-Star Reviews Through to Google?

  No. Google's Maps policy says merchants must not discourage negative reviews or selectively solicit positive ones. A QR code that asks every customer for a genuine review is allowed.

  13 October 2026

• Does a Coffee Shop Need to Be on Every Platform? Keeping the Menu and Hours Right Everywhere

  No. Commenters in one Reddit thread said to start with a few channels and keep them accurate, with a Google Business Profile first, then Instagram and a simple website. Keep one master copy of the menu and hours and update everything from it.

  11 October 2026

• Does a Café Need a Website if It Has Google Maps and Instagram?

  Not strictly. Google Maps and Instagram cover a lot, but a website is one place a café controls, with the menu and prices as text that anyone can read without an account. It only helps if it is kept up to date.

  9 October 2026

• Why Don't So Many Cafés Have a Website? What People Said, and What We Counted in Dublin

  Not always. People in one 2022 r/smallbusiness thread gave cost, upkeep, Facebook or Google being enough and wariness of salespeople as reasons. We counted 77 Dublin listings on 20 September 2026 and 62 had no site of their own.

  5 October 2026

• Google Changed My Café's Opening Hours. How Do I Fix It?

  If you manage the Business Profile, edit the hours and check the edit status, which Google says usually clears in 10 minutes and can take 30 days. If you do not, request ownership or suggest an edit on Maps with a photo of the hours.

  3 October 2026

• Is Building Websites for Coffee Shops a Business? 18 Built on Spec by September 2026

  A developer asked whether cafés with no website of their own on their Google listing are a market worth entering. By 22 September 2026 Cupán Studio had built 18 finished café websites in Dublin on spec and sent 15 owners theirs, free to look at and €690 to keep. None had bought one. The supply gap is real, the demand is the part nobody counts.

  22 September 2026

• Is It Normal for a Café to Have No Website? 77 Dublin Cafés Counted, 2026

  Asked on r/smallbusiness in April 2026. Of 77 independent Dublin cafés, roasters and carts read on 20 September 2026, 62 had no website of their own on their Google listing. On that count, having none is the ordinary case, not a sign of being behind.

  22 September 2026