Web design in Londonderry for businesses with customers on both sides of the border

Derry sits on the River Foyle a few miles from the border with County Donegal. People cross it every day to work, shop, eat and get their car serviced, in both directions. For a business in the city, the natural catchment is not a council area. It is the whole North West, and a good part of it uses a different currency.

Most websites in the city ignore that completely. Prices are in sterling only. The address form demands a UK postcode and rejects an Eircode. The phone number is written in a way that does not work from an Irish mobile. Delivery to Letterkenny or Buncrana is either not mentioned or quietly unavailable.

Each of those is a small thing, and each one tells a customer from Donegal that the business was not expecting them. They go elsewhere, and the owner never finds out.

A website built for this city treats both sets of customers as normal. That is the starting point for everything we build here, and it is as relevant to how AI search tools describe your business as it is to the person filling in the checkout.

You sell to customers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland from one website by removing every point where the site assumes the customer is in the UK. One well built site is enough. You do not need two.

Four areas need attention. Show prices in sterling and euro, with a clear way to switch, and take payment in the currency the customer chose. Make address forms accept Eircodes and Irish county names as well as UK postcodes. State delivery areas, costs and timescales for both sides of the border on a page people can find. And write phone numbers in international format so they dial correctly from any phone.

Then say it in words. A plain sentence such as we deliver across Northern Ireland and County Donegal does more than any technical setting, because customers read it, Google reads it and AI tools quote it.

Tax is the one part that is not a web design question. VAT on cross-border sales has its own rules, so we build the site to charge whatever your accountant confirms is correct and do not guess.

A business near the border does not usually need a separate .ie website alongside its .co.uk or .com. Running two sites means two sets of content to maintain, and when they say the same thing, search engines have to choose one and the other does little.

A single site on one domain is simpler and tends to perform better, provided it is clear about who it serves. That clarity comes from the content: both currencies, both delivery areas and place names from both sides of the border used where they are true.

Registering the .ie version of your name can still be sensible as protection, so nobody else takes it. Point it at your main site with a redirect and leave it at that.

The exception is a business with a real presence in the Republic, such as a second premises or a separate Irish company with its own pricing and stock. That can justify its own section or site. For a single business in Derry serving customers in Donegal, it is not needed.

Three kinds of business make up most of our conversations in Derry, and they need quite different things.

Cross-border retail and services

Shops, garages, clinics, tradespeople and suppliers with customers on both sides get a site built for two currencies and two address systems from the start. We add clear delivery and service area information, pricing that switches cleanly, and wording that names the places you actually serve so you appear for searches made in Donegal as well as in the city.

Hospitality, venues and events

The city has a full calendar, with its Halloween festival the best known, and a hospitality trade built around the walls, the quay and the music. Hotels, restaurants, bars and venues need accurate listings, table or room booking that works on a phone, and event pages that are easy to add and remove. We mark up events and opening hours in structured data so they show correctly in Google and in AI answers.

Culture, community and visitor organisations

Museums, arts organisations, charities and community groups usually have a lot to say and limited staff time to say it. We build sites with a content management system that a small team can run without help: simple page editing, what's on listings, donation or ticket links and clear accessibility. Funders and visitors both get what they came for without digging.

People search for this city under two names, and a website has to be found under both. Some type web designer Derry. Others type web designer Londonderry. A fair number use the airport's name, the council's name or simply the North West. They are all looking for the same businesses.

Search engines mostly understand that the names refer to one place, but they still weigh the words on the page. A site that only ever uses one name will be a weaker match for people who search with the other.

The practical answer is to use the name you would naturally use, and make sure the other appears where it is accurate: in the address, in a line about the area you serve, in your Google Business Profile. No awkward repetition, and no statement being made. It is simply a matter of being found by everyone who is looking.

We take the same approach on this page, and we will follow whichever convention you prefer on your own site.