Sole trader setting up .ie domain, CRO necessary?

I am a registered Sole trader starting a small business on top of my PAYE job. I would like to setup a website with two .ie addresses. It seems from reading up on registering a .ie domain I also have to have this name registered with CRO. Would this be for both addresses (they are similar variations of same service)? Alternatively I could go with .com or .eu which seems simpler but would probably be less helpful for SEO purposes. I'm looking for recommendations for website/design and hosting also as it's all new to me. Any advice appreciated.

If you are trading under any name other than your own name, you need to register this as a business name with the CRO anyway (20 euro fee if done online).
Then, once you have your business name registration number, it is very easy to register a .ie domain name based on it.

You can still try to register the .ie domain without having a business name registered - see https://www.iedr.ie/register-a-domain/document-requirements/#tab-1

However, since registering a business name is so easy & should always be done to trade under a name (website or no website), I'd do that first & then it's quick & easy to get the domain.

Thanks Fizzy. I'd rather trade under my own name but require the website for marketing. By registering a company name I'm still under the sole trader umbrella for tax reasons though?

Registering a business name is different to registering a company. See here for info: https://www.cro.ie/Registration/Business-Name

As a sole trader, if you want to trade under any name other than your own, you need to register it as a business name. This is quick and easy to do and only costs 20 euro - it's not setting up a company etc.

If you are marketing your service through a website, you would usually be trading through that name to a degree. For example, you would be referencing the website name on advertising and marketing materials etc rather than having your own name front and centre.

So you can avoid any potential confusion and have everything above board from the start by just registering the business name, which would also simplify registering .ie domain names.

applecore said:

I could go with .com or .eu which seems simpler but would probably be less helpful for SEO purposes.

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A .com or .eu shouldn't be an issue for SEO, once the site is hosted in Ireland.
However, for many users .ie is an added trust signal.