Insights & resources

The answers we give business owners anyway.

Guides, checklists and honest answers about websites and search — organised by where you are in the process rather than by what ranks. Nothing here is behind an email address.

Starting a website

You've decided the business needs a proper website. These help you choose the right person to build it and turn up prepared.

How to choose a web designer
What actually separates a good fit from an expensive mistake.
20 questions to ask a web designer
Ask these before you pay a deposit, along with what a reassuring answer sounds like.
How to write a website brief
A structure you can fill in and send to anyone you're considering.
Website project checklist
Everything to sort before a build starts, phase by phase.
Website content checklist
The words, proof and imagery a site needs before it can sell anything.
What does a web designer need from you?
What to bring, and what you genuinely don't need to work out yourself.
How long does a website take?
What actually drives the timeline, and where projects usually stall.

Words, photos and proof

The part most projects underestimate. Content decides whether a good design converts.

Small-business website copy
A simple framework for pages that answer what customers are actually asking.
Website photography guide
Which photos earn trust, and how to get usable ones without a studio.
What should be on a homepage
The handful of things a homepage has to do in the first few seconds.
What a small-business website should include
The pages and sections that consistently earn their place.

Redesigning or moving a site

The riskiest kind of website project, because there's already something working that can be broken.

Website redesign checklist
What to record and protect before anything changes.
Website migration checklist
Moving platform, domain or URL structure without losing what you had.
Redesign or start again?
When a rebuild is genuinely justified, and when it isn't.
SEO during a redesign
How rankings survive a rebuild, and what usually kills them.
Website launch checklist
The pre-go-live checks worth doing twice.

SEO and being found

Straight answers on search, without the jargon or the guarantees nobody can keep.

How much does SEO cost?
What the money buys, and why fixed-forever pricing is rare.
How long does SEO take?
Realistic timescales, and the signals that show it's working early.
Why isn't my website showing on Google?
The usual causes, in the order worth checking them.
What is local SEO?
Plain English, no acronyms left unexplained.
Google Business Profile checklist
The listing details that quietly affect local visibility.
Do I actually need SEO?
An honest look at when it pays and when it doesn't.

Getting more enquiries

For sites that get visitors but not enough of the work that pays for them.

Website not generating enquiries
Where enquiries usually leak, from first screen to form.
Lead-generation websites
What a site built around enquiries does differently.
Conversion optimisation
Improving what you already have, rather than starting again.
How to measure website success
The small number of metrics that reflect actual commercial results.

Ownership, contracts and support

The unglamorous details that decide how much control you have over your own website.

Who owns your website?
Domain, design, code, content and licences are separate things.
Web design contracts
What an agreement should make clear before you sign it.
Website hosting explained
What you're paying for, and what managed care adds on top.
Website maintenance costs
What ongoing care typically covers, and what it shouldn't.
Website speed
What genuinely slows a site down, and what's a red herring.

Longer reads

Articles, written the way we'd answer on a call.

SEO6 min read
What is local SEO, in plain English?
How local search actually works, and the handful of things that genuinely move the needle for a local business.
Read
Web design5 min read
What should be on a small business homepage?
A practical running order for the one page almost everyone sees first.
Read
SEO6 min read
The Google Business Profile checklist for local businesses
The free listing that often out-performs the website itself — and the details most businesses leave half-finished.
Read
Web design5 min read
Website speed: why it matters and what actually slows a site down
Speed is a ranking factor and an enquiry factor. The usual culprits are simpler than most people expect.
Read
Small business5 min read
Do I need a blog for my small business?
Not always — but when it works, it works quietly and for years. How to tell which camp you're in.
Read

Next step

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