Foundations4 min
Why your website matters
What a website is really for, what a bad one costs you, and how to judge your own honestly.
[//] Guides
Everything that makes a website work.
19 guides covering the parts of a small business website that actually matter — written in plain English, with no jargon and nothing to sign up for. Start anywhere; they all link to each other.
[01] Start here
New to this? Read these two first.
Why your website matters explains what the thing is actually for and what a bad one costs you. Then the mistakes I find on almost every site is a checklist you can work through on your own site in an afternoon.
[02] Foundations
What a website is for, and what makes one work at all.
Foundations3 min
Mobile & responsive design
What responsive design actually means, the things that break most often on phones, and how to test properly.
Foundations3 min
Accessibility
What accessibility means in practice, why it is both a legal and commercial issue, and the changes that help most.
Foundations3 min
Common website mistakes
A practical checklist of the faults that appear again and again, and what each one costs.
Foundations3 min
Redesign or repair?
How to tell whether your site needs fixing or replacing — and why the answer is usually fixing.
Foundations3 min
Choosing a web designer
The questions to ask, the answers that should worry you, and the ownership traps to avoid.
Foundations3 min
How I audit a website
The process I follow on every free audit — and how to run most of it on your own site.
[03] Performance
Speed — the part with the most measurable effect on your takings.
Performance4 min
Site speed & Core Web Vitals
What LCP, CLS and INP mean in plain English, why they affect rankings, and what actually makes sites slow.
Performance3 min
Images and media
Why images slow sites down more than anything else, and how to fix it without losing quality.
[04] Findability
Getting found by people searching for what you do.
Findability3 min
Technical SEO basics
How search engines find and understand your pages, and the technical faults that quietly keep you out of results.
Findability3 min
Local SEO
How to show up in local searches and the map pack — usually the highest-value SEO work a local business can do.
Findability3 min
Analytics and measurement
The handful of numbers worth watching, and the ones that look impressive but mean nothing.
[05] Conversion
Turning the people who arrive into people who get in touch.
Conversion3 min
Navigation & structure
How to organise pages and menus so people find what they need — and search engines understand how it fits together.
Conversion3 min
Turning visitors into enquiries
Why interested visitors still leave without contacting you, and the changes that fix it.
Conversion3 min
Building trust
The signals that make a stranger believe you are real, competent and safe to contact.
Conversion3 min
Words and content
How people actually read online, and how to write pages that survive being skimmed.
[06] Upkeep
Keeping a working site working.
Upkeep3 min
Maintenance & security
Why sites break on their own over time, and the small routine that prevents most of it.
Upkeep3 min
Domains and hosting
What you are actually paying for, who should own it, and what matters when choosing.
Upkeep3 min
Cookies and privacy
What UK law actually requires of a small business site, in plain English.
[//] Rather not do it yourself?
Send me a URL and I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it.
A free written audit within 24 hours covering everything in these guides as it applies to your site. No call, no obligation, and nothing to pay unless you decide to go ahead.