Core Web Vitals in plain English (and what to actually fix)
Three metrics, three plain questions: does it appear quickly, does it respond quickly, and does it stop moving? Everything else is detail.
Read itInsights
Practical guides for getting found and getting hired.
31 articles on websites, local search and running a small business online — written for owners in Chatham-Kent & Southwestern Ontario, with no gated downloads and nothing held back.
Guides & tutorials9Step-by-step tutorials you can follow yourself — writing pages that convert, planning content, and getting a site ready to launch.Local SEO8How local search actually works, and the unglamorous work that moves you up the map pack in a small market.Websites8What makes a small business website fast, findable and maintainable — and which decisions you only get to make once.Worked examples3Full walkthroughs of how a project runs end to end, with the numbers and the trade-offs shown. Composite scenarios, not named clients.News & notes3What we are building, what is changing in search, and what it means for a local business.
Google Business Profile: the complete setup and optimisation guide
For a local business, your Google Business Profile outranks your website for most searches. It is also free, and most owners fill in a third of it.
Read itHow to write a home page that actually converts
Most small business home pages fail the same way: they describe the business instead of answering the visitor's question. Here is the section-by-section fix.
Read itWhy the first ten clients get 50% off (and what the terms actually are)
A discount with a stated reason is easier to trust than one without. Here is why this one exists, what it covers, and where it stops.
Read itThe website launch checklist: 42 things to check before you go live
Launching is the moment every small mistake becomes public. This is the checklist we run on every site, grouped so you can work through it in one sitting.
Read itHow to write a service page that ranks and sells
Your home page cannot rank for everything. Service pages are where local search is actually won — one page, one service, one intent.
Read itA content plan you can actually keep: 30 minutes a week
Every content strategy fails the same way: it assumes you have three hours a week. This one assumes you have thirty minutes, and works anyway.
Read itBetter business photos with the phone in your pocket
Stock photos tell visitors you have nothing of your own to show. Your phone is good enough — the technique is what is missing.
Read itWhat to send your web designer (and what slows every project down)
Website projects rarely run late because of design. They run late waiting for content. Here is everything to gather before day one.
Read itHow to rank in the map pack (and why proximity beats everything)
Three businesses appear in the map results. Everyone else scrolls. Here is what decides which three, and what you can genuinely influence.
Read itHow to get more Google reviews without being awkward about it
Most customers are happy to leave a review and never do, because nobody asked at the right moment or made it a two-tap job.
Read itThe local SEO checklist for Chatham-Kent businesses
Everything that moves the needle for a local business in a small Ontario market, in the order it is worth doing.
Read itLocal keyword research without paying for a single tool
Paid keyword tools are built for national markets and routinely report zero volume for phrases that ring your phone weekly. Here is the free method that works locally.
Read itNAP consistency and citations, explained without the jargon
Citations are the least glamorous part of local SEO and one of the most commonly sold. Here is what genuinely matters and what is being oversold to you.
Read itService area pages done right (and the doorway-page trap)
Location pages are the most commonly botched part of local SEO. The template approach is exactly the pattern search engines were built to discount.
Read itTwelve mobile website mistakes that cost small businesses enquiries
Most of your visitors are on a phone, often outdoors, often one-handed, often in a hurry. Most small business sites are still designed on a large monitor.
Read itWebsite accessibility basics for Ontario small businesses
Accessibility is treated as a compliance chore. In practice it is the same work as making a site usable in sunlight, one-handed, on a bad connection.
Read itDo you actually need a CMS? An honest answer
A CMS is sold as freedom and often delivered as homework. Here is how to work out which one you are buying.
Read itDomains, hosting and SSL explained (and who should own what)
Three separate things, routinely confused, and one of them can hold your business hostage if it is in the wrong name.
Read itWebsite security basics for a business that has no IT department
Nobody targets your small business website specifically. Automated scanners target every website, constantly, and that is enough.
Read itWebsite analytics for people who do not care about analytics
You do not need dashboards. You need to know whether the phone rings more this month than last, and which page is responsible.
Read itWhat you actually own when you pay for a website
The question that never comes up until the relationship ends. Here is what each piece means, and what to settle in writing at the start.
Read itA one-page launch, start to finish: a worked example
What a $300 one-page launch actually involves, hour by hour and decision by decision. A composite scenario with the numbers shown honestly.
Read itThe first 90 days of local SEO: what actually happens, week by week
Local SEO is sold on outcomes and delivered as a sequence of unglamorous tasks. Here is the actual sequence, and when to expect what.
Read itReplacing a ten-year-old website without losing your rankings
The rebuild that loses half its traffic and the one that gains differ by about four hours of work, almost all of it in a spreadsheet.
Read itAI answers in search: what it changes for a local business
AI summaries are changing what a results page looks like. What they have not changed is which businesses get recommended, and why.
Read itWe rebuilt our own website. Here is what we found wrong with it.
Selling SEO with a site that has broken links and no sitemap is a credibility problem. So we audited our own first, and published the findings.
Read itTwenty website fixes you can do this afternoon
No redesign, no budget, no developer. Twenty changes that take under half an hour each and reliably produce more enquiries.
Read itShould you publish your prices? Almost always, yes
'Every job is different' is true and is not a reason to publish nothing. Here are four ways to be honest about price without quoting blind.
Read itWix, Squarespace, WordPress or custom: an honest comparison
Every platform comparison is written by someone selling one of them. This one includes the case against the option we build on.
Read itA seasonal marketing calendar for Southwestern Ontario businesses
Search demand for local services is seasonal and predictable. The mistake is publishing in the busy month instead of six weeks before it.
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