Notes
What actually loses businesses customers online, and what each leak costs.
analytics-cafeThe two visitor numbers an independent cafe should countAnalytics dashboards report hundreds of metrics that tell an independent cafe owner nothing. Here are the two numbers that actually fill tables.
usabilityGive your home page one job to stop losing customersWhen a website asks a visitor to call, book, download a form, and join a newsletter on the same screen, nobody acts. Here is how picking one job fixes it.
local-seoYour business listing loses the job before anyone sees your websiteMost local customers never click through to your website. They judge your trade from the map card, where blank fields and wrong numbers quietly kill the call.
photographyYour stock photos tell customers your business does not existWhen a local business fills its website with stock photos of glass towers, visitors assume nobody is there. Here is what real business photos must show.
reviewsHow to ask for customer reviews without breaking Google rulesMost businesses only collect reviews from angry strangers or break platform rules by gating requests. Here is the un-gated ask that works safely.
mobileWhat fits on a phone screen before your customer scrollsMost customers never scroll past your header on a mobile phone. Here is what actually fits into the first 700 pixels of screen before they leave.
local-seoWrong Google hours turn customers away at your locked front doorWhen your Google Business profile lists the wrong opening hours, customers arrive to locked doors and buy elsewhere. Here is how to audit and fix it.
restaurantsA PDF menu on a phone turns hungry diners awayPutting your restaurant menu in a PDF file forces diners on mobile phones to pinch and zoom. Most leave before reading. Here is how to fix it.
speedWhy your website is slow on a phone, and what it is costing youYour site loads fine on your laptop and takes eleven seconds on a customer's phone. Here is where those seconds actually go, and which ones are worth buying back.
searchYour menu is a photograph, and Google cannot read a word of itA menu saved as a JPEG or PDF is invisible to search, unreadable on a phone, and impossible for a screen reader. Here is what it costs and how to fix it in an afternoon.
formsYour contact form works. The notifications stopped six months ago.The form submits, the thank-you page appears, and nothing arrives. It is the most expensive silent failure on a small business website. Here is how to test yours in five minutes.
pricingHow much should a website cost, and why the quotes vary so wildlyThe same brief comes back at £500 and at £25,000. Both are real prices for genuinely different things. Here is what actually drives the number, so you can read a quote properly.
strategyDo I need a website if I already have Instagram?Social accounts do things a website cannot, and a website does things no social account can. The question is which risks you can live with. An honest answer, including when the answer is no.
restaurantsWhat the delivery apps actually cost you, per orderThe commission is the visible part. The customer relationship, the data, and the pricing pressure are the rest. Working out whether direct ordering is worth building.
analyticsThe four numbers worth watching, and everything you can ignoreAnalytics dashboards show you hundreds of metrics, and almost all of them are noise for a small business. Here are the four that change decisions.
strategyRebuild or repair? A test that takes ten minutesRebuilding a site that only needed fixing wastes money. Patching one that is structurally finished wastes more. Six questions that settle which situation you are in.
localThe free hour that beats most of what you can buyFor a local business, a properly filled Google Business Profile usually outperforms the website itself. It takes an hour, costs nothing, and most listings are half empty.
operationsThe spreadsheet that runs your business, and the day it goes missingOne file, one person who understands it, and no version of the business that survives losing either. How to tell when a spreadsheet has outgrown itself, and what to do about it.
ownershipFind out who actually owns your website, before you need to knowDomain, code, hosting and content can all sit in someone else's account without you realising. Four checks, twenty minutes, and the fix if the answer is wrong.