Blog
The questions I get asked most.
21 plain-English guides on getting a small business found online. Start with the problem you have, not the trade you happen to be in.
Latest
Most recent first.
The newest guide, and the four behind it. Everything else is grouped by topic further down.
The library
Start with the problem,
not the sector.
Seven topics, each one a problem rather than an industry. Trades turn up inside them as worked examples — a scaffolder’s site and a fabric shop’s have more in common than either would guess.
Topic
Showing up in local search
6 guidesThe map pack, reviews, structured data, and the pages that make a business findable in the town it actually works in.
Getting found in the first place
3 guidesStarting from nothing — or from a Facebook page — and turning the visits you do get into enquiries.
Working out what to spend
3 guidesWhat a website really costs, what SEO is worth paying for, and whether to buy it outright or monthly.
Deciding what goes on the site
3 guidesWhich pages you actually need, what to write on them, and how to let proof of work do the selling instead of adjectives.
What a site needs, sector by sector
3 guidesWorked examples. What changes when the business is an electrician rather than a plumber — and, more usefully, what doesn't.
Making it fast and usable
2 guidesHow a site is built decides how fast it feels, and how fast it feels decides whether anyone waits around to read it.
The tools around the website
1 guideProfessional email, and the handful of other things worth setting up once and then forgetting about.
Nothing under both of those yet.
The library is still filling out — try one filter at a time, or ask me the question directly.
Who it’s for
Mostly trades — for now.
20 of these 21 guides were written for trades and contractors, because that is where most of my work started. The work itself has moved on, and the library is built so the rest sit in the same place rather than in a separate section.
Written so far
Not yet, but the shelf is there
Retail and eCommerce, Studios and practitioners, Professional and property, Creative and B2B. I have built for all four — the case studies are on the work page — and the guides go under the same 7 topics when they are written, not into a second blog.
If you run one of those and want the answer to something before I get round to writing it up, ask me. It is the fastest route to a guide getting written.