Notes for growing a business
Guides for small businesses building a website, getting found on Google and moving work online.
How much does a website cost in 2026?
Agency, freelancer, template builder or AI. Four routes, four price bands, and the line items that show up on the invoice later.
Why is my website getting no traffic? A 9-point diagnosis
The site is live and nobody comes. It is rarely the design: Google may not know the site, the wrong words, or a broken mobile layout. Test in order.
7 things to prepare before you build a website
When a build stalls, the cause is rarely technical - it is missing information. The seven things to have ready, and the fastest way to get each.
What pages should a business website have?
Five pages cover most businesses, one of them is built wrong almost everywhere, and a few are legally required once you collect data.
Driving customers from social media to your website: 8 practical ways
Plenty of followers, nobody on the site. How to turn social attention into visits: the bio link, story links, messaging hand-off and what really gets clicked.
How to get more Google reviews: 7 methods that work
Asking is part of the job, not an imposition. When to ask, how to remove the friction, how to answer a bad review, and what gets a profile suspended.
How to set up online booking without a subscription
Read this before paying monthly for booking software. A simple system that cuts phone traffic and no-shows, from salons to clinics.
How to get an info@ business email address
A gmail.com address costs you credibility on every quote you send. The free and paid routes, plus the DNS records that keep mail out of spam.
How to write website copy: a template for small businesses
"Founded in 1998, we have made customer satisfaction our principle" convinces nobody. What to write, page by page, with ready-made patterns.
How to take business photos with your phone: 9 rules
The photos on your site and Google profile are the first thing a customer sees. Getting decent shots without a photographer: light, angle and file size.
Website speed: which numbers actually matter?
Google measures three things and publishes the exact thresholds. Here they are, plus what really slows small business sites and what to fix today.
How to make a QR code menu, free and permanent
No monthly subscription needed: put the menu on a web page and print that page's QR code. Prices change, the code stays the same.
Setting up a business messaging line and linking it to your site
WhatsApp Business is free and takes ten minutes. The setup steps, the settings worth using, and how to make the number a tappable link.
Custom domain or free subdomain: which should you start with?
The first question everyone hits. For most small businesses the answer is clear: launch on the free address, buy the domain later. Here is why.
How do I show up on Google? A plain guide for local businesses
The part of SEO that actually matters to a local business is five steps. None of them costs money and you can start all of them today.
How do I add my business to Google Maps?
Free, about fifteen minutes, and the only way into local search. Plus the three things that decide your ranking after verification.
Do I need a website if I have Instagram?
The question every small business asks. Honest answer: Instagram does some jobs better, and three jobs it cannot do at all.
Why doesn't your small business have a website yet?
The blocker is not money, it is process. From finding an agency to writing a brief, why the road to a site is so long and how it gets shorter.
Building a website with AI: what happens in those 5 minutes?
You write one sentence and five minutes later you are looking at a publishable site. Here is what the engine does in between, step by step.
The hidden bill behind a website: domain, hosting, SSL
The build price is one line. Domain, hosting, certificate and maintenance repeat every year — and some of them can genuinely be zero.